And then she cried...

If the opportunity presents itself, I talk to Katie about loving Jesus and having him in our hearts and how he's always with us... (and how he can see EVERYTHING WE DO and how he knows EVERYTHING WE THINK, and how if there's mean and angry feelings in our hearts, there's NO ROOM FOR JESUS THERE.  Not to scare her or anything.  We might just happen to have these talks when she's in a mood and being... oh, a little mean and disrespectful though.)

Well, one day Katie told me she loves Jesus more than she loved me.  I suspect this was meant to be a mean thing (like when she told Grandma that Grandma was a flower... a flower wilted and stuck in dirt or something like that, after Grandma wouldn't give her a third popsicle).  And even if she meant it mean, it still gave me a good opportunity to tell her that she's supposed to love Jesus first and most, then her family and then other stuff.

This was a few days ago.

Fast forward to last night.  Katie is in bed singing to herself.  (My actual Facebook post was: Katie is in bed singing to herself. I can hear her sing "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus is alive"... Now she's humming and "bawking" like a chicken. And back to Jesus!) 

She had just picked out her clothes for Wednesday that she can wear to gymnastics (long shorts and a tank top because she gets sweaty, her words) and she had just given me orders not to forget to bring her "Katie" cup for gymnastics in case she gets thirsty. (I suspect it was the fact that the other kids had their own cups last week that makes remembering her cup super important.)

I thought the evening ended on a very high note.

I went to bed smiling about how cute she was. 

I went to bed cheering about how it was earlier than 12:00 a.m.

I had just gotten comfy and was finally relaxing feeling baby Jackson kick and push and jab... when I heard it.

Her saaaaaad voice.  The voice that gets weepier and weepier.  Until the soft weepy voice turns into a wail. 
She was talking to herself but she sounded like she was on the edge between weepy and wailing.  (Once she's at "wailing", we've got a crisis.  And I've got a headache.)

So I went to check on her before she passed the point of no return and as we cuddled I asked her what was wrong.

She said (in her weepy voice)...

"Mommy, you know how I'm sposed to love Jesus first, and then my family, and then my toys?"

I said yes.

"Well... Mommy... *sniff* I don't think I doooooo *sob sob*.  I think I love my toys moooore *sniff* than I love Jeeeeeesus*sob sob sob*. "

I hid my smile and tried not to let her feel my belly shake from my laughter as I gave her an extra long squeeze.

I told her Jesus understands how hard it is to be a kid because he was born as a baby and had to grow up just.like.her.  And Jesus knows how she feels, and what's in her heart, and that she loves him.  And because Jesus knows all of this, he also knows that she wants him in her heart because she loves him.  It might not have been the perfect answer but... 

She calmed down a little.

Then we snuggled till she fell asleep. 

Crisis averted.

At 12:00 a.m.

Life skill lesson for Katie at 5 years old. Too much too soon? Nah.

Katie didn't want the egg salad I made for dinner so she MADE her own peanut butter and jelly sandwich. All by herself. Basically I gave her a butter knife, peanut butter, jelly, and the loaf of bread. And she turned it into a sandwich... that she actually ate!

Then she counted all of the big girl stuff she did today.

1. Made her bed ON HER OWN
2. Cleaned up her toys ON HER OWN
3. Cut up eggs for our egg salad sandwiches (with one of those Pampered Chef egg cutty things)
4. Rinsed off dishes
5. Got her OWN bread for her sandwich
6. MADE her sandwich

She's super proud of herself!

Katie... This is your mother speaking. STOP growing up.

You know how one second you're changing diapers or looking for a little shoe or packing a diaper bag and the next you're not?

Well, that's what's happened with Katie.

She grew up on me. 

She turned 5, even after I told her not to.

She turned 5.

Not fair.

I revived from my faint just enough to go with her on her play date during her birthday week (which was a couple of weeks ago but for some reason I didn't hit the post button so I'm doing it now... just pretend you're reading this on or around April 9th!).

Jake, Grandma and Grandpa came with us and Katie played with Jake until Livvy (that's her friend) arrived and the girls played for a bit before stopping to eat.  Jake had a great time climbing to the top of the platforms and going across the wobbly tunnel.  He didn't get stuck and was totally unafraid, but any time Katie started to go down toward the entrance, she made sure he was okay and following her. 

When it was time, the girls got their shoes on and Grandpa brought Katie to her kids club.  I sent along a treat for her table (princess fruit snacks for the girls, toy story fruit snacks for the boys) and went with Grandma and Jake to order Katie's cake.  What theme, you ask?  Um, more princesses.

Then I ran to Aldi's for bread, remembered they had a good price on ham and picked that up too, saw some cookies, fruit snacks, fish fillets and added those to my cart.  I went in for bread.  How does it happen that I leave with more than I planned on?   I expect it at Target, but Aldi?  My first mistake was getting a cart in the first place!

Tonight (not really... this was actually Katie's actual birthday day) we went to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa for Katie's birthday dinner.  Last year it was Red Lobster, this year it was OCB.  Luckily, Grandma and Grandpa reminded Katie that OCB has her icee drink and she gets an ice cream cone after dinner.  It was way cheaper than Red Lobster and everyone gets what they want!  Jake included.  A buckets worth of mac and cheese?  Check.  A handfull of corn?  Check.  A few cups of fruit?  Check.  It was way better than buying him a kids meal and him not eating any of it.

Katie enjoyed her dinner too.  She also enjoyed eating a lemon slice.  Maybe she takes after me... I loooove lemon slices.  My mouth is actually watering right now as I type this!
Katie brought Jake a gift so he could open something and not feel sad.  How precious is that?  She wrapped one of their toys in one of baby dolls shirts and made (yes, MADE) him a card!  He looked at the card but was distracted once she opened her gift and he saw the TOY STORY picture on the box.

Grandma and Grandpa gave her the Ken doll from Toy Story.  Her princess dolls now have someone to go on dates with.  Which is what they were doing for about 30 minutes this evening.  Oh, change that... Ken was waiting to go on a date... the princesses were keeping him waiting.  Katie said he was waiting for 6 weeks.  Poor Ken.  And all this after he was rude (not sure how but it must have been pretty bad) and the princesses were planning to run train tracks over him.  I don't know if they set him free before the train arrived, or after.

Her party is on Sunday and she's really excited.  Grandpa and her have been working on a pink unicorn pinata for the party and just tonight got the unicorn horn in and filled it with candy.  This is like a work of art.  I almost don't want to see it destroyed, it's so cute!  I'll post pics once I have a chance.  It's seriously cute.  Grandpa crafted the horn and it's not just a tube with a point... he made a spiral around it.  The unicorn fur (not sure if unicorns have fur or what but you know, the stuff that covers the bod) is pink and grandpa put rows of the pink strips on it that he painstakingly cut into fringes so it looked like fur.  There's a string mane and tail. 

Seriously, I do not want to break this open it's so cute.  But Katie has no qualms.  It sounds like she wants to use her princess bat for the breaking.  Princess theme rears it's pink, sparkly head.

Finally got the birth certificate papers in the mail.  Woo hoo for me!
I didn't hear the kids argue once today.  (Maybe that's because they were either playing downstairs with their favorite people or eating and separated by a table.  Who knows.)

Katie just came in and asked, "Mom?  What are you doing without me?"  Another golden phrase?  "Mom, are you thinkin what I'm thinking?" 

She cracks me up.  Love this kid...

My 5 year old.