"Man, she is beautiful. I think I love her!"
On Friday it cooled down and rained some that afternoon, so Catherine and Will put one of her birthday presents to use--an umbrella that you color and decorate the pictures. Her birthday is in 2 weeks, but since Jay's parents can't be here then we celebrated her birthday with them this weekend.
On Friday evening, Wild Dunes kicked off their Christmas season with a tree lighting and kids activities. Our favorite was the huge gingerbread house that the kids could decorate. They gave them cups of icing to stick various candies onto the house and they had so much fun. Will kept wanting to just lick the icing, of course, and would turn around to see if we were watching him. Then he'd just give us this sneaky little smile :)
The 3 kiddos love hanging out and having extra attention from mommy, daddy, Mimi, and PopPop. When the adults out-number the kids, we usually can keep everyone pretty happy!
And since I forgot to post it before we left town, Catherine's class had a Thanksgiving feast last Monday. They all dressed up like Indians and sang us a few songs and even had a special blessing. Their teachers had given each of them special Indian names that they thought fit their personalities. Some of them were Setting Sun, Brave Bear, Peaceful Lily, Mighty Turtle. Catherine's name was Great Spirit, which I think fits her perfectly. She does have such a sweet sweet spirit and seems to think of spiritual issues more than most four or five year olds. For example, she came home from school the other day and told me they sang "Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart" and while they were singing it she was thinking about meeting God and him introducing her to all the people in heaven. She said she kept seeing what that would look like in her head. I love her Great Spirit!
We have so many things to be thankful for--too many to list. But I am so thankful for Jay and his tender and loving care of all of us, for each of our children and how their personalities fit together so well in our family, and for God's merciful love to me. We hope you had a great Thanksgiving celebration too.
Off she goes! What a way to ride into the surgery room. She was waving to people like it was a parade.
All done and in the recovery room. Catherine didn't want to ever leave, and who could blame her? They give you popsicles and Mommy holds you and you gets lots of attention. We finally had to convince her that it was time to go home.
She's been watching movies and eating a lollipop on the couch. She has been a little scared to move because she thinks it will hurt, but we have finally convinced her to get up and start walking around some. Overall she has done great! We're so proud of her.
Catherine finished her dance class for the fall. They had a day when the parents could come watch. It's always fun to see that beautiful little girls and their ballerina dance moves. Catherine's social calendar is in full swing with playdates, birthday parties, dance, choir, and preschool. She also spent 5 days at Mimi and PopPop's all by herself. When she came back home she seemed so grown up. I can't believe she's almost 5 and so independent. My eyes sometimes still get teary just from dropping her off in the car line at school and watching her walk inside by herself.
Anna is also on the move. She started crawling a few days ago! Sometimes she forgets that she knows how and will just sit there (which I like) and she gets frustrated if she tries to crawl a long distance, but it's all starting to click. Catherine asked when they would need to watch out so that Anna wouldn't get into all their stuff. Soon...very soon. And with three teeth now (all on bottom) she could chew up lots of toys.
Ahh, the perils of preschool. While putting on Will's pjs last night I found this on his back. I asked him what happened and he said another little boy bit him on the playground when Will tried to play with his car. He had a pretty good bite! I guess it's not that much different than the hitting and kicking I had disciplined Will for earlier in the day though. And oh yes, I almost forgot. His name isn't Will anymore either. It's Rob, after the fireman in a book we checked out the library weeks ago. Will wanted us to call him Rob one day so we did. It has now been weeks and he's still insisting that we call him Rob. He cries and yells if we call him Will. Even his teachers at school call him Rob now. He did finally negotiate a little bit the other day and tell me I could call him Mr. Hatten. Gotta love that 3 yr old determination.
Okay, this one is totally random, but I like it. My car had 111,111 miles on it. You people know I have weird things with numbers and even though these are odd numbers I still like it. Keep on hanging in there Pilot, so that I can keep resisting the minivan!
They are the cutest angel, pumpkin, and fireman though. Will was very excited to help rescue people. Anna did not appreciate her pumpkin head.
This is the best way to enjoy the festivities--just hanging out in the stroller.
Our friend's neighborhood has some houses that get very excited about Halloween decorating, like this one. The people here live across the street from our friends and made personalized gift bags of Halloween candy and surprises for the kids, including ours and we don't even live there!
I really enjoy watching the kids get dressed up and go trick-or-treating. Prior to having children, Halloween was my least favorite holiday of all. I guess it's because I only went trick-or-treating once or twice as a child. So now I'm enjoying taking our little people (and eating their candy when they're not looking).
