Kate is 3!

Kate is 3!  Happy Birthday Kate!  

Well Kate's 3rd birthday didn't go exactly as I had planned, but it was a fun day.  I was supposed to fly back from Nicaragua the day before her birthday, but due to weather problems and missed flights, we ended up having to stay the night in Houston and fly in the next day.  So instead of waking up an getting to start the day with Kate, I was up at 3am Pacific time to catch our flight out of Houston.  I arrived at 10ish and Wes took me home to greet Adele, then to preschool to pick up Emeline and Kate.  It was wonderful to see the girls after such a long time away from them.  But poor Kate, no one had even told her it was her birthday!  She didn't seem to mind, and enjoyed knowing it was her special day from then on out.  In the car, we told her that now she is 3, so after a while we asked, "Kate, how old are you?" and she replied, "I'm two and a h.....I'm three!!".  It was fun.  

We had lunch at home with the whole family reunited, then after naps Kate got to open some birthday presents.  She loved her doll stroller and pack n play from grandma.

And was pretty excited about getting the Lorax movie from mom and dad.

And she even got to watch it right away, giving the girls a little treat, and mom and dad some time to prep dinner and get ready for her playdate birthday party the next day.

Even though we were doing cupcakes for her birthday party the next day, I let the girls decorate some to have for our family birthday dinner.  They had a lot of fun with that.

Kate was super shy as we sang to her, even though it was such a small crowd.

She was too shy to blow out her birthday candle and asked Emeline to do it...who didn't mind at all of course.

And of course Adele had fun with cupcakes too :)

So here we go....Kate at 3!  The thing that stands out to me the most about Kate these days is that she is full of words.  She has a lot to say.  She isn't always super loud, but she can be.  But she really has a lot to say about the world around her.  She has a very interesting perspective on life, and it's fun to hear her describe what she's thinking about and learning about the world.  She's getting to be quite articulate, and just the other day I heard her say /emeline/ instead of /emewine/ for the first time.  Since then she's been pronouncing her 'l's all over the place and her little baby voice seems to be fading away.

She's also quite stubborn, but rather gentle about it.  She got a haircut recently, but didn't want to get in the chair.  I had some time, so I thought I'd just wait it out.  The last time we took her for a haircut, she refused to get in the chair, so we just left.  But she'd been asking to do it ever since, so I knew she wanted to do it, but was nervous.  So we let a few people go ahead of us, and after an hour of watching other's get haircuts, and just about when I was going to leave, she finally decided to get in the chair.  She started swim lessons recently too, and would not get in the water.  She didn't throw a tantrum or anything, but would not get in the water and participate until she was good and ready.  She won't do anything she doesn't want to do, but she won't be angry about it unless we try to force the issue.  So I'm learning to try to be patient with her until she's ready.  When she's ready for something she will definitely jump in and participate.  

At 3 Kate is potty trained during the day, and is often dry at night.  We sometimes have to reminder her to go to the bathroom during the day, but for the most part, she's owning that herself.  She doesn't nap every day, but has learned to take a quiet time, so she has some downtime in the afternoon if she doesn't sleep.  The last 6 months have been very up and down with nighttime sleep, but recently she's been needing less help to get to sleep and usually sleeping thru the night.  

Kate is still full of energy and always seems to have a spring in her step.  She seems like she's skipping everywhere she goes.  She loves to hang like a monkey from just about anything, and I can't wait to see how she does in gymnastics camp later this summer.  Kate is super silly and loves making funny voices.  She's got a great sense of humor too.  Her latest obsession is with knock knock jokes, but she doesn't quite get them yet.  

Kate:  Knock knock.

Me: Who's there?

Kate: Banana

Me: Banana who?

Kate: Banana banana.

Me: Good one Kate.

Rinse and repeat :)

She also tells the funniest little stories about herself when she learns something new.  For example, if she learns that birds build nests to sleep in she'd say, "When I'm a little bird, I'll fly up into trees and build nests too, right Mommy?"

Kate loves to be barefoot.  Her feet are always a little bit gross and banged up on account of this.  She's also super picky about shoes.  These days she really likes her Toms.  

I could go on an on about all of Kate's idiosyncrasies.  We do love this little one so.  She is a sweet heart and a light in our family.  Happy 3rd Birthday Katie Sue!