And what a three-year-old you will be!
Dear Emi,
This year has been a big one for you. If we were a corporation, I would describe 2009 as a year of tremendous growth where we took on a lot of challenges but reaped many rewards. We declared success in a variety of sectors, including:
- Travel
- You have visited the Bay Area multiple times, traveled to both your Asian ancestral homelands (with a few meltdowns, but honestly, you held it together as best as you could), and then rounded out the year with a trip to the East Coast and back. Good for you, girl!
- Growth
- You grew 3 inches by subsisting on mostly Cheerios and grilled cheese sandwiches. How does the girl do it? If I had that diet, I would shrink 3 inches from the scurvy and bone loss.
- Pacifier
- This one was HUGE! You loved your paci so much, it was warping your jawline and preventing you from speaking. So I'm sorry, but it had to go. And it was HARD for everyone, especially you. Five months later, your personality really has had a chance to blossom because of it. I don't regret the decision one bit.
- Getting kicked out of school
- Um, yeah. Okay, not so much a success, but if it didn't happen, we wouldn't have found such a great school for you. However, Nursery School Dropout, please don't do that again.
- Vocabulary
- You can TALK now! And I never get sick of the strange worlds you have in your head. And just a few days ago, as you sat on my lap and collapsed into my bosom, sighing, "I love you, I love you, I love you," my heart soared like Johnathon Livingstone fucking Seagull.
And in this upcoming year, I look forward to hearing more of your opinions on everything, building more and more complex imaginary worlds around ourselves, and hopefully indulging your newly-found princess fetish without completely selling out to the Disney Princess Empire.
Although I complain about you all the goddamn time, it's only because I think you are so unique in your difficulties. I am secretly tickled pink (well, more of a punk rock magenta) that you are as feisty as you are, because baby, it's a tough world out there for us girls - you will need all the emotional artillery you can muster. And when things get hard, I'll still be here, hanging on your every word. Every smile you flash my way powers up my heart to continue beating for another 50 years, mostly out of curiosity to see what you will do with that time. No matter what it is, it will be interesting and on fire (hopefully only figuratively).
I am absolutely smitten. Thank you for forcing your way into this world and for making it your playground.
Forever your servant and the doctor to your princess***,
Mommy
*** Refers to a time when Emi was flitting about, declaring "I'm a pwincess!" to the living room. I asked her if I was a princess as well, and she looked at me really sympathetically and with such pity and said, "Mommy, you a DOCTOR."
