Happy birthday Kylie

One year ago today I was in a medically induced labor with three other women. My doctor said that the second time labor moves quickly and I should be done by noon. At this exact moment one year ago, all of them had delivered their angels- except me. I managed to hang around for another six hours. I said recently that God gave me Kaitlyn to teach me that I can't control everything. I just realized he gave me Kylie to teach me that life isn't always going to be what I am expecting. I expected a boy. I got a girl. I expected to struggle through three months of nursing. I (more or less) breezed through a year. I expected a more calm child that observed the world around her. I got a child that crawled at 4 months, walked by nine and could FLY up the stairs somewhere in between.

My favorite things about Kylie are her personality, intelligence and her awareness. She always is aware of what is going on and knows what she wants. She can identify cake, cookies and candy even if she has never actually tried it. I mostly love that she is so short and compact!

Here's how you know that Kylie is a second child: she has had more sweet tea and coffee in one year than Kaitlyn has had in three. She eats junk cereal for breakfast. She has had a donut, two cupcakes and ice cream. Last night she ate a biscuit and three green beans for dinner. (yes, that was it)

I love you Kylie Elizabeth!!!

I will post some pictures of her and her birthday in a couple of days.

Innocence

My favorite part of having children is when I can see their innocence. A mind with enough knowledge to know how to solve problems without understanding the full spectrum of the problem. My favorite example of this is when anything is broken, from a flashlight to the computer, Kaitlyn will bring me a battery and a screwdriver. We are going to Missouri to see my family in a couple of weeks. I have been trying to talk about it so Kaitlyn is excited and there aren't surprises for her (we don't like surprises). So I was talking on the phone to my grandpa. When I got off I was telling her about them and how Grandpa Mark is my dad and Poppo is my grandpa. Then I don't know why but I told her Poppo only has one arm. Now in my life I have to say it might have been the first time I ever said that out loud. I have always been very close to him. There are lots of words I would use to describe him but I don't think I have ever even actually consciously noticed that he has one arm. Well, to that she responded something about soap and we can find it and tape it back on. What a hoot! But now I'm wishing I never brought it up. If I am 29 years old and never "noticed" it, I'm sure a 3 year old would have done the same. So I'm thinking about sweeping it under the rug. I just hope she doesn't go "looking" for it.

Boys vs Girls

Here's why girls are different: Kaitlyn got two happy meal dragons today and instead of make them fight and blow fire, they hugged and said I love you.