Diary of a Country Girl

Chapter Twenty:

Dear diary,

It’s a time of change around the farm and for us as a family. Summer will soon be winding down. Good Earth has been a success beyond our wildest dreams. Now we’re working out ideas for what to do once the cold weather sets in.

For now we’re thinking of opening it only on the weekends. Maybe just Saturday’s or Sunday’s. I have my greenhouse so I was thinking about making flower arrangements. I love the calming, contemplative nature of flower arranging. 

 Tre has his woodworking shop, and his dad is a wonderful craftsman. Tre grew up learning woodworking from him.

I was thinking they could work together and build furniture we could sell at the shop. Tre’s nectars are still a hot seller, but not at the shop. We’re both thinking it would be best to remove them and repurpose the space at the shop for other items. We plan to sit down with his dad and discuss the idea  after Kya's birthday party.

It’s hard to believe how fast time flies and how big she’s getting. My mom and Consuela have both said it, “enjoy the little moments because one day you’ll look back and realize how fast kids grow up and grow independent.” I guess it’s the maternal instinct because I understood the truth of what they were saying. It's a bit harder now that we’re living it as Kya enters her toddler years. It seems like she flew through her infancy.

 Tre and I sat down and came up with a theme for Kya’s birthday party. She really enjoys being outdoors and she lights up when she’s around the horses. So we came up with a cowgirls and horses theme. It felt more like who she is than a princess party. All I want is for her to be happy and to encourage her to explore the world around her. Beyond that I don’t want to overly influence her path in her life. I want to give her the same freedom I had to find myself. Those are thoughts for tomorrow and beyond, today was all about this next step in her life.

We wanted to keep the gathering small. Just Tre, myself, and our parents. After this as she gets out and meets other kids, starts school, the parties will be much bigger affairs. This feels like one last intimate family celebration.

The puzzled look on her face before we blew out the candles was priceless. "You got this baby girl. Just do what mommy does."

"Yay Kya! Atta girl!!!"

I think Kya has found a new favorite food. Double chocolate fudge brownie cake.

 It's my mom's recipe. Chocolate cake with bits of fudge brownie crumbled up and mixed in. It pairs well with her first favorite food, ice cream. I need to work on encouraging some better eating habits in the future. But we'll worry about that another day.

Everyone had a great time. Kya has always been a wiggle worm. She still is. It didn't take long her to start leading everyone to dance.

My girl is not going to be lacking for stuffed friends. Both our parents gave Kya big plushie toys. My parents got her a zebra plushie, and Tre's parents got a dalmation plushie.

We got her a slide and a playhouse.

When we began trying to get pregnant we decided we wanted more than one child. We also said we would wait until Kya reached toddlerhood before we would entertain trying for our second child. Now that Kya has celebrated that milestone birthday Tre and I will sit down and decide if the time is right to give Kya a sibling. When we started this journey I thought I only wanted two kids. Now I'm not so sure. I mean, Kya is my heart and soul, and one of the greatest gifts I could ever ask for. I'm more open than ever to Tre's desire to have three or more. Time will tell how big our family becomes.

Bonus pics:

I was able to recreate Kya's infant outfit as a toddler outfit. It was nice to have her age up but not suddenly look drastically different in the party scene. Here are a couple pics of how she looks now. 

She earned the top notch infant trait. I gave her the inquisitive trait. She also has the wanderer trait which she has put to use quickly 🤣