Creating a Scene

Kate is very into making scenes these days. Not the tantrum kind, mind you. More like tableaux.

Examples:

I went into my bedroom the other day to find all kinds of dolls lying flat on their backs in a row, each with a pillow under their head, staring at the ceiling as dolls tend to do. Dolls on the dresser, dolls on the bedside table and on the carpet. Of varying sizes such as her tiny dolls that go in her dollhouses in one grouping, Barbies in another grouping and doll-babies in another. Clearly "Kate was Here". When asked about the scene Kate calmly explained to me (in her funny little pseudo-Boston-accent where she still drops her "R"s) - as if I were a total dunce - "Mommy, they are watching the fireworks! They are in different pahts of a big, big pahk and they are waiting for it to get dahk to watch the fireworks show!" Well, of course.

I then moved into the bathroom where I discovered a number of "My Little Ponies" lined all along the bathtub edge. I turned and, without even having to ask for it, Kate explained to me that the Ponies were "Running fwoo the Pwains and got TIRED and came to the WIVAH because they are THUHSTY". Well, of course!

Later I went to vacuum the dining room and, upon moving the dining room chairs, discovered a congregation of "Fisher Price Little People" under the table. Well, you must know by now that they were camping, yes?!

And the stuffed animals trailing up the stairs are mountain climbing.

And the other "My Little Ponies" hanging off of Kate's bed rail (which is at it's core, metal, and did you know that My Little Ponies have magnets in their feet just so they can hang upside down on metal?) are "in the circus".

Kate is like those secret renegade artists that perform public art that is questionable when it come to the law. Like a "wrap artist" that will in the dead of night wrap a building in saran wrap as an unintelligable statement against society. Or those anti-smoking people that attempt to startle Manhattan-ites by filling a corporate lobby with thousands of body bags. Sometimes you see Kate staging things and can try to protest but you don't want to necessarily curb the imagination process.....so you can tell in advance that, in a few minutes, there will be a feather boa tied around your laptop and a stuffed dog wearing a tutu on your printer intake shelf. Sometimes, though, you walk into a room to retrieve a book only to find (insert creepy horror movie music) that is full of pastel colored ponies. Lined practically wall-to-wall (our home is small) in military precision and they all have had their heads turned at the exact same angle by a slightly compulsive three year old and all of the ponies are Staring. At. You.

And you cannot figure out WHEN she had the time to execute this and how you missed it.

So - it is funny. But as impressive as her statements are....getting her to clean them up is a whole other story. It is amazing how she managed to transport 20 ponies into the downstairs bathroom from her upstairs playroom, but she INSISTS that it is IMPOSSIBLE to get them back up the stairs. Or that the "little people" will be devastated if their camping trip gets cut short....'But Moooommmy, I CAAAAAN'T put the camping twip away yet because they have not made toasty Marshmewwows yeeeeeeet".

Clever girl.

By the way, I just stepped on a Barbie shoe! Maybe she will try to butter me up by creating a tableau of the Nordstrom shoe department! :)

EVEN MORE MINNE-SNOW-TA

In the words of "H-ahnk and Fr-ahnk" from "Father of the Bride" in regards to photography, "Thank GOD snow is WHITE, it just WORKS!!!"

MORE MINNE-SNOW-TA

MINNE-SNOW-TA

So, we got a winter wallop this weekend! Depending on reports, we have somewhere between 10-15 inches of snow, but the drifts are MUCH higher - some up to three feet or so. It is so FUN! We have become true Minnesotans in that is does not phase us. Nick and Ryan went out in the height of the storm last night to, in a most dedicated fashion, cheer on Golden Gopher hockey - followed by midnight reveling in driving snow at a local bar. Cheers to them! Today the snow finally stopped and we all bundled up and went outside for some family time in the white stuff where we enjoyed the sled and built a snowman....actually a snow mountain because basically it was a foot of pure powder and not very good for packing. Oh, and while the playing in the snow was great, bundling a preschooler into the snow clothes is even more of an adventure. Has anyone ever seen the episode of "The Cosby Show" where Bill bundles Rudy and all her pals into snow gear and then bathroom breaks are required by all? Yeah - it went something like that.

Anyway - enjoy the pics! There are tons!

Balmy

So today we went to the zoo. Does that sound weird? The zoo in Minnesota in February? We have a great zoo here called Como Zoo that is FREE. And I just found out that it is open 365 days a year! Anyway, today it was positively sweltering at 35 degrees F!!! So after going slighty nuts after weeks of below-zero frigidness, the kids and I were ready to get OUT. So we joined my friend Paige and her kids for a day at the zoo. The kids just loved it and Kate and Paige's son, Luke, just hit it off and had so much fun. They were such little buddies. There is a new - indoor and very toasty steamy - tropical exhibit and the kids had so much fun exploring the plants and trees and snakes and sloths. It was great.

Anyway, here are some pics - AND I am debuting here Kate's first photo - as in the first one she took with a real camera! It is of me, so pardon the seeming self-promotion. I wish it were of Liam or a plant or something. But after she took it she asked if I would "post it on the bog" and how could I refuse?


Kate and Luke strolling at the zoo!




Group hug at the zoo! Huddling for warnth! :)




Mags and Liam - ready for an outing!




Mags and Kate - she was so excited for the zoo.




"Mommy" - Portrait by Kate Harris. Love the angled view - she is so artistic, no?

Kate the Scolder

This past weekend Nick and I were talking about how freezing it has been in Minnesota (see earlier entry of frozen clothing in our dryer for reference) and I made a remark about how I was "Freezing my butt off" (oh, if only!). Well, Kate overheard this and GASPED at me in total horror. She proceeded to admonish me in a very stern tone, "Mommy! DO NOT talk about people's BUTTS!!!!! That is PRIVATE!!! Do you hear me, Mom? BUTTS are PRIVATE!". She stood there staring me down with her hands on her hips as Nick and I used EVERY ounce of self control not to burst out laughing. Biting the insides of our cheeks we hung our heads (mainly to hide the wavering smirks) and mumbled that Kate was absolutely right and we do not talk about people's butts. Point taken.

Thou Shalt Not....

....Make fun of Jesus! I am pretty sure that is encompassed, though not explicity in those terms, somewhere in the Ten Commandments. Kate is still learning, though, so I think God will give her a break. Allow me explain as I share this anecdote with you - I have been meaning to blog it for a while. A while ago Kate was in our bedroom while I was getting ready for the day. On our dresser we have a prayer book and a replica of the papal crucifix that Pope John Paul II displayed on his papal staff. It was given to Nick and I on the occassion of his conversion to Catholocism and my confirmation. Anyway, long story short, the crucifix is a good depiction of what a crucifixtion would do to a person. It is a silver cross and, on it, Jesus is painfully thin and is hanging down off the cross - not like he is a mirror of the cross as in some depictions.

Anyway - Kate said to me with some urgency as she held the cross, "Mommy!! WHAT is THIS?!!!!!" I told her "That is Jesus on the cross, honey!" She said very loudly with great conviction - as if I were teasing her "NOOOOOOO it IIIIIISSSN"T!!!" I reassured her it was and she said to me in a very know-it-all voice, with a touch of sympathy towards me for NOT knowing, "MOM, it is NOT Jesus. THIS is ONE SICK SCARECROW."

Sheesh.

Being a Princess is Tiring, Ok?!

Kate is in full-on "princess mode". She is such a little girl! Today she insisted on wearing a red dress because it is what "Annie" wears in the movie. She also sung "Let's Go to the Movies" from "Annie" for about 45 minutes straight at the top of her lungs. She is SO DARN CUTE! Yesterday, she put on one of her "princess dress up dresses", complete with magic fairy wand, and twirled and danced and insisted on being called "Princess Kate" while she called me "Queen Mommy". I ran upstairs to put some laundry away and came back downstairs to find Princess Kate absolutely zonked out on the couch in all her purple and pink princess finery. Here are a couple of pics!

It is SO COLD......

"HOW COLD IS IT?"

Well, it is so cold that when I accidentally forgot to push the "Start" button on the clothes dryer, we discovered a couple hours later (when going to fold what we thought were dry clothes) a dryer full of FROZEN CLOTHES. They were literally frozen through. Sleeves were frozen at odd angles and folds and creases were frozen into place. It looked like a bunch of little clothes sculptures! :) I guess the -30 degree air coming through the exhaust vent back into the dryer was enough to do the trick! Here is a pick of Nick holding up some frozen items...though we should have had him hold the one shirt upside down so you could see the sleeves sticking straight up in the air! These were little blocks of ice - no gravity working here.

Brrr......

Brrrr Baby

Ok. Right now, with the wind chill, it is -29 degrees. That would be NEGATIVE 29. It is beyond chilly. When you go outside, the inside of your nose freezes and it literally hurts to breathe. The cold does not phase Kate at all - looks like she is a true Minnesota girl! She loves it. Not that we are spending a great deal of time outside in these dangerous temps - but in the dash from house to car to grocery store to car to house, Kate is not phased. Liam, on the other hand, dramatically gasps and gulps to catch his frozen breath. Poor baby.

Hence, we are spending a lot of time toasty warm in our home! Nick was away in Cleveland all week and so it was just me and the kids 24/7. They get a little stir crazy - especially Kate - when it is this cold out, but I try to keep them busy. Liam's favourite games are to knock down block towers and climb on top of furniture. Kate is currently fascinated by all things "Mary Poppins" and "Annie" and I have been treated to many a "show" in recent weeks. She is really into tap dancing and asks for "Mommy to do the show with me" a lot. I am having a lot of fun singing "Together at Last", "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious", and "The Sun Will Come out Tomorrow" with her.

Liam and Kate are best buddies and she is so good with him. In Liam's eyes, Kate is the greatest person on earth. He adores her and follows her everywhere. It is beyond cute. Here are some pics of them bonding after bathtime, just before the bedtime ritual. Following that are some other tidbits of news....







In other news, all is well here - Ever After Gowns is soaring right now. Go to our website (www.everaftergowns.org) to check it out. I had a radio interview and we have had some great press which has led to some great professional partnerships and success. Nick is working a ton but has been having some great success - which cannot be discussed or I will have to kill you due to all those SEC regs! :) He actually has time on weekends now, though, and is not glued to a computer 20 out of 24 hours in the day. YAY! Socially things have been fun, too! We actually have managed to get out for a couple "date nights" and tried some fun restaurants and music scene stuff here in town. So fun. And last weekend my sister came to visit and we had a whole "girls weekend", which was our Xmas present from our husbands. Rin and I went to our Kappa Alpha Theta Founders Day Brunch which was so fun, window shopped a tad and then went out for Japanese and - wait for it - to the Justin Timberlake concert! (Insert Beatlemania-esque scream here). Rin and I are fans. Ok, fine....big fans. There is a mortifyingly embarrassing picture that Erin took of me at the concert which basically is me clutching my heart with mouth agape and eyes bugging out at the PRESENCE THAT IS JUSTIN. HA HA HA HA HA. She has been ordered to destroy the picture. Anyway - it was GREAT fun and we followed it up by a Spa Day on Sunday. Just what I needed because I have not danced that much in years and my meds made Sunday kind of tough. SO WORTH IT THOUGH! Thanks to the hubbies for taking care of kids and giving us a whole weekend to be girlyl! Without having to change diapers and wipe up spit and listen to 'The Wiggles'.

So - that is the basic version. Lots to look forward to. I have a lot of business meetings for Ever After. Nick will be traveling more which is exciting for him (is it wrong for me to envy his totally uninterrupted silent nights of sleep in a quiet dark hotel where there are no children?) ha ha! Kate has lots of fun school stuff coming up and Liam turns ONE next month! How time flies.