Catherine

Catherine loves to find tiny flowers and bring them to me as a gift. I love it, even if she might be raiding the neighbors' flower patches. 

Her newest talent is scaling the fridge door handles (note to self: get legitimate (non-iPad) picture of this skill). I blame Jon's genetics for that one. His siblings are part monkey.

I found her hiding one morning, holding some toilet paper in her hand. When I questioned what she was doing, she responded, "I don't want to tell you." Always a good sign.  Turns out she was trying to open something using a sharp, serrated knife and got that piece of skin between thumb and pointer finger instead. It was bad, but not stitch-worthy (I hope). 

Another day she asked for a washcloth to clean off the "yucky water" from her marker. It only took one sniff to clue me in: "yucky water" = cooking oil. She was floating her markers in the deep fryer (turned off and put away, but apparently not well enough away). Why? Why? Why? I find myself asking myself that pretty frequently with this girl.

Catherine loves the idea of candy more than she actually likes candy. I'll frequently find her throwing away something that she's only taken a single bite of. Or adding a mildly sucked-on lollipop to her collection of mildly sucked-on lollipops (which I eventually just toss):

She has loved my new-to-me iPhone. I don't have any games on it, but she doesn't care: it has a camera! After scrolling through my pictures I realized that probably 70% have been taken by Catherine, such as this gem (me, teaching singing time):

(I'm leading the music, not yelling, I swear)

I'm actually glad she snapped this one: it was one of my last (or THE last) singing times before they split our ward. We were bursting at the seams, but it still makes me sad to think about. I loved my huge Primary that had to meet in the gym! 

But more often than not, the pictures are of random things: Aaron's milk cup, Seth's elbow, the top of the table. Or selfies. Selfies, selfies, selfies: 

Totally cracking up here.

Last summer, Catherine started falling apart in nursery. She would cry and beg to leave. We never really figured out what was going on: the noise, maybe? Because Jon was out of town and I had to lead singing time, she ended up coming with me to Primary. I sent her in with the Sunbeams and she fell in love with her teacher, Stephanie. They are kindred spirits. She loved Sunbeams with Stephanie and would go without complaint.

But then Stephanie got released and we went to Arizona for a month, plus a trip to WV for Christmas. By the time we got back, it was time for her to legitimately head into Sunbeams (with a bit of a delay due to the ward splitting). 

I thought it would be easy since she had already been attending Sunbeams. 

Ha. Ha.

She spent her first singing time (yes, I'm still chorister) screaming on the floor in front of me. And it hasn't gotten much better in the weeks since. She doesn't like the noise and she doesn't like that I don't call on her every time. It's super fun.

My adorable, ridiculous Sunbeam

She still adores Seth and will almost always do whatever he asks. If you ask her what she wants to watch, she'll turn to Seth and ask him what HE wants to watch. I hope Seth is enjoying this while it lasts!

Aaron is a different story. She either LOVES him or can't stand him. She's either bringing him milk and blankets and telling him how cute he is or she's screaming at him and telling him to go away. And he thinks it's hilarious, so he pesters her even more. 

Generally speaking, Catherine doesn't play too much with her toys or dolls. Give her random, non-toy items, however, and she'll play happily for hours. Here she is putting her babies down for a nap:

She later asked to eat one.

Cannibalism?

She's also a ballet drop-out (like her mother before her). We gave it a good try, but she never really loved it. It's too scripted for her--she wants to do her own thing, not follow a teacher. We're putting her back in gymnastics next month. 

We sure love this little girl and all her interesting ways of seeing the world!