Niki

Niki’s first love

5th grade; his name is Anders. Here is an unsent poem Niki wrote for Anders during their whirlwind romance in June 2019 before Niki left for Austria for 1 year.

Ever since I met you

Ever since I fell in love

I can’t stop thinking about it all

I just want to give you a call

Cause it’s true I love you tonight

So come climb with me to the stars that shine above

And come dance with me till we can’t no more

Cause I want to be here with you

Till the sun can’t shine no more

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Staying out of the way of their imagination

So Niki has her friend Emma over after school, and Niki decides (no clue where the inspiration came from) she wants to “build a jeep”. My immediate instinct is “that’s not possible”.

Luckily, I resist saying anything, and Niki goes about her task. She asks for a little help with cutting wood, but is otherwise on her own. What’s entertaining is that her friend Emma thinks the same as I (it’s not possible), and Niki pleads with her friend to be imaginative.

In the end, I’m dumb struck; it’s a beautiful work of art that I never anticipated. Don’t doubt the power of a young person’s imagination…

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Back and forth with the tooth fairy

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The Poet

Niki is really beginning to flourish as an artist at the young age of 10.

She’s really taken to photography – she received a compact point-and-shoot for Christmas, but prefers the larger SLR with the zoom lense. After returning from a 3 day trip to Utah for her XCel Regional Gymnastics competition she had taken nearly 700 pictures – some of which show she has an eye for photography by seeing things from a perspective which is not intuitive.

She’s also taken to poetry – she calls them stories but they really are amazing poems. She sat down and without hesitation or writers block wrote 2 poems which were just beautiful. Here they are (spelling hers :)).

The Land and the Sea

The land hoverd with light as bright as the sun
while the animals creapt back home like a cheta hunting it’s pray
The trees hushed the animals to sleep
while the wistiling wind sang with the trees
while the wavews made a druming sound
while the grass blew like a flut
while the moon shaderd light on the animals
everything sang
the sand crunched like a soft moraka
the land was full of sound
buitiful sound
while the animals slept something happened under the water
a whale and a shark fought
niping hurting
the water was an ice cube
the skin as a coat
the eys like a eagle
waching a fish tails waging
soon both wher gone
gone in the light

The Buitiful Bear

The sun was a bright as a flashlight in the dark
the trees skreamink with the wind like a babby crying
the darkness was as dark as a black cat
the fur was as soft as a wool coat
the eys wher as buitiful as a birds song
the claws were as sharp as a sharpend knife
the legs wher as strond as a rock
the heart was as warm as a fire fild with kindness
the mity bear roared
he stood on a rock as buitiful and sturdy like wood
his ears wher as good as an owles
the water was as if it was a lether mirror
the sun pushed away the clouds filled with anger
and brought the sky full of love
the love spreaded out as fast as lava running
the bear wached the suns shimering sole fall into the lake
while the moons white face apered
the wind picked up like a fire blowing
the grass sang like a huming bird
the “fires turned wood to ash”
the snow fell
the bear went into the cave
all quiet with no riot

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Thoughts on Niki

She can be ornery! Starts trouble with Britta, and you can see she enjoys herself. She is independent and content to go her own way. In Salzburg she LOVES to sleep on the hard floor; we’ve waken up in the morning to find Niki in our room, behind our door, fast asleep with only a blanket and pillow. This is likely because when she is on a comfortable mattress, she moves all over the place. She is restless even when she is exhausted!

She’s made an impression at school- a boy named Mateo seems to adore her. When she enters the classroom the routine is to shake hands with the teacher using your right hand. And most mornings Niki offers her left hand, knowing full well that she’s pushing the envelope. Character!

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An independent little girl

Niki is interesting to watch. Unlike most girls (her age or even older), she’s entirely comfortable with being alone and not compelled to participate just to be with others. Along the same lines she doesn’t seem to tolerate controlling behavior, but instead will go off and do her own thing. It’s actually a refreshing trait to see; most of us aren’t comfortable enough in our own skin to be content being alone until we are well into our 20’s…

This same independence may be the source of Niki and I modestly butting heads at different times (she resists the parental role of control). But upon her return from Germany this year, it seems like things have improved. This is partly due to her seeming to require less parental oversite from me – she’s really been such a good girl lately. But also she’s more receptive (or I’m better at articulating the requirements) to what I say. It’s really so much fun to hang out with her this Summer…

She’s really taken to art, too. Now and again comes up with some interesting and complicated water coloring, likely inspired by her Opa. Again, independence…she will decide to color on her own, get all the materials quietly in her own, and start to paint…all without saying a word.

Fun.

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