Dear Emily

(I can't believe I am so late with this. I have thought about writing this entry almost daily for almost three weeks now. So here is my very late birthday letter to Emily)

Dear Emily,
Your birthday was almost 3 weeks ago and I feel like you are such a different person at five years old than you were at four! You work hard to make being five work towards your advantage. We often hear, "when I'm five (this new thing), but when I was four (the old way)." You mostly use this to show us how brave you are as a five year old. My favorite is that when you are five, you are not afraid of the dark like you were when you were four, which you say to try to convince yourself not to be afraid. But when we turn out the lights, you still cry (because the dark still is scary).

You at four

You at five

You like to find humor in situations and want to turn tears to laughter. You used to easily fall into my arms and cry things out. Now you want to shrug off your tears and be strong. When you have been crying and find a solution you will create laughter by saying, "tears! Get back in my eyes tears! Not on my face!" You also use the same method to practice self discipline when you are touching things you shouldn't, or hitting or kicking, or really any self discipline. You have a humorous conversation with your offending body part and work hard to make light of the situation. You like to tell and hear jokes. You and your sister share knock-knock jokes and often the punch line is something related to potty humor.
You are a natural mother. You are so nurturing and mothering to all of your siblings. You want to be in charge and, though you mimic me some, you often find your own way of doing things for your siblings. You especially like to help take care of William. Unless, he is crying. Then you bring him straight to me. You want a lot of kids and can't wait to have another sister. (you've decided that next we will have two girls at the same time from the same belly)
Emily, I love being your mom. I love seeing the love and kindness you have inside of you. I love watching as you try so hard to be a better person all the time. I love the clever way your mind works and the ideas you come up with. I love that you are so determined to get your way and that you try to compromise in all things so that you can have your way.

Thank you Emily for being you. Thank you for working so hard to figure out who you are and then having the integrity to be you, no matter how you are different from others. Thank you for loving our family so much. Thank you for trying so hard to take care of and nurture your siblings. You are a wonderful, beautiful person, inside and out. I love you so much! Happy birthday!

Love,
Mom