Emily: 7 years old

I'm two months late in posting this, what an insane year 2nd grade is!

How do I begin to sum up all that is my amazing daughter?

Let me start with what I'm most proud of, which is her easy-going, inclusive, loving, I-just-want-to-play personality. She's never excluded anyone, whether a friend at school or a stranger she's just met at the park. She doesn't have one best friend, nor a core group of friends she regularly plays with; Emily will walk up to a group of kids already playing and ask to join and will allow anyone to join a game of tag she's already playing. Emily steers clear of the girl drama that is already starting in school and is very quick to forgive any disagreement and move on to the next chance to play together. She's so happy every day; her joy is infectious.

Emily is eager to please everyone, never wanting to disappoint you, and always first to step up and help. She thrives on positive praise and is easily motivated by rewards of extra quality time together or a sweet treat. Emily is also very independent, extremely happy to just play alone, make-believe most of the time.

Something that has really surprised all of us is what a natural athlete Emily is. Everything she touches she is immediately good at. She succeeds at everything really quickly, which makes her even more eager to try every after-school sport and class that's offered! And we encourage her to try everything! She can throw a perfect spiral football, can catch pop fly balls and accurately hit balls thrown to her, dribbles a basketball really well, wins at wall ball almost every day, runs faster than the boys, and picks up new tumbling skills weekly. She's taking Japanese Taiko drumming, pottery, and Toyology (building toys through science) after school this term and is really enjoying each class.

Emily is still obsessed with all God's creatures. She especially loves anything with wings: owls, birds, dragons, butterflies, bees, and bats to name a few. She has some dress-up wings she wears every day and flaps around the backyard, pretending she can fly. She asks me several times a week to teach her to fly. I just don't know what to say to that. ha!

Emily's favorite place to be is with her family. She loves going out for dinner at restaurants (a plate of rice & beans at La Pinata is her number one request), helping me bake lava cake, and hanging out in front of a roaring fire while playing a round of Monopoly. She loves when her Gram and Aunt Jenny come to visit and she especially loves to fly to Texas to visit them because that means she gets to sleep in Gram's bed and splash around in the hot tub. Emily loves having her brother to play with, though she wants him to know her toys in her room are off limits!

Emily's love of organizing things really makes me laugh because she is the mirror image of me in this regard. She loves to match up socks and put away laundry, stack up the cat food cans by color, straighten the dominos and playing cards, separate her bracelet-making beads and strings, and clean the playroom toys. Also on this note, the food on her plate must stay separate - never touching or mixing. Kind of a pain but I oblige the best I can.

Emily requires very little discipline these days. We often joke she is the "easy" child at this point in our parenting life. I do have to repeat myself... often, but find giving Emily a written list of duties and chores really cuts down on this. Rarely do I raise my voice or punish Emily but when I do, it's simply taking away some of her free choice time or issuing a warning that I will take away some of her free choice time. 

Emily is joyous, thoughtful - always helping clean up spills and corralling Nolan, cooperative, kind, generous - always sharing with everyone, eager to learn everything, hilarious - she's a great joke teller, polite - she has excellent manners, positive and uplifting - always encouraging others, and persistent - she rarely quits.

I've always called Emily my #1 girl. She brings me so much joy and happiness and I'm so blessed God brought her to us.