She's only 5

To you she may seem little and cute.....

but to me she seems beautiful and big.

This picture was just taken at the beginning of the week.  

It captures everything that Kiera is:

Beautiful, carefree, and simple.

Kevin said it is a glimpse into the future.

Sometimes I forget that she is five.  

She has chores.  Several of them and she is quite good at all of them.  She cares for her brother and sister as if she were their mom.  

She can change a diaper better than half of our babysitters.

It is easy to expect too much of her.

She is a people pleaser.  But she has a breaking point and I saw it last night.

All day she had been speaking horribly to her brother and sister. 

 I had had it!

I asked her to do something in the evening and she shot back mean words at me.

I yelled at her and sent her to her room.

She hates to be yelled at and she despises being separated from her brother and sister at bedtime.

I knew that, but I had had it!

She calmed down and tried to come join us again.  I didn't let her.

Desperate cries filled the hallway.  

After I got the twins down, I went into her room.  I told her I didn't like the way she talks to her family.   I went on and on about everything I was mad about.  She sat on the end of her bed and with quivering lips and said, "I am really trying".  

Right then I scooped her up in my arms and kissed her and told her I knew she was and she needed to try extra hard the next day.  I felt her relax in my embrace as I stroked her head.   I really wanted to just yell at her and go to bed, 

but then I remembered she is only five.