Nostalgic Katie

I must be in a reminiscing place because my last post was about stories of Annie when she was little and then this week I found a list of "Katie Sayings" that I think were things Katie said when she was about 3 or 4 years old.  I'm sure I wrote them down at one time with the intention of blogging about them, then they got lost in all my "piles."  I am constantly setting the goal of reducing the "piles" of stuff I have and maybe I am making a little bit of progress on that front because I found this list and I plan to throw away this piece of paper after I blog about the cute things Katie said 3 years ago!
So here they are:
"Turn on the cold heat." 
This is what Katie would say when she wanted you to turn on the air conditioning.
"I need some lily pads." 
Lily pads=knee pads in Katie language
"Can you come tell on them?" 
This is what Katie would say when she was actually telling on someone else.  I think it meant more of a "Can you come tell them to stop?" but somehow the whole tattling concept was a bit mixed up in her mind!
"Ice is good for you.  It makes your heart come true." 
I don't know if the passage of time has dimmed the meaning of this for me or if I never really knew what she meant when she said it originally, but at the time I guess I thought it was cute enough to write down.
And now to keep from finding another piece of paper in four years with random stories written on it, here are some cute things my other kids have said recently.
Suzie has this pair of high heeled shoes that a cute neighbor girl gave her a few months ago.  They have blue liquid that looks like water in the heel along with a few plastic fish.  So obviously any 5 year old girl would be drawn to them.  The problem is, like any high-heeled shoe, they are extremely uncomfortable.  But Suzie is learning early the decision that most women have to eventually face- Do I look cute with my fish high heel shoes and be in pain while I look so cute? or Do I let vanity go down the drain in exchange for comfort?  Well Suzie constantly tries to choose the former but after a few minutes of wearing her fish shoes, I trip over the remnants of the latter decision.  But recently she chose to wear her fish shoes again and as she was putting them on she said to me, "Mom I am wearing my fishie shoes because they don't complicate me anymore."  Not really sure what she meant by "complicate me"  I asked, "What do you mean?"  She said, "They don't complicate me anymore.  You know, when I put them on I don't want to take them off right away anymore."  I can see how if when you put your shoes on and then you immediately want to take them off it would definitely complicate your life!
Finn has a queen size bed.  It use to be Eric and I's bed until we got a new one when we remodeled our house.  But now Finn thoroughly enjoys his spacious sleeping quarters.  And unfortunately for him, sometimes his sisters like to share those spacious sleeping quarters too.  He is constantly kicking them out of his bed.  The other morning I went to wake him up and the lure of the bed called to me so I decided to crawl into bed next to him and tried to snuggle with him- I realize this is any 13 year old boy's nightmare- having his mother try to snuggle with him- but Finn is pretty tolerant of me.  But after a minute or two I smelled something stinky.  I asked him if he farted and he replied, "Yes, it is my defense mechanism whenever someone tries to get in my bed with me."  I guess all those hours of watching Discovery channel have taught him something!

Retro Annie

Last week was Annie's 11th birthday.  I alternate between friend parties and a family activity every other year.  This year was a family activity year and what that was originally suppose to mean is that we do something as a family for the birthday.  But what it has morphed into is each kid doing something with their same-aged cousins and somehow they talk me into inviting an extra friend or two.  This year Annie wanted to go to City Creek and walk around and have lunch at Blue Lemon downtown.  She invited her cousins- Tailyn and Grace, but Grace was out of town so she invited an extra friend.  So Annie, Tailyn, Maci and Hannah went downtown last Friday for a girls' afternoon of shopping and lunch. 

It really was fun and probably the most I have enjoyed myself at any of my kids' birthday events.  Which got me thinking about how Annie is growing up and becoming quite the young lady.  For anyone who knew Annie as a toddler and little girl, you know she was a hand full!  She was constantly going and I have many funny stories about her earlier antics.  For example once during sacrament meeting she chucked her shoes at a man's head.  Luckily he was watching her and was able to dodge the flying Mary Janes coming at his head. I even had someone ask me when she was little if she had ADHD!   But it is fun as a mother to watch her grow up and see how she channels all that frenetic energy into good, productive things like piano, school, softball or her newly emerging "Sweet as Cherry Pie" babysitting service.  Yet in all this reminiscing I decided I needed to get some of those early"Annie stories" recorded.  So for your reading pleasure, here are 3 authentic "Annie stories"!

One, Two, Twenty
When Annie was about 4 years old we were at a family reunion.  They had this huge balloon launcher that the kids loved.  There was a bucket of water balloons for the kids to grab from but the lady in charge told the kids they could only take one at a time.  Annie was so excited by the balloon launcher and could barely contain herself as she was reaching to get a water balloon. I kept telling her she could only get one as she kept trying to stuff her arms full.  She also kept trying to bargain with me to get more.  She would say, "I want one."  Then it would be, "I want two."  Then she finally yelled out her unbridled 4 year old request while shaking her hands in the air, "I WANT TWENTY!"  She just couldn't contain herself any longer.  So now when my family is trying to show some restraint -like around a yummy dessert- but we just can't do it anymore we yell out, "I want one, I want two, I WANT TWENTY!"

Lick It
Again when Annie was about 4, she was playing outside with her at the time BFF- Lauren.  They were playing in the dirt making mud.  She came in all muddy and after I cleaned her up, I told her "No more playing the mud." because I didn't want to clean her up again.  She went out to play with Lauren again and when I went out to check on her she was again covered in mud up to her elbows.  I went up to her and asked her what was on her hands.  She looked down at them innocently and said, "chocolate" without missing a beat.  I said, "Really- that's chocolate?"  And she just nodded confidently.  So I said, "If that's chocolate on your hands, lick your fingers."  She hesitated for a moment then gingerly brought her finger up to her mouth and licked the tiniest bit of mud off her fingertip.  I said, "Is it good?"  She again nodded her head, but not so confidently.  I proceeded to take her inside and tell her that I knew it was mud and that she should never lie to her mother because I will always know when she's lying!

Shaky Inside
When Annie was 7 I was making French Dip sandwiches that called for beer.  Since we don't drink alcohol, I was a little nervous using this ingredient.  So I researched it on the internet and found out that when you cook something with alcohol for over 2 hours then all the alcohol cooks out and you are just left with the taste.  Well the facts that the meat cooks in the beer for over 3 hours and everything on the internet you read is true assured me that we would be just fine, so I went ahead and bought the beer.  I put it in my downstairs fridge so I didn't have to answer a lot of questions from enquiring minds.  But then I forgot this and sent Finn downstairs to get a gallon of milk from the same fridge I had put the beer.  Finn came upstairs with the milk and a worried look on his face. "How come we had beer in our fridge?"  Eric quickly and jokingly replied. "Because Mom drinks beer now."  I immediately interjected, "No, I don't!" and proceeded to tell them about how all the alcohol cooks out after 2 hours and you are just left with the taste- as if they understood and couldn't totally see through all my justification!  Eric could apparently see right through me because when I was done with my little explanation he said, "And mom likes the taste of beer."  At this point Annie pipes in with a "And I do too!"  Taken aback I asked, "Annie!  Have you tried beer?"  Annie said, "No, but I want to."  Then she says aside to Finn, "It makes you all shaky inside!"  Needless to say I haven't cooked with beer since!