The Many Faces of Emma
by Kym on November 23, 2007
Emma. My first. My most challenging. My nemesis. My sweetheart.
This year has been a trying one with Emma. I often pause to remind myself that her stubborn nature will serve her well later in life. The strengths she exhibits in her quest to drive her mother mental will some day carry her through difficult trials. Like, say, the trial of raising a strong willed child.
Oi.
There have been days when after greeting Neil with the usual cheery “Welcome home, Sweetie!”, I’ve fallen into his arms and requested a big hug. Not a quick hello hug, but a squeeze-me-tight-until-I feel-like-I-have-it-together-again hug. She wears me out, you see. Some days? Thoroughly and completely.
And yet, I adore her. Also thoroughly and completely. She gives the best hugs. She’ll start on the far side of the house yelling, “Ready! Set! Gooooooo!!!” and come pelting through the kitchen and dining room, and fling herself into my arms. “I miss you so much, Mummy. I love you, Mummy. You happy, Mummy? I happy too!” And then she runs off, laughing happily.
She is also the mess maker. The random destroyer. The shrugger and I don’t know’er when asked why. The attempted murderer, the maniacal laugher, the elbow in the guts’er, the shrieker, the inflicter of pain, chaos, and mayhem.
She is also the sweet voice of sympathy, the cuddle bug, the helper, the hugger and kisser, the cleaner, the singer, the dancer, the doctor. The imagineer. She is delightful and devious. Loving and hurtful. Helpful and destructive.
In short? I’m confused. But I’m also smitten with her. Grateful for her. And full of hope.
17 comments
Reminds me of my oldest!
by Natalie on November 23, 2007 at 5:16 am. #
Wonderful post. My kids can make me so mad, and then an instant later break my heart or make me melt. Being a mom is the sweetest and the best and the most frustrating all at once. And they wonder why we all blog about it…
by Sue on November 23, 2007 at 6:34 am. #
Oh my, does that sound like my Lauren!!! I can so relate to this post!!
by La Chanson de Phoenix on November 23, 2007 at 11:58 am. #
Wouldn’t it be great to have that kind of energy!!!
I think kids are incredibly amazing and being a mom truly is the best –because it allows you to become a GRANDMA!
by Yvonne on November 23, 2007 at 1:28 pm. #
She’s so great, and she looks just like you.
by Luisa Perkins on November 23, 2007 at 2:45 pm. #
Um, I could have written everything you did to exactness. Count Dooku is the same. Some days I just cry and cry because he has given me such a tough time. Sometimes he’s so incredibly sweet. I love him to pieces always but I’m so glad he’s in school now. It’s actually made us closer.
by Summer on November 23, 2007 at 3:00 pm. #
I have a nemesis/sweetheart too. Aren’t they fun? She really is sweet -looking.
by andi on November 23, 2007 at 3:42 pm. #
What a gorgeous little girl. No surprise. Look at her mom. :-)
I have daughters who are very headstrong – Yaya, at 3, is emerging from her gentle, loving self to become this sort of punk rock butterfly that shrieks – I mean shrieks, complete with tears and the bleeding eardrums of anyone within 10 feet – shrieks if she doesn’t get her way and NOW.
I was reading your comment on Navel Gazing. Imagine my laughter when I read that you had backed out of your garage with a door open. I thought that maybe I was the only person who had done that. I completely wrenched the car door from the frame of the car. That was the day I inherited my first car. Lucky me.
by ahna on November 23, 2007 at 4:22 pm. #
I have one who is very similar to this. I’ve told my husband that this child is either going to be a GA or a convicted felon, depending on which direction he chooses to go. Isn’t it amazing how frustrated they make us, and yet how completely in love with them we are?
by Tristi Pinkston on November 23, 2007 at 6:16 pm. #
a beautiful ode to a beautiful bean!
by christina on November 23, 2007 at 7:34 pm. #
I’ve always said that if I can just get Alexis to adulthood, she is going to be an amazing, strong woman. Raising her can be tough, however.
Your girl is beautiful.
I’m glad there are the sweet moments to temper the rough times.
by Lisa Milton on November 23, 2007 at 9:23 pm. #
Isn’t motherhood grand? Amazing, exhausting, exhilarating, frustrating…and when all’s said and done, it’s the most wonderful gift God can bestow on a woman. Sometimes it just takes a little reminding. But in your heart, you know you’re incredibly blessed. She very lucky to have you. ;o)
by Avery Gray on November 24, 2007 at 12:03 am. #
She looks just like her mommy. Lucky girl. All that naughtiness must come from her daddy’s side, though. ;)
by Deb on November 24, 2007 at 1:37 am. #
Her and Blake would get along so well. This post reminded me of him. I wish we were closer so they could play and we could pull our hair out together while laughing at the same time.
She reminds me of someone else too…hmmm who could it be ? LOL
by Tonya on November 24, 2007 at 4:31 am. #
what a wonderful tribute.
BY THE WAY :- enjoy the heck out of this age, because the 8 year old is gettin’ all teenagery, and she is the sweetest of her classmates (i’m sure i’m not biased…). i wish she was still four. four was THE BEST age.
yeah, that wasn’t all that comforting, was it. sorry. i’ll try harder…
by holly on November 24, 2007 at 10:17 pm. #
Isn’t it amazing the range of emotions that a child can bring??
by Melissa on November 25, 2007 at 8:48 pm. #
Awww – what a cutie! Good thing they’re so cute, eh? Otherwise we might be tempted to send them back to where they came from!
by JustRandi on November 26, 2007 at 1:34 am. #