The Adventures of Cate the Great

A little bit of what Cate is up to at age 3:

Cate is weighing in at 27 lbs. 10 oz. with her shoes on. The doctor was concerned that she might have Celiac Disease because her iron has always been low (even though she takes iron daily) and she is so small. We found out last week that she doesn't have it, but the doctor is still a little concerned. We think she's pretty great. 3 years old is such a fun age. It's so fun seeing Cate turn into a little kid. Her mannerisms are so cute and funny. She says the FUNNIEST things and keeps us all entertained.
She talks non-stop. I get a running commentary all day long. If I am sitting in the rocking chair, say, trying to rock the baby to sleep, she will come up every 2 seconds and ask me if the baby is asleep or awake. "Is she asleep, Mom? Or awake? Asleep? Mom, is the baby awake or asleep?" and on and on and on again. Just as the baby closes her eyes she gets Cate the Great all up in her grill.


Today we went to the little gymnastics class at the library. She had lots of fun flipping and doing handstands. She also loved following the directions at each station. If she was a little bit bigger it would have been easier, but she'll get there.
Marni and I took Cate and Andrew to the zoo this week and let them feed the lorikeets. They almost ate Marni whole when she walked in with the food, but we survived and the little kids were super brave.





She loves to steal my ipod. She will watch movies, listen to music, play games, or (her personal favorite) take 100 pictures and 50 short videos of herself.
I give you exhibit A:
and Exhibit B:

And C: ("C is for Cate the Great. So is 3, 3 is for Cate the Great. Because I'm 3. You are 3 too Mom, but not really because I'm 3")She is pretty patient about sitting through everyone's sporting events.
We like to see how many kids we can cram into one stroller. You should try it sometime, it's a fun game:
If it's cold, like the 60 degree night we had last night, we just add a fleece and let her run around with her own soccer ball. She loves soccer and we'll probably let her start playing in the spring:

Right now Cate is really into her baby doll. Whenever I am feeding the real baby she feeds hers too, then wants to change its diaper and clothes 10 times and day. Of course she can't do it alone so she keeps saying "I need help" over and over and over until I think I might lose my mind. Honestly.
She really loves her squinkies. Especially her Ariel ones. But not the Ursula or eels because they totally give her the heebie jeebies. Not like koosh ball things give her the heebie jeebies, but she does shudder at the mention of them (and cover her mouth in fear).
Another ipod picture spree, this time with big sister as accomplice:

I promise you'll thank me for this last one, and Cate will hate me forever but I am ready for that because this picture is too great. The other night Cate was super tired but wouldn't go to bed and she totally fell asleep standing up. She also refused to wear pajamas that night:

You're welcome!
Cate the Great! We love you Cate the Great!
(BTW she totally introduces herself as Cate the Great. It's awesome.)

Lately

Life took a major turn into crazy busyville recently, so------ here are a few pictures from my ipod to show some of what we've been up to lately:
First of all this is what my yard already looked like a couple of weeks ago. Leaves are the stuff of nightmares for me. The never ending raking. Shudder.

We went and saw The Smurfs at the drive in. About halfway through the movie the film stopped moving and burned up. It was an adventure! The kids loved all the junk I bought to eat while we watched. This is us in the car:

This is what Cate put on her feet the other day. I didn't notice until I put her in the cart at Costco. It's not her fault, she was born with that gene. The SMOOTH gene. I have it too.
Eating drumsticks (the ice cream variety) on the deck:
I made a cabinet for my dining room by sawing off the bottom half of Lewis' old dresser: The drawers on the bottom didn't function so I made him get a new one and now we have a place to stash our million crayons, markers, craft supplies, etc.
The little girls and I joined the kids for lunch on chicken tenders day. I try to make my kids buy lunch once in a while but they don't like to very often. Truthfully, I don't blame them but the food was pretty good this time.

Cate thought the pink milk was divine:
Tropical storm Lee did a number on us in this area. It blows my mind how much national media coverage storms get when they are going to hit the east coast but I really saw nothing about the damage this storm left in its wake. There were so many trees down in our area and almost everyone we know lost power at one time or another. This was down the street from us, next door to a house that had 2 trees on it from the April tornadoes. Our next door neighbor lost a huge pine and a couple of houses down lost a big huge oak tree. Someone needs to explain to me how there are still so many trees in Alabama!
Cate rode the tiger on the carousel. Rar!!!
Cate is taking ballet and it's the cutest thing ever to see all those little 3 year old bodies in leotards.
And baby is still eating her own hands. But how can you blame the girl? She is completely tasty.

"It's always fun for everyone..."

... when Grandpa comes!"
We had lots of fun with Grandfather when he was here for the weekend.
Mostly he came to participate in the blessing of our sweet baby Deanne Abigail, but we did some other great stuff too.


Like playing Wii Party, Sleeping Queens and Blokus:
Working on my amazing sand collection. My super terrific mother in law had this sand collection holder thing made for me and it's perfect. Except you couldn't see the sand so I'm in the process of painting it black at the moment. My dad brought me 40 something bags of sand from all over the world. A lot of it I had collected but donated to his collection so my Utah family members (everyone but me) got together and put about a tablespoon of each sand in a baggie. Then my dad and I transferred it to the tiny jars. He also bought me a label maker and now I want to label everything. Martha would be proud don't ya think? It's beautiful:
More baby just because:
And hooray the giant baby fit in the blessing dress. And Lewis didn't accidentally name her Cheeks McGee (but he easily could have because look at those cheeks). The blessing was so special. It was beautiful and sad at the same time because I love that she has my mom's name but it doesn't really make up for my mom being gone. That still sucks. I know she's wishing she could chew on these baby cheeks all day long so I do it for her.
We ate lots of good food. Including the taco truck (he said they were authentic real Mexican tacos) and Saw's bbq because their ribs are the most tender and their sauces are super super good. Both the white and regular are amazing.

We had a great time and he even got his teeth cleaned while he was here! Bonus! See how much fun it is to come visit us? We were sure to tell him "Ya'll come back now, ya hear?"

Can't tell if she likes it

sort of reminds me of "fat guy in a little coat".

3 months

3 months of a new baby goes about a million times faster than 3 months of pregnancy.

This baby is such a joy to have around. Her fussy time is getting shorter and shorter and in general she is very easy to please. She does love to be held which can be a problem if I feel like getting anything accomplished.

She is super drooly. In fact, maybe we should have named her Julie. Drooly Julie. Constantly blowing bubbles.
It's so hard for me to get pictures of babies smiling. They always smile and coo and giggle until I get the camera up in their face. I think it's because she is traumatized by the flash.
She loves to have her hands up on her face. Because she is so easily startled which freaks her out I usually have her swaddled. Plus her having her blanket on her face freaks me out. So sometimes when I'm sitting by her I let her do this and she loves it:
When she was still in my belly we never got an ultrasound picture of her face because she always had it covered up with her hands. It's fun to see her doing the same thing now.
She is such a fun addition to our little family. We call her baby, baby teluga, baby aluga, baby beluga, abba, abba tadaba, abs, abby, abigail, and cheeks. Cate will correct you and tell you "but her real name is Deannt".
Whatever you want to call her is fine, but I wish you could all hold her, squeeze her, and smell her sweet baby smell.

Goals

As a family we have been focusing on goals. One of my goals for today was to finally update my blog. Another goal I have for today is to vacuum the stairs so that is obviously why I am choosing to blog. It is going to be my goal to keep it up better because I am terrible at keeping a journal and this is a good way for my kids to see how amazingly awesome their childhood was. Ahem.

Canning. This year we canned peaches, pears, and tomatoes. I also did a little bit of salsa and marinara sauce. We'll have to see how it turned out. The peaches were so amazing and big this year but it seems like they were here and gone so fast.


The latest installment of The Circus which always precedes a major toy clean out by me because they pull out all 5 million stuffed animals to participate in the acts.
We went to the school to see who our teachers would be and who else was in our classes this year. Both kids got awesome teachers.
Aiden's teacher just had a baby (5 months ago) and Brooks' teacher is the wife of his teacher last year. Both are super nice and really organized.
We sweated it out and went blueberry picking. The bushes weren't as productive as last year.
But we did get a gallon. It took forever because the kids only helped for the first few minutes. Then they got TOOOOOOOO TIREDDDDDDDDD and HOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTTT!! But I wouldn't leave until I had that bucket full, so I carried on.
Also, I would love hints for driving a Honda Pilot. I am so wishing I had a van about now. The kids have to be in the 2 back rows and with the double jogging stroller in the pathetic back there is nowhere to put groceries or other items we might need. Suggestions? How do you make it work?

School started last Wednesday. It does seem so early, but we do get out in May so how can I complain? Brooks was pretty nervous the first day but did a great job.
Aiden loves school so much, I though she might squeeze Brooks' head off in this one:


Ready for third grade!



The gang at the back of the school. I kept making them stop and pose for pictures which I'm sure they loved and wasn't embarrassing at all.
Not one tear shed. Such a sweetheart.
Big girl. I can't believe how grown up she is.
Back to school parents night was last night and both teachers had such nice, genuine things to say about my kids. I think they're pretty great too.

"Swim fishy swim"

Cue Jaws music here.
And:

it ends with Brooks smiling.