According to Kate

You may not know me very well yet. I've been mentioned in passing in this blog, but I'm comparatively new to the family, and -- although my diapers get changed a lot -- don't do a lot yet. Oh sure, I cry, and I laugh, and I gurgle, and I stick my tongue out. Make eyes at Daddy and so forth. But, I don't talk. I can't do anything for myself.

However, I see everything......

- I see Mommy almost all the time. I see her first thing in the morning. She swims into view over the edge of my crib and I can't help myself from smiling. She picks me up and we sit down in the glider and then I.....wait, where am I? I'm back in the crib. Must have fallen asleep again. How did THAT happen? "Wahhhhhhhh!" Hey, she's back. Good, good. I see her the last thing at night, too. She gives me my baths, feeds me, smiles at me, makes me laugh.

- I see Daddy more often these days. Early on, not so much. I think he has some kind of job, apparently, that involves him watching a lot of football. Mommy watches Project Runway, but I don't think that's her job. Anyway, he's not watching as much football these days, so I'm seeing him a lot more often. I'm warming up to him. For a while I'd basically cry when he held me, until he gave me back to Mommy. Now I'm content to smile at him, and he makes me laugh by singing This Little Piggy and making "Thhbbbtt" sounds with his tongue. After a while I get a little weary of his jokes, or maybe just weary in general. I start to get cranky, hoping he'll get the message, and sometimes this continues until Mommy shows up and takes me (Daddy and I both sigh with relief) and sometimes I find myself losing my train of thought and the next thing I know I'm waking up groggily and there's Daddy, gazing down at me or watching TV or something. Probably football.

- Jack is my big brother. I see him at the beginning of the day and at the end. Early on he wanted to hold me a lot. That was OK. He's kind of fascinating. He's little, like me, and he seems to be full of energy. Always running around here and there, singing songs, dancing (yesterday he referred to it as "singing with my feet," which Mommy and Daddy seemed to think was pretty clever), handing me stuffed animals and so forth. He sings to me when I'm crying in the car. It goes something like "Bay-bee Kate. Bay-bee Kate. Bay-bee Kate. Bay-bee Kate." I think those are the words.

Lately, things have been kind of hectic. First there was this holiday thing. As near as I can tell, it meant the house was full of people, my downstairs crib was moved into a corner to make room for a large tree, and they kept bustling me into a car or the stroller to take me somewhere else crowded with people, or get me away from the crowds of people.

Then it was Jack's birthday. More people. Lots of colored packages and noise and little girls running around. My cousins! Lots of different people holding me. I was pretty tired by the end of the day. Lots of days like this, for a while. Exhausting.

Now they're doing something with my big brother called "potty training." Every 10 minutes either Mommy or Daddy says, "Let us know if you need to use the potty." When Jack needs to use the potty, it's chaos; everyone runs around and I'm frequently deposited abruptly into my crib. I kick at the pink elephant or soft piano while there is much commotion in the bathroom "Yay! You used the potty! Great job, Jack! We're very proud of you, Jack!" They say this a lot.

I'm sleepy now. Mommy?