Four and a half years old!

Today Katya woke up and ran into the yard to see what half birthday present Squirrel Friend might have left her. (Half birthdays are a BIG DEAL to rodents because they don’t live very long.) “No way mose!” she said when she found a foam kit for making squirrel ornaments hanging from a vine next to the fence.

Then, later in the morning, she made her first totally independent representational drawings. Lately they have been quick scribbles that she then says are “wind,” “Taco Bell Cinnamon Twists” and things like that. She ran over to me with the little black slate and said “Look! It’s a Deinosuchus. They lived in the Jurassic under water,” She ran over, erased it, and a moment later was back. “Look! It’s a Triceratops! There’s a horn on its head. And those lines are legs.” Then, a while later, something that looks like jellyfish. “Those are donut worms. They lay their eggs in donuts when you are not eating them. Look, they’re hatching out of the donuts!”

Irvine Waste Management Transfer Station

A: What are those pumps for?
Tour guide: They’re natural gas pumps. The trucks gas up while they are parked at night.
A: Where does the natural gas come from?
TG: Oh….everywhere. I mean, natural gas comes from everywhere. It’s methane.
Lacey: Like cows.
Katya: Cow toots.

Bolsa Chica Wetlands

A: Hey, look out in the middle of the water!
K: It’s a egret!
A: What do you think it’s looking for?
K: It’s sitting on a nest. She has babies in the nest.
A: I wonder what baby egrets look like!
K: Do you know anyone who thinks they can turn into a egret?
A: No. I mean, to my knowledge. I guess I could know someone who thinks they can turn into an egret, and they haven’t told me, but I doubt it.
K: I do. In a story.
A: What’s the story?
K: They took some magic, and they made a wand magic, and then they used the magic wand to turn into a egret.

Halloween Costume

Here she is, in the neighborhood’s most creative costume: A Girl Named Pizza.

Incidentally, that’s what we’ve been instructed to name any other baby that comes along.

And, no, Katya hasn’t ever eaten pizza, nor does she want to. Though she is a fan of crust.

Quote found scribbled on a scrap of paper while cleaning the desk

“A landlady is someone who appears when you never sleep. A landlady is made of air.”

Atlantis Play Center

Of course the next day we had to check out some books on the mythological Atlantis and whether it is real. 🙂

CA Science Center Hurricane Simulator

Craft Store

Katya was THRILLED to get a haunted “Magic Tree House” foam craft kit today and decorated it with foam letters without supervision.
K: It says ‘Beware!’…It says ‘Magic Tree House!’
A, later, whispering to B: BeaMERRRRR!
K: What does it say?
B: It says ‘Beamer.” I like it that way.
K: Beamer is a scary word.

There have been an unusual amount of “If you don’t get ready, we won’t be able to make any extra fun stops in our errands” type of limits set the last few days. Leading, apparently, to this exchange in front of the craft store:
K: If you don’t go inside now, I’m going to poop in my pants.
A: Oh dear! Do you have to go potty?
K: No.