Dear Addie,
This weekend we celebrated someone very special to us! Our neighbor, friend, and sitter - Miss Kat. She turned 18 and decided to celebrate with a high tea birthday party inviting all of our OTOD to join! Yes - tea cups, unpredictable movements and behavior, take a deep breath - here we come!
Why would someone invite such predictable unpredictability to such a special event? I may need to back up a bit to explain.
We met Kat and her family roughly two years ago when they moved in next door. Knowing our beloved “Mary Poppins” sitter Ms. Caitlin was getting married and starting her new life’s journey, I knew the day would come where we’d have to search for yet another perfect person to trust our babies with. I immediately saw something in Kat, something that reminded me a bit of Ms. Caitlin, and screamed she could handle this no filter, loud, loving chaos. All while living next door! So, I did as any parent does, and asked if she ever babysits.
Her response was quick and simple. “Nope.”
Oh. Um, well ok, so perhaps my instincts failed me and maybe I misread this whole interaction? It wasn’t that she was being rude, it just wasn’t her thing.
Not one to give up on my gut feeling here, I still felt strongly that she would be a perfect fit for us! A few months later I was in a bit of a pickle and she offered to help us out by watching you all. Doing what you seem to do best, you (and Clara and Gabe) won her over, and the rest is history. Yeah us!
For the girl who said no, she is simply unbelievable. Seriously. She multitasks attention between the three of you like it’s second nature. Has never shyed away from giving you an unexpected midafternoon tubby after frolicking in mud, or changing your diaper for that matter - let’s just say it’s far from sweet baby poop at 7 years old.
She still comes back.
For the girl who said no, she is simply unbelievable. Seriously. She multitasks attention between the three of you like it’s second nature. Has never shied away from giving you an unexpected midafternoon tubby after frolicking in mud, or changing your diaper for that matter - let’s just say it’s far from sweet baby poop at 7 years old.
She pays precise attention to everyone’s likes and dislikes and is even able to decode what most people hear as unfamiliar speech or “Addie language” of your wants and needs. As if she wasn’t perfect enough, she also plays the violin and cello which you (and us) absolutely adore! She’s a magnificent young lady.
This year Kat was turning 18 and her idea of a perfect birthday was sharing something she loves with all of us, so of course we were all in - even if I was a little nervous of how this was going to go. She wanted high tea, we will do high tea. Here we come!
Dressed in our Sunday’s best, we arrived at her house only a little late (remember me talking about unexpected tubbies? Yep, that happened). The dining room I promise you looked like something straight out of a fairy tale! Mosses, vines, flowers, and candles transformed the whole scene. Each person had their very own tea cup and tier (yours was adorned with your favorite pink squares :).
As I stood looking at this breath-taking scene, I wondered if I could hire them to throw my birthday party. Meanwhile, you headed straight to the living room to grab the violin and bow, handing it to Kat as if you were speechlessly requesting her to play.
Being the sweet person she is, she played a little bit which satisfied you until you went on to scope out the rest of the scene.
You bounced around from here to there before you went to the back porch saying “Bunny? Bunny?” Association is strong with you, and you remembered that we use to bunny-sit Kat’s giant, sweet bunny Trixie. Trixie unfortunately passed away not too long ago and you’ve not quite made sense of it all just yet.
After some quiet moments to yourself, you eventually made your way to tea, but not before swiping a lemon from the kitchen to eat. Ah yes, the ultimate sensory feedback fruit for your hyposensitive taste buds. Add it to your tier please!
You managed to sit for a minute or two before requesting “arms” to remove your dress (thank goodness for your current obsessive need to wear pants with everything and the horse shirt underneath – I should’ve planned that better) and you were off to explore again, only this time you were headed outside to your favorite place at their house, the pebbles path. Rocks + bare feet = a sensory dream.
Thinking we gave this a solid effort, I thought it might be best to take you home where daddy and I alternated enjoying the rest of the delicious tea, sandwiches and treats with the birthday girl. Side note: it was all amazing and she even bought gummie bear tea for the kids! So fun!
So Addie, this weekend we celebrated a very special person to our family. She maybe didn’t see herself joining our journey in the capacity that she has, but we are beyond blessed that she did, and her love and dedication to ensure you are always included is truly amazing and very heart warming.
She loves you and we love her.
Love,
Mom
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