My Mini in the Middle

This is Kate. My dark haired beauty. My mini in the middle. When she was born, the nurses all said she looked like an Anne Geddes baby from one of the calendars. Now people comment that she has Precious Moments eyes. I think she is stunning. More importantly, she is mine. She loves chocolate. Anything chocolate. She also loves Beezus and Ramona (maybe because she can relate?) and has taken to saying the very naughty word of "guts".And she loves Barbies, babies, music, dress-up, apple juice,swimming, riding bikes, grapes, roller skating, and her siblings. Especially her siblings. We have made it no secret that the first two years of Kate's life were challenging. She liked to get up before the sun, that silly girl. But now she is four. So grown up. She now sleeps until the sun wakes up first. She is oh so silly and LOVES to laugh. She is a snuggler, and often wants to cuddle. She is mischievous. If there is a twinkle in her eye, watch out!

I always knew that Kate was meant to be our middle child. Our mini in the middle if you will. She was always so ornery, getting into everything, testing your limits, and then melting you with her smile to get herself out of trouble. I won't tell you how often it worked, because that would be embarrassing :). I always told Ben, "We have to have more children. Kate suits the middle child stereotype perfectly!". And the day that we had Jack, she did not disappoint. Everyone smiled for picture after picture, except for Kate. She wanted to be in pictures all by herself and pouted for any other photo! Oh that girl. She marches to the beat of her own drum, that's for sure. Have I mentioned how much I love her?

Boss and I have said from the beginning that we would be careful with her heart, our mini in the middle. My mom was a middle child, and Boss himself was in the middle, so they know first hand how sometimes, without meaning to, parents can overlook that child in the middle. Sometimes for practicalities sake. Why buy new clothes when older siblings hand me downs will work just fine? We agreed we would always try our best to make her feel special. She wanted a new bike for her birthday. She got one. It did not matter that there was a perfectly good Dora bike just her size that Emma had outgrown sitting in the garage. She wanted something just for her. So she got it. I like something that the Duggars once said. (Side note: I realize many of you do not agree with the values of this family, but I will confess that I love watching their show. It is the only show on television that I watch. Emma and I make it a date every Tuesday night. While I would not wish to be them (Let's face it, I just don't look so great in a skirt!) I LOVE large families, and theirs is, well, large. So I like watching it.) Anyway, once they said something like, "We always tell our children there are two things you can't change in life: who your parents are (what family you are born into) and what your birth order is." Or something like that. Oh so true! But we as parents we can do our best to make EVERY child feel special. That's how we want our Kate (all of our children, really) to feel. We want her to know that she is oh so loved, our mini in the middle.

I have mentioned that she is starting preschool in just a few short weeks. Mini school, as our church calls it. Sounds perfect for our mini in the middle. She has her new backpack and lunchbox and she is ready to make new friends. It will be good for her to spend some time away from Emma each week. They are best friends, but I think Kate will blossom having something each week that is just for her. This year, it is her turn to shine! We have been talking about mini school all summer. Trying to prepare her to leave us for a few hours each week, and to get her used to the idea. Last week I was telling her about some of the kids that would be in her class, and I mentioned one little boy from church. She got a confused look on her face and said, "Mom, he can't go to Minnie school. It is for girls." Before I could ask what she meant, her eyes lit up and she said, 'I know! Boys go to Mickey Mouse school!". Ha! My sweet, sweet girl. All summer long she thought she would be going to a school that specialized in all things Minnie Mouse :).

Kate, Mommy loves you. You are perfect just as you are, and whether I had three children, or thirty, I would love you just the same. There is only one of you, and you can never be replaced. We are blessed because of you, our dark haired, beautiful, mini in the middle.