We work on imparting bits of knowledge to Kiera every day. When I say knowledge, I don’t necessarily mean like math and English. We try to make sure she remembers to be polite, to shake a person’s hand, to be aware of her surroundings and to take notice of people.
We work with her to make sure she can adapt to new situations and that she can think for herself. At the same time, it is interesting to see what our DNA has contributed to our child.
Once she started being able to pick up blocks and then proceeded to separate them by color, we quickly realized that she had been blessed with her Mommy’s OCD. As she began to grow, we would notice it more and more.
I remember the battle we used to have with water. She loved to be in the swimming pool and bath, but if she spilled water on herself or someone accidentally sprayed her, it turned into a major meltdown. I’m talking trying to pull her clothes off, big crocodile tears and hysterics. It took forever to break her of that but she finally doesn’t flip out when she gets a drink on her clothes.
A couple of weeks ago, as we were counting out her coins, I got a little tickled at when her OCD struck.Kiera and I had discussed the differences in the coins and were making piles of the quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies. Once we were finished with the piles we began to separate them by dollar amount. She worked on the quarters, placing them 4 to a stack to make a dollar. I worked on the dimes and placed them in piles of 10 dimes to make a dollar.
After we finished separating them by dollar amounts, I had her count them to see how many dollars she had. She quickly counted the stacked quarters and moved to the dimes. It was at that moment, I realized we had a small problem. Because the dimes were small, I had placed them in piles unlike the quarters that could stack.
She started to count the dimes individually instead of the pile. I stopped her and explained that the dimes were in piles and each pile was worth a dollar. Kiera looked straight at me and said, “They have to be stacked like the quarters!”
After some discussion, I managed to convince her that it was not possible to make the dimes stack on the bed and we would have to keep them in piles to count them.
She inherited her Daddy’s smarts and I pray that she has his knack for math too. She has his sense of humor, which keeps us laughing, from her random knock-knock jokes to coming up with the craziest stories. She also has no problem trying new foods or coming up with her own crazy mixture.
I never thought the sentence; “Don’t put sugar on your quesadilla!” would ever pass my lips. By the time the words were out, it was already too late. At that point, I let her find out if she would like it or not. Thankfully, after two bites, she decided the quesadilla was better off without sugar.
Then there are the times that she makes you melt. She has an amazing knack for being able to tell you the sweetest things.
Sunday, Aaron was cooking out on the grill. As he glanced over his shoulder to the kitchen, he could see Kiera standing on a stool, putting a new roll of paper towels on the paper towel holder.
“Look! I did it! I did it!” She exclaimed as she bounced outside to Aaron.
Aaron smiled and said, “You are so smart and so pretty. I wonder where you got that from.”
Shrugging her shoulders, Kiera mumbled something under her breath.
“I’m serious. Where do you think you got your smarts from?” He asked her again.
Kiera glanced up from the ground and replied with the answer that makes any parents heart melt. “My teacher.”
Yes, I ‘m being sarcastic. Neither of us melted… although I’m sure her teacher is melting.
“Ok.” Aaron responded, “Where did you get your prettiness from?”
Kiera, looked back to Aaron with her sweet smile and replied, “My Mommy.”
Insert Mommy melting here.
At this point, Aaron is feeling a little left out and asks Kiera, “Well, what did I give you?”
She looked him straight in the eye, smiled again and said, “Your strength.”
Insert Daddy melting here.
Oh, how I love this child.
Rowonna McNeely is a graphic artist for Willie’s T’s Screenprint & Embroidery. She is a mother of a five year old girl and step mother of two adult girls. Her crazy life includes a dog, Sloane and psychotic cat, Gracie. Both females. She is married to her prince, who is outnumbered by the opposite gender.
