what's her name

it only took me one look to understand emaline

sometimes i don't know what she's saying

sometimes i do,

sometimes i don't know what she's saying

but i know, i know

i know what she wants to believe

"hi mama!"

"hi sugar!"

"no, emaline!", she quickly corrects me.

"oh sorry. hi emaline."

and then depending on her mood she might correct me once more and ask to be called em's.

it kinda reminds me of the episode of the wonder years where winnie decides she wants to be called by her real name, gwendolyn.

the girl is exploding with personality, but she has no idea.

we've been having lots of alone time together since ava has been at preschool. she loves dropping ava off at preschool, and waving goodbye to her big sis. i think she secretly likes our alone time together. not that she doesn't absolutely adore ava, and not that i'm some amazing mom who comes home and gives her my complete undivided attention like she absolutely deserves, but i'm sure she appreciates the time and conversations she can have with me without having to share me with anyone else. her terrible two's seemed to set in early and already she seems to be over them. she is such a joy to be around and keeps great company. as i'm doing laundry, dishes, cleaning or even just lounging around, she'll just sit nearby and keep herself busy with a pile of books or toys. she's so independent and loves to do everything by herself. yelling at us, "no, i do it!" but being confident enough to admit she needs help after putting in a good effort. she tells us she loves us and every so often will even tell us she "loves us much". and she's always up for hugs and kisses, which i take full advantage of.

she is a fantastic communicator. and i'm not just talking about her vocabulary, but additionally her ability to form sentences and ideas despite her recently learned and currently limited vocabulary. she just gets it and i can already tell at this young age that it will be one of her strongest and most positive traits. she can communicate exactly how she's feeling not just through her actions, but through her words as well.

emaline's name came to us when i was almost half-way through my pregnancy. bryce and i have always found it interesting that the name emaline was never on the list of names we had for ava. and yet when i was expecting our second, emaline was one of the very first names on the list. i say it's strange because emaline is a name that both my husband and i were familiar with for many years due to a song by ben folds five entitled emaline and yet it never came to us when i was pregnant with my first. this and for a few other reasons, we can't help but feel as if this name was meant just for her. and i think she feels this way, too.

i love my em's, my emmy, my lemons, my baby, my lemon-lime, my darling.

my emaline.