Kaley
Michelle Wilcox,
Born
04-04-00 was welcomed into a loving family which included an older brother, two
older sisters, and a grandma living in our home. Our family is spread in ages as Emily is 30 and doing a master’s program at Seattle University, Andrew 25 a graduate
of Millard West and MCC, lives nearby in Omaha, and then we skip to Gina who is
only 18 months older. Shannon arriving on Kaley's long coat tail is now 9.
Kaley showed a very early interest in music
when she would hum Beethoven in perfect pitch.
I remember someone commenting in the grocery store, “Do you know your
baby is humming Beethoven?” Well, I did
know being a classical music enthusiast, but I didn’t think it was extraordinary
until a stranger pointed it out. Fast
forward and Kaley is studying piano with Galina Shatskya and is truly excelling
in her gift. Her perfect pitch still in force
as she often yells, “That is a B flat” or whatever the note should be when
Kaley’s 9 yr. old sister Shannon occasionally
hits the wrong one.
Kaley’s facility
for learning was not limited to her love of music. She is a voracious reader as well. At one point she was looking at books in the
Rowher’s library when she was told that she was looking at books that were not
appropriate for her age. Her teacher
actually took Kaley in to the principal’s office and she read to him. He was sufficiently impressed with her
reading comprehension and maturity that he told her teacher that “Kaley can
read anything in the school library that interests her!” Well, we can hardly keep up with Kaley’s
reading checking out 25 books at a time or downloading them from Barnes and
Nobel on to the Nook. On our last trip
to the library I asked the librarian for suggestions and Kaley had read every
book that she suggested so she went in the back of the library and brought out
a stack of new books that were not even on the shelves. She often rereads a
book if it is one she likes and she can, pardon the pun; ‘literally’ knock down
a 700 page Potter book in a single sitting so I wouldn’t ever let her tell you
that she didn’t have time to read something….sorry Kaley!
Kaley has
quite a sense of humor too. Recently she
said to me, “The sky is the limit – tell that to an astronaut”. She has quite a memory too so if she hears
something funny she is apt to repeat it later which makes her a lot of fun to
be around with all her quips and puns.
Besides
piano, Kaley has a great singing voice, is into dancing, taekwondo, skiing and
of course social networking to name a few.
A formidable foe at ‘Words with Friends,’ or any game for that matter, Kaley
is usually upbeat but she can be a bit temperamental. Keeping things fair is a
challenge as sometime the big picture gets lost in the individual
skirmishes. I often find myself allied with
Kaley especially if she is the victim of some injustice. Kaley really needs her sleep and it is easy
to tell when she hasn’t gotten it usually from a late night between the pages
of a book. Her mother did a brilliant
job though when she was young teaching Kaley how to recognize how wonderful
sleep is and as result she would often put herself to sleep in unusual
places. Hopefully this won’t happen at
school but unless things are kept fun, interesting, and fast paced I’ll make no
guarantee.
