Isabel Katrish

Isabel, you love life! You live each moment to the fullest capacity.  It is so fun to see the world through your eyes.  With that being said, you wear me out.  Sometimes I catch myself wishing I had you when I was 20 years old.  You are enough of a kid to keep me busy.  Most of the time, watching you is more of an effort to protect you from yourself.  You are way more adventurous than Noah was, I think that's your curiosity.  Several times a day I find you just excited and all smiles laughing and clambering about nothing.  You get excited about taking a bath, finding a bug, seeing someone you know, hearing a plane, reading a book, rocking on a rocking chair, pushing a button, hearing a dog bark, getting a treat, or any really trivial thing one encounters living day to day. The world holds so much joy for you.  You already make me laugh and have brought so much light into my life it's hard to stay mad at you when you dump out a bucket of beads, throw all your food onto the ground the instant you don't feel like eating anymore or climb out of your crib time and time again.  You have personality coming out of your ears and I think people love you for it.  You are a natural at making friends and everyone gets a kick out of you.  You are the daughter I always wanted and sometimes you look at me with your little round head and big blue eyes and I think to myself "They don't get any cuter than this."  I feel if I did more for you, it would not be wasted.  You enjoy anything I do for you.  You try to get games started constantly and can turn anything you are doing into something fun.  Yesterday I thought we could go take a walk outside together since Dad had Noah.  You refused to stay on the sidewalk and had to walk right down the middle of the road.  You had to go open every parked car door you could find, walk up and down neighbors steps, push pumpkins over, ring doorbells, chase dogs, pick flowers and by the end of it I was carrying you home with you kicking and screaming and throwing yourself on the ground.  Nothing stops you from getting what you want and this means you're good at throwing fits. In  a word-determined. I'm not sure if it's just in girls to do such a thing, but even today the workers in the house heard you and were laughing saying they'd never seen a kid do it quite as well as you.  You scream so loud and for so long you turn red in the face and are shaking.  And the thing is, you know how to match a face with a mood and how to do a sassy scream, sad scream, bossy scream, mad scream, and a tired scream.  You have all of them down.  Most of the time you do them until you get a reaction out of me, but your least favorite reaction of mine is when I laugh at you.  I know it's not the reaction you are looking for but when you get even more frustrated I know that you have the world figured out.  You are just totally tuned in to everything that's going on around you.  You're going to be a hard kid to sneak anything past you.  You have your Dad completely wrapped around your finger and I really think he can not get mad at you.  He feels too bad disciplining you so that all gets left to Mommy.  For a while I've been looking forward to the day you are old enough to not hurt yourself and even out your moods a bit because you make things more fun and more difficult then I ever thought possible.  However, tonight I got a little sad.  Earlier today we were at Target looking for a Halloween costume and you found a Rapunzel nightgown and got a big smile on your face.  I figured that could be your costume.  Tonight I put it on you and you started running around in it with a happy "I'm so special" shy kind of way and you looked so grown up all the sudden.  The milestone of wanting to dress up like someone is not usually a big deal, but for me it was your passage into toddlerhood and out of your baby "I don't care what I'm wearing" ways.  You got big and your little shoulders filled it out!  I'm reminded of how sweet you were as a newborn and remembered how badly I wished you could talk to me and I couldn't wait to hear what you had to say.  Now I get to hear it and it's all hilarious.  You've started calling me Kim, like your older brother does, and the whole time I drive I hear you behind me saying "Kim, Kim, Kim, Kim." And you're sure you carry on conversations with me the whole time.  You just love to be paid attention to and know that you are heard and validated.  Just this past Sunday, you sat on a chair next to me telling a story that was exciting and funny and you even had hand gestures to go along with it.  You are adorable all packaged up into one kid.  I hope I never squash your personality or tell you to be any different that you are.  You came so happy and it would break my heart to ever see this world take any of that away from you. You are going to be so funny to have around and you already think Mommy is your best bud so hopefully that continues.  I love you sweetie, and I know I will never have enough energy to keep up with you but I guess I am trying my hardest.  I'm glad Noah is so patient with you always stealing toys and throwing fits and hitting.  He has been so nice to you and loving and tries his hardest to help you.  I hope you remember that and always cherish that friendship and love shown towards you from him.  Noah can take himself seriously and I'm glad he has you around to keep things fun and outgoing.  You guys are a great pair.  Trishy, I hope you know that even if I tell you that you are naughty all the time, I would relive any day with you in it that I could.  I feel like my heart grew when I had you.
Love you,
Mommy