A Post for Kate

I have a friend who posts letters to her kids on her blog.  It's a cute idea.  But if I just dedicate a whole post to each of my kids... that's kind of the same right?  

Indulge my sad picture taking abilities and take a look at this goofy little blonde thing...  

I'm still not really sure where she came from.  She is a little, tiny, blonde spit-fire that is going to send Shaun to an early grave.  Yeah that's right.  I said it.  I've never met someone who I can be fire-breathing mad at one second and cuddling up next to the next.

But oh how I love this little girl.  Kate will be 3 in June- which is absolutely insane to me.  Where did the time go?  Do I sound old?  Shaun says that's because I am.  I start every morning with a tiny hug from her, before she races off down the stairs to find her brothers.  She eats like a bird and can exist on 2 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period, all the while going full-bore on everything.

She loves Minnie Mouse, "Spinnies" (skirts) and Princess Sofia.  Her aunt is determined to get her to know all the other Disney princesses- I sat and listened to them last night in the kitchen and I about died laughing at some her Kate's mis-pronounciations.  For example, can you name this princess?  "Boo-a Boo-ee"  It's Sleeping Beauty for you idiots out there.  She cracks me up.

And it turns out she may be more like her oldest brother than anyone else...  Shaun and I recently decided to take Kate off gluten to see if it would help her stomach-aches and other GI issues.  It took about two weeks- but we are pretty sure that even if she never has full blown Celiac Disease- at the very least, she has an intolerance.  Her GI doctor wanted to run a lot of very expensive tests (x-rays and MRI's) because her blood tests kept coming back inconclusive... but my gut (pun intended) kept telling me to give this a shot.  Why would I let my baby girl continue to be uncomfortable when there was a very obvious and very easy solution to fix it?  I didn't.  She's been off gluten for about a month and a half now and she is doing so well!  It's obviously harder for her than any one else since she can't read an ingredient list to see if a snack is glutenous, but with the help of her extremely protective older brothers- we are making it work.

Because of this gluten-glitch we have found, I have been trying to make an effort to let the kids help more in the kitchen... with the thought that if they know what goes into their food- they have a better idea of what they can eat.  Good idea?  I don't know.  What I do know is that my kitchen is a LOT messier than before.  That said- Kate LOVES being in the kitchen.  She has a "spot" that she perches on whenever she sees me pull baking stuff out of the cupboard and a stool she sits on when I am making dinner.  She is an excellent stirrer.  And we only lose about half of the pancake batter when she is on duty.

Anyway- this post was for Kate... and one day if you read this Kate... I love you lots.