I Believe Phil

The “seer of seers, prognosticator of prognosticators” has predicted an early Spring. Much to my dismay we had to scrap our plans to drive to Punxsutawney to see our famous neighbor because of ice storms and snow. Nonetheless, we are firm believers in his prediction, if for no other reason than we are ready to see the sun. Jane resorted to riding her scooter around in our dungeon of all places, and I find that we all crowd together into the little patch of sunshine anytime it comes through the kitchen window just to feel a little warmth. We still haven’t braved the elements to start running, but the urge is getting stronger every day.

Josh finally caught up to me in wisdom and maturity this week, oh....wait a second, I guess it was just AGE. We celebrated his birthday this Friday by going about our usual routine with him in tow. He got to see Kate at gymnastics, run some errands in the suburbs, and hang out with the girls. We had big plans but the girls have been sick and we ended up having to downsize our adventures for a pretty low key afternoon. We topped off the day with a game night with some friends and a citrus pound cake. Maybe not the most exciting birthday ever, but we love our Daddy just the same.

Last night we invited the Wharton LDSSA crowd over for an appetizer extravaganza. Our house was bursting at the seams. No one was in a hurry to leave and we had a great time talking the night away. While the adults were downstairs socializing, the gaggle of girls was upstairs deep in an imaginary game. They were up there for more than four hours but when I went to clean up I was amazed at how few toys were out. Three cheers for active imaginations!

Jane is still loving her polly pockets. She plays with them right when she wakes up in the morning, right after breakfast, right before lunch, right after lunch, right after her nap, right before dinner, right after dinner, and right before bed. She will occasionally take a break to play an “amazing game” with Kate, dress up as a princess, read a story, watch Spirit, or help cook and then it is back to polly pockets again. She got an ear infection this week. It was pretty nice to have a two-year-old that can tell you why she is crying, which ear is hurting, and what it feels like as you try to soothe her in the middle of the night. The pediatrician was pretty amazed by her speech when we went in the next day.

Kate is as eager to learn as ever. She reads books every day, loves to practice numbers with her Dad, and is trying to master writing the little letters. She learned about authors and illustrators this week in our preschool and then wrote and illustrated her own book about...Indians, of course. She is “Kate the Indian” about 90% of the time and prefers to be addressed as such. She says, “Mom, this is how Indians ___.” You name it: run, swim, sing, wash hands, dance, eat, color, etc. She does it all like an Indian and teaches me the proper technique. Until a week ago, every time she was “Kate the Indian” she used to put on a gold cape from the dress-ups backward with nothing but her unders in the back and play her games for hours on end. Since it looked a little drafty to me, I made her an Indian dress. She wears it every day. I remember wanting to be an Indian when I was little, so I love to see her playing her “amazing Indian game.”

There are certain words we have adopted into our family lexicon that I want to record before Kate learns to read them and write them and pronounce them the correct way. It’s funny how there are certain things you are loathe to correct in your children.

closh woth - wash cloth

wirld - world, as in “what in the wirld?”

gwabage - garbage

blessed - sneezed, as in “I just blessed three times!”

E - Kate writes her E with as many horizontal lines as she can fit.