my girl

Evelyn and I have been building a new routine.  One of her favorite things to do is read, and she spends at least an hour a day pulling books off of her shelves and looking at them.  This week we've added another step.  After her morning nap, I get her out of bed, and then I sit in the rocking chair in the corner of her room.  She scoots over to the books, browses, and then picks one for us to read.  She hold it up triumphantly as she scoots across the floor.  She hands it to me, then lifts her arms so that I'll pick her up and cuddle her in my lap as we read together.  Once we read through it once or twice, I'll put her back down to go get another book and repeat the process.

Today Evelyn's little brain figured out how to get more bang for the buck.  After a few books already read, she realized that the was a more efficient way to get Mom to read to her.  So she held one book up in one hand while kicking two more in front of her, all the way across the room, then proceeded to hand all three to me.

Little smarty.

I was also struck by my sweet girl's empathy today.  We were leaving her room to go into the kitchen, so I picked Evelyn up.  She wanted to take one of her big board books with her, so up that came too.  But her little hand slipped holding it, and the edge crashed down onto my right wrist, the one I had surgery on in June (it's doing great, but it still hurts when something hits it).  The pain was overwhelming and I immediately started crying.  I put Evelyn on the floor quickly, and then sat down as well, sobbing. It hurt so bad. 

Evelyn didn't start crying like I was afraid she would.  Instead, she scooted over to me, pulled herself into my lap, and hugged me.  She wrapped those soft, pudgy arms around me and nuzzled her head into my shoulder, and rubbed my arm and back.  We stayed there for a few minutes, me crying, Evelyn hugging and soothing me.

This will forever be a favorite memory of my sweet girl.

She is smart and funny.  She is willful, headstrong, stubborn, strong-willed, and can throw a tantrum like nobody's business.  But she is also a comforter, a nurturer, a gentle and soothing soul, and empathetic.

I love my daughter.