Kate: Month Thirty Three

Kate,

It’s hard to believe that you are thirty-three months old already. I will go ahead and address the obvious – I know I am seven days late in writing this. Instead of groveling and admitting that I am a negligent mother, I will tell you that I chose to use the free time (free time *snort* now that’s funny!) I had over this past week spending time WITH you and not writing about you. So, when you are seventeen and you read this, you can’t blame all of your teenage angst on the fact that I was seven days late on writing about your thirty-third month. I’m glad we have that straight.



This month you got to spend some time with your buddy Caden. Since Tammi, Jason, and Caden moved to the other side of the state, our visits with them are not as often as we’d like. It had been awhile since we'd gotten together and you two were so excited to see each other. We had a fun weekend, including a trip to the largest and most obnoxious pumpkin patch ever. Now that you two are a little older, you have this fun little game that you play when you are together. It’s called let’s see who can prove that they have the most delinquent parents. You took the gold medal on this visit Miss Kate. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am all about competition, but you have to draw the line somewhere. With you two, it’s all about who can be the worst sharer, the biggest fit thrower, or just the most TWO-ISH two year old. By Sunday, poor Caden was knocked right out of consideration for the title. We determined that when he forlornly kept following you around, hoping to play. Instead of engaging in any type of activity with him, it was your mission to make sure you were playing in a different room as.far.away.from.him.as.possible. Oh joy!



You have a continued obsession with two things: getting bigger and going to school. Your favorite words are “I am too big enough” and “I AM getting bigger”. You will actually stick your neck out and do something I know you don’t want to do just because it’s something BIG KIDS do. It makes me sad that you are already in such a hurry to grow up. I thought about giving you the lecture that it is not all that it’s cracked up to be, but I guess that would sort of ruin the moment. Your other obsession is school. I don’t know where it came from, but everything is about school. You met my boss for the first time this month and instead of saying hello, you yelled, “I get to go to school when I am five!” We count school busses in the morning and you are always compelled to tell me that it will be picking you up when you are bigger. Often, you go on a tangent about all of the things you will do at school: color, read, play, and sing your ABC’s. It’s possible you got this love for school from me, since I appear to be a professional student, still in school at the ripe old age of 28. On that thought, there are plenty worse character traits you could have inherited, so I guess an affinity for nerdiness isn’t too bad.

We’ve been working with you on feeling words quite a bit and identifying feelings. You love to talk about being happy and being sad, which I think is a good thing. However, your new thing is “ … and I made you happy momma?” While sweet in intent, makes me sound quite desperate and dependent on a two year old. That was NOT the intent of the feeling conversation people! On top of the feeling words, you love making your feeling faces. Your favorites are happy, sad, and surprised. Surprised is my favorite, look at this picture and I am sure you’ll agree:


(click to enlarge)

Life’s been crazy over the past month for many reasons, but we’ve had so much fun. I am so blessed to be able to continue to share this journey with you and watch you grow and learn. You never cease to amaze me. You are such a compassionate, funny, smart, and well adjusted kid. I am lucky to be your mom.

Love,
Mama