What's mine is yours.

Kate has been learning the intricacies of possession lately. Yesterday at church she got excited about another kid's toy car. Naturally, she ran toward it shouting, "Mine!" (thereby distinguishing herself from every other toddler in the world). "That's his car," Scott explained. Kate got a little weepy but admitted defeat. "Yours," she tearfully acknowledged to the little boy, "Yours."

Yesterday at church also happened to be Kate's first Sunday in nursery since she "turned" 18 months last week. Not surprisingly, it didn't exactly go well. Maybe sneaking out was a mistake, but five minutes after dropping her off, the nursery leader showed up in Gospel Doctrine holding a somewhat hysterical Kate. So Scott and I took shifts hanging out in the nursery with Kate which is apparently the place to be for adults too - the leaders keep a stash of Coke and Sun Chips in the back room that is NOT for the children and one of the leaders' husbands hangs out in there with his wife every week for "moral support."

In honor of Kate's half birthday, hear is a list of some of her favorite things:

1. Swinging. Oh boy, does she like swinging.

2. Singing. This one merits a subcategory for favorite songs:

a. Currently, her very favorite song is Mahna Mahna by Cake and it's pretty much the soundtrack to our lives now since as soon as it ends she begs for me to restart it. At home or in the car, it doesn't matter. Apparently she isn't the first child to love this song - I hear it's on Sesame Street?

b. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. She can sing this one pretty well except she only knows the words to the first half of each line so she makes the second half up. My goal is to get this on video. We really have no excuse for the lack of pictures and videos lately - oh yeah, laziness. That's it.

c. Old McDonald. Kate's been known to randomly break out her "E-I-E-I-O!" in the middle of a Mia Maids lesson at church.

d. The Brahms lullaby. There aren't any words but she hums it to herself when she's trying to fall asleep. Who needs parents?

e. Bingo. OK, this song list is probably very boring, but it did make me notice the lack of Primary songs or hymns. Something that I'd better remedy.

Back to other "likes":
3. Sunglasses. The ones we bought her have a strap that goes around the back of her head and makes her ears flop down a little bit, but as far as she's concerned she looks totally cool in them. She insists on wearing them at random times, like mealtime.


4. Colors, numbers, counting - she's working on all of these things and totally loves learning. I hope she's not a complete nerd in school. :)

5. Dancing. Again, we really need to get this on video. I think her repertoire of moves is already larger than mine - definitely takes after her dad on this one.

Anyway, it's fun (and a little sad) to see my baby growing into a toddler with a very distinctive personality and definitive opinions on everything under the sun.