My Dearest Emmie,
You turned three this past weekend! To say you are excited is an understatement. You’ve made leaps and bounds since your last birthday, in all aspects of life. Not only have you grown about 7 inches (and finally gained some weight!) but you now actually like talking! You’re clever and smart. You love ice cream and frozen lemonade pops. You love playing make-believe with your dollies & enjoy watching your Dad play computer games. You are the manners police and call us out by saying, “No eating and talking Mom!” or, “You need to say ‘excuse me’ after you burp, Dad.” Touché, little one, touché.
You are strong as ever and can jump for hours with your Dad on the trampoline. You love helping in the kitchen, and having tea-parties. You’ve slowly started questioning everything. “Because why?” you’ll say. You still call Oliver your best bud, and have no trouble bossing him around. You’re very matter-of-fact and highly opinionated when it comes time to get dressed. You enjoy wearing nothing but princess dresses these days. You’ll let me do your hair only if you can watch a video & usually you request one “Elsa braid.” Since your hair is so fine your braid usually only lasts a few minutes (or half an hour on a good day) before your hair is all in your face again.
You are still silly as ever too. Your dance moves never fail to make us laugh. And your sudden need to exclaim how much you love us could make anyone’s heart explode from sweetness. But don’t be fooled by all these sweet tales. You’re as sassy as sassy comes. You’re still quite the negotiator and pretty defiant at this age too. You love simply stating, “No. I choose nothing,” when presented with a set of options. You will do something naughty and then quickly cover with, “Oh! I’m really sorry!” as you know it lets you off the hook. You know each and every one of my buttons to push, and just how to get me riled. You also looooooove to use your whining voice. You could be perfectly happy but out of your mouth comes a sentence in full blast whining.
Sometimes when you’re a tornado of all your fiercest attributes it’s hard for me to remember that you are still so small in a world that is so big. You are still learning so so much. I need to remind myself that although you now speak like a perfectly capable person, you are still a tiny girl needing guidance in a confusing place. You are trying your best to process emotions so big your little body can hardly handle them. On those days bedtime is our saving grace, and I know we can both do better tomorrow. Yet, no matter how our day played out Emerson Claire, you are my favorite 3-year-old and I love you to smithereens. I cannot wait to see what this year has in store for you. Happy birthday my darling, happy birthday.
Love,
Mom