My sweet, sweet Kate

(Warning: a gooey-sweet post about my 4-year-old.)

I don't have class or office hours on Thursdays this quarter, and because I'm finally caught up on the student-paper load (woo-hoo!), I decided not to send Kate to daycare today.

So...Kate accompanied me to an extra-long salon appointment, where she watched a Cabbage Patch Kids video, munched on pretzels, and generally acted angelic. When I was finished with the cut and color, she said, "You look berry pretty, mom."

Next, we had lunch at our favorite neighborhood coffee shop. We're still there. At the moment, I'm just sitting here checking emails and such, and Kate's drawing and singing quietly. Every once in a while, she glances over at me and says, "I love staying home with you!" Very cute, especially since we haven't technically been home all day.

A few minutes ago, I looked up from my screen to see that she's got her straw inserted into the lid of the ketchup bottle, and she's joyfully pulling out strawfulls of ketchup to lick. Thankfully, nobody's close enough to witness this. And I just told the server that I'll be buying that bottle of ketchup.

I love four-year-olds!

Next up: we'll practice Kate's "K" sounds before her 2:30 appointment with her speech therapist. After a month of speech therapy, she's finally saying her name as "Kate" instead of "Tate." Hooray.

I really do love the stage she's in right now. And I love having time with Kate by herself--without her big sister. She's so, so sweet when she's sans big sister.