McKenna

Since tomorrow is McKenna's 18th birthday I guess it only fitting that I write about her next...

Kenna, full of life, full of fun and so much like me. Everyone tells us this, but I don't need to be told. I know. She is caustic, sarcastic and somewhat demanding. Yes, I know I am like this and so is she. She even looks like me.

When I got pregnant with her I was single. I was working at the University of Utah Hospital and living right in the middle of downtown. My life was so far from what it is today. I am so far from what I was back then.

The nursery mattered so much to me. I planned, spent hundreds of dollars and bought everything "gender neutral". After she was born I took her to museums, to art exhibits and to the zoo to educate her. All of this before she was even a year old. I cleaned all day long, organized her room constantly and she never left the house without perfect clothes and ribbons in her hair. I was a new mom.

She was a very high strung child. Very high strung. I used to think it was her, and maybe to a point it was. She is by nature a somewhat "stressed" person, but I believe now that me being so anal didn't help her at all. I thought I was relaxed, but just the fact that I was convinced that not only did she need two years of preschool, but it had to be Challenger private school shows that I was not very relaxed at all. I stressed out way too much when she was little.

Despite my mistakes and my behavior she turned out ok. She loves life, she loves people the way I do and she is such an amazing oldest child. Now this is not to say that she doesn't get fed up with all the younger siblings, but she rolls with them so well. She is so tender with the smallest kids and she is always saying how she wants a baby of her own....( not yet kiddo!!!).

When Skyler was first born he used to sleep on her chest better than he would for me or Jon. He loved Kenna and could feel how tender she felt about him. They still have a sweet relationship.

I am proud of this girl. Her choices have been great, her friends are wonderful and the path she is on towards a career is such a good one. I have come to love spending time with her, whether it be at the movies, or even at home late at night after everyone else has gone to bed just watching tv. We like similar tv shows we laugh, cry and analyze things together happily.

She is a joy to have around. She is my oldest, and she means the world to me.