What Would You Call It?

I miss having my sister and her family here.  Really I do.  But I'm not going to lie.  We were pretty excited to get our 4th bedroom back!

We have always struggled with what to call this room.  It normally houses all my sewing and crafting supplies, but to call it the craft room seems too greedy of me.  It's where guests usually sleep when they come to visit, but it's so much more than a guest room.  Sometimes M will go in there with his work laptop for some peace and quiet when he's working from home, but we already have another room that's officially the office (though we use it as a playroom).  I suppose a logical title might be the spare room, but that felt so stuffy somehow.

When we moved into our house, this 4th bedroom was painted a dark, DARK hunter green:

I didn't like it, but there was no rush to paint this extra room that was hardly ever seen.  We ended up calling it the "green room."  But then a few months later, we painted a green accent wall in Claire's room.  So to further clarify, this room became the "dark green room."  Cumbersome, I know, but it stuck.

However, when my sister and her family moved out of the room, it needed a little work.  And I wasn't about to re-paint it hunter green.  So it was finally time to paint that room.  We chose a nice light gray.  I LOVE it!  But the big problem was that calling it the "dark green room" just wasn't going to fly anymore.

M and I wracked our brains for what to call this room.  What was it?  It was the room that... became whatever we needed it to be.

That was it!  In celebration of our regained and freshly painted extra space I splurged and ordered some custom vinyl for the door so we could officially christen it for all to see:

 

I can't wait until our kids read the Harry Potter books and finally get our joke!

 

Girly? Yes, But Also She's a Firecracker

She brought both these items to us and demanded we help her put them on.  Then she wore them around for a long time!

But I'm sure she'd be disappointed to know that she's much too cute to be scary...

 

  

Fire Ants, How Do I Hate Thee?

Let me count the ways:

Never mind.
I lost count...

My Girly Girl

Kate is ALL girl.  Her favorite shoes right now are these babies:

Today, she insisted on wearing them to the park.  I tried to explain to her that heels just aren't a good choice for the playground.  But she didn't listen... just like a typical 21 month old, sheesh! She stumbled around the wood chips on the playground for a long time before she finally admitted defeat and insisted on going barefoot.

The other day she wore these all morning and then I forced her to let me take them off for her nap.  She went to sleep for about 2 hours and then I heard her just waking up, so I went in her room to get her.  When I got to her crib, she looked at me while still rubbing her bleary eyes and the first thing she said was, "Shoes?"  (And she meant these yellow heels, oh yes she did.  I tried playing dumb and offered her sandals.  She wanted NONE of that.)

I'm really not sure there's anything more comical than these little thunder thighs ending in those shoes.  I'm sad because her little chubby feet can BARELY squeeze into them anymore :(

And bows and clips?  She loves them!  Claire will refuse to leave the house rather than be caught dead wearing a ribbon in her hair.  But Kate requested this hairstyle awhile ago:

Claire and Scott have this set of magnetic pieces that build cars.  The wheel pieces have treads on them that they discovered can be removed.  Whenever Kate finds these removed car wheel treads, do you know what she does with them???

Wears them like bracelets.

For hours at a time!

She's not even 2 years old yet, but we've known all along that Kate is super girly.  Her first word was "shoes."  You wanna debate about "nature vs. nurture"?  Once you have 2 girls that you raised pretty darn near the same and one turns out like Claire and the other turns out like Kate, there is NO question.  They come with their own little personalities.  And the personality on this one is cracking me up!

You Learn Something New Every Day...

And Today It Was Two Things - Both of Which I Preferred Not Needing to Know

Today was one of THOSE days.  This afternoon as we were all getting ready to take Claire to soccer practice, I ran upstairs to put some laundry away.  Kate came upstairs with me and somehow located several Sharpies and had a little fun.

Bad News:  She did all this while sitting on my bed.
Good News:  The duvet we currently have on our bed is solid black, so we'll never even know if she got some on there. 
Bad News:  Her feet are STILL covered in black marks.
Good News:  Her legs were spared.
Bad News:  Her legs were spared because she was wearing leggings, which got Sharpie on them.
Good News:  The leggings were dark blue.
Bad News:  Not quite dark enough blue to disguise the black marks entirely.  And they were new.  This was only the 3rd time she had worn them.
Good News:  I learned today that, just as the internet suggested, isopropyl alcohol DOES remove fresh Sharpie from clothing.
Bad News:  It takes lots and lots of isopropyl alcohol and lots and lots of clean rags.  And I had a cut on my finger.
Good News: Thanks to the leggings being dark blue, I think I got enough of the Sharpie out that it isn't too noticeable.
Bad News:  While I was elbow deep in rubbing alcohol, Kate found a bottle of lotion that Claire had decided she no longer needed to keep in her backpack now that the dry winter air is gone.
Good News:  Kate didn't get lotion ALL over the house.
Bad News:  The cap WAS open and it was on her hands.  And a little on her dress.  And all around her mouth.
Good News: There was still lotion in the bottle, so she didn't drink all of it.
Bad News:  I don't know how much lotion was in the bottle to begin with.
Good News:  I now know how to call poison control. 
Bad News:  We were late to soccer practice. 
Good News:  It was "Mint Chocolate Chip" lotion, so Kate smells minty fresh now.
Bad News:  The diarrhea she might get from potentially ingesting lotion will probably be not so minty fresh.

Effect and Cause

Last weekend was general conference for our church.  Over the course of the weekend, we got to hear from the leaders of our church via internet broadcast in several 2 hour sessions. 

It's wonderful, but not always easy with the younger set.  Really, Claire and Scott did surprisingly well.  Kate did pretty well during the first session on Saturday morning, then she was asleep for the second session.  But by Sunday morning, I could tell she was wondering, "Why are were doing this again?!?!?"

After a while, a restless Kate started folding her arms and acting like we were going to have a prayer.  At first I thought she was misinterpreting the talk as a prayer.  I'm sure when you're in the middle of it, a prayer and a talk don't sound that different to a toddler.

Then I realized I wasn't giving her enough credit.  She was trying to end the meeting.

Normally at church we have a closing prayer, and then the meeting is over.  So if she could just get us to start praying, then this long boring meeting would be over, right???