“Mommy, that’s my letter! And that is my sister’s letter. This is Emma looking at my sweatshirt with writing on it. She is pointing out the letter “E” and recognizing that this is the first letter in her name and also showing me the letter “L” for the first letter in Lily’s name, too.
If you ask her, what her name is she will tell you and says, “Emma Grace Huldie”. She has known her full name for over a year now, but the letter recognition is generally a new occurrence for her.
I want to believe that I have had something to do with this, but know it is pre-school that is teaching the letters to her and specifically beginning to also show her the letters in her name. I can’t really take credit for this new phenomenon for Emma.
Yet still, she is so very excited and proud as she should be. And even last night was trying to write the letters of her name on the paper roll on her craft/art tablethat Santa brought for both our girls.
Emma’s “E’s” and “A’s” on Her Craft Table
It was around 7 pm and I was kind of busy cleaning up after dinner. Although It was at this point, when she started to talk to me and tell me what she was doing. As proud as she was, she was still struggling to draw the letters correctly. The first thing she told me was, “Look Mommy, I am making my letters.”
She had indeed draw an “E” that looked like the letter “E” should. I was seriously up to my eyes in straightening up, but when I looked at her face, I realized very quickly that I had to stop what I was doing, give her a bit of attention and positively reinforce her efforts to draw these letters. Plus, she seemed to need a bit of help with the letter “A”. So, sat down next to her on the little matching bench and we worked on the letter “A” for a few minutes and then she went onto drawing more letter “E’s”. I asked about the letter “M” and she knew she had two of them in her name, but when she tried drawing an “M”, Emma drew the two vertical outside lines perfectly, but the two middle connecting lines came out as one horizontal line. But we did try again a few more times, only to have her pretty much come out with the same results.
I totally would have sat longer with her, but Lily decided to take her clothes off (pull-up and all). She was running around naked looking for her pajamas. So, my attention had to be taken away from Emma and her letter drawing to deal with a streaking Lily. As funny as this does sound and believe me, I couldn’t help, but giggle even as typing this, I had to take walk away from Emma to handle this situation. By the time, I was done dealing with Lily, Emma was onto bigger and better playing with Barbie’s Dreamhouse. She didn’t seem to be worse for the wear, but my mommy guilt was on overdrive. I felt awful that I had to stop helping Emma, even though she was seemingly just as happy playing with the dollhouse.
Well, I know I said I don’t know resolutions in the past, but I think I may have to amend that one teeny tiny statement, because I afterwards I sat thinking about how many times, I do have to take my attention away from Emma for something else like Lily, who has a tendency to require that of what three children need with some of her crazy antics.
Emma, barely ever puts up a fight and just blends into the crowd. She does this so well and I need to remember that even though she seems Ok with this that she may not always be. Therefore, I am going to try to fix this by indeed giving Emma more one-on-one times with me whenever I can, because she is learning so much and truly wants to learn. I don’t want to miss out on what she is learning and also think she does need to experience some of this with me, as well as I also need to experience this with her.
Emma is a bright little girl, but she still is only 3 years old and needs her mother. So, I am indeed breaking my “no resolutions” and making a resolution to mentally be present more for Emma. I mean I am physically present, but sometimes I admit my mind is elsewhere on all the others things I need to do and finish, as well my other child and husband, too. I need to find a happy balance here and make sure that Emma does get her fair share of attention from me.
After all is said and done this one is one of the most important resolutions I can make, because Emma is truly one of the most important people in my life. She not only needs this, but deserves it, too. Lord knows I am probably going to screw this one up at times (I admit I make my fair share of mistakes daily), but as long as I don’t make the same mistake twice and learn from it that is what it is all about I suppose.
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