"This Kitty...."

"This kitty" is the beginning of about every sentence that Gretel says, and it's been going on for months now. It started with the movie Oliver and Company, and after watching it she suddenly transformed into Oliver and I became Jenny. We've role played that to death, and then she started morphing into other kitties. Sometimes she is Figaro, while Gwen is Pluto, I'm Minnie and Johnny is Mickey. Other times she is Spunky, a kitty who gets lost in a tree and needs to be rescued in a Chip n' Dale episode. Her latest kitty character is one that we can't figure where it came from or who it is. It sounds like "Louis and the frog" but she says it like it's one word. Gwen is sometimes called Rovo the Kitty. She tells me the baby in my tummy is sometimes called Betsy, a little baby kitty. (That just reminded me how extremely behind I am on my blog!! I will have to do an entire post about my pregnancy since I have not even mentioned it until now....how horrible!)

Anyway, Gretel says lots of things like "this kitty is cold." "This kitty doesn't know how to say prayers," etc. She usually speaks in third person and loves to direct. She is in charge, and loves to role play everything.
She absolutely loves watching Tom and Jerry cartoons and wants to play it with me. I'm Tom and she's Jerry. (one of few non-kitty roles) She tells me, "Now-you lay down and sleep. Then I'll pull your whisker and your tail!" After she does this, I wake up and act angry, then shout "JERRY!" while chasing her around the house. She is a hoot and I'm always impressed with how creative she is, thinking up these games.




Most of her day is spent hiding in every pillow that goes on our bed. She pulls off the decorative and non-decorative pillows and hides in them for hours! She says "Cinderella found a kitty!" (lots of times she pretends to be various princess' kitties) Or "Tiana found a kitty!" That's when I come in and find her beneath everything.
I can't believe how long she's loved hiding in pillows and blankets now. It's been at least a year. She also has a deep obsession with hiding Gwen is her blankie that has been going on daily for probably a year and a half. Poor Gwen really puts up with a lot! My mom is not a fan of dogs at all, and after witnessing Gretel hiding Gwen in her blanket night after night while I was staying with them this summer, she said "I have gained a whole new respect for that dog!"


These are Gretel's favorite toys-she lives for her Petshops! She separates all the kitties from the other petshops and hides them in their blankies too.

This is a small nook that Gretel has turned into her kitty bed. She took a couple of tiny pillows out of my jewelry boxes and lays on them. She likes to be the naughty kitty, getting out of bed and says, "get mad at this kitty and send me back to my bed."

Anyway-she is obsessed with kitties and begs me for a real one all the time! She wishes Gwen had baby pups in her tummy, and wants her to be a mommy pup. She also told my mom last week, "Mimi-I wish people has tails.....I wish I had-ed a tail." (I like how she adds an e-d to the end of the word had)
It's not on the kitty subject, but there is another thing I just remembered that's kind of creepy that she told my mom last week. She says there is a lady in her room named Chancelaura (I don't know how to spell it, but she pronounces it "Chance-a-laura") with white hair that floats up to the ceiling and back down.

One more thing-
I can't believe this kitty is a sunbeam now!! I had to take a picture of her with her great nursery leaders. This is sister Rolland...


This is her absolute favorite, Sister Coltrin....


She really misses her-this morning while we were getting ready to go to church, she told me that Sister Coltrin wants cookies. I told her we should make her some, and asked if she misses her. She said, "Yes-I love her." She really does.
She helped me make Sister Coltrin cinnamon rolls which we took her on Christmas. Gretel adores her-I'm glad she had such awesome leaders in nursery, and she also has great sunbeam teachers now. I think she likes it so far!

Halloween day

On Halloween Day, we took Gretel to Bishop's Pumpkin Farm. My fam and I took her there on her 1st birthday, and I went there with some other moms and kids last year, so this was Johnny's first time going! It was a fun day- we looked at all the animals first, then did a train ride and just let her do a bunch of slides and other things. We ran into some of our friends there, the Gillespies, so that was fun. Gretel loved running around with her girlfriend Evelyn!

She was complaining about her stomach hurting once, which was odd. She never tells us if she feels sick/hurt. She really isn't much of a complainer, so I was a little worried she was getting sick. By that night, she definitely wasn't eating much, and kept saying her tummy hurt and she thought she was going to "trow up." She didn't care at all about trick-or-treating, but she hung out by me while I passed out candy to other kids. She ended up getting a fever, so I put her to bed. I felt sad that her night wasn't fun, but at least she had a blast at the trunk-or-treating night.

The highlight for me was watching a show that night with Johnny. I had recorded an episode of Dateline, and we just started it to clear some space on our dvr. We were both sucked in quickly to this gruesome true story. I love these types of shows, and always have. When I was in elementary school, I used to watch Unsolved Mysteries before bed each night. Anyway, shows like that are always better than renting a scary movie, in my opinion!
Anyway, that was our Halloweenie day and night!






I love being able to pet the sweet little goats and brush their hair!

Trunk or Treating

A couple of days before Halloween, we had our annual ward trunk-or-treating activity. It was so much fun going with my little skeleton! I was excited that she wanted to be a skeleton this year. I'm really surprised she didn't want to be a kitty, since her obsession with pretending to be a kitty has not ended. Johnny thought if we painted his face first, she could see what it was like. So after watching him, she got pretty excited and sat very still while getting hers done. I was impressed at how still she was! She even requested that I do her hands white too.
On the way to the activity, she told us all about how she was going to scare her friends, and they would scream and run away from her. She did do that, and it was hysterical!!
I am so glad my mom mailed me this hood that went with my old skeleton costume when I was little. It really completed the look and made her unrecognizable! A couple of people asked me where she was when she was near me, because they had no idea who it was. She was also mistaken for a boy a couple of times while receiving candy. A couple of times people would hand her a treat and say, "there you go, buddy." It was so funny-I just LOVED her costume this year, and loved that she wanted to be something scary. She has always loved witches and been obsessed with scary things. Johnny and I agreed that this is our favorite costume she's ever worn. I think we just loved seeing her face fully painted, and also she is at such a fun age right now!
Anyway, we had a blast with her!





This is the picture I got while she was scaring her friends-she was really playing the part. She looked like a zombie running around with her little arms outstretched, making these growling/moaning sounds.



I helped her track down this guy, who she saw from far away. She loved him and kept calling out to him before we got close enough to talk to him. She really wanted him to notice her and kept saying, "scary man...see Gretel!!"

The woman on the left is the nursery leader for all these girls. Sister Coltrin is great! Only one more month, and then they'll all be sunbeams!!

Johnny stayed at our car to pass out candy to other kids, while I got to take Gretel around. It was such a treat! I just loved holding her little hand, listening to her say "trick or treat" to each person. I thought it would be fun, but it was much more fun than I had
expected!!






Back to kitty mode, licking her paws...

When we got home Gwen was terrified of Johnny because of his makeup. She ran away from him and hid under our bed, which she never does. It took Johnny a little while to get her out. You wouldn't think that a dog really looks up at your face to notice something like that. Poor pup!!
I don't know how Gretel lasted as well as she did. I thought for sure she'd fall asleep on the way home with all her makeup on. But she didn't, and I washed her face. After I got it all off, she looked in the mirror and yelled, "I'm free!" She says funny things like that so often-she is a hoot!

Gretel's Party Part 2

When Sleeping Beauty first arrived, she gave the birthday girl a rose and a card with princesses on it...she is one thoughtful princess!!
Gretel has some very cute little girlfriends...they really enjoyed posing with Sleeping Beauty!















Gretel loved her sparkly shoes!

The party favors....

I am happy the girls had so much fun, and I too thought it was a total blast!
Gretel's favorite number is 8, so she keeps telling people she is 8 now, instead of 3!