Pirate Booty....

Ryan came home from work a little early on Friday; just in time for he and Katy to dress up as pirates and share a snack.





At one point she was running around collecting treasures so Ryan made a comment that she was collecting pirate booty. I looked up a few minutes later and she'd set everything down. So I asked where her booty was. This is the response that I got:



I guess I should stop referring to her bottom as her booty to clear that confusion up.

That evening they had some arts and crafts time.



Or, Ryan had arts and crafts time, at the very least.....

This is what happens when you ask your toddler if she's ready to go too far ahead of when YOU are ready to go.

You end up with a toddler standing in the front entrance wearing no shoes and with the nearest available jacket put on backwards....

Cutest noise-maker ever....

Testing for the correct percussive qualities.

A good test-bang.
Then she decided to really let it rip!



On Sunday afternoon Ryan and I had the "hair" conversation. We're both fed up with Katy's hair being in her eyes. We agreed to give it another week of more concerted efforts at pulling it back, but if that didn't work, the scissors were coming out. Somehow, on Sunday afternoon Ryan was able to pull Katy's hair back. I repeated the experiment on Monday and Tuesday mornings (you're viewing the results of Tuesday.) It's now Wednesday and I've had one more day of success. I think she was listening and didn't want a hair cut.

Everyone unanimously agrees that she looks much older with her hair pulled back. Plus, you can see those expressive eyes that were hiding under all that hair!

On Saturday night Ryan was brave. I was tired. I can fully admit that I was supervising from the comfort of the couch for at least a few minutes of this activity (since I broke out the camera, you can tell that didn't last long...)

Ryan decided to try finger painting ON PAPER. The problem is, now that Katy knows the joys of rubbing finger paint all over herself and the walls, why would she want to go back to boring paper?



Look how bored she looks. Paper? Really? You think this is fun?



Can I just rub a little bit on my face?



No? Please? Can I rub it on YOU instead?



Come on, you know you want to. Give me a hug. I promise I won't get any on you....



I lied.













Ryan finally realized that she wasn't going to stay confined to the paper, so off to the shower they went.

Come on, Daddy. Squirt the paint directly on me....


I love that I actually caught the blob of paint mid-air as he shot it at her.







And then the dancing commenced.









Look at those happy feet. Could life get any better?

Frohe Ostern!

Happy Easter!

The Easter bunny came as promised to visit Katy.



Our cats are so fat and oblivious that they had no idea that a bunny had even been anywhere near our house....



Luckily, Katy caught on quickly.



As a happy Easter present for us all, Ryan was able to take the day off and spend the entire day with us.











She loves to pretend that she's blowing the balloons up.







A ribbon toy to whack Mommy and Daddy with!



Even the grass at the bottom of the basket was fun (until I spent the day trying to pick it up).



Then she found the BEST PART. The bubble machine!













Ryan is trying to teach her to catch them in her hands.







After we played for a while and ate breakfast we decided to head out and go sledding as it's STILL SNOWING here.

That's our village in the valley.


On our way to find a hill.



















At one point I turned and looked back at our car (the dot in the center of the photo) and noticed two somethings approaching us.



It was a man riding a horse and running next to him was a foal.



Katy was entranced.



The man saw us off the main road and, as a complete treat for Katy, brought the foal to run right past us. It was incredible and so much fun to watch.









Katy wanted to run with that foal so badly. She was so angry that she couldn't keep up that she fell over and cried.



About then we realized that part of the falling over and crying could be because she was cold, so we started to head back. On the way, Ryan made one last attempt to find a decent place for them to sled. The problem was that the ground wasn't frozen solid underneath and the sled was too small to distribute both of their weight, so they didn't get very far.





It was lovely fun anyway, even if the sledding was a bust.

All of the excitement led to some very tired people.



In other housekeeping notes:

Katy's speech is definitely improving. Even though she's still not saying many consonants (a major hallmark of apraxia) she's starting to spit things out that have all of the vowels and the correct number of syllables. If you know what she's talking about you can hear the words frequently. I can't say for certain, but I think I got an "I love you" (again, missing all consonants) when I put her down for her nap this afternoon. She's also really doing well in making the "Mmmm" noise, which is the first major consonant we've been able to get out of her on cue from working with her speech pathologist. It's exciting to see and hear progress.