Thursday, March 04, 2010

Happy Birthday, Katie!

Eight years ago, at 2:25 in the afternoon, with her paternal grandparents waiting impatiently just outside the door curtain (I could see their feet, as well as hear them making comments like, "I wish she'd hurry up and have that baby so we can go to the cafeteria and get something to eat!"), my beautiful Katie was born.  And the world became an exponentially more wonderful place, even if most people weren't lucky enough to know why! 



(Looking back on through old pictures, I can't believe how little Travis was then!  At the time I thought he was quite a big boy.  He certainly was a good helper -- here he is retrieving a binky from the crib for his baby sister!)
Look at those tiny little feet!  (Both sets, actually!  Now Travis's feet are as big as mine.)

And here they are today...

Travis told me that Katie would love this toy, which is called a Bop It.  What he didn't mention was that I would not.  When I commented on how loud and repetitive it it, he said, "Mom, don't you remember when they had one on The Simpsons and parents kept throwing it out their car windows?"  No.  Unfortunately I didn't see that episode (as he well knew).  He was right about Katie loving it, though, which I suppose counts for something.

Here she is unwrapping the Zhu Zhu pet toy she wanted at Christmas but which I told her to ask for again at her birthday.  It is a mechanical hamster.  She is very pleased with it, and so are the cats.

And she was So excited to get a new Three Musketeers Barbie from her Auntie Diane!  Now the musketeer Barbies can practice dueling when they're not making trips to the mall.

A book!  Now that is an exciting present!

This was the present that she has been most eagerly anticipating... a mp3 player from her Granny and Paba!  It does even more neat stuff than she expected, and Travis has already loaded it with her favorite songs.

She finished with a picture book, The Goat-Faced Girl, by Leah Marinsky Sharpe.  What with Barbies, mechanical hamsters, mp3 players, Bop-its, and all, this is the only one of her birthday books I got to read to her today, but it is excellent!

Because I would be interested, I will also mention that Katie's Granny and Paba gave her Ronia, The Robber's Daugher, by Astrid Lindgren; The Midnight Folk, by John Masefield; The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley; and A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith, and The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett.  And I gave her The Enchanted Castle, by E. Nesbit and, to my shame and only because she very specifically requested it, In Your Face, by Heather Alexander.  I haven't read any the Wizards of Waverly Place books, but I'm assuming they can't be much worse than The Bobbsey Twins, which I read at her age and which I don't think did me any harm (though I can't remember a thing about them except that they were all the same).


And she had her birthday cake for lunch!  Birthday girl's privilege.  Happy birthday, baby girl!

3 comments:

Beth Hollmann said...

Melora, she is beautiful! I can tell just from this post that the world is much better for having Katie in it. I am going to check out all the books you listed - thanks for posting those! I LOVE E. Nesbit, and I've been wanting to check out Terry Pratchett for some time now. Happy Birthday, Katie!

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday Katie. You are indeed beautiful. Bob & Mel - your friends over the mountain.

Elisheva Hannah Levin said...

Best wishes another trip around the sun, Katie!

Congrats on eight years as the mother of a daughter, Melora!