Kate 5.5

"No, Mom, I don't want to stop what I'm doing and pose for you--just go ahead and take a picture of me now while I'm cutting this dinosaur out of felt with my safety scissors."



At five-and-a-half, Kate is creative and imaginative and has the typical variable attention span, depending on whether it's something she wants to do or something we want her to do. She'll spend quite a while drawing, or playing with Play-Doh, or making things with her scissors and tape. An empty yogurt container and two toilet paper tubes turn into a robot. A plastic clip becomes an alligator.

She's reading quite well, likes to play games on the computer, and especially enjoys reading Calvin and Hobbes with Daddy or Mom at bedtime. The fascination with creepy-crawly things continues, though she's wary of bees after being stung last summer.

She also tends to be strong-willed and melodramatic, which makes things interesting. Her current response for when she doesn't want to do something is "I'm not available to do that!" She has been doing a lot better lately at saying please and thank you. We're looking forward to seeing how she does in school.

Andy at 18 months

I managed to park Andy in this chair long enough to get a few pictures. This is not easy. He's so busy. He's also fascinated by the camera and always wants to push the buttons on the back.

The phone, and anything that looks like the phone, are also items of great interest. He'll hold the TV remote up to his ear and say "Hi." So cute.



Favorite activities at this age include:

Trying to get into Kate's markers and draw on things
Trying to get outside and run into the parking lot
Trying to type on the computer keyboard
Trying to play Daddy's hurdy-gurdy
Redistributing shoes to various locations around the house
Bending book covers backwards
Eating frozen blueberries
Climbing on Daddy
Playing peekaboo under blankets
Pulling things off tables and desks
Flipping light switches
Pushing buttons on the TV
Dancing
Being upside-down

Andy's old enough to go in the nursery at church now. Not coincidentally, I was just called as the assistant nursery leader, so we'll be going to nursery together.

last day of preschool (with hat)

Kate's been going to preschool three days a week at her friend Lilly's house. Our neighbor Sky joined them, too. For their last day of school they had a little presentation for the parents.



Kate and Sky perform a finger play they learned. (Lilly didn't want to get in the picture.)



They had the girls decorate paper hats for the occasion. Kate, in her own inimitable style, added horns to her hat. She's such a crack-up.



I love this picture. We were calling her our little Viking Dutch girl. (Yes, there's no historical evidence that Vikings wore horned helmets. Shhhh.)



Afterward we all went out back to see the chickens. Great fun.



I'm still in denial about Kate starting Kindergarten this fall. How can she have gotten so big already?

Daddy Day

Kate made this for Doug in Primary.  She says it's a robot dinosaur.  That's its hand grabbing the "thank you."

I was thwarted by my family in my plans to get a Father's Day picture (I am, evidently, the only one who cares about such things).  So here's a favorite Daddy picture from a couple of years ago:

Andy, with a bit of color

Andy loves drawing (he's always getting into Kate's markers--fortunately he hasn't figured out how to get the caps off, yet) and he loves being outside. Sidewalk chalk provides a great combination of these two favorite pastimes. I don't have to worry about what he might be drawing on, and the chalk also keeps him occupied enough that I don't have to keep herding him away from the parking lot every five seconds. Win-win!



Another future artist!

Kate, in black

Kate finished her first gymnastics class at the YMCA. It was the preschool gymnastics class for 4-5 year olds, one hour once a week. It was rather chaotic, with only one teacher at a time trying to keep 7-10 kids on task, and I don't know if she really learned anything, but she had a good time. I got her this cute black leotard and black shorts to wear.

I was going to take my camera the last day of class, but I miscalculated and class ended a week earlier than I was thinking. So, no pictures this time.



I took these when we had the travel crib outside for Andy's 17 month pictures.



I braided Kate's hair to keep it out of the way. It always ended up looking like this pretty quickly.



Big smile!

I asked Kate if she wanted to take gymnastics again this session, and at first she said no. We're signed up for swimming lessons this time. Now she says she does want to do gymnastics again.

The unintentional hiatus

June is zipping by and I haven't been posting. It's not that I've been particularly busy as such, just kind of preoccupied.

Doug ended up picking up a class for the summer, which was a surprise.  He hasn't had a summer class for several years. I'm sure it's a good thing for Doug, and probably the right thing for our family at this point, but I've been kind of up-in-the-air about what I personally want to be focusing on right now.  I hope I can get in some painting time this summer.  I haven't done a thing with the model train backdrop.

It sure doesn't feel like June.  It's been very cool and damp.  Andy's been a bit sick and I think Kate has a touch of it, too. 

Kate went to the dentist and found she has a problem area between her back teeth (not a cavity yet, but could turn into one) so we are brushing her teeth for two minutes every night with a prescription toothpaste, which she is not supposed to swallow.  It's not easy for a five-year-old to keep toothpaste in her mouth for two minutes without swallowing.  We're working on it.