'Uppy peez Mommy"

As little Kate approaches her second birthday, I find myself finally finding it weird to refer to her as a baby.

Maybe it's that she finally has hair (I know I've said that before, but you can really see it now ... if you look closely).

Or maybe it's that she's so chatty. There are four real voices talking at dinner now. Anybody who hangs out with her for a few minutes is likely to hear stories about "ballet cass" and the "trampoline." Yesterday she retold many times the story of how she fell off a stool and hurt her foot and needed a Bandaid. Today she told me several times how she "saw Missy cat last night."

She's really into taking her pants off lately. She can't get her own shirt off yet but with a little help from sister she often walks out of the bedroom naked.

She CAN take off her own diaper. The best instance of that was when I was ignoring a noticeably stinky one Friday so I could finish some chore and she decided she wasn't going to wait around for me to change her. Ack!!! (I hope Freddy didn't come home with that story :) )

She picks up new words and phrases every day. Today she started answering "why" questions with "because." Sunday morning when we were up before dawn making oatmeal I noticed a pool of water on the kitchen floor near the cabinet where she was playing. I said, "I wonder where that water came from" and she said, "Sink maybe?" All day she was adding "maybe" to her answers to my "where is" questions. (turned out it was not water on the floor but the consequence of her diaper sliding down into the pant leg of her footie jammies -- ick! And all this mess before we've even started potty training!)

A week or two ago she was compulsively counting, mostly by 2s -- 2,4,6,8,9,10,11. She always counts to 11. :) I suspected Molly had something to do with all this counting. When I asked her if she taught Kate to count by 2s she thought for a while, then said, "you mean 1, 3, (pause) 5 (pause) 7 ...." and on and on. Guess not.

By far her favorite phrase is still "Uppy peez Mommy," mostly when I'm trying to cook. I think she would be quite happy to be permanently attached to my left hip. She's got this tricky maneuver where she tucks her knees up when I try to put her down, forcing me to either hang on or lay her down on her back on the cold stone floor.

Fortunately Molly usually comes to the rescue and thinks up some way to lure out of the kitchen. If all else fails, she can usually detach Kate from my hip by lifting her shirt and showing her her belly button. Somehow belly button play trumps watching Mommy cook. Thank goodness!!

OK, off to work on all this kindergarten registration paperwork for Molly. They ask you to describe your child's personality and interests, then give you just two little lines to write. Where to start!