Mark and Jen, Plus TWO: From the Mouth of Kate

I saw a sign at The Magic House last week that said the average four year old asks something like 437 questions a day. So, so very true.

I'm not trying to say, "oh my kid is so smart." But, Kate's smart. Any old answer just won't do for her. She wants REAL answers. Long answers. Through all of that, she has developed quite the vocabulary.

Add to that her sassiness, facial expressions, D-R-A-M-A, and the occasional mispronunciation or mix-up of words, and she definitely keeps us laughing.

I've had this list going since Christmas, so here goes.

- During the holidays, we were making gingerbread man cookies and Kate wanted to make one for Daddy. She reminded me to add a "soul patch" so it looked like him. Haha!! I don't even know how she knows that phrase.

- She insists that Uncle Brad is NOT her uncle, but instead, her boyfriend. If I say his name, she says, "You mean my BOYFRIEND??"

(I did her makeup one night after she begged me to)

- At Christmas time, Kate was telling someone about her presents and we heard her say, "Santa did a GOOD job!"

- Every now and then, she gets mushy gushy and just showers us with compliments. Like, "You are just the best mommy ever. I love you to pieces." or "I missed you so much, Mommy. Like past the stars." So, one day, she was trying to tell me that I was cute and I guess to really get her point across, she said, "You are priceless cute. You're like ten bucks cute."

- Speaking of being mushy gushy, one day she told me, "I'll even love you when you go to Heaven. So, you don't even have to worry about that. All day, all morning, all afternoon, I'll love you."

- We were out one day and I needed to get gas, so I stopped at Quick Trip. I asked her if she wanted a snack and she said, "Nope... just a hotdog."

- Mark put her in her bed for a nap one day and then went downstairs to play guitar. After he came back up, she started clapping like he had just put on a big show. She said, "I was in my bed just dancing and singing." Guess no nap happened.

- She was helping me carry a box up the stairs, and she was saying, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can..."

- One of her favorite phrases lately is, "Well, this is not what I was 'specting." (expecting). She doesn't always use it the right way, so it's pretty funny when she just says it at random times.

- Awhile back, I wasn't feeling well and I was laying on the couch. She was trying to be sweet and take care of me, but finally she said, "I know you don't feel well. I know you are tired. But, you need to get up off the couch. I mean, Daddy doesn't really take care of the kids really well." Haha! She was so serious about it, too. If you know Mark, you know this is SO not true, but I love how she tried to appeal to me with this.

- Mark and I always say that she lives her life on stage. She will randomly go into these "monologues" (as we call them) from various t.v. shows that she watches. Her favorite show is Good Luck, Charlie, and she will just quote full conversations from the show. Or she'll just say, "Hit it, P.J." (a character from the show) It's funny, but kinda weird. Ha! Mark says it's like Mary Catherine Gallagher from Saturday Night Live. :)

The birthday card she made me

- One day, she started singing "Nationwide is on your side", just like in the commercial. I cracked up, so she did it about a bazillion more times. Now, if she does something that makes me laugh, she'll throw in a little "Nationwide is on your side", like it's icing on the cake. It's so funny how her little humor works.

- Right before Ruckus was born and we went to Nashville, I got a haircut. A terrible haircut. I was so upset about it, so of course, Kate was too. Except instead of being nice about it, she said, "I wish you could go get another haircut. We can't go to Nash-a-ville like this. I mean, we leave in two days and you look like a duck head."

- She knows the phrase OMG, but knows that she isn't allowed to say it. So, one day, it was a little crazy and she said, "This just makes me want to say OMG. When things are crazy like this, I just say OMG to myself in my head."

- She has this little framed picture of her cousin Maddie. In true dramatic Kate fashion, she held it to her heart and said, "I would never sell this to anyone. I have said many things to her in this picture." Ummm, I don't even know what that means. ha!

- Sometimes while she is at gymnastics, I will run an errand or two. I've always told her that I will be there when she gets out, but if for some reason, I'm not, just sit and wait or tell the person that works at the desk (it's the same person every week) that your mommy isn't here yet. (For the record, I'm ALWAYS back there on time.) So, I asked her one day before I dropped her off, "What would you do if you got out of class and I wasn't there?" She replied, "I would just sit there and panic."

- She HATES static!! It's the weirdest thing. She knows when her hair starts to get staticky (probably not a word, but I'm using it anyway), and she'll ask me, "Is my hair staticky?" and she'll be all nervous. I have to lie to her because she FREAKS out if it is. So strange.

- One night, we were talking about Poppy in Heaven. I think she may have gotten sad because she said, "Mommies aren't supposed to talk about that with four year olds. You gotta wait until they are 16. Wait, how old are you?" I told her 29, so she said, "Or 29."

- She'll ask me, "What do you want to talk about? It's your decision."

- One day, she just piped up, "You know where I want to go? California and Texas. And the best trip on land... Santa's Lights. And I want to go to Tennessee to see my boyfriend for sixty hundred days. And don't forget the awesome... Nanny's. So, five places." It's like she had been thinking of that for awhile, and it just flowed out of her mouth like it all made total sense.

- Sixty hundred is her favorite number. I hear it at least once a day. "What if sixty hundred people lived in our house?" "I'm going to color for sixty hundred hours."

- She was cooking with Daddy the other day and she told him, "Put in two tablesteps of water."