When I run out of disposable diapers for Kate and decide that she’s already had 2 poops today so it’s safe to put her in a cloth diaper for a few hours, what are the chances she’ll have a third, increasingly massive poop? Pretty good in this house.

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Kate still has a habit of taking her shoes off when she’s in the carseat or the stroller. The other day she removed them while hanging out in the stroller, so we just didn’t bother putting them back on. Halfway home in the car Kate just out of nowhere bursts out crying and says, “Shoes!!!”

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Kate is putting words together a lot now, and repeats pretty much anything you say. She pointed at some weird stuffed animal in a book and said, “a-dog!” I looked at it and said, “It’s a cat… I think.” She repeated, “A-cat I-think!” And yes, she puts “a” at the front of just about every word.

A common phrase around here, when she slings her purse (or mine) over her shoulder, is “Bye-bye! See soon!” as she walks down the hall. It makes me laugh every time.

She’s also getting a better understanding of how things work. She asked for milk and I told her she had no more. She said to me, “Mo’ maak! [More milk!] Over dere! In da fridge!” And she pointed clearly at the kitchen as if to say Duh, mom, just go get more!

She’s also been acting things out, such as hopping around the living room saying, “Fwog! [Frog!] Wibbit! Hop! Hop!” She’s really loving fingerplays right now, asking for “Spider” (Itsy Bitsy Spider) and patty cake over and over again.

She is saying a lot less random toddler babble, I noticed. She talks just as much, but now it’s pretty much all attempted english. She talks slower now because she’s trying to get the words right, she purses her lips and frowns a little when she is trying to speak clearly to me. A lot of what I do is guessing based on context. Sometimes I get really stumped, like when we were watching Sesame Street today and she was saying what sounded like pumpkin but there was absolutely no pumpkin anywhere in the house or on TV… until 60 seconds later when Abby Cadabby made a pumpkin magically appear. That’s what of those “She watches too much TV” moments.

Also, they really weren’t kidding – once they start stringing words together they just never stop.