Kalina is 12!

Happy birthday, Kalina!!!

Kalina has gained the distinction of being the first coronavirus birthday of the immediate family! Woohoo! Or, not so woohoo?

Fortunately, many of Kalina's interests are simple to fulfill and often take place outdoors, so her personality aligns well with pandemic precautions. We celebrated with kayaking, a Dairy Queen ice-cream cake, opening presents, enjoying the presents, and a deck dinner (Jason's Deli delivery) with Grandpa. She thanked me profusely at the end of the day for such a nice birthday.

On Monday, a few friends came over for stream exploration and a cookie cake outdoors. We were super grateful to be able to do something fun with friends that was still relatively safe.

After our adventures in
lighting the ice-cream cake,
we had to take pictures
pretty quickly.

Plus, there are kittens.

Kalina is 12! The year has been nothing but sweet. She's fun to be around, easygoing, imaginative, and usually very accepting of her little sisters (although everyone has their limits).

Kalina is noticeably able to work hard without complaining--which usually shows up in her schoolwork. She's more focused than ever before (although the kittens are going to pose her biggest challenge yet). And she's more of a box checker than I would have imagined. It's not that she likes work--and I'm never allowed to forget that for long--but she likes it better if it can be erased from the board when she's finished. Don't we all?

She's super organized, too. With a nightstand and shelves looking much better than her sisters', she's already saying she needs to reorganize them. I think she enjoys it, she's great at it, and I am secretly hoping she'll tackle a few of my drawers and cabinets. Will trade dinner for organization.

Birthday girl sisters make the day!!

Kalina's mind is sharp and she is quick to point out contradictions or things that don't add up. Despite being abstract, she highly values logic and reason. She has no patience for gimmicks or tricks, and can spot them a mile away.

Still dreaming of walking on the ceiling (there's all that empty space!), designing unnecessarily complex systems, and creating whole rooms with specially made shelves for kitties and other critters, Kalina's imagination only seems to be growing. I can't wait to see where it takes her. Her art teacher has noted her creativity, but Kalina still only takes on art projects in a group setting. Kalina's piano teacher has also commented on her musical abilities and the way she always not only nails her scales and arpeggios, but also builds on them. Logic + creativity. When she hears classical music, she's laser-focused on it.

We didn't get pictures of us
canoeing, but we did get
pictures afterward in the
really fun tree we like to
climb. This time, we got to
hang out with baby robins.

At 12, she's not super outgoing, but gets along well with and enjoys people she's with. She's a loyal friend, although she definitely needs alone time to process. Books are still very much her go-to, and she never minds re-reading a book, even a half-dozen times in close succession.

Kalina enjoys big group projects--she loves working with the food pantry, setting up a campsite, building a pet enclosure, or anything like that she can be immersed in. And she's an idea person, so if there's a problem to be solved, she's likely to come up with creative solutions. Not all of them practical, but sometimes.

Kalina can memorize like nobody's business--words, facts, or music. In fact, she'll often do her piano lessons muchly from memory, not always opening the book until after she's played the piece and they've talked through some of the details.

She's taken on the viola this year, which she plays nicely but is getting burned out on because she's not yet part of an orchestra. We're really hoping that happens this fall. She's proud of all her musical abilities, including her perfect pitch, but gets frustrated with the daily work involved.

She flosses daily without being told. To the point that even the dentist had no words for her.

Kalina dug right into building tracks.
They're getting increasingly complex
as she learns all the techniques.

What she likes: puzzles and games, watching the funny things animals do, all our outdoor activities, logic and sudoku puzzles, vacations, camping, places that look like enchanted forests along the trail, guacamole, science fiction/fantasy, the number 64, long and complicated words, making poison dart frog tanks, chaos that she creates, telling elaborate stories, volunteering, birds of prey, Lego minifigures, the globe, the Periodic Table of the Elements, black holes and other astronomy quandries, hard-boiled eggs, quotes from books or famous people, marble tracks, the Archimedes screw, and cats, still.

What she doesn't like: pink, technology/screentime (except the occasional high-quality movie), picture books that are written in terrible rhyme, shopping, jewelry, doing her laundry, the thought of driving someday, work that's not her idea, pop music, sports (except the occasionally family game of something), a page full of math problems, contradictions, busywork, and bananas, unless they're on a peanut-butter sandwich and accompanied by marshmallows.

Kalina is a rare treasure of a girl--firmly down to earth, but with her head soaring in the clouds. Love you, Sweetie!

The traditional picture that I wedge
myself into every year.

Naomi wiggled her way into Kalina's
birthday blog thanks to her wiggly
tooth, which she saved for Grandpa
to pull, having heard stories from Elise.
Turns out, she didn't need to worry
about saving it, as it was more firmly
in place than we thought! She was so
brave!! Way braver than I was, not
being able to watch or listen.

The kitties liked Kalina's
new camp chair, too.

Okay, so we weren't 6 feet apart the
entire time, but we were for most of it.

Our traditional Jason's Deli meal
without the deli.

Outdoor gifts!