The other morning I woke Katya up at 8 am. She is our night owl child—always wants to stay up and do projects/read books/listen to music in the evening and almost always has to be woken up for school. I usually try to wake her up gently since I know that a grouchy Katya is not a very pleasant Katya. So this time I did something new, I started telling her a story of what I did hours before she was born. I started with it being two days after 4th of July, how hot it was, how Tato and I decided to go to a late night movie (“X-men”) because we didn’t have kids yet, and how we got back from the movies at midnight. I told her how at 2 am we had to go to the hospital because my water broke and then…she was born at 1:16 pm. The whole time I was telling Katya that story, she was pretending to be still asleep. I knew she was listening intently. After I was done with the story, I tickled her foot, said my traditional “Dobriy Ranok” (“good morning” in Ukrainian) and walked away.
After breakfast Katya told me with a sneaky smile that she actually heard the whole story I was telling her and that she really liked it. I think this is a great example of how it is with kids in my life. Sometimes they don’t even look like they are listening but they are. Sometimes, they are listening to me speaking to Robert about other people or what’s happening in our lives and although they don’t mention it, they are soaking it all the good (and bad, unfortunately) that our conversations express. I am probably thinking all these deep thoughts today because I am realizing with each passing day how quickly our kids are growing and how much I still need to teach them. Nah…don’t want to think heavy thoughts—sometimes the heaviness of the responsibilities that we have as parents seem a bit overwhelming.
After breakfast Katya told me with a sneaky smile that she actually heard the whole story I was telling her and that she really liked it. I think this is a great example of how it is with kids in my life. Sometimes they don’t even look like they are listening but they are. Sometimes, they are listening to me speaking to Robert about other people or what’s happening in our lives and although they don’t mention it, they are soaking it all the good (and bad, unfortunately) that our conversations express. I am probably thinking all these deep thoughts today because I am realizing with each passing day how quickly our kids are growing and how much I still need to teach them. Nah…don’t want to think heavy thoughts—sometimes the heaviness of the responsibilities that we have as parents seem a bit overwhelming.
For real, today’s post is inspired by Katya’s birthday, that happened on July 6th. My beautiful daughter turned NINE!
Nine! Do you remember yourself when you turned nine?
Books, sports, crafts, playing “club” and “forts” is what Katya loves at the moment. She is absolutely keen on Harry Potter! She read the series several times already and definitely wants to visit Harry Potter sights and theme park when we move to England. She loves music and has such a beautiful voice. She actually tells me that she misses playing the piano every day (our piano has been packed up for over a month now).
Katya is a good big sister, but it’s hard for her to be a big sister to one of her brothers who is supposed to be younger but is almost bigger than she is. She loves to put Mark to bed. She is very independent in the way she does things. She does not like to cook with me (sad…but true) and she doesn’t like vegetables. She loves to write lists of things to do and schedules (I have no idea where she gets that from) and play board games. She is VERY good at climbing things, such as trees, polls, monkey bars. This girl is very athletic and always likes to push the limit of how much she can do in all aspects of life.
Katya has made some pretty amazing friends this year..well, actually over the past several years. They are probably the first best friends that she’ll remember forever. 
Okay, a quick recap of Katya’s birthday this year. It turned out to be quite unique this time because on July 6th we were still travelling around Sea of Japan coastline as part of our 4th of July trip. At first, Katya was a bit worried that her birthday will not be special and that she won’t get to open her presents, etc. because we’ll be on the road. But when she found out that one her best friends will be going on the trip as well, things started to look a lot brighter-haha.
On the morning of July 6th, Katya had pancakes and sausages for breakfast, with a candle stuck into a vegetable “sausage” patty to blow out. This is such a funny picture of her trying to get as much air as possible to blow out that one “huge” candle.
Katya got to open three of her presents. One of them was a coveted Harry Potter Film Wizardry Book about everything you wanted to know about the movies and lots and lots of pictures.
We’ll spare you the details of how much trouble that book was causing the rest of the day because that “little brother” mentioned above wanted to read the book too.
When we got home from our trip, Katya got to open the rest of the presents. I think she loved them all!
Lots of coloring books, pen with magic invisible ink (she immediately used it on Alex’s back), “fashion style” book to draw your own outfits, coin purse and more drawing books.
Yes, Katya is growing up quickly. She is excited to hopefully be in Year 5 (same as 4th grade but sounds so much cooler) when she goes to British school this fall. She is also very excited to wear a uniform (we’ll see how long that lasts). And she is looking forward to babysitting her brothers in just two yeas (unbelievable!).
We love you, Katrusia! Wishing you a fantastic year with all the new things you’ll come across this year!
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