Ran-dom!

Holy Sha-moley am I overdue for a brain dump or WHAT?! I don't feel like filling in on all the reasons why I've been absent from the big bad world of blogging, so just forgive me and move on, ok? Here's a whole buncha random crap that been in my mind / our lives lately.

Kitty-Kat-isms:
Hairplane (too cute to correct)
One, three, four, six, fuh-nun, eight (once again.....)
Sit on the fosa ('sofa')
Two-comer ('cucumber')
Bran cakes ('bran flakes' ---- but her version sounds much more appetizing)
Mee-tat ('meow cat')
Tilly Tat ('kitty kat' ---- if we ever have a cat, it will be named Tilly)

Mama (three cups in front of her): Kitty Kat, how many cups are here?
Kitty Kat (as serious as a heart attack, and pointing to each cup in turn): One, one, one.

* Mr T LOVES karate but hates school. He's given up the football (soccer) of last year and chosen karate instead and is THRILLED by it. I never saw him as jubilant before/after football as he is with karate, and this sport just seems to suit his body so much better. Watching him in karate, he looks far more 'in his element' than he ever did at football, so we're over the moon that he's found this. But the school thing is another story. He came out of bed a few nights ago absolutely sobbing about 'How am I ever going to make it through this year?!' It was heart-breaking. We had a really good conversation about it, where I supported him but didn't give any promises of fixing things for him, and he walked away from it saying he needed to figure out exactly what was wrong so that he could find ways to make it better. I was so proud! I think it's just a new year and more difficult academic-wise, which for an over-achiever who's never had to try in school, it absolutely terrifying to suddenly have to work to understand things. We'll see how his feelings develop over the coming weeks. Fingers crossed.

* The kids stay up late making noises in bed, but I (almost) never tell them to stop because it's just so wonderful to let them develop a close relationship. Of course, that can also end in tears (mostly from Mr T) when one prevents the over-tired other from sleeping, but when they giggle so hard they almost can't breathe, I just don't have the heart to put a stop to it. There will be more than enough negativity towards each other in the future, I'll take every moment of joy they have together now, and to sleep can wait.

The one night I tried to let them camp out together on the floor. Although Mr T literally got teary-eyed with happiness and said it was the best thing that had ever happened to him, the smiles and excitement VERY QUICKLY turned to tears and tantrums as Kitty Kat proceeded to squirm, scream, kick, roll, bounce, pounce, and jump on top of her brother. She was having a grand ol' time, he was praying for a quick death to end his suffering. Little Madame got imprisoned back in her bed shortly after this was taken, totally baffled as to what crime she had committed.

So. Damn. CUTE sometimes!

* Kitty Kat is sooo independent when it comes to school, she barely deems we worthy of a dismissive wave and a 'Bye, Mom' once we walk in the door. Seriously, she's two and already too cool for a hug and kiss. And since when am I 'Mom' to her?!

* Speaking of in dependent, this high maintenance little madame......If she wants to do something herself, she has to be allowed to do it herself from the very beginning. She'll delay and fight about going upstairs for a nap, and I have to say 'Last chance. You walk up the stairs, or Mommy will carry you.' So she doesn't move, and I pick her up and start walking, which cues the screaming of 'Kitty Kat walk! Kitty Kat walk!' so I put her down on stair number five but OH NO. We have to go all the way back to the bottom to start over. And yes, I know, I'm the parent and I should put my foot down and make her go from stair #5. But honestly, we have a hardwood, open-tread, spiral staircase, and I could really do without a trip to the ER on top of independence issues.

* She continues to have HUGE issues with her eating, to the point I'm meeting with the doctor later this week to talk about the starting points of teenage eating disorders. Sounds dramatic, I know, but her thing is all about control, and we know that most eating disorders are NOT about wanting to look like the models in the magazines, but about some traumatic experience in which the child did not have control and trying to compensate for control in areas they can. It started as a baby when she was very first learning how to feed herself. If she was holding a spoon upside down and getting really frustrated at not getting in any food, we'd reach over and turn the spoon right side up so she could continue eating. Logical, right? Wouldn't every parent do that? Yeah, well, big mistake with her. The moment we touched the spoon, she got so angry, she'd throw it and refuse to eat a single bite more. Even if it was a meal she loved, even if she'd originally had the intention to eat it, if we so much as breathed in her direction, that was the end of the story and there was NOTHING that could be done to convince her to eat any more. When she turned one and we got rid of bottles, she went more than a month refusing to drink milk because she only wanted it in bottles. And I'm not kidding, we tried EVERYTHING anyone could think of. Six months ago when we decided she was going to eat what she was given or not eat at all, she went a total of 8 days out of 17 without a single bite of food whatsoever. And it's not a texture or flavor or anything she doesn't like, because she won't even so much as touch the food or put it to her lips to try. Oh, but she'll insist on it being on her plate. Seriously, she's hurting my brain on this one. We are NOT the giving-in kind of parents when it comes to....well.....pretty much ANYTHING, but this little darling has us by the proverbials on this one.

She does like yogurt, though

Cutey little minx

And bananas. Or as Kitty Kat calls them, 'Lellow Balanana'

* Kitty Kat is going to need her first haircut soon, and I hate the idea of losing her curls forever. When I told Mr T about that, he burst out into uncontrollable sobs because he's so in love with her curls, it devastates him to think about her not having them anymore. Me too, Mr T!

When Kitty Kat is left alone for a while, I regularly ask her 'What are you doing?' to keep some sort of eye on her. Sometimes she replies 'Books!' or 'Cars!' or 'Castle!' Other times, she replies 'Sorry, Mama.' That's when I know she's been alone too long.

But wouldn't you just DIE for curls like these?!

* We're gearing up for another great Halloween, bloodier and gorier than ever. Mr T has well and truly moved on from the cutesy Halloween stuff, and is all about the blood and gore. Poor Kitty Kat, she doesn't stand a chance at ever having an 'innocent' Halloween experience.....but she'll be one tough chick! These are a few pictures of my (very hasty) practice attempts at this year's face-painting)

Death Eater from Harry Potter. Not great, I know, but wait 'til you see the whole package

Three guesses as to what Kitty Kat's going to be...if she'll hold still long enough!

* It is just me, or is the trend for 7-year-olds to give gift cards as birthday presents a little disturbing in it's earliness?

* Mr T is really into watching the news, both Dutch and English. We love the fact he can watch kids' versions....do those exist in the States? (Nick News, maybe?) Both national stations in the UK and Holland have shortened children's versions of news programs, and Mr T watches both every day. They have exactly the same news stories as the grown-up broadcasts (the riots in Greece, the skydiver breaking world records, the 14-year-old girl in Pakistan who was shot by the Taliban, the rise in food prices due to bad weather over the summer, earlier education on various sexual orientations to prevent bullying, etc) but presented in ways children understand. He's so proud of himself for being able to understand what Mommy and Daddy watch, and actually gets excited at the idea of watching news. I don't know how long this will last, but I'm loving it while it does!

* Our Christmas plans aren't turning out the way we'd hoped, and it may end up we're by ourselves for the first time ever. This thought is just almost enough to put me in a straight-jacket (mostly because it just seems so fundamentally WRONG to me for children to only be with their parents, like it was any other day of the week), but I approached the subject with Mr T, and I could have sainted him for his reply. When I made it clear that we may have Christmas without any other family around, he said 'Yeah, that's ok. It's no problem. We'll just have to make our own fun then.' How wise is my little man?! If we weren't riding bikes on a busy-ish street at the time, I would have bear-hugged him into oblivion there and then.

* I bought a new winter coat for Kitty Kat, only to remember after the fact that a girlfriend had given me a bunch of clothes from her daughter, ages ago, and they were all sitting up in the attic. Imagine my delight at discovering a nearly complete winter wardrobe in Kitty Kat's newest size, including an all-singing all-dancing winter coat! I just love surprises like that!

These are just random pictures that have nothing to do with anything, but I had them lying around and so I'm passing them off into the blogosphere.

Kitty Kat fits in a grocery bag

She also puts stickers on her head.....naturally

Mr T felt sick one day, and wanted nothing more than to watch movies and have a 'puke bucket' nearby. How the flip he successfully managed to combine the two, I still don't understand. (he never did actually get sick, thank goodness)

 That's it for now. I plan to be much more organized and consistent about blogging from here on. Just kind of got into a funk and thought lots of great thoughts, but never got around to doing anything about them. I'll try to be better!