Kylie is Eight!

Birthdays are a very big deal for Kylie!! (both others and her own)  We were reminded how many days there were until May would arrive, many times!  May is of course her favorite month!  And then May was finally here and a few more days and it was her birthday!! There wasn't a whole lot of fanfare and it was a busy evening, but she had a good day at school and at home too.

 What you may or may not know about Kylie (and what we want to remember):

Kylie has THE best imagination.  I think she always has . . . but she continues to use it. Maybe it is being the only girl and having to play a lot of things on her own, but she is great.  There will be no one else anywhere near, but she will talk, talk, talk . . . to herself, to her imaginary friend(s), to her dolls, to her barbies, to no one at all.  It is hilarious and entertaining to listen to -- in a very good way. It makes her a terrific player and she LOVES to have time to play.  If we have too much schedule going on in a day and she misses out on her "play time" or feels like she had "no time to play!!!", she will get very grumpy and annoyed.

It is not uncommon (especially now that the weather has warmed up) to see her walking around outside by herself, chattering away.  She might have a basket on her arm and be a pioneer, or she might have sticks and stones and moss and be making supper over a fire, or she might have Cita (our dog) on a leash and be going to the park.  It's something different every time. She still loves to play school with her imaginary class and makes pages and pages of worksheets for them to do. She will encourage each of her students and tell them what a great job they are doing and then she will mark their pages and hand them back.  

Kylie has a bit of a love affair with shoes -- and especially high heels. If there is a group of girls or a picture of a bunch of women lined up, you can be sure the prettiest one in her eyes is the one with the highest heels. One of her loftiest dreams is to get her mother into heels someday.  I fear I will never be completely beautiful in her eyes  . . .b/c I am quite certain I will NEVER wear heels.  

Kylie loves to read . . .but like Kevin and Kade, does most of her reading in bed. She reads a lot, but rarely finishes a book. She starts hundreds though! She loves chapter books and usually has about ten or so on the go. It is not uncommon to find her asleep with her book . .  though Odyssey has taken over in recent months.  

She loves Adventures in Odyssey . . .and listens to the same ones over and over.  She had the "Kidsboro" one pretty much memorized.  I prefer to hear a lot of variety, but she prefers to play it safe . . .especially at bedtime. If she listens to a new one, it might have something scary in it and she isn't willing to take that chance. She'll save those for in the van or in the kitchen.
Kylie loves movies and her favorite night is Friday or Saturday movie night . . .if we are home.  Her favorites are the Disney princess movies, though she is not picky.  She will watch Little Bear or Franklin if it happens to be playing. Her recent favorite is Frozen and she loves to sing the songs.
She loves to pull up her favorite songs on YouTube and sing along.

Kylie enjoys her sports and likes being part of a team. The people are the best part and the competition is secondary. She does soccer in the summer and hockey in the winter and has a fairly laid back approach to both so far.

Kylie's favorite toys to play with are barbies and polly pockets.  They are not played with a ton, but they come out at bedtime rather often.
Kylie's favorite food is sour keys.
She is a fairly decent eater though she has become picky about what we put on her sandwiches for school lately. What was great last week, might be horribly disgusting this week. It's good to check in with her on occasion to keep up with her fast moving likes/dislikes.  Fickle.

Like most of us in the family, Kylie doesn't need a whole lot of sleep. She does better if she has a good night's rest, but she does not fall alseep easily and therefore does often play in her room or read books for quite a while before sleep comes.
Kylie shares my love for second hand shopping . . .though she has not learned the art of not buying junk yet:) She loves trinkets and toys and other strange things that I would never spend money on.

Kylie is really big into skipping right now and is getting better every day. There is a new trick learned every week and she also skips in her bedroom when she is supposed to be sleeping  -- not real sneaky, but I guess it should be making her more tired, so I usually ignore it.

Kylie has many best friends, and they are bound to change frequently . . .depending on her mood. Her best friend today, will not necessarily be her best friend tomorrow. I think there tends to be a lot of petty squabbles with this girl . . . and knowing her as I do, I would bet that a lot of them originate with her! She is bossy and likes to be in charge and tell people what to do . . . so if  the people she is playing with don't like that . . . she is generally not very gracious and will walk away and not be friends anymore . . for a few minutes anyway:) Thankfully, she has a short memory and will forgive (even if it was never their fault in the first place!) quickly.  I have learned that girl friendships are very different than boys!

Speaking of boys . .  there are a lot of them at home. Kylie adores Konnor,  is fantastic with Karter, clashes with Kade, and gets along relatively well with Kevin.  These emotions are subject to change at any given moment. She does occasionally play really well with Kade, and there are moments when she is extremely mad at Karter and annoyed by Kevin. I guess that's the nature of living together as siblings.

Kylie is in her second year of piano lessons and seems to have turned a corner.  It took her a while to enjoy piano, and she still doesn't love it every day, but she will now sit at the piano and tinker away and is thrilled when she can actually make music and sound "professional".

Kylie does well with school and loves going most days. She is a great writer (though struggles with neatness sometimes!), and excellent "outloud" reader (she reads with fantastic expression!), and she is not so great at math. 

Kylie is not a morning person and most days is very reluctant to get out of bed.  She is usually fine after about ten minutes, but she is very good at "grumpy" until then.

Kylie enjoys dressing up and loves princesses and ballerinas and anything really girly.

She can also rough and tumble and be very dirty with hair all over the place (actually that's much more normal than her looking neat and tidy!)

Kylie has a fabulous temper and will take fabulous tantrums. Sometimes it is so ridiculous that it's just plain funny;) 

Kylie is dramatic.  Nothing is done without a bit or a lot of flair. It certainly brings a different element to our home and makes life very interesting!!

Kylie loves long hair. Beauty is not only measured by the length of the heel . . it is also measured by the length of your hair.  She is thrilled that her hair is finally getting long again.

Kylie loves to play church. She will set up our chairs and stools in rows, put on a sermon CD and sit with her hymnal, Bible,and purse and go through the whole thing. She does have to take her children out once in a while for bathroom breaks or discipline.

Kylie can be a good helper. It is all in the attitude. I am trying to teach her that any job can be fun if you mix it with your great imagination. She catches onto that quite well and if she is in the right mood, dusting (as poor Cinderella) can be really fun! Emptying the dishwasher, she may pretend to be a stocker at the grocery store or a cashier with the cutlery.  Of course she does her fair share of grumbling about work and likes to remind me that she has to work "ALL the time!" and "Why don't you ever do anything?!! All you do is sit on the computer all day."   You bet my dear!

Being the only daughter of her father has its perks. She is definitely the favorite daughter:)  Jonathan loves having a girl and loves spoiling her.  She now expects flowers on Valentines Day and her birthday and will send not so subtle reminders of her expectations. Kylie is a bit of a daddy's girl and knows where to go to get sympathy or the answer she wants.  If mom says no, go to dad!!

Kylie does not like being made fun of -- even if it is supposed to be a joke. She will get very upset and run off in tears. I think that having the brothers she has, she would be used to it, but she is not.  I would like her to get a bit thicker skin . . . especially since they say things just to bug her and get a rise out of her. I would like her to learn the art of "ignoring". It sure would take the wind out of their sails really quick . . .but she just can't seem to discipline herself to do it.

Driving in the van since Konnor was born is less than pleasant. Kevin, Kade, and Kylie all sit in the back bench in close quarters and a ten minute drive sometimes feels like hours.  Really . . . they do love each other!!!
Kylie is quite responsible so far and doesn't usually forget to remember things;)

Kylie also loves the trampoline and is on it every day as well.

She is also afraid to go down into the basement by herself.  It is a little ridiculous, but she rarely goes down if no one else is there. If she has to go put something away, she will get Karter to go with her.

Kylie continues to be the recipient of Karter's night time wandering. He is not always really generous with the amount of space her gives her.  She often gets the short end of the stick, but she rarely complains. I think she secretly likes it that Karter goes to her for "comfort". She also has her fears and so they kind of keep each other company.

My Ky. My smack dab in the middle four boys, girl.  You surely are one of a kind!!  You bring life, noise, character, giggles, tears, drama, smiles, and much joy to our home.  We are thankful to have a girl in the midst of the boys. You are as interesting to raise as all four boys put together . . . but our house might be bordering on dull without you.  You bring a different dimension and it is good for all of us! We love your cheerful spirit and very strong desire to please.  You do not like it when we are unhappy with you.  You are quick to forgive and quite quick to ask for forgiveness. You may get angry and lose your temper and have a fit . . .but it usually doesn't take you too long to realize that you were wrong and to come to us with an "I'm sorry!"   You love to be loved and called endearing names like "Princess" or "Lovey".
We love to hear you sing and praise God. We love seeing you do your devotions in bed. We love it that you ask to pray after supper nearly every day. We love  listening to your well thought out, heartfelt prayers.  You often remind us to pray for things that we have forgotten all about.  You are inspiring.  We pray that you will always love the Lord and love singing to Him, and reading about Him, and talking to Him.  

Thank you for being our favorite girl . . . for filling our home with high heels, dresses, messes, barbies, nail polish, and all other things girly.  We love you!