Kateisms - Week of July 20

Our happy little Kate has returned this week. Don't get me wrong, she's usually very happy; however, this week, she's back to smiling and hamming it up with every Tom, Dick and Harriet (though, she tends to prefer men...she's a big flirt!). In addition to being ever so smiley, she also is...

A Lover, Not a Fighter: She likes to run up and hug daddy and me. She started hugging more than a month ago, but now her hugs are full of so much intention I had to make note of it. She also will give kisses to us when we request them, but

beware...they are sometimes open-mouthed and wet!

A Dancing Queen: It's rarely quiet in the Macfarlane house these days. Kate loves to have music playing all the time. If music isn't playing, she'll ask me to turn on Mickey or Baby Signing Time, so it's my strategy for limiting TV. As soon as the music is on, Kate jumps**, spins and grooves out. She's not quite keeping the beat, yet, but this week I taught her some knee slapping to go along with all the clapping, "jumping" and spinning. Her favorite toon is still "Hot Dog!" from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, but she also digs "Your Library" which is basically Jacques Offenbach's "Can Can" from "Orpheus in the Underworld."

Pretty Clumsy: What baby isn't, really? But, since she ungracefully fell while trying to climb off of a large slide at a bounce house place called "Bounce U" on Friday, I thought I'd include this. She actually falls with some style, but fall she does many, many times a day. Her legs are usually full of bruises or scratches, but this week, it's her nose. Rug burn...owie!

**For those of you who may have forgotten or don't yet have babies, they don't actually start jumping until close to their second birthdays. However, Kate bends her knees and tries to jump...usually lifting one foot and then the other in a skip-like fashion.