Developmental Milestones

"Maw-om, everyone has one but me." This is Kenzie, age four, declaring dejectedly that EVERYONE in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD but her has a CTR ring. This is a new childhood complaint for her. We can add this to, "You never let me do anything I want to," as her favorite things to say to me.

I'm so pleased because now I can implement the ever wise parental response, "Well, if everyone had a one-legged dog that peed on his/her bed would you want one?" I've been waiting to use that line ever since Kenzie was born. And the one about jumping off a cliff.

My other favorite thing that Kenzie does now (and I'm turning off the sarcasm now) is tell jokes. Her favorite is from Word World. She says, "How does a duck learn to fly?" And we are required to say, "How?" And she starts laughing and says in her adorable voice, "They just wing it."

My personal joke favorite is this next one, which I may or may not have taught her and her compatriots during an unscheduled Preschool moment. She says, "Do you want to go under there?" And if we answer anything besides, "Under where?" we are severley chastised. But if we give the correct answer we are rewarded with extreme giggles. "You just said 'underwear,'" she laughs. This has provided hours of fun.

One of my sisters said that if my kids ever read my blog they will think I hate them. To debunk this myth I think I will gush over Kenzie's achievements and sweetness. (If you're not her grandma you can stop reading right now. I'm about to get gushy and long-winded.)

Kenzie is Sweet and Tenderhearted:

The other day we were at Sherrie and Josh's watching "Earth" (a cool documentary). Kenzie and the other kids were watching too. The documentary follows a polar bear at one point as he tries to find food while the ice around him melts. Kenzie was really concerned about the polar bear. The movie implies (no graphic killings) that the polar bear dies after he tries to eat a walrus but can't quite win the battle to drag one off.

The kids asked, "What happens to the polar bear? What happens?" I'm pretty practical about this stuff so without thinking I said, "He can't find food so he dies." This didn't seem to phase anyone but Kenzie. She buried her head in the blankets and cried and cried. Sweet little thing.

Last year at church she learned a song about not walking away from people if they "don't walk as most people do," etc. She loves this song. After singing it the other night she said to me, "Mom, I'll never walk away from you." Even if this implies that she thinks I am "different," it was very sweet.

Kenzie has Uber-intelligence upon which I place Superhigh expectations and try to vicariously live my life:

A few months ago Kenzie read a book to me. We promised her a camelback (it was pink!) if she would learn how to read. She had to sound out all the letters and put the words together, which she did. (It was in Septemberish, when she was 4.5 years old) I should have wrote down what book it was. Dang! I'll have to go and see if I can find it at the library again. She's known all the letters and their sounds for a long time, but it was her Aunt Laurie that spent an evening teaching her how to sound out words. Her first word ever was JET. Good job La-La. With aunts and "Word World" I'm not sure I even have a job around here. She doesn't read all the time or anything like that, just when we make her she can do it.

***The book was June's Tune, a "Read With Me" book where I read one page and Kenzie read the next. Mike remembered.

Kenzie loves to create things. I left out a hole punch and some papers from a project and Kenzie decided to make something. She cut the papers, punched holes in them and then asked for pipe cleaner. She made earrings for all of us and her dolls to wear and saved one for Mike, just in case he wanted one. The other day she found some paper and decided to make a book. She asked for some glue and put all the pages together so she could, "Draw pictures and write words on them."

She got a bear from her favorite church grandma and now she loves to draw bears. Here is a sampling of her latest bears:

Kenzie, I can't believe you are growing up. You are such a kind, smart girl with a growing sense of humor. We love you.