Catespeak, verson 1.0

Cate's always been good with words. She likes to talk, and she was very verbal early on. As a three year old, there's not much that she can't communicate to us now. In fact, she has taken up word/phrase creation:

jewelrious - (pronounced ju-ree-us). adjective. 1. In possession of and/or wearing a large quantity of jewelry. Example: "Mama, look at all my rings. I'm jewelrious."

Cate uttered this as we raced to church a couple of Sundays ago. She had a ring for each finger. We were so impressed with her new word that we let her wear 4 of the rings in.

She's aso been singing this song recently that she picked up from somewhere. I don't even really know the tune, but according to Cate, the words are as follows:

1,2 I Love You.
3,4 Let's Count Some More
5, 6, Tap Your Bix
7,8 The Numbers are Mixed
9, 10 The Numers are BIN!
Let's DO IT ALL AGAIN,
1, 2, etc.

Obviously, the phrase "tap your bix" takes you by surprise. Not only do we not know what a "bix" is, we don't know why it needs tapping. We also have absolutely no idea what the words are supposed to be, and we have analyzed this exhaustively. We feel good about everything through 4. After that, it goes haywire, and there aren't even enough clues to make an educated guess. What does one tap that rhymes with six? And even though "The Numbers are Mixed" makes grammatical sense, shouldn't that line rhyme with eight? And really, the number's aren't mixed. That's not to mention "the numbers are bin." I have no idea. It's hopeless. However, "tap your bix" like "jewelrious" has been added to the Babb Lexicon:

bix - (pronounced bihks) noun. 1. Something that needs tapping.

-Joe

Our Ballerina

Cate asked to "do that dancing in a tu-tu" many times last year when she'd see other little girls getting ready to go from the sitter's. Last night she cried real tears and said she didn't want to go. She didn't like ballet. Today she went in quite hesitantly and very skeptically. I was sitting outside the door when she came out. She saw me and a big smile appeared, "Mama, I DID like dancin'. When can we come back? Can I wear my suit until bathtime? Did you see me? I was a butterfly..." And she chattered non-stop the rest of the way home.

Cate's first day of Dance.

Showing a few of her moves.

Ava listening to Cate talk.
We had to make a couple of stops on the way home. I didn't hear a peep out of Ava after she got this sucker.

Sunday Morning Breakfast

I don't know what this says about our parenting or how such things will affect our family in the long run. We really do sit down and eat breakfast together on the weekends a lot of the time, but this Sunday morning I walked into the living room to find Cate eating breakfast from a box, quite literally (and she was eating Fruit Loops too). Ava had culled everything Joe had tried to get her to eat and was devouring Oreos. Joe said he looked at her and said, "Ava, when Cate was your age, she would have NEVER gotten to eat Cakesters for breakfast." I said, "What did Ava do?"
"She laughed."

Yard Day

A very busy Saturday at the Babb house:




A big thanks to Max for letting us borrow his 4 wheeler and trailor.
One of the 15 ant beds I poisoned. They are everywhere. Ava and I both got bitten today.

What a nice, clean, poison ivy free fence line. Ava has also gotten into poison ivy while playing on the swing set, so we're glad to have that cleaned up.





This is what my Mama did all day. Just kidding, Nana. Mama had actually stayed up very late the night before cooking so she could provide meals for the day and then she wrangled the girls all day while we worked outside. This was especially challenging because Ava wasn't feeling 100% (recovering from croup preceded this month by 2 rounds of strep and a UTI) and whined and wanted to be held a large part of the day. I must also mention that the little heifer weighs 30 lbs.

The end to an eventful day.
Climbing upstairs to read before bed.

#2 little monkeys...



Please note Ava is wearing her beloved Dora socks.


Thank you to my parents for all of the help today!!!

Rub a Dub Dub. Sweet Ava in the Tub.

Ava and I stayed home from church Wednesday night due to Ava's croup. It's rare that she gets a bath without Cate and she had a ball playing in the bubbles.

First day of Playschool

Cate was so excited about going back to Playschool this year. She is going 2 1/2 days and Ava is going 2 days. Cate looked so big marching up the steps to the building with her little pack on her back and nap mat in hand (both were pink and blue of course- her favorite colors). My big three year old. Now for Ava. Ava was a little irritable that morning, as she can be many mornings. After I had gotten her completely dressed, sandals and all, she spotted her Dora socks on Cate's baby doll, Christy. She promptly snatched them off and started her meow-whine for me to put them on her feet. I don't know how this is going to affect the girls long term, but when Joe and I are faced with a pending fit from one of the girls, instead of making them mind or do the sensible thing, we stop and decide, "Is it really worth the fit?" It was 10 minutes until time to leave and I wanted to take first day of school pictures, so it was not worth the fit to me. Since I couldn't put the socks on with the sandals, I quickly stuck them on Ava's hands thinking surely she wouldn't like that, pull them off, and be satisfied. Oh, no. Not Ava. She thought it was hilarious to have those socks on her hand and would not let me remove them. I got them off for a second during our photo session, but the crocodile tears began welling up in the corners of her eyes, so I immediately returned them (pic where she is holding them in her hand). I left her with Ms. Leigh and Ms. Tina at school, with the Dora socks on her hands.

Cate is holding her favorite toy right now: "Soft bunny with the clothes on" --That is her name.
Cate was trying to be sweet. Ava was trying to catch the end of Dora on TV.
These 2 pictures of Cate are from a Sunday morning. I was trying to get a few pictures. Cate was more interested in the blue flowers she discovered. I couldn't get her to understand that all flowers aren't like dandelions.

Miss Hollywood.

CAT

We've been "reading" an animal picture book with Ava. One page has an elephant, the next a bird, and so on. We point to an animal and try to get Ava to tell us what it is. She can say a couple of them. She says bird and she says dog very plainly. Personally, I think cat should be an easy one, but we would get to the cat page, point, and nothing. Then we started saying, "Cat. Ava, say cat." Nothing. Now the dog page is just before the cat page and the other day Joe pointed and Ava said, "Dog" (on the dog page). He then turned to the cat page, pointed, and Ava said, "Not a dog" and fell out laughing.
She's figured out we think it's funny, so now everytime we say, "Ava, say CAT," she grins slyly, says, "Not a dog," and just laughs. What a monkey.

On a separate note, Joe's brainwashing continues. Not only does Cate think that most football teams on TV, as long as they are wearing anything in the maroon, red, or white family, is MSU, he has taught Ava to say "football". Mind you, she can't even say her own name.