Happy birthday, Kylee!

"Everyone should have a Kylee. " It's a sentence that's been said to me several times by several different people and it definitely rings true. She is fun-loving and adventure-seeking.  She always has a smile on her face and will likely put one on yours too.

This year Kylee has become super interested in babysitting.  She loves playing with all the younger neighborhood kids and even at the park, kids we don't know seem to gravitate towards her. Kylee is so responsible- I once had a good friend text me asking if Kylee could come over and watch her three kids who are all under the age of six! Unfortunately Kylee was busy that day, but I know she would have done a great job.


Kylee could have social plans with friends every day of the week.  She stays in touch with volleyball friends in the off season.  She's made new friends with her triathlon training group.  She texts other girls who were at the Edward Jones meetings this summer. She sees her school friends often. (She even had a boy from her class ask for her number towards the end of last school year- which I was totally unprepared for but she handled so well.) She plays with all the neighbor girls of all ages.  And while Kylee certainly enjoys time with friends, she equally loves family time.  Lately she and Kent have been taking off on nightly bike rides.  She loves a good backyard baseball game with her brothers.  She also loves anytime we get to spend with the aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents.

Still a competitor to.the.core, Kylee has really challenged herself athletically this year.  She was proud to shave eighteen seconds off the run portion of her triathlon from last year and also thrilled to beat a tough competitor by one second in the swim portion of the race. She overheard several girls in her age division show up at the Ankeny triathlon having already done more than thirty triathlons! Kylee had only done three so she was a little nervous but her training paid off and she was thrilled to come out on top! She also spent a lot of the summer doing volleyball camps and is excited to get back into that this fall.

Fifth grade will be a big year for Kylee.  I know she will do safety patrol and PTO babysitting.  She may do band- I would like to encourage her to try it as I know that at least 90% of the kids in her class will be doing it.  I'd love for her to learn to read music and I also told her she may feel left out if all her other friends are in band and she isn't.  "That's fine with me, Mom. I'm not going to just do something because all my friends are in it if I don't think I would like it." And I trust her.  She's got a good head on her shoulders and I believe that if she thinks band isn't her thing, well, it's probably not her thing.

She often drops comments to me about friends; "well she told me she's going to wear make-up every day to school this year." When I ask her what she thinks of that she very matter-of-factly replies, "I would wear make-up sometimes, like if it's a special day or something, but no way am I going to wear it every day.  I think fifth grade is a little young for that." 

I'm thankful for the relationship that I have with Kylee.  She and I are close.  She keeps me in the loop about what's going on with her friends and is willing to hand over her phone at anytime if I want to check what she's been up to.  More often than not, she hardly even knows where she's last set her phone and maybe hasn't even been on it in days.  She'll find it in her room and say, "Oh my, I have 72 messages from friends." Then she will just set it down, walk away and say, "Eh, I'll check them later.  Right now I'm going to go outside and play." I love, LOVE that about her.

Kylee is so thoughtful.  She just understands things about emotions so well.  She can tell if I'm having an off day and if I am, I often find a sweet handwritten note by my bed at night.  She makes me bookmarks because she sees me thumbing through pages trying to find where I left off.  She just gets it.

I truly can't wait to spend the next couple days celebrating her!