You're going WHERE?!?!

I always thought we were lucky that Daddy P worked from home and I was home a lot. It meant that the three of us often have at least two meals together, sometimes three. We see each other throughout the day on and off (the office is detached but not the bathroom!) . But today, Kate made it clear that transitions are not okay. Coming and going of mom and dad is hard.

Ah, separation anxiety.

Separation anxiety looks like a scream so hard that veins pop out of a forehead that is smooth and perfect. A scream so big I can see tonsils.

This happened a lot today. It happened when I tried to "work from home" in the back office. It happened when Daddy P came in for a bathroom break. It happened when the new nanny tried to do nap.

Clearly, Kate feels we are throwing too much change at her at once.

We are all mourning the Pontiac, clearly.

She was fine once we were out of sight and gone (for the most part) but the separation has become stomach turning. It doesn't help anything that she's not herself, and she's getting two molars, and we were in a car accident, and we have hired a new nanny.

Despite all the trauma of the past weeks, some very fun developments have occurred. You know, that things that EVERY kid learns to do but that seem absolutely amazing and magical for your kid to do.

Like, Kate trying to sing. You can start Old MacDonald and she tries to do the "EIEIO" part. She also likes to suggest animal noises: woof, quack, and moo are her favorites.

Or her new addition of spinning in circles to her dancing repertoire.

Or (a little less magical) her sudden and immediate use of "no" in all situations. With frequency that requires her to sometimes backtrack when she really means "yes."

Her pairing of multiple signs to make commands and "sentences" -- we aren't really touching words yet in our house.

Hey sweet little pats on my back the she likes to add when Daddy P gives me a hug.

Her total and complete obsession with all things "pawpaw": Skype calls mean "pawpaw," the phone ringing means "pawpaw," she identifies every picture of my dad reliably with "pawpaw," and frequently requests that I draw a picture of "pawpaw" (poor guy). Oh, and yes, sporty silver cars also earn a "pawpaw" followed with "carrrrrr."

We are, you can imagine, eagerly awaiting tomorrow when both nanna and pawpaw come to watch Kate -- get this -- OVERNIGHT. Yep. Daddy P musta did some fancy bargaining to get this to happen in the midst of our lives, the not-sleeping nightmare. While I think the intent of this is to be a "date" I think at this point we are both planning on sleeping pretty much from our departure from our house to our departure from the hotel. Not quite romantic, but seeing as we've both been so tired we can hardly even make eye contact, this will be a huge jump in the right direction. I have been so tired, in fact, that I have both threatened to not come home from work, and fallen asleep on the floor at work (it was a slow day...). A needed vacation then.

Just our little weekend adventure. Stay tuned for our future weekend adventure: camping with Kate. Dum dum duuuuuummmmmm. Hope the campground doesn't want to sleep!!

And now, some pictures of Kate. Her other recent addition to the "cute" list is telling Elly "no" when she is doing something she isn't supposed to. Believe it or not she actually only says it when Elly is in the wrong. Before meals we make Elly "place" (go lie on her bed) and release her by walking next to her and saying "ok" with a dramatic time to drag race arm signal. Kate doesn't have the "okay" yet, but has the arms down pat....