Kate's Birthday Party

Here are a few shots from Kate's first birthday party. So many family and friends were there. It was such a great day. Kate is so blessed and so loved!

I promise she's mine...

Kate is clearly her own person. She is an individual, not just "half me and half Brett." She is unique and precious, created by God. One apparently unique trait - she doesn't want to try cake! Nikki offered her angel food cake a few weeks ago and she was not interested. We thought it was a fluke. On her birthday we tried to give her a cupcake, but NO! She was not having it. This video is perfect... It's hard to believe given those wonderful thighs. Give me the carrot please!!

Kate is One Year Old!

Wow. I can't believe it's been a whole year!

We had Kate's one year check-up today. She is 30 1/2" - 90th percentile for height! They said it's still too early to say that she will be tall; we need to wait until about 2 years before the growth chart stabilizes. But she's not going to be short! And she weighs 22 1/2 lbs - 75th percentile. Everything checked out well - she's very healthy!

More pics to come from her birthday, but a few thoughts on who Kate is:

Joyful - so full of joy! others are joyful around her

Loving - loves to be hugged and give hugs; a snuggler

Great sense of humor and silly laugh

Adventurous - curious, and loves to explore

Smart - a good problem solver

Loves to dance - can't help but move to the beat

Kind - cares for others (and her baby dolls :)

We love her so!

Discipline

I’m at a conference for work.  It’s a business conference where the focus in “Front End Innovation.”  The keynote speaker this morning was Jim Collins who’s written several books including “Good to Great.”  He is a great thinker & “business scientist” – he loves asking questions and studying data.  I found his talk very interesting, and there were several personal implications I walked away with which I thought I’d share.

DISCIPLINE was the most interesting principle.  He wrote a new book called “Why the mighty fall.”  It’s very relevant right now – he talks about tumultuous, difficult times and why some succeed and some fail.  What he found was, the key differentiator was discipline, people who are disciplined in good times are revealed as great in times of trouble.  Discipline enables you to be prepared for what you can’t predict. 

I feel like this is my new season.  I came out of a season of Rest, and I feel like the new season I’m being called into is Discipline.  I was reading a book called “Celebration of Discipline” which I’ve never finished.  My life lacks discipline.  Interestingly, Jim Collins found that often company’s goals are over-reaching, swinging big for home runs, instead of consistent, base hit after base hit.  He went as far as to say that mediocrity is driven by chronic inconsistency.

So, Discipline.  I don’t get excited about this.  It doesn’t sound fun.  But then, he brought it home for me when he connected Discipline & Freedom.  I’m VERY interested in freedom, so my ears perked up.  Collins said that the big win is marrying DISCIPLINE WITH CREATIVITY.  He believes that when you create a disciplined framework, freedom and creativity are enabled.

I need to think through ways to bring consistency and discipline into my life to 1) enable creativity, which leads to freedom and 2) to prepare me for what I can’t predict. 

Anybody interested in sharing some disciplines in their life?

Collins shared one he recommended – many people have “To Do” lists, but he thought the power was in a “Stop Doing” list.  Interesting, huh.

Wow - this amazes me!

Clearly, babies undertand more than I give them credit for...

Most of the calls I get are from Brett, and whenever he calls, I say to Kate "It's Daddy!" A few weeks ago she started putting her toy cell phone up to her ear and saying "It's Da-da!" It amazes me how much a 10 month old brain can process!

I caught her doing it one morning, so I got it on video.