Kate's latest quirks

Here is a picture of Kate all decked out playing dress up with a couple of her friends. Too cute.

As usual, Kate has kept us all on our toes wondering what she is going to do next. She has been inventing new kinds of kisses, including "high five kisses" (head butting me in the face, as far as I can tell), and "blow kisses" (blowing in my face). I'm not a big fan of either. She also informed Chris the other day that, "Dad, you don't have girl lips." Phew, that's a relief!

One night at the dinner table Lise was blowing raspberries on her arm or something, but Kate thought Lise was eating her arm and decided to try it. She took a big bite into her arm (luckily she didn't break the skin), and then started bawling because it hurt so bad. She's definitely the type who has to learn by her own experience.

Because of my sister's visit over Spring Break I been singing, "California -dum, dum - knows how to party!" for the past couple of weeks. So one time I hear Kate singing the song, "California - we're sitting on a potty!" I sang it for her again so she could get the words right and it came out, "California - no one's got a Barbie!" I guess that's an improvement.

And finally, Kate is already feeling some sibling rivalry over the coveted spot of youngest child. She has informed me a couple of times, "Mom, I'm the new baby!" It's like she's already jealous of the attention we give to the new baby talking about her. In addition to animals, she has started pretending she's a baby by talking to me with "goo-goo, ga-ga" and what-not. Also, things she used to insist upon doing herself to prove her independence, now she can't possible do by herself and needs tons of help with everything (saying prayers, eating, walking up the stairs.) I'm hoping that we can get this phase out of the way while the baby is still inside my tummy. Somehow I doubt it. Oh la, I do think that Kate is going to be a good big sister overall. She is very sweet and gentle with the younger kids in nursery and the gym and she gets really excited everytime we see babies when we're out and about. I'm sure it will all work itself out - as always.

Spring Break

Wow, this is huge for me! Three Blog posts in one day! (Actually I'm just catching up and finishing some posts that I started earlier and didn't finish. So if you're looking for the third one, it's below "And then there were Four".)
Anyhoo, I hope you all had a good Easter because we had a GREAT one! The girls had two weeks off for Spring Break, Chris had one off, and my fabu sister Laura and her family came to visit for the other. (Hooray for cousins!) What can I say, it was nothing but a big party. (Oh, by the way, I couldn't get the pictures all in the order I wanted, so this is just going to be random jumping around. Deal with it, por favor.)

The neighborhood had an easter egg hunt and potluck breakfast the day before Easter, which was a huge hit. Aly went on the ultimate egg challenge which gave clues leading all over the neighborhood. It was a huge success and got our kids out into the nice fresh air before conference mania began.

So, now let's talk about my sister's visit, shall we? Aly recently bought a hula hoop, and I told her my sister had been a champi-o hula hooper in her day and so they would need to have a hula hoopin' contest when she came out. Oh man, that was more than I bargained for. Laura was raising and lowering her arms and going forever and so I was just like, "okay Laur, that's enough; I think you've won. Let's just give Aly a turn." Well, little did I know that Aly had gained some mad hula hooping skills while playing at her friend Hailey's house in Louisiana! She was jumping and hulaing and all sorts of crazy stuff. Then everybody got in on the action. Even I did a little hoopin' with my belly - extra curves to help me out, ya know. It was good times. :)

I told Chris, "It's so nice to have people come to visit so we can be tourists in our own town!" We did everything: fly kites at the beach, go to Point Lobos to watch waves crash, look at seals and sea lions, go hiking, attend the aquarium, take the kids out for dinner and a movie, look in the tide pools, go to the famous "Dennis the Menace Park", go swimming, and my personal favorite, have a bonfire with hotdogs and smores on the beach. Ya can't ask for more than that!

Aw, Kate loves her daddy. She is always sad when he has to go to school and whenever she's having a hard time (usually when I'm getting her in trouble) she'll tell me, "I want my daddy!" Thanks for the awesome fire, Chris. We loved it!

I love this picture of Kate chasing the seagull. She would have ran straight into the ocean a couple of times if Chris and her Uncle Mike hadn't grabbed her. Kate's quote of the week: "My hiccups are buggin' me, like a ladybug."

The kids loved running from the waves, trying not to get wet. Aly was out there dancing and twirling up a storm too. It was awesome just to watch it all.

During Chris' week off we had a lot of good family time going on. We planted this year's garden - our first year doing it completely on our own. We were pretty impressed with ourselves and it looks beautiful - now if it will only grow . . . Chris took the girls on daddy-daughter dates, which are always a highlight. And finally I bribed the girls with a sleepover with friends while Chris was at his scouting campout if they would help me clean the house really well and get it ready for their cousins to come. It was good motivation.

Lise is holding a piece of a crab shell we found. We also found some hermit crabs, albone's (sp?), and cool shells. My favorite was watching Mike give his flip flop to some sort of sticky mussle looking thing and watching it try to suck up his shoe!

Oh yes, a leash is needed with Kate at the beach. While we were at the tide pools as a family Kate jumped off a three foot ledge. No fear - not necessarily a good thing. But anyhoo, enough of that. Let's just say that Spring Break was just the break that I needed. I loved it!

And Then There Were Four

Let me tell you a little story . . .

A Story about a punk teenager named Chris, who used to tease and torment his young nephews to no end until, one day, his sister-in-law, in utter frustration, told him, "I curse you with 5 girls!" And that is why, when I went for my ultrasound this last week, the doctor confidently announced, "It's a girl!" Again. We do have cute girls though, I've got to admit. And though I'm not looking forward to having yet another person's hair to do in the mornings and always having to be the one to take everyone to the bathroom anytime we're out in public, everyone always tells me that you never really lose your girls because they will always keep coming home. And I like the sound of that - I wouldn't mind keeping my girls around . . . forever.

Oh, and so as not to blame Chris for all of the craziness around here, I have a little story of my own. When I was a little girl, I resolutely told my mom, "When I grow up, I'm not going to have kids; I'm going to have baby kittens!" That prediction has come true as well, in that my children are constantly pretending to be animals of some sort or another, dogs and cats being among their favorites. One day, when I was pregnant with Lise, I dropped Aly off at a friends to be watched while I was at another OB appointment and found out later that she had playing in their dog's kennel the whole time, pretending she was a dog. (Ew! Oh yeah, if only I had a blog back then; Aly had scads of good blogging material for me to work with.) Lise quickly followed suit, always wanting to be Aly-cat's "baby kitty", and by the time Kate came around, I had people suggesting that I nickname her "Cat" or "Kitty" for Kathryn instead of Kate. So, I guess I'm about to add another kitten to my litter. :)

Okay, so now that the question "what are you having?" has been answered, let's move on to the next big question. No, not "what are you going to name her?" but rather "what is her personality going to be like?" See, I have a theory. In all of my previous pregnancies, the cravings I have had during my pregnancy have been an indicator as to the personality of the child. With Aly I craved Carbs: Noodles, rice, potatoes, fries, rolls, etc. And Aly is a high energy, on the go type of gal. With Lise I craved sweets: cookies, brownies, cherry cheesecake, etc. And Lise is my little peacemaking sweetheart. With Kate I craved . . . acid: Homemade Salsa, grapefruit every morning (even when I was nauseous), pineapple, anything citric or with tomatoes, etc. And, let's face it, Kate's got the spunky personality to back that up. But this pregnancy has got me stumped. I've been trying to think about what I've been craving this pregnancy and the only thing that I can think of that I have craved consistently is red meat: Hamburgers & Steak being the top contenders. I've eaten more hamburgers during this pregnancy than I probably have in the past three years. Oh, and I've also had cravings for lots of green vegetables: peas, broccoli, beans, green salads (yummy spinach!), cucumbers, green peppers, cilantro, and lets not forget avocados and guacamole! So, what do you think the possible personality type would be to go with these foods? Before I knew it was a girl I was thinking maybe an aggressive, athletic boy. I guess I could still have an aggressive, athletic girl? Any other ideas?