Katie's many names

In the past couple of months, Katie has become fascinated with her name. A few weeks ago, I was explaining to her that her name is Kathryn but we call her Katie.

At first, she denied her given name. "I not Kathryn! I a good girl! I Katie!" (And Kathryn is pronounced Kafryn.)

Now, she's embracing the name.

Recent quotes include:
"My name is Kathryn, but they call me Katie."
"I not Katie. I Kathryn."
"My name is Kathryn, but Aunt Ami calls me darlin'. And I call her darlin'."
"My name is Kathryn, but Aunt Julie calls me T." (Julie's son Adam, one of Katie's best friends, has called her T for a long time, as in K-T.)

T-shirt becomes a sleep shirt

Last year on spring break, we bought Cooper and Katie matching T-shirts. Cooper has worn his dozens of times since. Yesterday I pulled it from his closet for him to wear to school.

He put on his turtleneck first then walked into the kitchen with the shirt in his hands.

"Mommy, no one in my class really likes Winnie the Pooh. I'll be embarrased."

I smiled at him, didn't speak (maybe I was afraid I'd start crying, knowing our "little" boy has outgrown Pooh) and walked to his closet, pulled out one of his Star Wars shirts and handed it to him.

"Oh, Mommy, I love you," he said, and sealed it with a crushing Cooper hug.

He wore the shirt to bed last night, and after it's washed, it will officially move to the PJ drawer.

Energy

Often in the mornings, Cooper comes to our room and heralds the time.

"It's 6:14!" or "It's 6:25! Time to get up!" or "It's 6:37! Time for breakfast!"

Sometimes we can convince him to join us and snuggle for a bit. When we know it's really time to get up and get moving, we ask him for energy hugs.

This week he shared with Aunt Ami his secret about energy hugs.

He told her that when he gives Mommy and Daddy energy hugs, we think he's giving us energy. But really, he said, he's taking energy from us and just doesn't want us to know.

We won't let on that we know his secret. We'll just keep sharing our energy back and forth.