Archive for September, 2013

Happy 5th Birthday, Kate!!

Sunday, September 22nd, 2013

 

My dearest Kate,

 

You have made some pretty big waves in your short 5 years! You are the most generous, strong, and selfless person I have ever known. Your love is fierce and unconditional and you never leave a group of strangers without a handful of new best friends.

This year you’ve had some ups and downs medically. Your ear tubes wriggled their way out in perfect timing, you’ve finally stopped catching every germ available but you somehow ended up with lice (please don’t ever put me through that again), and last but certainly not least, you had two knee surgeries. We learned to trust you. You can be a little dramatic and you exaggerate sometimes but you knew there was something wrong with your knee even when doctors couldn’t find anything. You kept telling us your knee *sparkled* (cutest description ever) which was likely numbness or tingling. You were brave through countless doctor appointments, ultrasounds, X-rays, and an MRI that most kids need to be sedated for – but not you! You are a champ and excelled through both procedures without the need for a walker, crutches, or rehab. You stunned us all, even your doctor. Thankfully your knee is now just as perfect as the rest of you. Here’s to hoping we never have to worry about that again!

You have finally found your backbone and you stand up for yourself, sometimes too much. You and Noah still love to play and make believe but you’ve also developed a love and art for confrontation (please stop, he’s the only sibling you have and you’ll eventually see that you need each other). 

You’re pretty darn cute, you’re growing like a weed, and you’re a total tomboy. You’ve made it clear that gymnastics and dance are not your thing. You absolutely love soccer though and what you lack in skill you make up for in pure passion. You work hard and you’re so excited to kick the ball, no matter which direction or for which team (yours or theirs). You ask every morning if it’s “soccer day”. Maybe when you’re older you can go more than once a week, even if it’s just so I don’t always have to disappoint you by saying no. 

Your babyisms are fleeting. You still have a few sayings that we won’t ever correct, I know you’ll figure it out in time and I can’t bare you growing up! Opposed – used as “you’re not opposed to do that” is the one we hear most often, but you also use “crunches” instead of crutches, and chick munks instead of chipmunks. Sometimes you break out the baby talk – huggie, drinkie, etc – these get under my skin but I know they’ll be out of your vocabulary soon enough. You tell stories like a Valley Girl. We aren’t sure where that came from but you are forever telling us tales with the perfect pitch and inflection to make people wonder when you moved here from CA!

You answers to Kate, Katers, Kay-Kate, and Pumpkin Wompkin. You don’t like it when I call you Baby but you put up with it, and for that I thank you. 

You are our artist. You love to color and you have your own style. The lines mean nothing to you and you color block every drawing. May you always march to the beat of your own drum! I’ve tried hard to keep a lot of your artwork because I really think you have a unique style but you draw and color 5-50 pages each day. Forgive me for being selective, I’m running out of room!

I could go on and on about how wonderful you are, how crazy you make me, and how much everyone loves you. I can’t wait to see what this next year brings you. At the moment you have big plans for soccer and play dates and you’re quite nervous about kindergarten. We all know you’ll be just fine though. You’ll have the whole school wrapped around your finger in no time! I love you to the moon and back, my sweet baby girl!!

Mommy