Kids lately

Recently, Kateri has greatly enjoyed singing her ABC's. However, her version is rather abridged, though musically it still flows!

"A B C D E F G -- Q R S -- Y and Z, Now I know my ABC's, next time won't you sing with me!" 

She has also discovered a way to say the Rosary very efficiently. Sometimes she will solemnly tell me she is going to pray, and she runs over, picks out a Rosary, kneels down, and says:

"Hail Mary, God. Amen. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." On repeat. 

She has also coined her own counting system which uses fewer symbols then ours does:

"1 2 3 6 7 8 9 10" 

The beautiful snow from our back door a couple weeks ago

Mom gave Kateri a very darling, soft, white-as-snow hand made kitten for Christmas. Kateri told me with a very very serious face that she had named the kitten "Dirt".  It still takes me a moment to remember what she is talking about when I hear, "MAMA! I found DIRT under the COUCH!!" 

On the other hand, she named Sebastian's hard plastic brontosaurus "Buttons". 

Kateri knows her own mind, and is very particular about what she wants to wear and how her hair should be fixed. 95% of the time, she wants "Anna-Elsa hair" which is two braids. Once in a great while, she wants puppy ears (pig-tails looped up) or pig tails. But should you want to try something different, chances are it will be immediately pulled out with great disdain!

Kateri mixes up the letters in squirrel, and when she pronounces it, it sounds more like "circle". With great excitement, she will tell me, "MAMA! There is a CIRCLE in the tree!!"

Her current favorite book is a golden book compilation of farm stories from Mihi. She loves hearing the stories one after the other, and I have noticed that if I pause mid sentence and ask her to supply the next word, she knows it! 

Sebastian, while he doesn't speak in sentences, is able to communicate effectively. He has a very distinctive affirmative grunt that he uses instead of saying, "yes". 

However, he does pay close attention to what is being said around him! The other day, we were getting ready to leave to watch the Super Bowl and I told Pat, "We better go get Kateri's jeans so that she can wear her Bronco's jersey." We went on getting ready, and a minute or two later, I looked up and Sebastian ran into the room holding a pair of Kateri's jeans and went immediately to Kateri to deliver the pants! 

Later, I said, "I need to get my shoes on! Then we can go." and bent down to pick up a few books off of the floor before going to slip on some shoes, I looked up and Sebastian ran up to me handing me one of my boots, and then went to grab the other one! It amazes me how thoughtful and eager to help this little guy is. 

They are both very dear and thoughtful, and very busy and constantly getting into trouble! Yesterday, I found Kateri sitting on the floor carefully painting her nails with white-out she quietly purloined from the junk drawer. Not long after that, Sebastian pushed the entire fruit basket, full of apples, avacados, and tomatoes onto the floor with a magnificent crash. Thankfully, no one was hurt in the process! Other then the ripe avacados, that is!

Kateri successfully potty trained while we were stuck at home with the winter snow storm, thanks be to God. She hasn't had any accidents since day two (knock on wood!). Sebastian has greatly benefited from this, as Kateri proudly enjoys a piece of candy after each successful potty trip, and Sebastian gets to share in the joy and have one as well. However, trying to keep Sebastian out of the tub, away from the faucet, out of the drawers, not touching the plunger, all while encouraging Kateri and helping her wash her hands, makes for some hilarious and ridiculous trips to the bathroom! So far, we have only had one entire roll of toilet paper submerged in the toilet, and I have only had to change Sebastian once after he soaked his clothes by turning on the bathtub faucet! I think that counts as a win :)