Two Years and Counting

Friday was Katharine's second birthday, as Katharine herself has been reminding us for several months past. Actually, at some point in October Katharine grasped that her birthday was "next month," and so for the last six weeks she has romped over the surface of the earth, sounding in sequential yawps: "My birthday! Munf [month]!" This is how our little angel looked when she joined our family two years ago.

On Wednesday evening we drove to the train station to pick up my mom at the tail end of a long trip out from Utah. As usual, she came bearing gifts, including these pajamas with the girls' names inscribed on them. In the picture above, both Julia and Eli turn their gaze downward in a fit of bashful timidity.

Katharine got some new pajamas too. Here she is celebrating her acquisition with a tribal ritual and chant.

Katharine's birthday was a magical day in many respects. Katharine loved all her presents; but she may have loved the elemental thrill of tearing wrapping paper to shreds even more. Julia, in an absolute fury of self-control, sometimes went as many as four seconds before laying hands on one of Katharine's gifts.

Katharine, for all the fiery ambition that rages in her belly, is quite a domestic little lady. She loves to prepare meals at her Dora kitchen and serve them to members of our family and to her "babies" (three plastic dolls). To help in this culinary enterprise, my mom furnished some fake food. Julia, forgetting for a moment that children are born with a congenital impulse to empty the contents of containers and bags, did the honors in her sister's behalf.

Katharine, whose will is as imperious as her smile is irresistible, refused to wear our family's official birthday princess hat. So she wore this home-made contraption instead. Burger King meets the Incredible Hulk.

One of Katharine's presents was a tiny chalk eraser, the slate here pictured, and a hundred pieces of chalk. Here she is making a masterpiece with her daddy's assistance. I like this picture because all my life I have been told by observers of uncommon perspecuity that I have small hands (and it is a fact that in all my days of roundball glory I never successfully palmed a basketball). But by comparing my right hand with Katharine's, the sentient reader of this blog will note that in reality my hands are enormous.

With Grandma in town, Lia and I are no longer outnumbered. As a result, the girls experienced this a notable increase in calorie intake.

Contrary to appearances, Julia responds in this picture not to the atavistic impulses of her Suttner ancestry, but to the promptings of her parents that she help her little sister with the candles. Katharine's failures were adorability itself.

We sure love this little girl. It's futile to try to convey in prose how cute she was on her birthday. Her countenance corruscated with the beaming awareness of being adorable, of being beloved, and of having a fuss made over her. She rarely stopped smiling and never stopped dancing. We are all more grateful than we can say that Heaven sent Katharine to us.

Happy birthday, Katharine!!!