The Sticky-Note Post

Remember that sticky note I mentioned last time? Well here it is. (It was real, by the way. Like, an actual sticky note. It's pink.) There are so many things going on with us right now and so many cute things Katie has done (mostly silly Katie things), I'm not really sure where to start. But I'm definitely going to be checking things off the list to make sure I got them all. (And also this is going to be one seriously long post. You might want to get some popcorn or hummus or something.)

Oh! Before I begin my sticky note, I should tell you: this next Tuesday is my 16 weeks appointment, and because we get an ultrasound at every appointment, there is a possibility (not a guarantee) that we could know what the babies are at this one! So if anybody wants to take a guess, you should do it now, and we'll see who wins. (Oh, and if you guess that they're the same, like two boys or two girls, then we'll have a competition on who thinks they're identical and who thinks they're fraternal. Because technically, they could be either.) But that one, we wouldn't know who won until the little ninjas are born, because there's no way to know until then. (Unless it's a boy and a girl. Then it would be totally obvious. Duh.)

Me at 15 Weeks=Yuck

 Okay, big news first: Mike was accepted to medical school! He had his first interview at the DO school at Midwestern University and two weeks later, they offered him a spot! (YAY!!!!) He has two more interviews lined up, so we're not for sure going there, but at least we have a plan. Be sure to congratulate soon-to-be Dr. Mike next time you see him. He's pretty awesome.

In other big news, the temple open house is still going on. We went that first week when Mike's sister was here (Hi, Amy & Co.!) and Katie has not stopped talking about it ever since. Every morning, her first announcement is "Go to a temple with Daddy today." She's not asking. Unfortunately, we haven't had a lot of time to go again just yet. Don't worry, we're planning on it.

But even when we don't go, Katie is definitely temple-focused. Any building with spires or that is white is a temple. In fact, there was a castle in one of her princess coloring books, and she got really excited and said, "look! A temple!" That's right. Castles look like temples. Not the other way around. Also, every time it's Katie's turn to say the prayer, it goes something like this as I whisper in her ear:

Me: We thank thee for our family
Katie: Thank thee for a temple
Me: And our family
Katie: And a temple
Me: (Sigh) Thank thee for Daddy
Katie: Thank thee for a temple!

I've tried saying "We thank thee for the temple" first to see if she'd move on, but no. She just is thankful for the temple.

My favorite temple moment so far happened last week when Katie wanted to sing the temple song ("I love to see the temple" from the Children's Songbook). Now, she's not like other nursery kids. She actually knows all the words and usually sings in tune with me. It's pretty impressive. And this one has become one of her favorites. However, I discovered that she doesn't actually know what all the words mean. (Surprise!)

So we sang through the song, and as many of you know, the song ends with saying that preparing to go to the temple is "my sacred duty." Katie immediately got about an inch from my face (this is how I know it's important) and said, "What's duty?" So I explained, simply, that duty meant doing good things, the things we were supposed to do. Katie thought for a second, then said, "like baptized?" After my initial shock, I said, "Yes, exactly, like getting baptized." This seemed to clear up the matter, and she moved on to "Wheels on the Bus."

Speaking of singing, remind me for next time to attempt to capture the "I am a Child of God" rap. Or, if we're lucky, the ABCs. I need some video. And you guys will probably just about die.

But as I don't have any videos of such singing yet, we must press on.

Katie and Daddy having a Benny Goodman jam session

One of the punkin's defining characteristics lately is definitely (attempted) independence. Yes, she is almost two years old. How did you know? And the most common way that this is exhibited is through all of her getting dressed times. See, Katie is quite a fan of her footie pajamas. She is very depressed about the recent retirement of the 18-month sized twinkle star jammies, but she revels in her cupcake jammies and her snowman jammies. They are her pride and joy.

But mostly the zippers. She LOVES zippers. And if Mommy or Daddy tries to zip up or down for her, there is drama. Oh man, is there drama. So jammies are Katie's territory. But recently, so is all of her other clothing. If I try to choose her outfit in the morning, there is a significant amount of screaming and clawing and I end up just giving up and letting her sit naked on the floor until she calms down. So we have now gotten into a pattern of "If you let Mommy change your diaper, you can pick your clothes by yourself." Which means I change her and retreat to my rocking chair, then watch as she spends a significant amount of time running around in her underwear before finally choosing her purple pony sweatshirt and some blue and green stripey pants. Or something equally as heinous. And I must employ all of my skillful persuasion tactics to get her into something I would let her wear in public. Sometimes, though, I just can't get to her.

Why does she even own these pants?

But the best part? Watching her try to get herself dressed. After a few tries, she'll usually come over and let me orient the articles of clothing before she pulls them on. But the other day, she put on a little pair of brown, fleece-lined pants that we discovered had a little itty-bitty zipper fly and snap. They were also elastic, so Katie had no problem putting them on, until she noticed the zipper and snap. And OFF they went. She asked me to undo the snap, and she undid the zipper, and then she could put the pants on. And then zip them. And then ask me to do the snap up again. Seriously, kid?

As you can probably guess, a significant amount of Katie's genes came from rather obsessive-compulsive family members. And they're definitely not mine. I don't know where she got them. (*cough cough Auntie Sarah cough*) And there are more hilarious examples of her OCD. Let me illustrate.

One of my mom's favorite things to tease all of her OCD kids about is that we (mostly I) eat my skittle/M&Ms/jelly beans in rainbow order. That means ROYGBIV. Red ones first. And I will not eat an orange one until I have finished the red ones. Well, Katie hasn't quite got the order down, but she's working on it. Every day, if she eats her lunch all gone, she gets to pick a candy from her Halloween bucket. Her favorites so far are the little things of M&Ms. And she will not eat a green one until the blue ones are gone. I haven't watched her through the whole thing, but I think it goes red, yellow, blue, green, brown. I think.

Another example! We have three cushions on our sofa. I didn't realize it, but I guess I had got into the habit of always sitting on the one on the left (so I could lean on a pillow on the arm rest, of course). Well, Katie has got it into her head that the left one is Mommy's couch, the middle one is Katie's couch, and the right one is Daddy's couch. Heaven help the one who crosses the cushion boundaries.

But I think one of the funniest ones has to do when we're hanging out with my parents. I have, on several occasions, been talking to one of my parents, and, thinking that Katie was in the other room completely oblivious to our conversation, called them "mom" or "dad." On such occasions, Katie has come running over to me, passionately announcing that "That's not Mommy, that's Grandma! This is Mommy!" (Gesturing vigorously at me.) The same thing happens with my dear father, should I forget myself and call him "dad." The last time it happened, we patiently tried to explain that "Katie, this is my daddy." Kind of like how we explained that Uncle Jared was Spencer's daddy. But no. "That's not daddy, that's Abuelo!"

In a similar vein, I made the mistake the other day of referring to myself as "mama" when talking to Katie. I was quickly corrected. "Not mama, Mom-MY!"

She has also become quite "helpful" of late. Mostly when it comes to cooking. I'm not allowed to cook or make anything without her, even her peanut butter sandwiches. She was quite offended last night when I wasn't going to let her help make the french toast. But the cutest thing ever was a couple weeks ago when Mike decided to make banana chocolate-chip muffins on a Sunday afternoon, and Katie decided to help. Of course she couldn't help Daddy unless they were both wearing aprons. (Note to self: next project is to make aprons that fit shorty cakes.)

And then there are all the things that she does that are just goofy. For example, last week her favorite animal was a frog. This means that all the time, she was a frog, hopping about and ribbiting. Her first announcements of the morning were "Frogs need breakfast! Frogs eat bananas and toast." Good to know, kid. She even got upset when I was trying to get her ready for the day because "I need to be a frog!"

One of my favorites came from Dr. Seuss. Ever read his ABCs? I is for itchy, itchy Ichabod! So the other day, Katie's sitting in her car seat as we're driving somewhere, and she starts furiously scratching her stomach. "I have a Ichabod!" Mike and I totally busted up.

One of her favorite games is to play pretend, but only if she can stay one step ahead of Mommy. For example, "I'm a horse!" (enter her blowing raspberries like a horse) "Oh yeah? You're a horse?" "I'm not a horse, I'm a bunny! Hop, hop!" "A bunny?" "I'm not a bunny, I'm a puppy! Arf!" "Oh, you're a puppy now?" "I'm not a puppy, I'm a Katie!" It usually lasts much longer than that, or she'll just correct us once. "I'm not a super hero, I'm a Katie! No, I'm a super Katie!" It's pretty great.

But my favorite, definitely, has been since we went to see Sarah and Parker's marching band show from this year. Most of Katie's toys since have become some sort of wind instrument, and she periodically starts waiving her arms around when there's music. I'll say, "Are you conducting the band like Auntie Sarah?" And she says, "Yes. I'm a marching band!" The best was when we were at the farm a few weeks ago. Katie found some sort of toy hammer and something that could be a drum, and spent most of the weekend marching around the house, banging on her drum, and singing "toot de toot!" Whenever she'd get close to one of the grown-ups, she'd say, "I'm a marching band!" This kid has a good future, does she not?

Just catchin' some sun.

Well, that's everything on my sticky note. Sorry the post was so long. Hopefully you enjoyed it anyway. And I might attempt to keep my posts slightly shorter in the future. It would help if I remembered to write more than once every other month, huh? Well, we'll see. Happy November!