This is NOT normal....

Kaia is a whimsical girl. Kaia is a very, very funny girl. She has many good adult qualities, but very few good kid qualities--before you freak on me, let me explain. Kaia has a lot of qualities right now that will be great strengths as an adult. These qualities conflict with what I consider a well-behaved child: submissive, easy to please, doesn't stubbornly oppose ideas for play time, takes naps without questioning, etc, etc. Oh, Kaia. She's my Sugarbee--Sweet as honey, busy as a bee, and on occasion, she'll sting ya.

Kaia has grown quite a lot this past month. She is in primary now, so she is a BIG GIRL. She is also able to, more often than not, keep a pair of training pants dry while on an errand/outing with Mom. Kaia also can put on her boots, her coat, her socks, and dress herself (some interesting outfits so far...hail, Rainbow Bright). Kaia switches the laundry by herself, can start the dishwasher by herself, and loves to help me stir all of the ingredients together when I'm cooking dinner.

Kaia, in all her glory, has decided that she has real parents and pretend parents. Her pretend parents are called "Cowboy Mom" and "Cowboy Dad". Imaginary friends, I get. Pretend parents, I do not. Here is my confession, this is exactly why this is NOT normal...I often get jealous of "Cowboy Mom". "Cowboy Mom" is so much cooler than me and I often catch myself feeling offended inside, something along the lines of "I clean up your poop, vomit, earwax, potty training accidents. How cool is that? I feed you every 3 hours...that is pretty awesome! I take time to teach you how to wind a ball of yarn. Stellar!" But in all seriousness, I can't but help wish I was "Cowboy Mom". "Cowboy Mom" plays with Kaia, does the laundry all by herself, and then goes to preschool. "Cowboy Mom" watches 'Angelina Ballerina' all day long. Notice she doesn't necessarily do all of these things WITH Kaia, because for the most part, "Cowboy Mom" is usually doing something AWESOME in the other room while I am trying to spend time with Kaia/parent Kaia/take care of Kaia/teach Kaia. It's unraveling, I tell you. I keep my cool. I don't let it show. But that doesn't mean that if I had the chance to meet said "Cowboy Mom", I would have words for this harpy and I wouldn't mince 'em a bit. I'm not sure how Steven feels on the subject...my only indicator of his disapproval is that he has banished "Cowboy Mom" and "Cowboy Dad" from the dinner conversation POST HASTE. I'm totally waiting for them to leave. They're like awful, invisible house guests that mess with your self esteem and make you look foolish no matter which way you try to manage it.

Kaia has been singing "I Am a Child of God" this week as well. But she sings her own lyrics when she can't remember the real ones. Which pays so much homage to me, since I do this on a pretty consistent basis, which drives Steven absolutely, positively INSANE (I named him the "Lyric Nazi" because he can't just LET IT GO...he has to correct you or his eyes will explode). But what's REALLY hilarious is when Kaia corrects herself after singing the wrong lyrics when she does, in fact, know the correct ones but was totally on autopilot. And so you hear something like this from the other room:

I am a child of God, and he has (inaudible mumble-singing) here, has given me a whaled so totally awesome blossom, with Mom and Dad so dear...Wait! No, Kaia! It's the earf, not the whole whaled (which is how she pronounces "world") [she's scolding herself, no joke....there's an eyebrow raised and a pointed finger man...this is serious stuff]. Has given me an earf and home, with Mom and Dad so dear...
Steven and I have imbedded a personality disorder in this poor child! This does not make it any less hilarious. What's funny is when she tries to correct Morgan's lyrics (the kid doesn't talk yet!). Morgan doesn't know the words, but he knows the beat, so when we sing "Bob the Builder...Can We Fix It?...Bob the Builder...Yes, We Can!" He will grunt, on the beat, "Can We Fix It?" and "Yes, We Can!". And Kaia still sees it pertinent to correct his grunts with the real lyrics. Oh, brother.

Kaia is a great helper, though. She can be very sweet and very bossy, and I love her fiercely.  Her newest kick is snow angels. If I let her, she would make a snow angel in every square foot in our yard. Loves to eat snow (we've covered it several times, but she's determined to eat it without checking for...not white spots). Loves to throw the snow, hasn't quite mastered snowballs yet. Here is a picture of her kissing our short, french snowman that we named "Henri". Kaia keeps calling him her 'little cwissssont' (how she says "croissant").