Dear Emma,
Your Mommy is a slacker. Sorry, kiddo.
I know I don't have to say it... again ... but seriously, where has the last 4 years gone?
You are all girl, sweetie! You love princesses, dolls, having your nails done, singing, dancing, playing ballerina, cooking, even cleaning!
You are SO much personality wrapped up in one little girl. You have become this amazing little person that we adore and pray for so fervently! Emma Sue, God is doing such special things through you and we are so blessed to be able to see Him work in your little heart.
You are now 41" tall, 41 pounds and recently busted into size 11 shoes! You still have tiny feet for your age, but they are adorable! You are, however, in size 5T pants and size 4 or 5T shirts. Your blonde hair is well past your shoulders and you are still sporting some rockin' bangs. You no longer like having your hair brushed, put in a ponytail or otherwise being messed with. You whine and complain whenever you see a brush and you ask every day to leave your hair down. Your hair, darling... oh... your hair. It is down to the middle of your back now and a tangled mess at all times. You are continually twirling it in your hands, putting it in your mouth to suck on for some reason and constantly getting food of all kinds stuck in it! Heaven forbid I cut it, though!
You now almost exclusively choose your own clothes and dress on your own without my help. This has presented some pretty interesting situations as your pants are put on backwards, shoes on the wrong feet, clothes that do not match and style that is anything but stylish... but you love what you are wearing and you feel great having chosen it by yourself. You have also taken to declaring pajama days and choose to stay in pajamas all day when I give in and let you. Daddy is not a fan of pajama days :)
You brush your own teeth, you wash your own hair (with my oversight) and clean yourself right up in the shower all on your own. You love tickles and receive endless amounts of tickling ... I am honestly not sure how you stand it, but you love tickles! You still listen to stories at night and have begun to enjoy Adventures in Odyssey and other bigger kid stories (like Little House on the Prairie)! You pick out and put on your pajamas before bed, brush your teeth, stay dry all night, and sleep very well through the night. You have pretty much stopped taking naps most days and that has been a tough transition for all of us. Some days, you still take naps... but mostly you lay in your bedroom and yell down every 10 minutes to ask if you can wake up :)
You and Daddy have created a pretty tight bond this year. He takes you out on Friday lunch dates, reads you stories (Chronicles of Narnia, The Pilgrim's Progress) at bedtime and prays with you each night before bed. He adores you and truly enjoys the person you have become. You make him laugh every single day and he loves to be with you. You are so blessed to have a Daddy that is so involved in your life and loves you like He does!
You love all of the same foods with the exception of hot dogs, yogurt and macaroni and cheese. You have pretty much given those foods up and will not eat them when they are offered. Daddy introduced you to Sierra Mist and now you are hooked on that during your Friday date days :) You love smoothies or hot cocoa from the local coffee shop and you are starting to love chocolate and all of those things that are not good for you! :)
You love your friends: Andrew, L, Joy, Hudson, Savannah (who you call Basannah), Trinity, Bennett, Beezy, Benjamin, and Austin. You have made new friends now that we have moved. Your neighbors Sofia and Gavin, your other neighbor behind our house, Sofia behind the trees (as you call her), Brianna, Cole, Joshua, Roz, and Alex from home-school co-op!
You decided when we moved to Troy to give Ballet a try instead of doing gymnastics. I was disappointed because I loved watching you do gymnastics and all that you were learning... however, it is not about what Mommy wants you to do, it is about what interests you! So, we began ballet classes. You have been asking to stop ballet and go back to gymnastics, but we are making you finish what you started and then go from there. You tried a free tennis class and you liked that. You love to try new things and I love that about you! You would like to try "soccer ball" in the spring and that makes Daddy very excited. I think he secretly hopes you will love Soccer ;)
We have been consistently doing school work at home every day and you have learned a lot of new things. One of the biggest things you have learned is: reading! We use BOB books, which I check out from the library, and it literally took you 10 minutes to read the first book. I was shocked! You are now blooming into quite the reader and I can sit and listen to you try to sound out the words in some of your books on your own, when you think I am not listening!
You can count to 100 with a little help here and there.
You know simple addition.
You are learning all of your states and capitals.
You know your alphabet and can recognize all of your letters in uppercase or lowercase form.
You can read the first level of BOB books.
You can recognize all of your colors and shapes.
You can color in the lines and use multiple colors on one picture.
You like to draw stick figures of people.
You know how to tell time.
You know how to read the temperature in Fahrenheit.
You know the days of the week and are working on the months of the year.
You and I have grown into a new phase of a Mommy/Daughter relationship. Mostly, this is due to your ever maturing personality. You are now learning to be responsible with chores and have a daily list of chores that you must get done. You have learned to make your bed (kind of), you help me clean with the cleaning wipes, you are responsible for picking up your toy room and cleaning your room up. We work on these things every day and you are getting better at all of them! The hardest part, is getting you to do them some days!
Discipline is interesting with you right now. You are pretty good at being obedient, but now you are learning to be obedient right away and without throwing a disrespectful attitude around. You have such a strong personality, which is awesome for your future.. but makes it difficult sometimes on our relationship. That is what makes it hard to be a Mommy sometimes, trying to teach you things that can only be changed in your heart. Teaching you that what you say and what you do, directly correlate to what is in your heart. It is quite the task!
Emma Sue, most importantly... I love you so much. Your Daddy and I have been so blessed with you and even though sometimes it is difficult to battle bad attitudes, talking back, and mean-spirited comments; it is all worth it because you are the love of our lives, second only to God and each other. You bring us so much laughter, so much joy and so much conviction. We are constantly seeing our own failures manifested in your ability to mimic our failures and it has become a challenge for us to be better, do better and watch what we say and do. Our prayer continues to be that God would set you apart for Him and that you would have a gentle heart that you will use to serve Him, love others and bring joy to everyone around you.
You have begun to have your own relationship with the Lord and it is astounding at times to witness. You are constantly asking questions about God, the Bible, Heaven, life itself... and then you take that information and you share it with others as if asking people if they love God is the same as asking if they like the color purple. You have pushed me to move outside of my own comfort zone in sharing God's love with others. Faith like a child, indeed! Now, that verse has new meaning for me! I pray that you always have a love for Christ and always feel the need to share His love with others and that this faith that you have now, will continue to work itself out in your heart and life as your faith becomes your own.
I love you very much Emma Sue. My precious daughter, loved by God and entrusted to me for a time. You are a blessing and the silver lining in our life. As beautiful on the inside as you are on the outside.
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