Happy Birthday, Baby

July 11, 2007

Oh my Rose Emily,
You are the one for me.
You’ve come from up above -
You are the one I love!

My Rosie baby,

You love to sing this song with me to the tune of Veggie Tales “Barbara Manatee.” You are the baby and very proud of that fact. You list the names of everyone that you know, but stubbornly refuse to identify yourself by any name other than “the baby.”

You love to sing, but you love to dance even more. Anytime any music comes on you are up and dancing away. Often you come over and urge us to “dance” with you. And you have really good rhythm.

You are a very picky eater. You usually find one meal a day that suits you and pretty much skip the rest, filling up instead on a piece of cheese, “jelly” (PBJ), and the only thing that you will drink – chocolate milk. (Occasionally you make exceptions, but you get very unhappy when we’re out of milk, pointing to the chocolate syrup and insisting that I find some milk to put it in.) You were on a banana binge for a long time this year, asking for one first thing after waking in the morning and after your nap and often eating three a day, but you finally got sick of them and discovered “jelly.” You make me crazy, Em.

Favorite toys… Your “pup” has been your companion most of this year and “moo” is cherished now too. You still love Anna Kate’s doll Felicity better than your nearly identical doll. The Shrek toys from our McDonald’s Happy Meals at Gramma’s house are your favorite toys right now. It cracks me up how much you love that ugly green guy, pointing him out at stores… I almost gave you a Shrek party, but I just couldn’t do it. You’ve really loved Stitch since Gramma gave you your “Deck- the- Halls”- singing- Stitch at Christmas, but there were no Lilo and Stitch supplies to be found, so I went with another favorite – “George,” the curious one, that is.

You also love Miss Pattycake, and a highlight of your year was going to see her last fall and getting to sit in her lap for a picture. You didn’t want to get down!

But your very favorite things are books. You will sit for long quiet periods of time alone on the little stool by your bookshelf. For a long time Wild Animal Baby magazines were your favorite and finding Sammy was the highlight. Then you discovered the My First Little House books and now you do your best to recite with Daddy, “Once upon a time, a little girl named Laura lived in the Big Woods of Wisconsin in a little house made of logs. She lived with her Pa, her Ma, her big sister Mary, her little sister Carrie, and their good old bulldog Jack.” You even have a realistic looking flocked rubber dog that you call “Jack”. Because once again it’s all about the dogs.

And I should mention that you’ve only recently deigned to use the word “dog.” You have always called them “pup.”

You're my Rose, Daddy's Rosebud, the Rosie roo, Rose Em, Emmie, Emmie bug, and Emanem.

You are TROUBLE. From flooding that bathroom twice in a row while I was cooking Easter dinner, to adding artwork to the walls and doors of nearly every room, to pulling a chair over so that you can sit on the stove… What am I going to do with you?! It’s a full time job just trying to keep you alive.

You are stubborn and strong-willed, affectionate and insistent. You are storms and rainbows. You are pulled hair and sweet kisses. You are my “I Love You”.


All my love,

Mommy