In our immediate family, Katie’s birthday is the last one of the year. What this means is she has to see, starting with Foster, everyone else get gifts and a special day. And for Katie, the main thing everyone else gets all through the year is ATTENTION. For her, especially at 4, that was the hardest. Don’t get me wrong, she doesn’t really pitch any fits or hold any grudges against the birthday person. She doesn’t even try to open their gifts before they can. What she does do is plan. Seems very harmless to you I am sure but that’s because you don’t know her like we do. Foster’s birthday is in February, so starting then there is the count down to how many days, weeks, months until her birthday in October. She can also tell you each family members birthday and whose is first, second, etc. Her planning began in February so she had 8 months to convince me that it would be a good idea to have 5 other little girls spend the night for her birthday. I knew that it would be a long shot. I mean, what would Chris and the boys do? Camp in the backyard? (They spent the night with Papaw.)
What about the fact that all but 1 of the girls had never slept over at a friend’s house? Surely I would be calling parents at 2 am with a crying, hysterical little girl to pick up. (They all stayed!) So even though it seemed like a crazy idea at the time, I am glad that we did it. It was a great way for Katie to turn 5, almost like she was moving from little girl to big girl with that one event. She has grown up a lot over the past year and a half. She lost her Nana and now her Gigi. She started crying when I tucked her in the other night and she said, “I know Gigi is with Nana but I miss them both so much.” I am always amazed by Katie’s sensitivity. She loves to help in the kitchen, she is a hard worker with her jobs and she still enjoys any kind of arts and crafts. She is a good friend, kind and patient with her brothers (most of the time). I am blessed that she is my girl!