Several months ago I attended a party for Eli's class and his reading teacher started talking to me about Kate. She asked me if she is my wild child. She said it would be totally unfair for me to get two kids like Sarah and Eli and not have a wild child. I took that as a compliment but also secretly thought that she hadn't been around to see Sarah in all her wild child glory days. I won't lie, Eli was born with that easygoing, compliant personality and I've always felt like it was a gift for choosing to have another child after Sarah. Please don't judge. Just believe me when I tell you that Josh and I worked HARD to mold her into the sweet, well-behaved child she is. I'm sure I could find a multitude of witnesses from grocery stores, to church parking lots, to restaurants to hospitals who could testify of what I speak. I don't share this to bad mouth my firstborn. I'm just speaking the truth. That girl has got a strong will and I praise God because I've seen how He's worked in her life and I know that He has big plans for that strong will.
But, that takes me back to Kate. It never occurred to me I would have TWO strong willed children. I mean really, I think that anybody who knows me and Josh probably found it shocking we could create 1 child with a strong will. Seriously, look at me the wrong way and I will cry. Tell Josh you're disappointed in him, he will completely rearrange his life to make you happy. Tell Kate to tell her teacher goodbye.....well, that's another story. We had a rough spot with Kate this year, but I won't bring that up again. Sarah brought it up at supper one night with Josh's parents and Kate said, "I don't wanna talk about it and I don't want anybody else to talk about it." Well, there you go. So I won't talk about it. I will just tell you that the day Eli's teacher asked me about Kate being a wild child I thought, 'NO! She's really laid back'. And she is. She was one of those babies who would smile at strangers and could entertain herself for hours. But just this year I've had a realization. She is strong-willed in a different way than Sarah was. Sarah was just outright rebellious. She would do things just because you had just told her not to. Kate is more subtle. And I have to admit, she gets this from me. She will NOT do things because we want her to. This became a problem when Kate's teacher started asking her to give her a high five as she was leaving for the day. Kate wouldn't do it. Just flat out would not do it. There was a day when her teacher had a talk with her about how if she wanted to be Dazzling Dolphin she had to respond when she was spoken to. I thought for sure that would work. Nope. So, I decided that day we just probably wouldn't be getting Dazzling Dolphin this year.
Well, we've turned a corner. Apparently, Kate speaks to her teacher when she leaves. Apparently, she is a Dazzling Dolphin. And apparently, I say apparently a lot. Because Kate's reaction to finding out she had been chosen was, "Apparently I had to wait to be Dazzling Dolphin." She may not always choose to bless us with a response, but when she does, it's priceless!!!!
Congratulations Kate! Apparently God gave you to us to fill our days with joy! :)
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