Some Things About That Emma Girl

Here are some fun facts about my 5 year old little princess. Goodness, me. I have a 5 year old.

1. She thinks she is very grown up. It is not uncommon to hear her talk about how things were when she was a little girl. :) It's cute.
2. She is a HUGE help to me. She is always willing to help me clean up. She has daily chores like setting the table, cleaning off the table, making her bed, putting her laundry away, and scrubbing the toilets. She asked for that last one and tells me how nice I am when I let her do it. For reals.
3. Emma is taking piano lessons, and she loves it. She loves her teacher (I don't blame her. Heidi is awesome!), and she loves to practice. She has memorized Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and likes to show it off.
4. Emma is so close to reading, but is struggling to just put it all together. I see a lot of myself in her when we work on it, because she gets frustrated and down on herself when it doesn't just click. I do that same thing, so hopefully I can try to help her cope with that. She is doing well and should be able to have basic reading skills before she goes to Kindergarten in the fall. (yes, typing that last sentence did make me burst into tears. why do you ask?)
5. She loves to help me cook. I don't love it so much as it slows me down and usually results in a mess. I learned to let her help me more often despite all of that when she filled out a survey in Primary that said, "I Know My Mommy Loves Me When. . . she lets me help her cook."
6. She is a SPONGUE! She remembers everything you tell her. She gives me detailed accounts of what happened at pre-school and primary, and can repeat verbatim stories and scriptures and songs that she learns there. That is why we are having her memorize scriptures and articles of faith. It sticks right now and I love it.
7. Emma is very particular about her bedtime routine. If we try to leave things out to speed things along, she gets upset.
8. She has become a really good eater. I am SO relieved about this because she was so picky for a while. I am also relieved because if Emma will try something, so will Sara. She has had enough yummy things lately that she was once sure were yucky that she is willing to take one bite of anything I put in front of her. Most of the time she ends up liking it. Last night we had asparagus, mangoes, tossed salad with olives and sausage, and some creamy pasta with bacon. She ate every bite and asked for extra asparagus. Awesome.
9. Emma loves her teachers. All of them. I am so grateful for each of them as well. Her pre-school teacher is wonderful and attentive and makes Emma feel so special whenever they meet. Her piano teacher praises her and pushes her to work hard, which she does. Her primary teachers are wonderful and teach her amazing lessons that she remembers and teaches us later. They even stopped by to give her a Valentines gift and a birthday gift this last month. I am extremely grateful for that as our ward with its super primary has trouble getting teachers to commit to and care for their classes. Emma lucked out two years in a row, and I am so grateful.
10. Emma now has a silver tooth. I try not to be embarassed about this, but I kind of am. Apparently she inherited the bad habit of grinding her teeth at night. Ross and I both have this problem. In doing so, she cracked one of her baby teeth. It never hurt her, so we just tried to make sure we brushed it good every night. Despite all our efforts, it got some decay and had to be capped. She was really sad about this until Ross showed her all his silver fillings. Ross has horrible teeth- so we are hoping the grinding is her only problem, and that she will have Jones teeth- but not Heather's. . . ;)

Wow, that ended up longer than I was planning. I guess I just like talking about her. She is wnderful, and I am so proud of her. She is sweet and smart and she makes my life so easy and fun. I love her with all of my heart and am so grateful that I get to be her mommy. (Even if she does prefer her daddy. . .)