Kate @ 2 years 11 months

Yep, you read that right. Kate will be 3 in three weeks!

Kate is such a fun spirit. She really loves life and just wants to make messes!

Don't worry, this was mostly cornstarch and food coloring

She loves her baby brother, and wants to help him all the time. She gives him snacks, shushes him when he cries, and always has to be the first one to get him up from a nap. They are great partners in crime and stay up together at bedtime jumping up and down and shaking their crib bars as hard as they can. Kate likes to tell Edwin what things are when he points (like airplanes outside, and lights on the ceiling) and she gives him hugs, whether he wants them or not.

 Living with toddler attitude has been hard on all of us. Kate is very emotional these days. There is a great range of happiness and sadness. There aren't just frantic tantrums of rage, but slow frowns and lots of tears. She will run away embarrassed when she gets upset around people, and tells me "bad girl" when I do something she doesn't like.

As a family we have been working on better communication and talking about the reasons we are sad, or happy, or frustrated. All of these feelings change very quickly around here!

Kate is super adorable, even when she's being a bit naughty. Jon and I often have to hide our faces because we'll start laughing even when we're trying to be serious with her. Out at the playground the other day I wanted to get a couple cute pictures of Kate, but here you can see I caught her face just as she was lifting her arm to swat me. *sigh*

look at that evil grin!

Kate is a little sponge and loves to learn! We have been taking turns preparing Family Home Evening (FHE) lessons every Monday night. They usually take about 5 minutes. Kate loves to hang pictures up as we talk, so her job is to be Vanna White with the tape.

Plan of Salvation: how we came to Earth and can return to Heavenly Father someday

 

Word of Wisdom: things that make our bodies happy and sad

 Kate also loves to "read". I often find her hanging out in her room or on the couch in this position:

The Mouse and the Motorcycle is one of her favorites

Daddy makes a good lounge chair

 Kate also loves to go outside and play. She asks almost daily to go play in the water. (Porter Park has a splash pad.) She wears her swimsuit around the house every chance she gets,

and yet every time we go to the water, she just hangs out on the blanket with me and Ed.

 Kate's other favorite activities include coloring with sidewalk chalk,

blowing bubbles,

and sitting on my lap to help me type on the computer or sew for the etsy store:

She likes to bring friends along . . .

Kate is a great helper with the pincushion and never far behind to help me organize the pokeys while I sew!

Kate's favorite foods are pineapple, berries, string cheese, pasta, and avocados. She does NOT like lettuce or broccoli, but she will eat most everything if I hide it well. Bell peppers in fritata? Heck yes! Mushrooms and zucchini in a vegetarian shepherd's pie? Of course! Most of the time she is cooperative. Finger foods always go over well.

Kate enjoys weekly story time at the library, and going for walks. She especially likes holding Margo's leash and collecting flowers and leaves.

Currently Kate's favorite movies are Fantastic Mr. Fox (forever and ever), Wall-E, The Land Before Time, Dumbo, and we have also been watching Planet Earth with her on Netflix. Her face lights up when she sees all the animals and she asks non-stop questions the entire time!

Recently we took Kate to see her first movie in theaters, Inside Out! We got the biggest bucket of popcorn possible and Kate ate most of it. The lighting in the theater was low, but at least we documented this awesome popcorn adventure ;)

Having Kate as a little best friend is pretty awesome :)

She asks me to paint her nails all the time and she lets me do her hair:

She wears out the grandparents:

She walks like a monkey crawling silently like this out of the hallway at 10pm when she was supposed to be asleep two hours before:

creeper status.

She is such a silly girl. There is never a dull moment when Kate is around!

We definitely have a big kid on our hands. Can't wait to see what this (almost) 3 year old does next!