Christmas

Christmas morning, Kate shows her new ballet Barbie with a cheesy grin...Kate's cheesy grin, not, the Barbie's cheesy grin.

Ryan pausing briefly from his bowl of cereal, Kevin, Brendan and Murphy.














Brendan and Kate check out the new wheels. Brendans' a good big brother.





A still-sleepy Kate with Barbie and new bath foam in hand.




The biggest hit of the morning was the pretend/plastic makeup, blowdryer and fingernail polish set. I never wear fingernail polish, and yet Kate seemed to know exactly what to do with it, including blowing air on the nails when she was done!
Sometimes she will put some makeup in her little purse, grab her plastic keys (that really make the 'chirp-chirp' sound), and say,"Let go!" :)

Kate's School Christmas Program

Here is Kate at preschool, all dressed up for her Christmas program. She saw me waiting with the other parents, and came running.

The program was complete with "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" and "Away In The Manger", real Jingle Bells with red or green velvet handles, and lots of squirmy kids waving and saying Hi Mommy! or Hi Grandma! All the parents had smiles on their faces.








In her class there are 3 & 4 year olds. The funniest thing during these "performances" is to watch what the kids are doing. Sometimes I'm laughing so hard, I can hardly hold the camera still.





Here we have Kate eating her dress as Mary and Joseph lay baby Jesus in the manger.

Can You Say Tiger?

Kate and I were waiting outside the portable classroom for her speech and language therapist to arrive, so I decided to use the few minutes to work on her latest goal...the 't' sound.







Kate, can you say tiger? T...T...t-i-g-e-r?
Kate replies puh, puh
No, tiger...Tuh...Tuh...tiger.
She tries again...thu...thu.........lion.

I started laughing, and hugged her. "Oh you smart little cookie!"
She may have trouble making certain sounds, but there is a smart kid inside there!! Way to think outside the box, Kate! :)







I laughed to myself all the way out to my car, and immediately called Kevin (and maybe a few other people) to tell him about how cute and funny Kate was!

Kate's Adventure in Hair Cutting

So the boys are up in their room playing a game, I and was sewing a Christmas present downstairs. Kate came down in one of her costumes (she loves to dress up). "Hi Kate. You playing dress up?" "Uh huh." Then she turns her head a certain way and I realize her hair is not up in a pony tail, but not there! "Kate, where's your...what happened to....where's your hair?! Did you cut your hair?!" Kate cheerfully nods yes, but is beginning to realize her bold new look may not be well received. "Show me where your hair is!" (I think I'm in denial at this point, hoping maybe it isn't really cut off, that maybe it's all an illusion) But as I walk up the stairs and see a lock of silky black hair on the step, reality is setting in. Then I see the carpet on the hallway, and I'm afraid to look in the bathroom...AAAHhhhh! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. (Okay, I'm not going to hyperventilate...) I went and got the boys from their room, and we all had the same look on our faces...mouth hanging open, trying to decide how to react. I was torn between cracking up, (because it really was very funny), and wanting to cry. Brendan hugged me, and Colton was trying hard not to laugh. At this point, Kate had jumped onto Ryan's bed and pulled the comforter over her head. (I picked up the hair, smoothed it out and put it in a ziplock bag to put in her babybook.)





The haircutting episode took place Sunday night, and Kate had speech first thing Monday morning. So we set up an 11:00 hair appt., and off she went to speech with crooked hair. Her speech therapist said she was her third kid this year that had come in with a do-it-yourself haircut.




Well, we headed down to the cutest little kid's hair salon in La Jolla (that my sister-in-law used when her daughter gave herself a haircut!)

They asked Kate if she wanted to sit on the motorcycle or in the jeep to get her haircut...Kate picked the jeep. Every chair had a flatscreen tv monitor in front of it. Ours had on the cartoon of the Backyardigans. Kate was in heaven.




In less than 10 minutes, the one remaining long piece was trimmed off, it was evened out, and the too-short pieces were well camoflauged. Before we left the salon, 2 different people complimented Kate on her cute haircut!






Kate seems oblivious to her hair length. The short hair is growing on me, and it seems to suit her.

While still at the hair salon, the stylist said they get about one child a week that has cut their own hair. "We don't usually get such an extreme example though. She was very thorough on her hair! Usually the kids are older before they decide to give themselves a whole "new look".

That's my Kate!