kiana bear

my perfect first born,
{most of the time}

I feel as though I don’t post about Kiana enough.
She doesn’t have as many entertaining mishaps, rarely mis-speaks, and it would be strange to post every time she did something WONDERFUL. She is usually doing exactly what she should be. Where she should be.

But today, I’m going to do one run-down of what life is like with Kiana in our family.

I imagine it must be rough being the first born in any family.

The expectations are so high.
There’s less room and tolerance for messing up.
Yet, Kiana always goes above and beyond…every time, we are so lucky.

If I had to describe Kiana in just one word, I would choose: responsible.

{I hope that never makes her seem boring, because this girl is FUN, but yes, rarely silly. She has always been years ahead in maturity, so rarely silly.}

She is responsible for getting things done she needs to do, she is responsible for consequences if they arise. She is willing to be responsible for everyone else. Kiana has always been in the top of her class at school, and I have never had to wonder or worry about her homework. As a parent, this is something you don’t realize is so so nice, convenient, and less time consuming until you have a child who is NOT responsible for their homework. Which I now have. She does not receive enough praise for getting 100% on spelling tests week after week. Her first big science test this year was on DNA/genetics in 5th grade/private school and she was the only student who received 100%, so that week she was the only student in her class who didn’t have to re-take the test later that week. Things like this are normal. Her Spanish teacher has told her she’s the best in her class, and she loves it! She’s been walking around the house singing/speaking in Spanish.

Often times, in the evening I will walk past her on a computer and ask what she’s doing. She will be typing a report with numerous windows open with online information she’s already googled to get the job done. I am usually unaware of what report she’s doing or what the topic is. I find out at Parent/teacher conferences that she has usually done the best and always has her own unique twist taken on all she does.

She’s totally techy. ohhhh, i love this. She had a blog for about a year before I joined the blogging world. She is known to {with Dad’s help} sell her old cell phone on ebay to figure out what it takes to get a new one. This last time she did this, she received her new phone while Dusty and I were out of town and got it all hooked up/number transferred without our help. I have not even ever done that! She will take her friends cell phones and get their “blue tooth” turned on so she can send you songs via cell phone. Totally into her I-pods.

She has a great motherly-instinct. At times I remind her, I can take care of this, and you can just worry about yourself… but because of this instinct her siblings are always cared for extra well if she is around.

{Kiana painting Sela’s fingernails}

I truly believe every Momma in the world deserves to have a girl first, because you get the bonus of having a second right hand. I always have Kiana nearby to help. She gets her little sister in the car, buckled in her car seat long before it’s time to leave. She will start the cars for us, and let them warm up in the winter. If we are all together as a family, she probably has Sela on her hip or is pushing her in the stroller, she demands and loves to be in charge of her little sissy. She loves to help in the kitchen and can whip up a few meals/desserts completely on her own. Because of her demanding dance schedule, she is known to always come home late at night and make her own dinner, night after night. She never complains. She always helps Myla pick out her outfits and do her hair if I’m not home. She will randomly ask me if she can shine the floors, this is really one of her favorite things to do…In addition to always helping me, she is known to want to go to Shannon’s or someone else’s house and help them with their kids, or home.

I love how organized she is, truly after my own heart. She will not only have her weekly/monthly school-activities schedule memorized but she knows where everyone in the family should be at all times. I love to hear her and Dusty argue about being late or what time something starts, it cracks me up. Dusty will always add, “She is a small version of you.” Truly one of the sweetest things he says! She picks out her school clothes the night before to save time in the morning, always has her dance bag ready so I can grab it and not worry what to have in it for her. When we travel, she will pick out her outfits and begin packing her things days before we are leaving so I can only worry about the younger kids. Right now, she has been waiting for me to take her to Franklin Covey so she can get new planning pages for the old planner of mine I passed onto her…

I love her sense of style. Since she was about 7, she has picked-out and chosen her own outfits everyday. Quite often she will put something together that I think, “wow, I’m totally going to wear something similar to that tomorrow.” She is great at doing her own hair, although there are days we are cutting it very close to be on time due to waiting for the hair to be done! 🙂

Kiana loves to shop, and is always willing to go along with me. In fact, she’s willing to do all-things girl with me. She’s my favorite sidekick. We get manicures, pedicures, our eyebrows waxed together. And some of you may know, not all girls want to do these things…I also have a girl like that. If I am ever working on a craft or project at home, I can always count on her helping me to get the job done.

I was teasing her a couple days ago, her sis can throw a mean spiral with a football and so Kiana picked up another little ball and threw it to me… but, it went nowhere near me. in fact, it went about 15 feet away from me.
I told her, “bearsy, it’s a good thing you can dance.”
And, really, this girl can dance. She goes to hours and hours of rehearsals every week and in 8 years of dancing, I have never once heard her complain.
It’s so fun to see her doing something she LOVES.

One of my favorite qualities about Kiana, and something I need to do better. She can laugh at herself. When she does say something incorrectly or do something wrong, she always laughs and in return makes fun of herself. i love it.

I cannot believe how quickly she is growing up. These days she is already talking about what kind of car she wants when she’s 16 and the kind of dog she’s going to get when she’s 22 and done with college…I hate knowing that these events are really going to come and go all too soon. She’s planning to go to college in Boston, and her Daddy will get season tickets to the Red Sox. Can’t I just freeze time while her favorite thing to do is to go to dinner at Tepanyaki’s with her family? By the way, i love her taste buds. She is always excited to have Japanese, Indian, so many types of food that Dusty and I love.

ohhh, {sigh} my baby girl is growing up, and I just adore her…