Kate is cut off from scissors

Who can tell me why?

The party

We had a berry-squishing good time at Kate's 4th birthday party on Saturday.

Simone, Kate and Jen.

Reese shows off her shirt.

Claire just wanted to eat the berries. Standard.

Who's four years old?

The princess army.

An interview with Kate

Ask her a question and she's likely to answer you in a long, rambling sentence, full of details, even if the details don't exactly pertain the question you asked her. She is full of energy, and loves to stay busy. She spends lots of time coloring, writing her name (and Claire's), and is even able to connect the dots in her workbooks. I don't know how high she can count, only because it's higher than anyone is usually willing to count with her. She makes up words and tells you that they mean something, when clearly they do not. Sadly, I am slowly losing my ability to distinguish her fake words from real ones, as she has learned several Chinese words from Ni Hao, Kai Lan, and I'm afraid I will falsely tell her something is not a word when it actually is. She has the memory of an elephant, and often recalls events that happened months ago (mostly things I had hoped that she would forget about).

On Saturday she looked at her half-assembled princess cupcakes and exclaimed, "What are tarNATIONS?!" Tim looked at her and laughed, and asked her where she learned that. "God and Jesus taught me." ?

At the mention of the state of Oklahoma, she will smile and gleefully yell, "OKLAHOMA! OKLAHOMA! OKLAHOMA!" and make her mama proud.

I recently sat down with her to discuss some of her favorites:

to drink: milk
food: peanut butter and honey sandwiches
snack: Nemo snacks (gummi)
cartoon: Max and Ruby and Go, Diego, Go!
movie: Wall-E and Sleeping Beauty
color: red, pink and purple
BFFs: Reese and Reagan
outfit: a dress. Any dress.
book: Sleeping Beauty
place to go: the Dinosaur park (any park, really)
flower: roses ("the red roses and yellow roses")
animal: "kitty cat Starbuck"
game: the fishing game
Do you like school? "Yes, because it's fun." So much for long answers.
What do you want be when you grow up? "A mommy, like you are, Mommy." [puffing up chest and sighing]

Kate loves to sing, especially the Sleeping Beauty song ("Once Upon a Dream") and the Ariel song ("aaah-aaaah-aaaaaaaah!"). I've noticed a new passion for her version of the Mickey Mouse song, which goes something like, "M-O-U-S-E-K-E-Y...M-O-U-S-E".

She's four years old today, and she is beginning to develop her own interests. She has some decided favorites, although she is easily influenced by her surroundings. For instance, when I first asked her what her favorite thing to eat was, she said, "cinnamon toast", mostly because she had just enjoyed a piece for breakfast.

The time has, as the cliche goes, flown by. I absolutely cannot believe my baby girl is four. I love you, Kate! Happy Birthday!

R-22 ride

I might have forgotten to mention that Tim got to fly in a helicopter recently. One more lifelong dream accomplished!

When did that happen?

I was sitting at the family medicine clinic on base this morning, playing with Luke, when he opened his mouth to babble at me and I saw two teeth poking through. The bottom middle ones, to be all scientific about it. And they are fully showing their ridges, so it's not like they just popped out last night. Or maybe they did? I feel like I haven't been paying attention to him enough to know when his first two teeth appeared! GAH. Next I'll find that he can crawl and I just haven't happened to notice it yet.

I was at the lovely clinic this morning because I have had a sore throat for more than two months. I know. The nurse looked at me the way you are looking at me right now, too. But I have three kids. Life is sort of . . . hectic . . . around here. I finally got annoyed enough this week to actually make an appointment, and because I really want to know if I have mono or strep, the only two illnesses that would sort of make sense given my symptoms. Anyway, they gave me a prescription for deconamine (because they say allergies and congestion are causing my sore throat), which after minimal research on my part, sounds like a bad idea given that I am still nursing Luke. The nurse on base said I was okay to take it, but I have a call in to my OB, *just to make sure*. C'mon, ask me how I feel about more government health care!

The girls have been making me crazy lately. Or maybe it's just that I'm exhausted (see reference to sore throat above). They are back to their nighttime antics, which include staying up until approximately 9:30pm, or sometimes even 10:00, talking, shrieking, and generally misbehaving. Then, they wake up between 6-7am, crabby but unwilling to go back to sleep. This morning Claire laid down on the kitchen floor, refusing to put her shoes on and get in the car for school. Awesome. I'm trying something new tonight: Kate will be in bed by 7:00, and will hopefully fall asleep before Claire arrives for bed around 8:00. Wish me luck. Or send me some whiskey. Someone is likely to need a stiff drink tonight.

Reason 41 that I love Vegas

Visits from family and friends!

Uncle Dan and Kate.

Luke drools on Niki.

Mermaids and jelly beans

We promised the kids two things over the holiday weekend: to take them to the Silverton Lodge casino to see the mermaids, and to take them to the Adventuredome at Circus! Circus! I had high hopes for the prior, and was disappointed, and had low expectations for the Adventuredome, and was pleasantly surprised.

The girls were just plain excited (especially Kate) to see fish, and a mermaid swimming with them. Kate tried to monopolize the swimming lady, and was mesmerized by her floating hair. The mermaid taught her how to make a heart shape with her hands (which Kate totally hearted), and even blew Kate a bubbly kiss. I was hoping to eat at the restaurant right next to the aquarium, but it turned out to be a bar and was age-restricted. We were stuck eating at the casino grease pit Johnny Rockets, instead. The mermaid tank itself was quite amazing, though, and even Luke enjoyed it. He stared open-mouthed at the giant sting rays "flying" up and down the tank. Granted, he stares open-mouthed at a lot of things.

Kate loves mermaids.

Later, Claire decided she needed to be cleaner than she usually is, and dumped approximately 3/4 of a bottle of Huggies soap into the tub before Tim caught her. I've never seen so many bubbles. She calls this her "bubble crown".

We spent Monday talking up Circus! Circus! and all the rides we would go on the next day. It even worked to keep them from misbehaving. For about an hour. I expected totally rundown facilities, gum stuck to inappropriate surfaces, screaming toddlers, and long lines. Besides the gum (which I had the distinction of accidentally sitting in)(BTW, does anyone know a good way to get gum out of your favorite pair of shorts?), everything else was pretty good. Since we went on a Tuesday, the lines were virtually non-existent, and our children even behaved well.

Kate has been talking about going on roller coasters for more than a year. Once she saw an actual for-real roller coaster, however, she fell silent. We asked her if she wanted to go on any, and she silently shook her head in a rather emphatic "no". We did manage to take them on a hot air balloon ferris wheel-type thing (twice), Tim and I each got to take Kate on the bumper cars (which she and we LOVED), Kate rode one of those airplane rides where you get to "fly" your own airplane and the planes and helicopters go up and down at the whim of the kids "flying" them (Kate didn't realize her airplane could actually rise up off the ground, but she loved it anyway, and even spent time shooting down the guy in front of her, much to her proud Daddy's delight), I took the girls on this school bus ride that was sort of like a ferris wheel on a lot of caffeine (Claire was so scared she was shaking, but she didn't cry or even utter a word of protest while we were on it), Tim and Kate rode the mini-Himalayan ride (which she thought was great until they hit the first "hill" and I saw her face go from big smile to slightly freaked out), and Tim and the girls rode the carousel twice (Claire chose to ride on the bench both times, waving gleefully at me each time she went around, and Kate picked the only horse with roses on its saddle: "I love the one with flowers and jewels, Mommy! It had yellow roses on its back!"). So, Adventuredome: success!

Roller coaster!

Luke enjoyed all the lights and sounds, and even napped for a bit.

Kate, aka the Red Baron.

Enjoying a sugary snack while I rode the big roller coaster.

Not! Yet!

19lbs of chub.

This bundle of joy is 5 months old today. Time is going too quickly! My baby is growing up too fast! Soon he'll be telling me he's not a baby anymore. GAH.

Luke is sleeping well, eating well, and socializing well. He loves television (third child) and chewing on things. He wakes up happy every morning, babbling to his mobile or his stuffed animals. He spins himself around in his crib, rarely waking up in the same position he went to sleep in. He can drool like nobody's business. He adores his big sisters, who in turn adore him back. He wants so badly to walk or crawl or run. He wants to be in the center of it all, and hates it when we leave him in the living room in his saucer when we are in another room. He usually only gets one good nap a day, due to his sisters' activities, but he does all right with it. I would like for him to stay this age for *just* a bit longer.