Emily Grace

I felt the need to update on Emily Grace this evening. This girl is just growing up so fast! This evening we had a birthday party for one of her friends. Emily was to dress up in princess attire for the event. I braided her hair, and she put on jewelry to accessorize. All of the sudden I just couldn't believe how grown up she is! My beautiful little girl will be in Kindergarten next August?! How did this happen? Please tell me how!

So, in light of that realization that hit me like a ton of bricks, I bring to you an update on Emily Grace:

-Emily tells me all the time that she is going to marry Peter Pan. When she's playing make-believe, she is always the mom, Peter is the dad, and she has boy/girl twins names Brock and Jordan. (Brock and Jordan are actually two boy-girl twins who were on Emily's soccer team, and go to her preschool.)

-Even though her "babies" are named Brock and Jordan, the rest of her dolls and teddy bears still have food names. Her favorite bear is names Guac (as in guacamole) and her first ever dolly she still refers to as Sushi. We thought these names would eventually be replaced, but so far they've stuck.

-Emily cracks me up with her names for things. She refers to my crutches as stilts. She refuses to understand what I'm talking about if I call them "crutches."

-When my grandparents called the other day, Emily got on the line to say hello to them. But rather than get on the phone with a polite "hello!" she said, "What's up!" ---- I still don't know where that came from.

-Emily is in a phase where clothes fit in to one of three categories: itchy, too tight, or too loose. There is no in-between. There is no winning the argument. It doesn't matter how new or old the clothes are. She will complain. I solve this by saying very sweetly, "You have two minutes to put on any top and any bottoms that you chose or you get a spank. Then, if you still don't get dressed, you will have a spank for every minute that goes by." You would be surprised how many mornings we go through this. And now that I have a broken leg Em thinks maybe she can get away with this. But darnnit if Mommy isn't the MOST STUBBORN MOMMY IN THE WORLD! She even climbs up stairs one-legged like to make sure Em gets dressed. --- My goal is to have this phase come to an end before Kindergarten starts. And if you were wondering, yes... we've had lots of "interesting outfits" the past few weeks. But at least she's dressed.

-Emily loves My Little Ponies. She likes to line them all up and play "Pony Parade" for her brother and sister. Elsie thinks this is fabulous, but Eli just likes to knock them down and giggle.

-Emily is happiest when she plays outside. Since I haven't been out to the garden much, she often comes inside to show me all the tomatoes she's picked. Some are read and ready to eat, and others... well... not so much. We haven't had a single tomato in a salad yet because Emily eats them all the moment they are ready. I'm glad she likes tomatoes.

- Emily was in the kitchen the other day when I was complaining to Scott about somebody. Emily gently touched my arm and said, "Jesus wants you to be nice to everybody Mommy. Even the annoying ones!" I would have probably cracked up if I didn't feel so convicted by my five-year old! I was reminded again how much we model 100% of the time... even when we think they're not listening!

- AND FINALLY: This evening as we talked about the up and coming chick-fil-a down the street (the source of all things wonderful!) Emily said, "Mom, if they don't build toys in there like McDonalds did, I think we should take our bucks someplace else!"