She's a Mystery to Me

Our "little" girl is seven now.  She is absolutely a dream. 
Funny - she makes us laugh with funny faces.
Smart - she makes good grades without any effort and we have never pressured her in any way academically.  She can read everything, except maybe ingredient lists (see below).
Artistic -  Kate painted a picture as an homage to a local artist, Gregory Kondos, in her art class at school.  Her painting was chosen to use as an example for other classes.  She kept telling me, "Mom!  Everyone is saying they saw my postcard!"  I had no idea what she was talking about but now I know...  The painting they did was based on a postcard of the painting by the artist.  I was able to speak to the art teacher last week and she told me how focused Kate was during this class and how amazed she was with her ability to listen intently and take to heart the directions she was given. The painting is amazing.  It still looks like a child painted it, but there is a boat and the boat's bow has a point. The colors are beautiful and rich.  I will post a picture of it as soon as she gets to bring it home.  The entire school did this project and they are taking a field trip to an art gallery and meeting the artist.  What an experience!  You can see Mr. Kondos' painting HERE .  The painting the kids did as an homage to him is River Cruise.
Girly - Kate loves clothes, recently got her ears pierced, has great hair, loves shoes, and stays pretty clean.  She's a lot of fun to shop with and gives good advice when I can't figure out what to wear.  Also, she doesn't complain that I still pick out her clothes in the morning. I know that won't last long so I am completely enjoying every minute of it. 
Focused - Kate has been taking one dance class a week, except for summer breaks, since she was 2 1/2.  She loves it.  It started as the typical combo class of tap and ballet, but this year she had to choose one type of dance.  She chose ballet.  I was kind of surprised because I thought the fast pace of tap or trying something new like jazz or hip hop would be her style.  She loves the flow of ballet, the leg lifts the pretty hands, the bun.  Who doesn't love the bun?  Her ballet teacher told me recently that Kate is one of the most focused dancers in class.  She is focused in life. 
Limber - You should see this girl do the splits.  Amazing.
Tall - She is SO tall.  Most people think she's at least 8.
Giving - She'll share anything!
Fun - She let me take her to Wicked (a Broadway musical in San Francisco) instead of having a birthday party.  We bought the music a week before and listened to it everyday in the car (so much that Christopher was even singing along) and then took her Aunt Julia and cousin Maddi with us to the Big City to see the show.  We had a blast and truly enjoyed the day. 

She is resiliant vs. reactive.  She is kind.  Painfully kind.  We have conversations about kids she doesn't particularly like but feels like she should play with them.  She is loving and loyal.  She is dedicated to whatever task is laid before her.  If her brother or sister is upset about something, we have caught her on more than one occasion welling up with tears.  She stresses about tests at school, even though she aces every one.  She takes EVERYTHING to heart.  Her teacher was telling the class that if they couldn't read the words in the ingredients on their snacks, then the snack wasn't healthy.  Kate had a jar of roasted and salted almonds.  She couldn't read one of the ingredients so she didn't eat them because she thought they were unhealthy.  All it says is: almonds, vegetable oil (canola, safflower and/or sunflower) and salt.  I'm thinking maybe she was not reading the ingredients list. Or she was thrown off by canola?  She wants to be an ecologist and perfectly recites what an ecologist does.  She is a sponge, absorbing life, words, pictures, music and love. 

Here she is on her 7th birthday.  She wanted a rainforest cake.