On being normal

My daughter is a character. She's been a character since she was born. I mean, she is really eccentric and funny and also very serious. Yeah Mom, she get's it from me, I know. She has always been 'different', and is an extreme Mama's girl. We are best friends, for sure. She loves other children, but she's not a fan of adults. At all. Especially the ones who run up to her and try to touch her or pinch her cheeks. She has even slapped a woman who tried doing it when she was a baby. So she's serious about the don't touch me unless I know you very well.
I have never cut Kaya's hair and yet it remains short, due to her lovely angelic curls. I was very mad about her having no hair until 2. I'm in love with the curls ( and jealous I don't have them!!) but seriously I want some more hair on this little one!! She's almost five now, so I'm going to have a little talk with her hair every night and ask it to grow just an inch. Please!!
Actually Kaya is obsessed with her hair, and we all are because it's the same as Billy's. And that is one of the things I love best about my man. Physically I mean. Lovin' the curls, we just want more of them!!
Kaya also speaks a few languages, because we've lived in different countries. She's now technically learning her 4th, sign language. She doesn't speak any language fluently as she is only 4 but she still speaks and understands a bit of Thai, French, Korean, and italian on top of English. I'm jealous about that. I also need to step it up as my one requirement is that she is bilingual in English and French. I speak/read/write French but not fluently ( I'm maybe a 7 out of 10) so I need to step it up a lot, improve my French and become fluent and speak it to her daily. That's a challenge when you live in an English speaking country and speak English with your spouse.
Ky doesn't like wearing clothes. Inside as well as outside, save now she must wear clothes outside as it's freezing. She's a hippy. I don't care whatsoever, but my Mom on the other hand freaks out about it ( my Mom's nickname is Posh Spice, fyi).
Our family is in many respects unconventional. Abnormal. Odd. We're artists darnit! And apparently it is genetic ( blame it on the genes I say) and maybe all of our kids will be eccentric. But the wonderful thing is that we're pretty happy being our weird selves. And kids are weird in general ( I mean toddler's try to eat everything) But when your odd you do get the sense that people are judging you for doing things differently. I've always hated that. Now however, I'm feeling great about owning who we are, owning who I am, as that sends the best message to our kids: that it's OK to be different. It's not nice to judge others and we should be open minded and most importantly, kind. Regardless of our neighbor's religion or opinions, we are called to love them.
And I think since the invention of social media, people are more and more letting their freak flags fly ( that saying really cracks me up).  10 years ago you wouldn't be seeing Moms obsessing over teenage sparkly vampires. Now? That's nothing.
It's wonderful supporting our kids and loving them for who they are, and it makes us reassess our thoughts about ourselves. We need to love ourselves, despite being different. We're all unique, there is no such thing as normal :)