And just like that, another year in the life of Kalina has gone by! It so happens that this year, Kalina's birthday fell on a Friday. She enthusiastically opted to invite friends over for a party that same day (which got my vote), as well as hold nature club, which conveniently fell on that date anyway. I knew it'd be a big day, but at least it'd pretty much be only one. Besides, it's fun!Kalina was in a cheery mood all week, which is somewhat easy to do when you're picking out decorations and tablewear for your party, and anticipating all kinds of good things. A few of the best moments happened on Thursday, when Matt and I each managed to hang with our birthday girl for a few hours on our own. I took her to Jason's Deli (her favorite) and then helped her decorate for her birthday (she wanted to make a tree out of streamers--always an artist!). She enjoyed dinner and a walk with Matt, including a fast walk back home to bring fishing polls back to potentially snag a catfish (no luck).
According to Elise, Kalina began her special day by waking her up singing a whispered, "Happy birthday to meeeee..." Cute. But maybe not as cute for Elise. The girls all devoured chocolate Lucky Charms for breakfast, but fortunately saved a lot of the marshmallows for later. And then forgot about them. Shhhh.
Sweetly, the sisters began shoving presents at Kalina as soon as everyone shared breathing space, although Kalina declined them all until she had finished breakfast. Elise had spotted her first gift for Kalina, donut erasers, in Target long ago and hid them away so she could come back in claim them. Which, amazingly, we did! Elise also gave her a pyramid Rubick's cube. Naomi had remembered a book Kalina had gifted to another friend, as well as the longing look in Kalina's eye when she gave it away, and gave Kalina a copy of that same book. Nice work, girls!The day being hot after a beautifully cool month of summer, we headed to the pool as soon as a few rooms were deemed clean and ready for the party. This is how, by the way, wise moms manage to get kids to somewhat cheerfully work on their birthday. I felt so smart. The pool was lovely, as was a lunch of pasta.
After lunch, we opened a card game and played through it, with Kalina winning every round, Naomi doing a different activity entirely (thank goodness--it would've been a disaster for her), Elise trying her hardest to keep up, and me trying my hardest to fail without anyone noticing, just so we could keep the mood upbeat. Matt, working summer hours, soon arrived home and we enjoyed an hour or so of calm before the storm of activity that would soon follow. Kalina opened a music player, a world puzzle, a whole ton of books and cat pajamas, among other things.Then it was time for Nature Club! We lectured the girls about the dangers of bacteria in stagnant water, and directed them to a spot we had deemed "safe" for them to wade in the stream. In truth, I know nothing about such matters--just that some places in the stream look really gross, and others look relatively okay. And they all totally believed it. The weather being so hot, we made the girls drink plenty of water, and then turned on the sprinkler for a few minutes. It's amazing how wet one can get in just a few minutes of sprinkler time. Matt went after a large catfish and a large carp, much to the girls' delight, and then started teaching everyone how to start fires. In a very safe, well-supervised fire pit, of course. Elise had the idea to try flint and steel, and Kalina, just when we were about to give up and move on, actually ignited her cotton in a burst of birthday magic.
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| The cotton caught fire just as Matt was about to say, "Let's try again another time!" |
After this hurried transition, however, I was able to get the table ready and welcome other guests a little more appropriately, and even catch my breath.
Kalina, meanwhile, was enjoying the outdoors with her buddies. When they came in, she was engrossed in a Harry Potter trivia contest with two of them. One would quote a line from one of the 7 thick books, and the others would compete to say which book and character the quote had come from. All this completely from memory. As two more guests apparently either weren't interested in Harry Potter or weren't allowed to read it, I reluctantly diverted attention away from the game. They all embarked on Two Truths and a Lie, practicing their deception skills instead of their free-recall memory. But who's counting? Actually, it was super fun.
One challenge during this time was to actually let Kalina enjoy her party without being too loved by her sisters. Although Matt and I felt a little terrible pulling Elise and, to a lesser extent Naomi, away, we knew our oldest probably needed a little time to feel, well, old on her birthday.
It helped that the escape room game we were playing was clearly rated for ages 10+. Normally I don't point to age ratings, but sometimes it's necessary so the birthday girl doesn't get drowned out by younger enthusiastic sisters. Meant in the nicest way, of course.
Kalina, who adores ice cream but, in true Odegaard style, is somewhat ambivalent toward cake, opted for a Dairy Queen Oreo blizzard cake this year for her birthday. I love making birthday cakes for my girls, but I couldn't help but silently cheer that I could bypass baking on this busy week with the help of a phone, a credit card, and a helpful husband on his way home from work. Plus, the cake tasted amazing. She lit the candles (fruit themed!), and we managed to sing before the cake melted.
After we ate and I whisked away the dishes and Matt whisked away the (reluctant) younger sisters, it was time to break out the escape room game. I explained the concept and the girls immediately insisted they actually wanted to be locked in a room. As most of the locking rooms are bathrooms, we settled on simply closing the door to the bunny's room. Then, they'd have a bunny and an escape room, so, win-win.
But first, snacks. I'd set out a big bowl of cheese balls, another of saltwater taffy and a third of veggie straws. Never mind the fact that the girls had just wolfed down pizza, watermelon and large pieces of very filling ice-cream cake. They devoured the snacks like a swarm of locusts, as though dinner and dessert had been a work of fiction.
Then, Kalina grabbed the timer, we opened the box, and they were off! I left them to it, delivering water, allowing endless snack refills, as though the previous snack had been a dream, and occasionally providing clues (many of which they didn't really need). I'd initially been concerned that the girls wouldn't be interested in an escape room--that it might go over their heads, or be too intense for a party. As it turned out, neither of these things were obstacles. The game's puzzles definitely took some figuring out, and I had to help them initially to learn what kind of solving to do, and occasionally we had trouble sharing/feeling left out, but overall the girls worked together, did an awesome job and had a ton of fun. As the game features an extra 30-minute add-on, we might just get together again to finish up.
Best Kalina quote during the game.
"Maybe it's not about what we see. Maybe it's about what we don't see."
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| They're breaking out of the bunny room! |
At 11, Kalina is, ever, always, herself, and no one else. She was never an impressionable baby ("Look, Kalina, all these other children sleep through the night!"), nor an impressionable toddler ("See, everyone else is okay not being within arms' reach of their mommies!"), or an impressionable preschooler, young kid, or anything else. While she does seem to actually appreciate the well-timed tip every so often ("Maybe don't wear floral patterns on top of completely contrasting floral patterns"), she happily marches to the beat of her own tune. Which she has composed beautifully.
In fact, Kalina composes so many things beautifully that we can no longer tell her piano compositions apart from her regular pieces. She knows chords and note relationships with a greater depth of understanding than I've ever had, and is constantly amazed at what she can come up with. Starting the ball rolling on actually practicing piano...that's another story, for another blog. Not the birthday one.
When Kalina learns things, she learns them well. She immediately picked up on machine sewing this year, applying her skills to new and different creations. She's also taken crochet to new heights, crocheting fruit-themed bookmarks and actual picture designs that she plots out with graph paper, including a tree landscape and the solar system. She's much more adept at switching colors with ease than I am, and much more creative about her crocheting as well.
Kalina loves cacti, Harry Potter anything, watermelon, cold pasta, sushi (just what it looks like; she's never actually eaten any), swimming, biking, geography, tornadoes, knots, The Greatest Showman, camping, small children, thunderstorms, walks, tennis shoes and socks.
She likes to pretend to be a cat (sometimes to the annoyance of her sisters), can't take one nature photo without taking a dozen, and still considers "rainbow" her favorite color, because she just can't decide. Kalina does not like: pink, dresses, skirts, jewelry, spelling practice, most chores and amusement park rides.
The girl writes better than most adults, specializing in vibrant descriptions. She's nearly mastered the five-paragraph essay and plays cleverly with words. Lately she's decided that science writing, probably for children, would be a good career route, because she could incorporate photography, too. Her big ideas still usually cross the line into impossibility, but I'm glad she still has them.
Kalina still enjoys the "magic" of self-opening doors at places like the grocery store and the library, theatrically flourishing her hands as if she's in command and making me smile every time. She's an orderly girl and maintains a well-organized desk, bed, nightstand and closet shelf with no prompting from me. Thank goodness.
New this year is the whole idea that Kalina can "babysit" her sisters at home for short periods of time without me. When alone with Naomi, she often plays with Calico Critters, or other sweet little games. She's a bit nervous to use the phone, and she won't stay home completely by herself, but so far we've had no mishaps.
She'll happily spend most of her free time reading, but sometimes arranges Legos, crochets, explores the creek or helps me in the kitchen. Less happily, she antagonizes her sisters and has this passive-aggressive way of digging in her heels...but I digress.
Kalina's generally sweet, clever, helpful, creative, quiet, cautious and fun. She waffles between complete ambivalence and supreme engagement. This year we learned the word "introvert," which has helped her understand herself and her frequent need to recharge. She's very loyal to family and still generally doesn't mind if Elise joins in with her and her friends--just occasionally, which we all understand, even Elise.
We're ever, always so grateful this amazing 11-year-old is part of our family! Here's to another wonderful year!
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