Kendra Turns 18

Kendra was born 3 weeks before her due date ... via C-Section. Hours after her aunt's birthday ... but too late to share the same date. "Today" Aunt is exactly twice as old as her  niece. She arrived with a bang ... but she was the perfect baby. She rarely cried, easily amused herself, loved people, loved going places, took naps right through all the hustle and bustle of life, and was an endless source of giggles and coos. She was expressive and talked early, walked late, and in general, hit milestones when it pleased her to do so.

She was very observant, and copied everything she saw.

By the time her baby sister arrived, she had become quite a handful! She hit hit the terrible twos by 15 months, and we despaired that she would ever leave them. One night, she helped wash the kitchen floor ... with a new can of Crisco. The next morning, she got up early and fixed pancakes for breakfast.

At Christmas that year, she found her first Great Love. While dancing in the living room, watching Barney, she suddenly got very quiet. I dashed into the room to see what mischief she had gotten into this time, and there she stood mid-dance, both arms in the air, along with one bare little foot. She was transfixed by a new show on PBS... The Nutcracker. She eventually lowered her arms and leg, but stood transfixed for the duration of the show, and again at the second showing later that afternoon, again when is played that evening, and again the next morning. When it came on again that afternoon, she mimicked every dance and swirled and giggled ... she had it memorized. A few days later, a different Nutcracker came on ... she came running to watch and was quite miffed to find it "not the same" but the music soon convinced her it was the same show... and by the end of the Christmas season, she had several favorites.

That summer, she spent a weekend with Grammy and Papa and found her second Great Love. After a trip to the zoo, Grammy told her to pick out something at the gift shop. She came home with 2 plastic giraffes ... and once home, she checked out dozens of books and videos featuring giraffes. She still has her original giraffes ... along with several dozen more.

She also loved DIRT. I think she would love living on the beach, building sand castles every day.

Shortly after we moved to Texas, Aunt got married, and she got to be the flower girl.

She started telling (and "writing" down) elaborate stories as a toddler ... often about her crayons going to the zoo, picnics in the mountains, swimming with dolphins, racing giraffes, and dancing with nutcrackers. Most were quite simple. "Blue crayon was sad. Red crayon took him to the zoo. They saw a big giraffe. Blue crayon was happy." As she got older, her stories became more elaborate, and the costumes would be worn all day long. Special treats, such as tea parties at the library, would thrill her for weeks.

Kendra always loved cooking with us, but by the time she was 7, she was doing a great deal of cooking on her own.

She was a willing helper .... as long as she could make a huge mess.

She continued to be a happy go lucky child, spinning long stories for her siblings, and never taking anything too seriously.

She discovered that she had quite a talent for quick fixes, knitting, crocheting, bead work, and many other things. She also really enjoyed planting herbs, and harvesting and using them.

She was always up to something ...

This is the most recent picture that I have of her ... at least, a good picture. She is watching a Youtube video about the Vikings for school, with Ruezy snuggled in beside her.

These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google. Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/