Amelia in Autumn

Ah, Amelia. What a character this girl is turning out to be. Back in my teenage years, I remember my mom saying to me (repeatedly as I looked at her insolently over some rebellious incident or another)--"I hope you have a daughter just like you someday." Well, back then, I probably just snapped back, "I hope so too and I'll treat her a lot better than you treat me!" or something along those lines...

Anyway, I have started to reconize the, how do I put it nicely, "spunk" in my daughter that oh-so-closely resembles my own. She has this awful growling sigh of frustration that she utters when she's asked to do something undesirable or when things aren't going quite her way. Bob so generously pointed out that I make the exact same noise! OK, so this behavior might be learned, but the lack of patience and the drama behind the behavior, I'm afraid, is my own little genetic gift to my daughter. This same "spunk" though, translates into so many wonderful things--like the excitement that flutters around in Amelia's eyes, her little dancing antics, and the gusto with which she dives headlong into everything she does. And she has a decidedly sweet side too. If your chair is close enough to her at the dinner table, she'll start sidling over and, before you know it, she'll be on your lap snuggling in and giggling. She's the one always trying to sneak extra books into the night time book pile so that the time that she's cuddled in close with mom or dad keeps going and going.

Recently, there's been a new development too. She is super into her little doll who she has named "Sonna". Amelia carries this doll everywhere she goes, except outside. When she goes outside to play, she'll bring Sonna to whatever adult is nearby and give her instructions. "Here is her bottle for when she cries. Here is her book for you to read to her. Here is her blanket so she can take a nap. This is her cracker if she gets hungry." It is very cute and thrills my heart since, up to this point, she has shown little to no interest in dolls and I had kind of given up on the whole deal. But, back to the spunkiness... One day, she wrote all over Sonna's head with a red pen and said that a cat had scratched her. So she's spunky, but loving and nurturing too. Hey, who am I to judge? I think it's a great combo. But, when she drops her cup at the dinner table and, when told to pick it up says boldly, "No, you pick it up Mom," I can clearly sense that the day is coming when that same comment will fly from my own mouth...."I hope you have a daughter just like you someday, Amelia!"