Saturday, September 2, 2017

Eight is Gr8

Oh the birthday week. I'm so sad it's over! I really gave into (prompted? drove? created?) all the extra that comes with a summer birthday (that comes with Karis's summer birthday, dearly loved girl who also loves her birthday). She counted down for at least 20 days, and when we got to THE week, the party started. I prayed every morning with Karis for special gifts that would let her know God's love and delight in her. Hello, pray like that all the time, the eyes open to the wonders of daily-ness. Daily-ness can be special when looking through the right lens. Recently our life group talked about what our favorite day of summer was . . . Trev and I both agreed it was Karis's birthday. Sometimes I think "what? we're parents? to this delightful, curious, adventurous, tender girl?"

Karis is . . .
Getting to know who she is, to watch her life unfold, what joy. Karis is full of wonder, her mind is always turning and the questions are always flowing. From "is the sun a star or a planet?" to "I wonder if the fish came on Noah's ark or if they just stayed in the water?". She is bursting with joy and loves to laugh, she is for sure the sunniest person in our home and brings so much light (I try to remind her once in a while she's not responsible to keep US all "up" and she's allowed to feel gloomy when she wants to). She is attentive, vibrant, thoughtful. Creative, buoyant, perceptive. Full of love, compassion, depth. Still innocent and at the same time full of wisdom. She wants to feel old yet stay young (is that a human nature thing?).


Karis's faves right now . . .
Time with friends (especially Lauren)
Reading (American Girls, Boxcar Children,
Comfy clothes - especially bright athletic ones, and purple biker shorts
Imagining cooking in the backyard
Schmidt Lake Park
Writing and addressing notes in the mail
Canoeing
Peaches
Burgers and fries and malts (esp. Wendy's), turkey dinner, making her own taco salad
Odd Squad, Princess Sofia, Word Girl
Knock knock jokes
Guiding her brother in imaginative play (lately, school and princes/princesses dance sessions)
Sneaking down after bedtime to tell us things (so dear - maybe she listens to us from the stairs too?)

Peter Panning
I kept waiting for the "I don't want to get older" melty moment to happen and it wasn't and . . . then, the night before her birthday right after our "amen" as a family in our bed, it erupted. And it was epic and it was so wonderful - this is the first year I was able to just hold her and let her get it all out (in past years I think I tried to calm & convince her how great it is to get older). Oh the sweet things she said while bawling in my arms (and while Trev put J to bed). Including: "I don't want to be 8. Why can't I stay 7 forever? I'm going to grow out play places. I'm already too big for Chick Fil A . . . I want rules. I love our routines, I want them to stay the same . . . I want to live here forever . . .". And then all of a sudden, I don't remember why, we were giggling (oh the line between laughter and tears, so delicate) and then crying again. A beautiful 20 minutes, I want to remember the feeling of tears on her cheeks pressed against mine and her clinging to me as she clung to 7. And then letting go, peace with us both.

THE day . . .
Woke up to a spread of her picked out birthday cereal (Apple Jacks) caffeine free coke (a recent lake discovery/love), presents (Pinky Pye, Wonder Woman lego set, personalized address book ("I saw this and told Grandma you'd never let me have this one!"). When I told her she was in charge for the day, she said, "Oh, I still want some rules". !!! Some dear friends swung by to sing and give her flowers and a gift (and the 4 year old even gave her a ring he had received at the dentist the day before!). Watched some Odd Squad, we read the birthday verses (Ps. 139), she (and the boys) worked on a lego set all morning. Met Uncle Stevie (birthday buddy!) and Aunt Debbie at Chuck E Cheese, oh wow an experience and her fave was skeetball (minor disappointment at how many tickets you need to accumulate to purchase stuff at the end, shame on Chuck E!). Home to watch a show and play before her choice of dinner: Taco Bell at the "close park", a hoot.


What I LOVED about this birthday (and this age, so far, for Karis at least): her expectations are mostly reasonable, her dreams can mostly come true (and her birthday ones did this year, thanks to grandparents and aunts and uncles!), every turn around the corner is full of delight for her.


So many celebrations and gifts . . .
. . . early party in Fargo with G & G Pope, angel food and raspberries and American Girls

. . . Chick Fil A, shopping for wedding shoes at Old Navy, just a fun extra thing that lit up her week. Then a trip to Family Video to pick out kids movies

. . . "Nite to Unite" with some fab friends: helicopter, a bag full of freebies (she is so my daughter!), a new babysitter who took them to a park and delighted in who they are

. . . A gift to me, I planned to get her a new Bible, and the day that was going to happen I was reading the book Wonder, Engaging a Child . . .  and they had recommendations for her exact age. We ordered, she love it

. . . Surprise party! Oh it was just so simple and fun. I spontaneously took the kids to Wendy's at 11am for Frosty's and said, "Well, why don't we just get lunch?" She didn't even hear me order the extra ones - we got home and she carried four meals to the back yard and agreed to read books with me until noon (and decided Wendy's goofed and yay for extra meals we could save for dinner the next night!). Eventually the door squeaked and appeared Lauren and Julia. Surprise! She thought they were just swinging by to say hi and they let her know they'd be there till dinner time. Oh the awe! Triple surprise: their mom took Judah with her so he could have the afternoon with Teddy and the girls could reign supreme in the house here. The day sped by with things I had set aside for that day: nail polishing, making cloud dough, watching Odd Squad Movie. Caroline joined later, and moms and brothers came back late afternoon for dirt cake and singing and playing until dinner. Probs my fave day of the summer.



. . . Arboretum story time with friends, turkey dinner

. . . G & G Pan came for the weekend to bring the party hotel style with all the Pans. Lots of good eats, hours of swimming with grandma, dinner & gifts at Sunshine Factory, gma's brownies here with fam (Karis was over the moon that her cousins Lexie and Calvin at fun playing at her house, talked about that for days)

. . . The party she planned, park play date at her fave park: fruity pebble krispy treats, goldfish, strawberries, capri sun. The gift here is that it looked like rain and we went for it anyway - the sky spit off and on until the literal time we had planned to end the party downpour started. Gift!

. . .Birthday Tacos on the deck here with Aunt Kate (August b-day too) and Uncle Tay (and then after bed, birthday viewing of Dan in Real Life, which Kate had never seen, gasp!)

After it all, Karis said, "Finally, I can just enjoy being 8!"


Karis-isms:
- "I still want some rules" (when I told her she was in charge for the day)
- "Don't worry Judah, I'll share my birthday with you!"
- "Oh I'm so glad I can just enjoy being 8 now!" (after all celebrations complete)
- "My blanket is still my most precious thing, I'd grab it if there was a fire"

Quotables from Your Eight Year Old: Lively and Outgoing
- "There is considerable use of the question 'what?'. She can look right at mother as she gives a command, seem to hear her, but then ask "What?"
- Highly aware of the mistakes other people make, especially mother, and point them out to her"
- Highly aware of the relationship between parents
- Fathers more often than mothers object to many of the child's ways of behavior
- Family is very important to this age, and they tend to be extremely curious about all that's going on: phone calls, correspondence, conversation. Seeming to find his place in relation to the adult world in general

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