This is for real

There's something about my brain that prevents me from getting too involved in the whole new baby thing until the last few weeks of my pregnancy. That's how I've been this time and I remember it being the same with Kate. We didn't get her room ready until about 6-months along, she didn't have a name until the last month or so, things like that. Don't get me wrong, we were thrilled to be having a baby, this time too, but it seems I couldn't fully engage in the whole thing until the end.

I knew at my last doctor's appointment when she said, "Well, you only have about 2 months left" that it would really hit me soon. And it finally has this week. We're starting to really discuss and narrow down name choices, I'm trying to decide how to finish the nursery, and I washed some new baby clothes (they're so small!). I keep telling myself that soon there will be another tiny person in our house that will completely change all of our lives forever. I'm finally beginning to imagine it.

Even better

Kate started saying "I love you" last week. I thought her "so much" version was pretty cute, but there's nothing better than hearing "I wuv you, Mommy" from my two-year-old. She's also started making up songs and singing them. They generally consist of only a few words sung over and over, but it's pretty cute. Yesterday she kept singing "Meigsy jumper" in this high pitched voice. She and I talked once about how Meigs is a jumper (she jumps on you when she wants something) and now she likes to tell me that. Here's a video of Kate's performance yesterday morning.



James and I sat down last night and took some video clips from the latest tape in the camcorder. Here's another clip of Kate playing catch with James. I love her form. I don't know why she holds her hands that way, but she always does.



I noticed that Kate is in her pajamas in both of these clips. She really does wear other clothes during the day, she's just a morning person and it seems like the best time to catch her at her best.

Making cookies

On Monday, Kate and I were hanging around the house and were both really bored by late morning, so I racked my brain to think of something fun to do. I came up with making cookies. Kate loves to help make things. I think her favorite part is cracking eggs. It's pretty funny - she taps the egg gently on the edge of the bowl, just as she should, then crushes it in her hand no matter how many times I try to coach her to pull it apart with two hands. Luckily her hand is small enough that only part of the shell crushes in and we don't get TOO many shell pieces in the egg. We always do this over a separate bowl. Anyway, it made for some cute pictures. The recipe we used was Nana's "James Cookies" recipe, which just uses a cake mix. Her 2-year-old attention span isn't nearly long enough for a real cookie recipe. Oh, and she really enjoyed licking the spoon.