Kateri's Birthday (it happened on time!)

While mom's away

Socks of mud. Gloves of mud. We played in the pit that will soon become our lagoon. It's got about a 12-inch mixture of water and silty mud at the bottom right now after we pumped another couple of feet of water out. Was quite the messy fun this. Amazing how transformative a coating can be. As Isaiah pulled his coated hands and forearms from the muck, they had a sheen that looked like super hero gloves and dripped in such a way that you could easily imagine super powers attached to them. Then there was this exchange:

Isaiah: Bernadette, let's fight.
Bernadette: I don't want to fight. I just want to put my mud gloves on.
Isaiah moments later a he plants his fists in the softened bank: Daddy, I'm boxing the mud.

Notes

I ask Bernadette if she's going to tell me a bedtime story. "OK, but it's scary," she says. One of the characters was named Foo Foo Fluff. A side note about the young storyteller: Sometimes she lapses into song or makes noises where you'd thing she was going to use words. There's a bit of nonsense, but I love it.

The young Mara:
Likes: mama, nursing, sleeping, snuggling, any combination of the above, Isaiah's singing in the car.
Dislikes: silverware clattering on plates, diaper changes, kittens (competition for food; just kidding; who hates kittens?).

Thinking about going rodeoing. Just got pajamas on an uncooperative 2-year-old.

Some discussion of the blood mobile today as Grandma was making brownies for the people who donated. Isaiah's theory was that the blood is squeezed from dead enemies, while Bernadette was concerned about spurting when the needles are removed and whether the people who give die.

Isaiah's prediction after the first soccer practice: By the timetbe game is over, the whole team will be on the bench.
Me: Why.
Isaiah: Too many penalties.

Isaiah: Did you know nature is a hotel?
Us, puzzled: What?
Isaiah: Well, from the perspective of animals.

Who's happy here?

The model and the milliner

Bernadette created a hat for Kateri using two hair bows and a coaster.

Rainy day

You've been turned into a toad

Thank Pete and Magda for your new hopping legs and bumpy skin. They outfitted the girl.

While Marian and Mara rest

Sisters

Elton John day

art, not artifice

Kateri coloring: remove all the crayons from the box and redistribute across the floor.
Kateri painting: mash brush into watercolors; mash brush onto paper. This is no delicate flower.

Stragglers

As with every fellowship, this one, too, must disperse.

Taking out the mail

Birthday girl

Quite pleased

Breakfast!

Kateri Reads: The Musical

Kateri reads

Anonymous?

Sunday stroll