Happy Second Birthday

Yesterday Catherine turned two! If I thought the first year went by quickly, the second year was on light speed. We had a play-date party at our house, to which all of her friends from our play group were invited. All she said she wanted was hats, blowers, and birthday cake, so that is what we had. There were also about a million balloons. The kids were entertained by coloring on huge sheets of paper that I taped to the floor, running around after balloons, putting on tattoos (temporary of course!), and playing "the blanket game". The "blanket game" is when all the kids hold on to a sheet, walk around singing Ring Around the Rosy, and run under the blanket for "we all fall down!" We're still opening gifts, as each one needs to be inspected, opened and thoroughly enjoyed before moving onto the next. This process seems to overwhelm her a bit, so we're trying to make it as enjoyable as possible. There are a few preliminary photos available on our Flickr site that were taken and edited by my friend Kristy. More will be posted this weekend.

Toddler Speak

Being the mom of a fairly fluent toddler, I like to fancy myself well educated in toddler-speak. That is, until three days ago, when the following sentence was spoken, and I was stumped. Phonetically it sounded like this:

Whoop dots going with the bishop.

I have been guessing different things this could mean(mostly chess references) every time it has been spoken, only to be answered, "noooo." Tonight while sitting on the couch watching Empire Strikes Back (Bill is fully responsible for this) with Catherine I heard her saying something about a bishop. Then it clicked...spaceship. So I asked her about our mystery sentence, and if it had something to do with a spaceship. She said yes, became quite excited, and started saying it over, and over, and over. Bill and I were looking at each other, desperately trying to decipher "whoop dots" when we finally asked her if she could point to one. Then R2D2 came on the screen and she pointed and said, "There. A whoop dot." Ah..it all makes sense now. The mystery sentence in English:

Robots going on the spaceship.

How old is...

Catherine has attended many birthday parties recently, so she has become quite fond of singing Happy Birthday. At dinner tonight, she was singing it, so we started talking about asking people how old they are. She went around the table asking, and the conversation went as follows:

Catherine: How old you, Daddy?
Daddy: I'm 29.
Catherine: How old you, Grandma?
Grandma Ellen: I'm 68.
Catherine: How old you, Mommy?
Mommy: I'm 30.
Catherine: Oh no!

Mommy's feelings exactly. =)

I Rock-A-Bye

We think this is Catherine's spin on the classic Rock-a-Bye Baby. If this viewing wasn't long enough for your liking, there are two more short films of the same show that kept on going on our Flickr site.

A Harry Potter inspired conversation

While watching Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets the following conversation took place.

Catherine: She (Hermione) sick.
Mommy: Yes, she is. She needs some medicine.
Catherine: I need medicine.
Mommy: What do you need medicine for?
Catherine: Fuzzies.
Mommy: You need medicine for fuzzies?
Catherine: Yes. Fuzzies in my mouth.
Mommy: You don't need medicine for that. You need water.
Catherine: Oh, okay. I need water.

Trip to KY

Catherine, Ellen, and I had to take an unexpected trip to Kentucky to help my mom out while she had an emergency surgery. Thanks to great doctors, Grandma Trish is going to be just fine. Although the circumstances were less than ideal, we used it as an opportunity to spend some time with loved ones, and get some cute photos. You can see more at our Flickr site, like always.

O-H!

So I was being silly with Catherine this afternoon, showing her the difference between big and little. I would put my index finger and thumb together and say, "Little," then I'd throw my arms up above my head and say, "Big!" When I put my arms up above my head, Catherine suddenly said, "O-H!" We just about died & had to respond, "I-O!"

I guess she's really a Buckeye!