Happy 11th Birthday, Kaley!!

My little Caboose is growing up as fast as she can. Today she is 11. She's changed so much in the past year- she's gone from a little girl who needs her momma to an independant pre-teen. I have so much loved being her mom. She makes the sun shine for me!

Kaley has been the absolutely perfect last child. Anyone in the family (including herself) can tell you that she's definately spoiled. (Right, Kaley?) And that she loves it. I think she really enjoys her status as the caboose of the family.

Kaley is ridiculously smart. She can memorize things so quickly. When her sisters were struggling to memorize poems, multiplication tables and such, Kaley would have them memorized seemingly within seconds. She had her multiplication tables memorized in the 1st Grade- because Cassidy was learning them in 3rd. Let's just say that Cassidy wasn't amused when Kaley could rattle off the answer before anyone else had time to compute what the question was.

Kaley is a budding violist. She is picking up on it very quickly. She is the fourth child in our family to learn this instrument. She has a great deal of interest in other instuments as well.

Kaley was a super shy little one. She's pretty much outgrown it, but when she was little- if a stranger talked to her, she would come unglued! She was so cute that everyone wanted to play with her- but if she didn't already know them well, she would just start crying. She's become much more secure since then, thank goodness! Look at her glaring at the photographer! Lol!


Kaley is an author and an artist. She has been writing stories and books since she was able to hold a crayon. She has a vivid imagination with no end. Some of her topics have absolutely blown my mind. Most of her stories are fiction. Some of them are in first person. It will be intersting to see how valuable this interest and natural skill become to her later in life.

When Kaley was little she liked to make up games. One game that she made up was called, "What's that Movie?" She would repeat a phrase from a movie and then make us guess which movie it came from. If we guessed right, then we got to have the next turn. She also made up a sport called Chinese Soccer. We never did figure out how all it went- but she was sure it would be a real sport some day.

Kaley is part fish- part mermaid. She is a great swimmer. She can swim for hours!

Kaley is so fun to talk to! She's like talking to a small adult. One of my favorite things to do is to coerce her to run errands with me. Then I have her all to myself, and can listen to her ideas and thoughts undisturbed by household drama.

Kaley was very interested in Karate for a while. She has discontinued her practice, but I hope that she will eventually take it back up. She was really good at it and progressed quickly.

Kaley loves to explore. She loves nature. She is so interested in animals and plants and, well- everything!

As the youngest in our family, Kaley didn't get to have any younger brothers or sisters to boss around. This never really bothered her much, though, as she has so many little cousins. She is very attached to them and loves to spend time with them. She is at the perfect age right now to begin babysitting, which she is very anxious to start doing more.

Kaley is an amazing reader! We make regular trips to the library because she's run out of things to read. She reads books that seem way to advanced for someone her age. I swear she would probably read the dictionary, if that's all she could find. She's even read the Bible- it was a version written comic-style- but she still read it!

Kaley loves to watch movies. She's an expert at remembering details about movies. She annoys us all by quoting different parts of movies over and over. She won't stop! We've tried everything- ignoring it, getting mad, threatening physical harm- nothing works! I think shock treatment is the next hope for a cure. I'll let you know if it works.

Kaley, I just want you to know what a special place you have in my life. You have been so much fun to raise and to have around. I love that you care so much about the people around you and that you are so aware of other peoples feelings. I'm so glad that you were given to me as my sweet little caboose. I wouldn't trade being your mom for anything!