Skip to main content

Kato



My daughter Katie was reading the Roots: Part III post, when she said, “Isn’t this Ocho: Part VIII? How many posts are you going to write about him? And how come I’m not in your blog?”

I hesitate to write about my kids here because it feels like an invasion of their pre-teen/teen privacy. But Katie not only has given me permission to write about her, she is bullying me into it. Actually standing here as I write…

Here’s what I’d like to write about Katie: I named Kate after Katharine Hepburn. I had a gut feeling her personality would match, and that gut feeling was accurate.

If you look Katharine Hepburn up on Wikipedia, the entry uses adjectives like outspoken, independent, adventurous to describe her. The word that comes to mind, for me, is audacious, defined on dictionary.com as:

1. extremely bold or daring; recklessly brave; fearless: an audacious explorer.
2. extremely original; without restriction to prior ideas; highly inventive: an audacious vision of the city's bright future.
3. recklessly bold in defiance of convention, propriety, law, or the like; insolent; brazen.
4. lively; unrestrained; uninhibited: an audacious interpretation of her role.


Audacious describes Katie to a tee. Kate—aka Katie Bug, Katie Bird, Bird, Birdy, Kato, Kato Tornado—looks nothing like me. Some people say our eyes look similar, even though hers are green and mine are brown. And we have the same delicate, pointy chin. But that’s where the similarities end. I look Italian and Jewish; Kate looks Teutonic and waspish. I picked her up from a slumber party yesterday morning, and one of the girls lounging on the couch said, “That’s your mom?” I’m fairly certain she wasn’t referring to my super-youthful appearance, making it improbable that I was Katie’s mom and not her sister. She was referring to the fact that we look absolutely nothing alike.

I would not describe myself as audacious. I’m more like my son: slow to warm. But I am unafraid of discussing mature topics with my children, which matches Kate’s relentless curiosity. Katie was five when she asked me how babies are made. I gave her information in increments, seeing if she would be satisfied with part of the picture. I quickly found the answer was no; she wanted the whole story. So I told her. I also told her that the information was something that she would have to keep private because parents want to be the ones to tell their children how babies are made; they don’t want other children doing their job. Kate never discussed the topic with her friends. A remarkable feat for an outspoken girl with a propensity for letting the cat out of the bag.

One such cat was my forgetting to renew my driver’s license, car registration and insurance. Kate and I were driving home from school, she was in the 1st grade, when I was pulled over by the police. I got a big, fat ticket and had to leave my car where it was, meaning Kate and I had to walk home. In my defense, I was a little distracted. Kate’s dad and I had decided to separate and he’d just moved out of the house.

The next morning, I got my ducks in row (meaning I renewed all my car stuff) and later in the day picked up Katie from school. I think I was PTA Co-President that year and went into the school office to check the PTA mailbox. Kate, who loved the school secretary Judie, hung out by the front desk. “I love your yellow dress,” she said to Judie. “Thanks, Kate,” I heard Judie say. “My mom got arrested,” Katie added. “That happens,” Judie said. Fortunately, Judie believed my story.

A more serious cat—and I hesitate to even call it a cat—was a profoundly disturbing situation at Katie’s school. One of the students had told her and her friends that she was being abused at home. Katie came home from school and said we had to call the principal and tell her. She was adamant. I told her I wanted one day to think about it and to talk to some people who knew the child and her parents. I explained that it was a big deal to accuse a parent of child abuse. The next day, Kate went back to school. The child told Katie and her friends worse stories. Kate immediately went to the director of the after-school program and told her what the child had been saying. A few hours later, Child Protective Services picked up the child and notified the parents. Katie called me at work and told me what she’d done. “Don’t be mad,” she said. “I know you wanted to check it out.” I reassured her that she’d done exactly the right thing.

In elementary school, Kate’s best friend was Ben—a sweet, funny boy who after 4th grade moved to a town near Yosemite. “You look just like my cousin,” he once told her, then put his hand over his mouth and added, “only my cousin has a prettier face.” I gasped when she told me that. “Didn’t that hurt your feelings?” I asked. “No, that’s just Ben,” she said. “I thought it was really funny.”

Kate’s now in middle school, and the social scene is intense: lots of gMail, phone calls, texting. And loads of pre-teen, girl drama. But Kate holds her own, something I couldn’t imagine doing at age 11. One of the most popular phrases among this age group is “sorry no offense,” pronounced as if it were one word and used as a wild card for safely uttering negative comments. “Those jeans make your butt look big, sorrynoffense.” “Why don’t we just listen to the song instead of you singing to it, sorrynoffense.” “This marinara sauce is terrible, sorrynoffense.”

Kate doesn’t so much want to hang with me anymore since, by sheer fact that I’m a parent, I’m kind of embarrasing to be with. So, I was delighted when yesterday she said she’d go to a movie with me in the pouring down rain instead of spending the afternoon on the computer emailing friends. We saw “Juno,” a delightful PG-13 story about a 16-year-old girl who gets pregnant. The story was not so much about her pregnancy as it was about love. The dad tells her at one point in the story, “When you find someone who loves you for exactly who you are right now, that’s real love. You can do something wrong, and they’ll still think the sun shines out your ass. That’s someone to hold onto.”

I tell myself to let Katie go for awhile. You know the butterfly story; if you love something set it free... But Kate’s always been free. I can only hope that she knows that I love her, simply adore her, for exactly who she is at any given moment in time. Even when, sorrynoffense, she’s not my bff.

Comments

Sherry said…
What a lovely journal entry...of love and maturity and wisdom. I think Kate is already free Jill...she was free when she was born (as you so aptly realized) and she's been allowed to grow and flourish under your wing. She'll go one day but she'll return to you often...she's strong, confidence and self-assured. She respects others and has a huge heart. She's well on her way in this world...and the world is going to be a better place because of her!!
lahdeedah said…
Sherry, I'm going to let Kate read what you wrote. She'd just love to have the words "strong, confident, self-assured, respectful and compassionate" attached to her name :)

Hope things are good with you!
SweetAnnee said…
What a lovely sharing of Katie..
she's a beautiful girl..and being
strong and independent is a
trait all girls need!! So you go
gurl Katie!!!!

Enjoy each moment with her, and
when she pulls away, remember she
WILL return..as a smart savy woman!!
fondly, deena
lahdeedah said…
Spoken like a true mom, Deena :) Thank you!
jena strong said…
Jill - she is beautiful, smart - exactly what the world needs more of: forces to be reckoned with like Kato Tornado, girls who will become women who will hold up justice and beauty. Thanks for sharing a bit of her audacity here.

I squint and try to imagine my girls being eleven - knowing that "blink" you always here about indeed happens while you're busy being a parent.

xo Jena
bella said…
THis was delightful and powerful to read.
Thank-you for sharing a little of her with us. SHe is a free spirit indeed.
This world needs such confidence and independence, compassion and courage.
I can only imagine how proud she must make you.
jena strong said…
Well I'm glad to have gotten a glimpse of your Katherine - and this one's lovely, too!
lahdeedah said…
Jena, thank you. Kate is a force to be reckoned with :) And, yes, that "blink" you hear about happens. In fact, I am taking my son this weekend to get his driver's permit (gulp).

Bella, my kids fill me with pride. They're all the things you mentioned, plus they're just plain fun to be around. I can't imagine life without them, but, of course, you've done your job as a parent if they can leave with a heart full of hope and adventure, and needing only about two years worth' of therapy.

Katie, thank you! I sent a response to your private email.

xoxo

Jill
Jenster said…
*sigh* I have a Katie, too. She's a Katie Lou and she sounds very much like your Katie Bug.

She's 13 and my baby and I see my time with her flitting away. So I love, adore, cherish - every word that means the same thing - whenever we get to hang out.

I also love seeing who she's becoming as she grows up.

I just wish I could bottle up the little girl, though...
lahdeedah said…
Jen, I wish I could bottle the little girl in Kate. Something I didn't mention (Ill just have to write Kato II) is that I not only love hanging out with Kate and laughing with her (she's got a great laugh), I deeply admire her individuality and everything else about her. I really just marvel at the fact that she's my offspring. In re-reading this post, I don't know if I made that clear.

So happy you have a Katie of your own! I've never met a Katie I didn't just love :)

Jill

Popular posts from this blog

I Love Me (Day Three)

I’ve just completed Day Three of abstaining from self-derogatory comments. How’s it going for me? Let me just say that it’s the self-esteem equivalent of Everest without oxygen. (And I say that with a lot of self love, as usual.) The 31-day plan came about one night at the end of November while driving home from work. As usual, I called Sam. We kvetched about the usual stuff—including the guys in our lives—during which time I told Sam about a conversation I’d recently had with Ocho: [Scene: Ocho and I are walking my border collie, Marge, back from the beach.] Me: “I am one more day closer to being super cute.” Ocho: “?” Me: “With each new day, I am 24 hours closer to being skinnier and having longer hair.” Ocho: “Hm,” Me: “And then you’ll tell me I’m pretty again.” Ocho: [making eye contact] “I tell you you’re pretty all the time.” Me: “No you don’t.” Ocho: “Yes, I do. You’re just too fucking stupid to remember it (big smile).” “That’s a great line,” said Sam, quickly adding that I abs

It's Not About the Bike

It's not about the bike...it's about the hair. But you already know that, as I go on endlessly (and some would say annoyingly) about it. In the event that you live farther than 75 miles of my house--and therefore cannot hear me every morning at 6:30a.m., sobbing and spewing profanities in front of the mirror as I wield a giant round brush, a 2000-horse power blow dryer, a pricy flat iron and four different hair potions in a harried rush to get my chemo curls (only kind of) under control before racing out the door to work--here’s a hair update: It absolutely defies the laws of gravity. Most people don’t believe me when I tell them my hair grew back in a fro. Ergo, the faux-finish fro foto. I’m not quite ready to debut the fro without the help of Apple’s Photo Booth effects. And Ocho was kind enough to join in the foto fun. I don’t have a good transition for this, as it has nothing to do with my hair, but I rode my mountain bike up Mount Montara with Ocho today. The bike trail is

Roots: Part III

"The great gift of family life is to be intimately acquainted with people you might never even introduce yourself to, had life not done it for you." ~Kendall Hailey, The Day I Became an Autodidact (Confession: I found this quote this morning on Quote Garden. I had to Google Kendall Hailey . And I had no idea what the word autodidact meant until I located it on dictionary.com.) I met Ocho on Match.com. Many of you probably have never had a Match date, so let me describe for you a few that I experienced: Tom smelled myseriously of Clorox bleach and wore a fanny pack. I might have been able to handle the fumes (hey, it's a turn-on that a guy can clean his house, right?), but the strain of imagining what was in the fanny pack (Handi-wipes? Anti-bacterial gel? Latex gloves?) was more than I could bear. Bob , who was as tall as a 4th grader, over the course of two hours and a plate of fettucine alfredo asked me 20 times if I was bothered by the fact that he was so short. Answ