Our Life in Lists

Ever since I told Catherine she could ride a bicycle when it gets a little warmer, she has it fixed in her brain that "when it gets a little warmer" is when all kinds of things are going to start happening. Here are things she says she is going to do when it gets warmer:

1. Ride a bicycle (like a boy)
2. Ride the schoolbus to school
3. Go to Dema's house and watch her big TV
4. Make a cake for Uncle Brian and take it to him
5. Walk Bailey
6. Play basketball with Daddy
7. Ride a bicycle with Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa and Mama and Mary and Ms. Rizzio and Mr. Becrelis and Aunt Jena and Dema and Grampa T and Curious George (except when Catherine says it, it sounds like "Serious George")
8. Eat some cookies
9. Climb a tree like a squirrel

Needless to say, Catherine cannot wait for it to get warmer. This started out as a video of Mary crawling until Catherine hijacked it by talking about the schoolbus.



Here are a list of people Catherine has claimed as her "best friend" this week:
1. Morgan
2. Mary
3. Curious George
4. Bailey the dog-purse (seriously, it's a stuffed dog that looks like Bailey that has handles like a purse)
5. Mama
6. Ms. Rizzio
7. Grandma
8. The squirrel that used to live on the porch that Daddy relocated to a forest "with his squirrel friends and family where he'd be happier"
9. Mrs. Bliss
10. Dora (the Explorer)

Since I seem to be in a list-making mood, here is a list of things Mary likes right now:
1. Squealing, loudly
2. Catherine
3. Books
4. Piano music
5. Violin music
6. Toy music
7. All other music
8. Being outside
9. Smiling
10. Curious George
11. Baths
12. Listening to people (especially Daddy) say "Mary Mary Mary Mary Mary Mary Mary"
13. Peek-A-Boo



Here are things Mary does not care for in the least:
1. Sleeping in her own bed
2. Learning to eat real food
3. Putting on clothes

At least the "likes" are more numerous than the "dislikes".

Yard Work, Icing & Bicycles

My goal was to be in bed by midnight tonight, and I've already missed it, so I'm mostly going to let these pictures and videos speak for themselves.

A semi-nice day over the weekend made an opportunity for some early spring yard raking. Catherine was mostly the opposite of helpful, but very entertaining.






She also had a few tries at throwing the frisbee - it at least went in front of her rather than behind her more times than not.



Sunday Mary had a very fun time at children's church. She got her hands on some crayons for the first time and actually did at least as much coloring with the crayons as attempting to eat them. Not really so much the case with the paper:



But she was wearing that adorable dress so who cares really.


Today Catherine and I made a cake for our friends Joy and Cal who were recently married. Catherine loves making cakes. She tells me at every step that she needs to taste it so we know it is ok.



Catherine spends a lot of time standing on the couch watching the goings-on in the neighborhood. She has made a lot of comments about the kids riding bicycles, so I told her when it gets a little warmer she will get her very own bicycle. She has not let me forget this statement for a single moment since it came out of my mouth. It has some variations, but pretty much every time she looks out the window now I hear something about her bicycle.

Musical Greetings

The sickies continue in the house. Catherine is pretty much better, although you wouldn't know it by her tissue usage. She also still has an underlying cough, but she's had that cough off and on for months so I think she's about back to normal. Mary had a pretty rough day - her nose is still running like crazy and she had a pretty thick cough today as well, plus Catherine is determined to keep Mary off my lap this week. In fact, at one point I was explaining to Catherine that she and Mary are sisters and we are all a family so we all play together (when she was trying to hog my lap from Mary) and Catherine declared that we were not a family, just Catherine and Mama. Sounds harsh, but it's just some delayed sibling jealousy. An hour or so later when I told Catherine it was time for bed and she did not want to go to bed, she tried to tell me that I'm not her boss, only Mary's boss. Toddlers have such a delightful way of spinning situations in their favor!

This morning our friends Mr. and Mrs. Dormann came over to watch Catherine for a few hours while I worked, and they brought a giant wooden train set and set up a big train village in the living room. Catherine's favorite part was the road block - she loved raising and lowering the little arms to let the cars through. Mary's favorite part was having Catherine elsewhere engaged so she could snuggle.

But, here's some proof that they're still sisters:



In spite of feeling a bit down Mary still had a few happy playing spells yesterday and today. She recently discovered the Magical Musical Cards and is highly enthralled. She spent nearly an hour sitting on the floor yesterday with one Christmas card (jingle bells), one Valentine's Day card (I'm walkin' on sunshine), and two Easter cards (this little light of mine, and twinkle twinkle little star). I think her favorite song was This Little Light of Mine.

Cough-Coughs and Cranky Pants

Both the girls picked up a bug this week. Catherine had it first starting Sunday, and is now mostly over her slight fever but has a terrible cough and runny nose. She seems to be feeling good enough to try and play, but bad enough that the instant something isn't going exactly as planned she has a major meltdown. Yesterday she pulled a real winner, no less than 1.5 hours of inexplicable screaming, crying, jumping up and down, falling on the floor, swatting at Mary if she got anywhere near me, and making completely unreasonable demands. And then she got over it, and acted like nothing happened the rest of the day. All this combined with the emergence of some classic toddler mantras this week (I can do it if I want, you're not the boss, etc) has made for a couple "psychologically trying" days in our house, as Michael puts it.

Mary picked up her cold a day or two after Catherine, but she also no longer has a fever this morning. Her nose is running running running, and she HATES to have her nose touched or wiped, so she mostly looks like a giant mess. Luckily she has not picked up Catherine's cough, so hopefully it will stay that way.

But of course in the midst of all this they are still doing things that are incredibly cute and entertaining. Catherine has decided pants are for the birds, or at least not for her, and since, as she will gladly remind you, she can do them all by herself, we find her very often running around the house in just a pull-up, or nothing at all. For the most part I ignore it as long as she is wearing a pull-up; she's big enough to decide if she is cold and put some pants back on. Although we have instituted a "pants must be worn at the dinner table" rule as well as a "pants must be worn outside" rule, and "pants must be worn when friends are visiting" rule, so she does find herself motivated to get dressed now and then. Here is a skirt she put on herself and relieving her legs of their pants.


As much as Michael likes to claim that Mary, the calm, smiley, laid-back daughter, is his and Catherine, the type-A, hyperactive, everything-has-to-be-just-right daughter is mine, I think Catherine would disagree. She loves to do whatever Michael is doing. A couple days ago she asked for a snack, and I gave her a choice, and she chose, and when I handed her the snack she said "Cool". Seriously? "Cool"? Definitely her father's daughter.

Mary is up to her regular stuff, only slowed down a little bit by her cold. Her hair is really starting to get longer, and I am predicting from the initial little waves that it has the potential to be a curly mass like Catherine's. Mary also LOVES the bath. She starts kicking her feet and squealing as soon as she hears the water turn on. Mostly she just splashes non-stop once she's in the water.



She is also fascinated by the water. At first I couldn't figure it out, but in this video she is dipping her hand in the water then holding it out, watching the water form drops and fall off. She does this a lot now.

It's Snowing

Yep, snowing. Right now. Yuck.