A League of Their Own

I just looked at my June picture folder and I have oodles of fun stuff to share with you. Hooray.

Yesterday evening Michael and I were playing catch in the yard and Catherine just started laughing hysterically every time one of us caught the ball. When our friend Kevin came over and joined in, Catherine picked up my glove so she could play. She can actually throw pretty well for a 2-year-old girl - we had to start teaching her that you can't throw a ball to someone unless they are looking at you. I think mostly she just liked wearing the glove.









Mary really liked wearing the glove on her head. I do not know how I failed to get a picture of this. Please forgive me. As part of my penance I will hold Mary's hand and walk 452 cirlces around the house.

Since I already did that today, let's call it even.

Here is proof that Mary could walk on her own if she felt like it. If you can walk while Catherine is holding your hand, you can walk on your own.



Unfortunately at some point Mary usually discovers that Catherine is not me or Michael and she sits down and cries in indignation. We have ceased to feel sorry for her in these situations.

Last week Catherine informed me that she "is a big girl to take a shower" and since then she has been taking showers, not baths. Maybe she knows something about the construction of the basement bathroom (with a big bathtub for her) that we don't. If I didn't think it would prematurely end any hope of me having a normal relationship with Teenage Catherine, I would take a video of her doing her hip-swinging dance in the shower. I just can't do that to her.

It's been slow going with Mary, but she is now starting to like food a bit. She still utterly refuses to eat baby cereal, most baby foods, or wear a bib. However grown-up foods are rather appealing to her. She's a big fan of barbecued chicken, regular oatmeal, not baby oatmeal, breakfast cereal with milk, not baby cereal, coconut rice, watermelon, pineapple, and even some veggies, but not baby veggies. Also, she much prefers to be given a whole chunk of something she can take bites of, rather than have a bunch of little bites put down on her tray.

Little bites of broccoli: rejected.
A big hunk of broccoli: tasty.


Back to outside time (I told you I had a lot of good stuff). We talked about the parable of the man who finds a treasure while digging in a field on Sunday (second church). Guess what Catherine's looking for?


Mary also wanted in on the work, although she was convinced the treasure was under the bricks.



And of course we're convinced Mary is super smart just like her sister. She is repeating tons of sounds and some words, and talks talks talks all day like she is holding a conversation with you with questions and inflections and hand gestures, just her own vocabulary. She nods yes any time she hears a question being asked (unless Catherine asks it, then she usually shakes her head no) and she likes to talk on the phone now too.


Erinn, our friend who watches the girls for me a couple times a week, reports that Mary said "ball" upon seeing a ball, and without repeating it or being prompted. Erinn generally knows what she's talking about with kids and Mary seems about ready to start chalking up words, so we just might call that Mary's first word, after Da-da and ba-bye, so maybe her third official word? Anyway, the point is she's officially learning words.

Ok, I tried, and I made it almost to clicking the "publish post" button, but I cannot resist posting this picture. I love the tongue. Teenage Catherine, I'm sorry. We all think you're adorable.