You've Got to Love the Girl

I had two post a couple of cute Katie experiences.

For the Christmas day workshop, Bob let Mason and Katie each play the piano for the missionaries, since that's something they had thought they could give as a gift. Their choices were nothing short of poor for a spiritual Christmas meeting as Mason played "Up on the Housetop" and Katie played "Book of Mormon Stories".

Katie had been practicing the previous day and kept getting halfway through and messing up. She would bang the keys and then start over. She eventually worked herself into a meltdown as she got more and more frustrated with trying to play it perfectly. I sat with her, and cheered her on, clapping for her when she kept going through the song.

On Christmas day, she went first and bravely walked up to the big grand piano to play her song. It didn't end up being perfect, but she made it through, speeding up toward the end like a galloping horse when she could feel the end was in sight. The second she was done, she jumped off the bench, gave herself a clap, and turned to the missionaries in anticipation of their applause (take a second to visualize it). It took me a second to realize why she was standing there looking so expectant, and I had to whisper to her a couple of times, "They aren't going to clap!" before she finally got the message. She was very confused, since at the piano recital she played at everyone clapped. But she eventually took the hint and proceeded to skip back to the bench where she had been sitting.

The second story is from this afternoon when the great missionaries Elder Kroll and Elder Norton had come over to play football with them. Naturally, the subject of Pokemon came up. Katie proudly told the she had "beat Mason TWICE!" And then added "But I cheated the second time." The only difference between her and Mason is that at least Katie admits that she cheats. Mason just conveniently forgets the rules.