Yesterday my baby girl turned 20. This means there are no more teenagers in my family (at least no more chronological teen agers, nothing to do with behavior). Kathryn Margaret, my Katiebaby, is now a young adult. In another year she'll be a full adult.

Kate is the scrappiest of my girls. Since she was the youngest, she had to fight to be heard. Her little voice would start a story and someone would interrupt her and then she would have to start again and someone else would interrupt her and soon we were asking "is there a point to this story, Kate?".

She struggled to read the credits on the television when her reading skills were new and her sisters would read them for her. This frustrated her so they did it more. Their actions prodded her to learn to read faster. She consumes books like food and water now.

Kate's imagination is boundless. She is a D&D player (I'm so proud) and is a dungeon master for her group. She has a gift for words and is a good writer. As punishments when she was growing up, Pk would make her write an essay on why something was wrong (or right) and she would give him essays that made me laugh for their cleverness.

She can paint and draw and knit and sew. And she is learning to cook. If I had to choose people to be stranded on a desert isle with, Kate would be definitely on that list. She is mischevious, fun and delightful to talk to. She also reads such a variety of books that she usually has some arcane facts to throw into the conversation that make you scratch your head and say "huh". She's alot like her father that way. They share a love of airplanes and for Father's Day, she took him to the Air and Space Museum's hanger in Maryland to look at old planes.

Kate chafed at being the youngest most of her life. One time, she came to me in tears and said, "Mom, they're lying to me again. Elanor and Emily said I would always be the youngest". I almost didn't have the heart to tell her the truth. She was probably all of 4 or 5 at the time. So, I told her that they were right. BUT, she must be the best of the lot since we stopped after her. We figured we couldn't do any better so we stopped trying. Kate must be just about perfect, unlike her sisters. This made her grin with glee and she ran off to share that information with her sisters.

She is fearless, feisty, loving, compassionate, clever, funny, cute, and, well how long do you have? I could go on and on.

Kate, you are the light of my life and such a joy to be around. I only wish you good things. You have brought such joy into my life. I can't imagine what life would have been like if we hadn't held out for 'just about perfect'.

Happiest of Happy Birthdays!