This girl. She is strong and gentle; she’s a firecracker and
a cheerleader. She is wild and all over the place and leaves ALL of EVERYTHING
in her wake. She’s creative, she’s an entrepreneur. Doubters do not faze her – nothing
is impossible in her little head. She is the kind of friend everyone wants to
have. She has tons of emotion; she’s a feeler. She is a force to be reckoned with. She
is six going on sixteen and she is freaking amazing.
Most day she blows me out of the water with her wisdom and
mature perceptiveness. Her encouraging nature is a gift. Other days, when she
is being flooded, helping her manage her emotions is a bit like putting ones
face in front of a fire hose, the stream shooting straight up your nose.
Like for instance when she can’t possibly find ANY pairs of
pants to wear to school. Which by that she means all of her 12 pairs either
have pockets or tags or seams or some other unfathomable string hanging from
them that make them absolutely UNWEARABLE.
Or like the times when she finds one of her “precious papers” in the recycling bin or that used popsicle stick she “was saving for a special project” in the trash. Or those times when she catches me literally running to the car with a cardboard box covered by blanket. She has a sixth sense, that girl, when anything is in-route to the thrift store. Sometimes we have to take teary pictures of her with her no-longer-a-baby baby brother’s toys to help her say goodbye.
Earlier this week, we hit a little speed bump in our morning when the sleeves for the T-shirt she wanted to sew BY HAND for the 6 year old neighbor boy BEFORE breakfast just weren’t working out quite right. And then her sister got the purple knife at breakfast. And some critter was eating our green bean seedlings and she just wanted green beans SOOOOOOO badly.
Despite our frequent (though less so!) rides on the emotional roller coaster, I am amazed at all this girl is capable of.
Whether it is taking her siblings on a spin on the stand up paddle board all by herself or making a really awesome lemonade (scratch that, “LIMEanade”) stand complete with paper bunting out of items in the recycling bin. She is driven and she figures things out and when she has an idea, there is no stopping her.
She has an immense imagination and has a particular affinity for fairies and other imaginative creatures (leprechauns, tooth fairies and the like). In her dream world, one such character would come and live with her in one of the Lego mansions she constructs for them on a fairly regular basis. Just this morning she asked me what tooth fairies do if you lose your tooth while in Canada (where we are heading for the weekend). I love her!
Sometimes it’s easy to think she is letting her imagination get the best of her. Like when I find myself comforting her after she bursts into tears because no one has invented a computerized fairy that can talk to you and comes with a locking box and key for storing valuables. Her response when I told her these didn’t yet exist? “Have Daddy make one.” In her eyes, Daddy can make anything. J It finally dawned on me that she’s my little visionary. It can be awfully tempting to try and ground her with a reality check, but instead I’m really thankful for this realization and I love that I get speak encouragement into her life and tell her this world NEEDS people like her to keep the big dreams coming.
And speaking of encouragement, I think it her gift!! She has been an incredible source of unexpected support for me over the past couple months as I’ve been dealing with a couple of disgruntled neighbors. She checks in with me often and frequently writes notes like the following:
“Dear Mom, I am sorry you had a bad talk. Why do you think people are not caring about their own gardens? I love you! I love being in your family. Hope you feel better. Keep praying about the meeting. I am praying for you. Isla"
Or like the times when she finds one of her “precious papers” in the recycling bin or that used popsicle stick she “was saving for a special project” in the trash. Or those times when she catches me literally running to the car with a cardboard box covered by blanket. She has a sixth sense, that girl, when anything is in-route to the thrift store. Sometimes we have to take teary pictures of her with her no-longer-a-baby baby brother’s toys to help her say goodbye.
Earlier this week, we hit a little speed bump in our morning when the sleeves for the T-shirt she wanted to sew BY HAND for the 6 year old neighbor boy BEFORE breakfast just weren’t working out quite right. And then her sister got the purple knife at breakfast. And some critter was eating our green bean seedlings and she just wanted green beans SOOOOOOO badly.
Despite our frequent (though less so!) rides on the emotional roller coaster, I am amazed at all this girl is capable of.
Whether it is taking her siblings on a spin on the stand up paddle board all by herself or making a really awesome lemonade (scratch that, “LIMEanade”) stand complete with paper bunting out of items in the recycling bin. She is driven and she figures things out and when she has an idea, there is no stopping her.
She has an immense imagination and has a particular affinity for fairies and other imaginative creatures (leprechauns, tooth fairies and the like). In her dream world, one such character would come and live with her in one of the Lego mansions she constructs for them on a fairly regular basis. Just this morning she asked me what tooth fairies do if you lose your tooth while in Canada (where we are heading for the weekend). I love her!
Sometimes it’s easy to think she is letting her imagination get the best of her. Like when I find myself comforting her after she bursts into tears because no one has invented a computerized fairy that can talk to you and comes with a locking box and key for storing valuables. Her response when I told her these didn’t yet exist? “Have Daddy make one.” In her eyes, Daddy can make anything. J It finally dawned on me that she’s my little visionary. It can be awfully tempting to try and ground her with a reality check, but instead I’m really thankful for this realization and I love that I get speak encouragement into her life and tell her this world NEEDS people like her to keep the big dreams coming.
And speaking of encouragement, I think it her gift!! She has been an incredible source of unexpected support for me over the past couple months as I’ve been dealing with a couple of disgruntled neighbors. She checks in with me often and frequently writes notes like the following:
“Dear Mom, I am sorry you had a bad talk. Why do you think people are not caring about their own gardens? I love you! I love being in your family. Hope you feel better. Keep praying about the meeting. I am praying for you. Isla"
And then the other day out of nowhere in particular, she says: “Thanks for doing the best job you can parenting. I can tell you’re working really hard to be the best parent you can be.” This kid! She is a joy.
She can rapture a crowd in 30 seconds flat with her incredible leadership skills. She is making so much progress in reading now that she is beginning to be able to have story time with some of her peers.
Thanks for being in our life, Isla June. You make the world a better place.
She can rapture a crowd in 30 seconds flat with her incredible leadership skills. She is making so much progress in reading now that she is beginning to be able to have story time with some of her peers.
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