In the spirit of honesty, it totally does not help that literally everyone from strangers to close family and friends have always had a much stronger reaction and pay more attention to Riley because of the nature of who she is. But at home, Riley needs me to dress her, bathe her, feed her, medicate her PLUS talk to her, teach her, play with her and cuddle with her. And Keagan needs different things from me that are obviously not even remotely less important they just happen to be less apparent. I tried listening and validating Keagans feelings and then telling her that I am very aware of this issue in our family and try incredibly hard to give her what she needs! I expressed my unconditional love for her and reminded her that I read every single night with her, lay beside her before bed every night to chat and scratch her back as she falls asleep. I do her homework with her every night, ask her bazillions of probing questions, tease her too much, joke with her way too much, and love and kiss on her daily like I haven’t seen her in years. Most importantly I tried to tell her that mommy is far from perfect but I am doing the very best I can to give both my girls everything that they need from me, at least I’m trying to.
When she brought the topic up again this week, this time with lots of tears, (which also had to do with her being in trouble at the time and me not being very nice at all about that), it was an even longer discussion. I repeated all the same things and then told her I was thankful, very thankful that she didn’t need help with a lot of the things Riley needs help with. And more importantly that when I am not perfect at loving her, her Heavenly Father is and thankfully He can fill in the gaps of when mommy falls short. She seemed to like those answers and not the her being in trouble for something else part but the conversation went well.
Keagan Hi’ilani Kikuchi is one incredible girl! She truly amazes and astounds me. Yes she can be sassy and stubborn but I feel the need to honor her here. After delicate and heart felt conversations like these she follows up with lots of words of love and thanks to both her sister and I. That day I stumbled upon one of her many sweet love notes that would fuel any tired momma and she even left me one on the board at school! Then this weekend she spent a good chunk of time cleaning and organizing the play room, under the stairs and even Nana’s bathroom as a gift of service. And oh how I cherish that she connects with her sister like no one else can. She is truly her sisters loudest and strongest cheerleader and her fiercest critic. She sees Riley thru pure eyes not jaded by labels or diagnosis. She just sees her “little” sister as someone to play with, boss around, occasionally fight with, defend, help and most importantly love.
I have read and heard several times that people with dyslexia are abundantly blessed in other areas. Well that’s Keagan. People tell me all the time that she really is good at almost everything she tries. She physically can play sports, do gymnastics and the girls got serious dance moves. She is creative, super hilarious and has a voice of an angel. But way more importantly she is fiercely kind, faithful, believes in things being fair and inclusive, and is a good friend. She is super helpful, responsible, and man is she courageous!
She is so courageous in fact that I wasn’t remotely surprised when a couple of weeks ago she told me with confidence that she was running for Student Council. At Mahaffey there are 5 students each year who are voted into the 5 StuCo positions by all of 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. That’s 5 students out of about 850 and Keagan had no hesitation in trying. She came up with a great idea and slogan herself centered around her favorite movie “The Greatest Showman.” Reagan helped her make her digital poster using the movie poster with the word “Historian” replacing the Showman part since that was the position she decided on. She gave a one minute speech that was taped and shown in all 3rd-5th grade classes telling a story of a girl who loved her school and wanted to become the greatest historian on earth! She couldn’t have been cuter! She also campaigned in the halls before school one morning with the other 3 cute candidates. Last Monday it was announced that she won and she couldn’t be more ecstatic! I’m proud of her courage, her hard work, determination and being a gracious winner and supportive of all her friends that didn’t win.
Besides StuCo, both girls have had a ton of fun at school lately as always. They did a super exciting in line skating unit in PE that Keagan absolutely loved and Riley laughed at her card board skates. And they have been loving both choir and running club mornings! And Miss Riley may not be in Student Council but she rocks helping me run the school store on Monday and Wednesday mornings!
4th grade earned a fun popcorn party and we got a new mascot at school, Stuart the Scottie. And while we are on the topic of costumes, both girls got new costumes at rehearsals! Riley’s princess ballet class is doing Elsa this session and Keagan’s new Jovie costume is adorable!
Now for some of the best pictures ever! Riley’s incredible teachers Mrs Acosta, Mrs Allison and Mrs Tonna threw Riley and her best friend Jackie a birthday party in class and their smiles are as cute as these girls darling friendship!
And we will end this forever long post with the Red Ribbon dress up days from last week which were so much fun! I don’t dress up but dressing up is totally Riley’s thing and it makes her incredibly happy! So I fully support both girls going all out as Keags loves it too. I’m pretty sure their looks got progressively better as the week went on and I almost caused a riot before choir started on Tuesday morning as I was sharing our face paint with anyone who wanted me to draw a paw print or a heart on their cheek. Monday was dress your best and of course Riley’s best is a princess gown. Tuesday was red, white and blue day. Wednesday was western wear and man I love Riley’s little hat! And since they were Texan on Wednesday it was convenient for us that Thursday was Hawaiian day! The two parts of my sweet girls! And finally Friday was the best of them all with rockstar day!
Lots of pics and lots of fun! That sounds about right for us Kikuchi Girls!
0 comments:
Post a Comment