Cute Katie stuff

My parents have a large swimming pool at their home. They opened it up for the summer this last week. The first day, Katie and I went swimming. It was a little chilly, but still really nice and relaxing. Katie got in and just wanted me to hold her, and then she got out shortly thereafter. The next day, we went again, and it was about 5-7 degrees warmer, which was great. She got in, and within about 5-10 minutes was jumping off the steps into the water and not waiting for me to catch her. She has water wings on, but it still seemed pretty brave, especially since it was so sudden. She wasn't sure if she liked the water, and now she loves it and has no fear. Which greatly increases MY fear, but I stay close, and she seems to have fun. She can move towards a person, and it is really close to swimming. She likes to float on her back, and try to blow bubbles in the water. Unfortunately, she hasn't learned that you need to take a deep breath BEFORE you put your face in the water, so she has sucked in some water, but not enough to hurt her.

Katie seems to have entered her "terrible two's". But as my mother pointed out, she is still a fabulously obedient and happy two year old. Katie is very proficient at throwing fits. She goes limp, and falls to the floor, screaming loudly at the same time. Or, if I'm holding her so she can't fall, she will swipe at my face (which gets her stuck in the crib immediately). She seems fairly penitent afterwards, which is nice. She can just be so persistent. She doesn't get side-tracked easily, so if she insists on something, I will hear about it most of the day. For instance, she really likes to watch Batman (translation: movies). If she wakes up asking for Batman, I know I'm in trouble. She will ask for it just about every breath, and then throw a fit when I tell her for the 100th time that we aren't going to watch Batman right now because we need to eat, go somewhere, get dressed, play outside, or any other thing I can think of.
Of course, the problem is that I'm not entirely consistent on this point. It is nice to put a movie (usually short 20 minute episodes of Batman, Superman, or the Justice League) on while I shower, or fix dinner, or just relax next to her. I'm sure that is why she is so persistent about it.

What is really cute, is when I'm laying down on the couch or bed, and she has been playing by herself for a bit. Then, I will feel these soft hands, one on each side of my face, and feel her breath on my face. I will open my eyes, and she will be staring right at me, with her face about an inch in front of mine. Then, she will softly whisper, "Mom, Batman, watch?" and repeat it until I wake up enough to comment. She will have this look of pleading and yearning on her face, while she is softly stroking my face and my hair. A couple of times I just start giggling, because it is so cute.

Last Friday night, Ryan had 2 softball games that started at 8:30 pm, so we didn't get home until close to 11:00 pm. We had made arrangements beforehand to have Katie stay the night at Irma's house. Ryan and I put her to sleep in the crib there, then we left. She was crying, and Irma was strong enough to let her cry for about half and hour (according to our directions). I guess she went to sleep at that point. Apparently she woke up at about 1, and went back to sleep in Irma's bed. Otherwise, she seemed to handle it fine. I went over in the morning (Ryan had left early to go work on the cabin) and she gave me a huge hug, and kisses, as though she really had missed me.

She has been sleeping on her big bed now for about a week. She points at her crib every now and again, but when we tell her that she will have to sleep the whole time there, and we aren't going to move her, she decides she wants to stay on the mattress. She will sometimes stay in there when she wakes up, calling my name until I come get her, but most of the time she just wanders out with a cute smile on her face.

She knows her colors and can name them too. She hasn't gotten green, brown, and orange down yet, because she can't say them, but she consistently can tell you the color of anything else. She also can count to 3 and sometimes 4! Unfortunately, it isn't always in the correct order. 132, etc. Mostly it just means "alot".

She goes down the twisty slide at the park all by herself. There are also smaller slides that have a bar she can grab above her head as she is going down the slide. (Does that make sense?) So, she will grab the bar, lift up her feet, and swing there for a minute, before she sits down and goes down the slide.

Yesterday, Katie and I were sitting downstairs, and the baby was moving around. I told Katie to come feel the baby, and to say hi. She came over, and put her hand on my tummy, then laid her head on my tummy and softly said, "Hi baby". I asked her if she loved the baby, and she gave a shy smile and said yes. Then, I told her that the baby was her baby sister, and she repeated that. "Baby S....ter" It was so adorable! Now, I hope she will say it when we are referring to the baby. I don't think she understands the concept yet, but at least there is a little bit more personality involved.

6 weeks to go from today! (not that I'm counting, right?)