Sweet Miss Emily

Our dear little Emily is a sweet young lady. She's somewhat obsessed with princesses, pink things, and sparkly things (she's girly, while at the same time being rather rough and tumble). So one day at her gymnastics class, when she saw another little girl wearing a fairy outfit complete with white tights and sparkly, gauzy wings, she was very sad to be wearing a simple leotard. Honestly, the fairy wings were rather impractical for a gymnastics class since they weren't at all functional. But I told Emily that we'd look into putting some wings together for her. That gave her enough hope to get through the rest of class. When we got home, I took two metal coat hangers that we inherited when last we dry-cleaned my suits and I bent them into diamonds. After entwining the hooks, I wrapped the whole thing up with butcher paper and white duct tape. They weren't exactly gauzy or delicate, but Emily was ecstatic.

We later added on some glitter and sparkly stickers with her help. That was fun, but it didn't make them much better than you see here. Still, whenever Amanda tried to tell Emily that we'd get her some nice wings one day, Emily replied that she didn't need more wings because she already has some. She's perfectly satisfied with them and puts them on and models them regularly, dancing around the room. The paper has been torn and taped repeatedly, but she still wears them.

A few days ago, we wandered through Gap at the mall, looking mostly at the baby clothes. They usually have a couple little toys for sale to complement the clothing display. Emily found a little pink wand that she really loved. We didn't think it looked like it was worth the $5 or so they were asking for it. I figured it looked like a star-shaped bean-bag on a pencil. So... that's what we did. Amanda helped with this one; so it turned out a lot better than the wings. Nevertheless, it still looks homemade. But dear Emily was gushing with thanks when we showed it to her. She's such a sweet little girl. She already understands that we don't have lots of money and she's happy with what she has instead of resenting what she doesn't. Even if what she has is made of scraps and lentils.

Right now, she's in bed singing to herself. It just melts the heart of this silly daddy.