My Girl

I had some ideas for what to say about Emmy Ruth and how she is right now, at this very moment. I want to never forget how funny and sweet and charming she is. Oh, yes, and mischievous. Then, on her actual birthday when we were taking photos at the playground, I thought I could just write an entire entry just on funny things she did that day. By the time we got home, I had forgotten some of them, even thought John and I literally were laughing out loud at the time.

 

I guess that is what happens when she just says and does so many things to make us smile—it’s hard to keep up with all of them. She makes us both just cackle out loud and then gets her feelings hurt because she thinks we are laughing AT her. We tell her we aren’t—she just makes us smile and laugh and that is a wonderful trait to have. The girl loves to sing and dance, that’s for certain. We listen to the Tangled Soundtrack in the car and she sings along. She often wants it louder and she will say in her biggest voice, “I WANT IT LOUD LIKE THIS!” At the playground, they have this stage with a big chalkboard behind it. Emmy loves to get on the stage and dance but she is very particular that everything is just as she wants it to be. She placed her daddy on the audience bench just as she wanted him to be and then I was to dance in a very specific spot, doing very specific dances. And I was not allowed to sing—only dance.

 

I have no idea where she gets her bossiness…. Perhaps her daddy.

 

At home, Emmy alternates between sleeping in her own bed and our bed. I know she should be in her bed all the time, and she often is, but it is just so comforting and soothing to have her in bed with us. I love to cuddle with her. We call it Snuggle Buggle. “Mama, can you snugglebuggle me?” is about the sweetest thing ever. When I was a little girl, I often stayed with Grandma Ruth and I would ask her to “hold my back”. Emmy and I often do that too. It is my most precious time in the day. As sweet as she is at night, the mornings are a different story. She does not wake up well. Sometimes, I carry her into the living room to wake while she is watching TV and she sometimes jumps up and runs back into the bed, pulling the covers over her head. She piddles around so much until we are late almost every single morning. I hate to start the day rushing around and with arguments so I am working on waking even earlier and getting her up even earlier.

 

We are still working on our alphabet—it is just not something she is concerned with right now. At all. She does not want to work on them and I am pulling back and not pushing quite as much. I am sure she’ll learn it eventually… She loves to play on her computer, but only for a bit. When she can’t get the mouse to work just right, she gets very frustrated and just stops. I don’t want to encourage this but I also don’t want her to see working on it as a chore so I don’t push too much. When she wants to stop, she can.

 

The house is a wreck all the time, there are dresses and Barbies and dolls and crayons everywhere. One day, John and I will be sitting awake, waiting on her to come from a date, and long for the time that Emmy Ruth put on her sequin Hex Girl dress and sang “Jesus Loves Me” on her makeshift stage. Having a few crowns and magic wands and plastic dress up shoes just really seems like a small price to pay for such a wonderful life.