Emmy First

Let's shake things up this week and start with Emilia. She is 18 months now, which in my mind makes her mostly child, mixed with a little bit of baby. Emilia is the dancing queen! I think all babies dance to music at this age, but she doesn't just dance to music. She dances when Shelby chants her name, she dances when I sing (which I definitely do not consider music), she even danced to the tune of a car alarm that went off in the Costco parking lot the other day. It is so darn stinking cute! She also talks more now, when she is in the mood. She can say the following words clearly: Mom, Dad, uh-oh, cat, snow, and of course, no(!). She says a lot of other unintelligible things, and is always telling stories. Lilly said the blessing last night at dinner. She is notoriously long-winded, blessing everything from the table to all the little animals. Right in the middle of her prayer, Emmy piped up with "Blah, blah!" Emilia has also suddenly grown quite attached to Rachel, which is new. Up until now she has very much had a "look but don't touch" relationship with her sibling. Now at any point if I won't hold her, she turns directly to Rachel to pick her up. Today when Rachel left for school, Emmy was downright mad, and told me all about it! Boy it is exciting that she is old enough now for me to actually have fun stuff to say about her.

On the way to school last week Lilly gave me a stern lecture about the dangers of drinking and driving. She was concerned because I had brought my smoothie (alcohol-free, of course) with me to drink on the way. Rachel quickly corrected Lilly and reassured her that it was only things "like, like, alcohol, and smoking cigarettes that you are not supposed to do while you drive."

So Lilly has this friend Elizabeth who is not a member of the church. Yesterday I overheard the following conversation:

Lilly: Elizabeth, did you know Jesus died for us? Because he loved us so much?
Elizabeth: .... Umm, yes?
Lilly: But don't worry, he came back to life!
Elizabeth: Lilly, if you saw Jesus, would you fall in love on him?
Lilly:... Umm, yes?

I have been making an attempt to spend 15 minutes every day one-on-one with my three older children. Lilly's favorite way to spend this time with me is to color. Her second favorite is to play a card game called Casino, which she almost always beats me at, followed by Slap Jack, which she always beats me at. With Slap Jack, I had been taking it easy on her at first, but yesterday I gave it my all and she still killed me! A little hard on my pride, I have to say.

What is important to Rachel beyond all else is that the adults in her world take her seriously. This means no laughing at her expense, and listening to her ideas and dreams without judgement. Sometimes this is hard to do, like when she really really wants to cut her hair "short like a boy" so it isn't in her face all the time (we compromised and did a bob cut, which is very cute on her). It is easier to be supportive when she tells me she is going to train to be a Power Ranger because I can support her in theory, but I know she will lose interest before she really leaves to protect the world from Nighlocks. Not snickering when she tells me about one of her many boyfriends and then says "but don't tell him, he doesn't know he is my boyfriend!" is hard. Helping her make a sign about saving the world, easier. Helping her plan a Christmas party for all the kids in her class, devastatingly hard. But only because I was terrified nobody would come (if I haven't mentioned it already, it was a huge success!). I love that girl and want her to succeed, but parenting her has been something that has required a lot of thought and reflection, not to mention many many tears on her part and mine.

So I have learned something about my boy. I am lucky to have a child with such an easy-going nature. He seems to be ok with just about everything in life. He can eat, or not eat. He will wear whatever I want him to. If the girls want him to play a part in their games, he will do it without complaint (although he almost always morphs into a monster or a dinosaur at some point during the game). I am lucky he is this way, but there is always a downside to every personality type. The downside of his easy-going nature is that he also does not care about time constraints. "Carson you need to get dressed quickly" means nothing to him. "Please eat your breakfast now because we have to go" goes in one ear and out the other. "If you want to go get ice cream, you have to clean your room now!" rolls right off his back. That kid has one speed, and it is sloth slow. I'll take it though. It is a small price to pay for some peace among my other three very intense kids.