Celebrating 9

Kaitlin is nine years old this month! Here are some memories of her life so far.

Birth:
Kaitlin was born on a sunny morning and, as cheesy as it sounds, I'm convinced she swallowed some of the sunshine and it has been radiating out of her ever since.  We already had a girl and a boy so we decided not to find out the gender of this baby; I also decided to do this birth drug free (let's just say it was great but the very end was quite an adventure).  "Girl! We have another girl!" is what Jaime said to me and, just like her siblings before and after her, I wept with joy that she had entered our life.

1 Year: 

Other than being cute and very easy to take care of I don't have much to say about Kait as a baby.

2-3 Years:

Kait had the cutest little voice and it was made cuter by her annunciation.  For a long time she couldn't say her R's, she couldn't say a sentence without breathing multiple times during it and she would drop the end of her words.  

For example: Dad is pants a good word or a bad word? would be spoken more like "Da', is pan's a goo' wor' or a ba' wor'?"  Or to show her breathing through a sentence: Mom, Can I have a cookie? would be "Mom, (breath) can I (breath) have a coo(breath)kie?" And when she taught herself to read at 4 years old: "R-E-D, Wed. R-A-T, Wat."

She also went through this phase where she wanted her mouth open when you took her picture:

Some more pictures of her at 2-3 years old.

 

3-4 Years:

Getting cuter by the day.  This is when Kait enter her scowl phase and her extremely long name phase.

When she didn't know someone or was upset with something you did or she simply was in no mood to entertain you she would get the cutest scowl on her face.  One time she told my brother "My Mom says don't talk to me" and another time her church teachers told us that their only goal every Sunday was to get Kaitlin to smile, they were unsuccessful 99.9% of the time. :-)

She also loved giving herself very long names, she wasn't JUST Kaitlin she was "Human People Big Girl Tiny Butterfly Meow Kaitlin".  

Kaitlin really started to wow us at 4.  You only needed to teach her or tell her something once and it was ingrained in her "bwain".  She taught herself to read, she picked up on vocabulary very quickly and used not only big words but used them correctly, she began teaching herself piano, I showed her once how to ride a bike and she picked her bike up said "I can do that" and took off down the sidewalk, and it goes on.

There were a lot of cute things that came from her "bwain":

After opening a bag of beef jerky in the car: Can I have something that I smell?

After opening another bag on a different trip: Something that I smell... (she pauses and sniffs the air)... is food.

After asking her why she was so smart: I don't know, my bwain just knewded that. 

Not a scowl but definitely not going to smile for the camera.

5 Years:

Kaitlin was SO excited to turn 5 and was itching to enter school.  This is the outfit she wanted to wear  but didn't quite understand that she had to wait until September.

We would often entertain ourselves, while waiting to pick up Elise and Cameron, by turning the fan on in the car full blast then Kait would sit in front of it, mouth open wide. 

She is a Princess to the core.  She loved dressing up and more often than not I'd find her like this in bed. :-)

One time I had opened the door of the car for her to help her get out and she said "It's ok to bow to me when you open my door." :-)

It was during this year that Kaitlin met Katelyn. They thought it was SO COOL that they both were Kaitlin/Katelyn Marie.  They are two of the sweetest girls you'll ever meet.

Finally in Kindergarten! Some of her accomplishments: She got 1st place in her age group in the Science Fair, she read more books than the entire Kindergarten combined, she was student of the month, she made a friend out of everyone in her class.

6 Years:

Just imagine this little cutie in a Karate uniform and her sweet high pitched voice saying: "HAIII!" Kaitlin was quite good at the technical side of Karate because she is very good at taking and following instructions.  I'd often find myself beaming while watching her during class, her face full of concentration, doing every move exactly how she had been shown and then adding that cute Kiai at the end.

This year the kids discovered that their mom is a bit of nerd when we went down to Cedar City to watch an Annular Eclipse.  I don't know if Kaitlin was excited about it or if she just saw my excitement, either way she made me feel special by being kind, encouraging, and sharing in my excitement. She also watched the Transit of Venus with me in June of that year.

Kaitlin has always been kind and loving.  She brings joy to others and shares in their joy.  She is full of uplifting words and a loving heart; she is slow to take offense and quick to forgive; I see the light of Christ radiating from her and I pray every day that she will remain this way forever.

7 Years:
Disneyland!

The only princess she cared about... She searched for Aurora the whole time and when she finally found her she made a beeline for her, I don't think I've ever seen her move that fast.

"Take your wish and hold it next to your heart."

I think Kaitlin is like me when it comes to wit, every now and then a gem pops out.  One night while eating dinner Elise was talking about how she wanted to grow crystals... 

Elise:"It would be really cool to have a quartz collection."

Kaitlin, not properly hearing what she said: "Ha! That would be funny." She drops an imaginary gavel on the table: "People of the court you are now my collection."

8 Years:

Still as kind and as cute as ever!

Lily absolutely loves Kaitlin; she will drag her around the house getting Kait to do things for her, she is always wanting to be held by Kait and always has a smile when she see's Kait.  Kaitlin is good to Lily, she often gets Lily up in the morning, changes her diaper and then gets her some food.  She'll take Lily outside to play (and actually play together) and she is always trying to get Lily to laugh.

One Sunday while sitting in church one of Kait's siblings was continually pecking at her and Kait reached her breaking point.  She started to write "I hate" when I put my hand on her pen and told her that I was sorry she felt so frustrated but that writing such things was beneath her and I knew that she was a loving and kind person. I proposed the idea that maybe letting that love shine was a better solution to the situation than giving in to her negative feelings.  She immediately tore the paper up and wrote a very kind note full of things she liked about the person. About 5 minutes later she handed me this note:

9 Years:
I'm looking forward to this year and all the years that follow.  Happy Birthday Kaitlin!