Fore!

Yes, look out. Kathryn is FOUR. In case you would like to get to know her a little better...

She is a delightful little soul who loves to laugh and be silly. She is loving and tender-hearted. She has a bold confidence that I hope will stay with her always.

She is tirelessly creative. If you ask her about herself, that is the first word she will use. She writes songs and stories, builds and pretends and dreams and is never far from her paintbrush or pens. She mismatches her clothes on purpose.

She has such a thirst for information. Every day she asks me questions and follow-up questions, delving deeper and deeper into the subject matter until inevitably her curiosity exceeds my knowledge and we end up in the encyclopedia. She is off-the-charts intellectually, but still four-ish emotionally, and it affects everything in her life. I am reading books about parenting kids like her (and laughing and crying harder than I have in a long time at the revelations), and I think we might get through it yet.

She is a little lawyer and doesn't miss or forget a thing. She calls me out on any inconsistency (whether in recurring story characters or discussing details of past events) no matter how insignificant (to me anyway) . Her recollection is always correct. It drives me crazy.

She still loves "fun-scary" things. We very rarely watch t.v. or movies, but this year she loved Coraline, Corpse Bride, James and the Giant Peach, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Labyrinth, Howl's Moving Castle and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. She likes anything with imagination, adventure and a bit of spookiness thrown in for good measure.

We love getting to know more of who she is every day, and are at once astounded and bewildered.

(pictures soon)