Sara the Catherine

(notice the Nutella on her face? Fairly standard)

What can I even say about this little girl? One of my friends recently called her a "free spirit." Perfect. 

I never know what I'm going to get out of my Catherine. Some mornings she comes down the stairs bursting with something to tell me. Some days she only grunts and refuses to make eye contact. Other days she'll come down fully dressed and announce that we are to address her as "Cinderella" today. 

(notice the Cinderella shirt?)

Here's Catherine at three-and-a-half (ish):

*thinks she's a Sunbeam. She apparently decided one week that she hated Nursery and simultaneously fell in love with Sister Williams, the Sunbeam teacher (kindred spirits, those two). Stephanie says Catherine is a joy to have in class and actually one of the best kids in there. Hope this bodes well for January!

*loves insects. All insects. Despite her decent allergy to mosquito bites, she still calls mosquitoes her "friends" (and all other bugs). But her true love is caterpillars. We are currently the happy owners of a large furry black caterpillar named Zombie (thank you, Seth), which she adores. In fact, she adores it so much that I'm not actually sure the poor thing is still alive.

*a tragic caterpillar story: during Seth's soccer practice this week, Catherine found a "boo-full" white furry caterpillar. Of course, she picked it up and proudly carried it over to me. But just a few minutes later she was crying, screaming, and trying to stop the itching on her hands. Turns out she'd picked up a Hickory Tussock caterpillar.  Poor thing ended up with blisters on her hands and a rash that spread over her entire body. No more white caterpillars for us!

*anything that happened before today happened "asterday."

I've decided her hair is actually a perfect metaphor for her personality:

beautiful, wild, and cannot be restrained (even with hairspray)

*while I'm not at all serious about her "school" right now, I am starting to work on numbers and letters. But Catherine doesn't make it easy. If she senses I might be trying to teach her something, she refuses to participate. I have to very sneaky in my approach. 

*she is a very independent and resourceful young lady. Interpretation: she is constantly getting herself into various messes. Whether it's covering herself in every BandAid we own or dumping out all my jewelry, I usually end up with several unexpected Catherine messes to clean up every day (usually occurring while I'm trying to teach Seth). 

*A Facebook post from a few months ago: "Don't mind me: I'm just running down the middle of the highway to retrieve two little pink shoes someone left on the hood of our van." The best part was when I climbed back in the van and gave her a serious lecture about never doing that again and how lucky she was that her shoes weren't ruined. She sweetly responded, "But you could just buy me new ones!"

*She LOVES shoes and is the proud owner of at least 15 pairs. But I don't really understand the desire since she proceeds to take them off about 30 seconds after we get in the van/to church/to the store. 

*She would live in her swimming suits if she could. If the swimming suits are unavailable, the preferred clothing is panties and panties alone:

Yes, this outfit was worn in public.

Several times, actually.

I pick my battles carefully with this girl.

*One evening while she was dancing around in her diaper (still in diapers at night), we heard a mysterious jingling noise. One to add to the "Things I Never Thought I'd Have to Say" list: "Your diaper is not a pocket." The coins were luckily retrieved before anything unfortunate happened.

*If you ever come to our house and see the sink full of seashells/rocks/worms, know that Catherine has been here:

Taken by Seth this summer:

Tut, tut! It looks like rain! 

(As I said earlier, "nothing but panties" is the preferred dress form most days):

Sundays, however, we wear Princess dresses.

We don't care if said dresses were supposed to be saved for Christmas.

Or if they're 1-2 sizes too big.

If they are sparkly, they are worn:

Notice the Cinderella hair?

And, most importantly, the shoes?

These shoes are worn EVERYWHERE.

Princess Sara Catherine Cinderella

Sweet Sara the Catherine, you are a true wonder. Love you.