One of my favorite things to do with my kids is have a conversation with them. I love to hear their sweet voices and what comes out of their mouth at any given time. However, recently, something struck me that stopped me pretty quick in my tracks. I always try to do something personalized for the hubby for Father’s Day from the kids. This year I decided to make a book from Mia, she is 4 and it was a fill in the blank type of book “ALL ABOUT DAD”. As we sat down one day to work on it, I started to ask her the questions:
Why do you love your daddy? What makes you proud of daddy? How are you and daddy the same/different?
As she began to answer each question, I found myself prompting her to change her answers to fit how “I” thought they should sound or what “I” thought she should say. It was when she looked at me and said, “But I want it to say, ‘He is good at climbing trees’ “(FYI: I have never seen him climb a tree), I realized somewhere, somehow, that’s what she really wanted and believed it should say. And so we continued. I asked the questions, and wrote EXACTLY what she said, in her words. The precious, simple, innocent words of a 4 year old girl expressing why she loves her daddy. It humbled me and helped me realize her words are perfectly thought out in her own mind. She knew just what she wanted to say, and what made sense to her. She dreams, she imagines, she pretends and she speaks in a sweet 4 year old voice that I love.
Here is a snapshot from the book we made.
My dad is 31 years old
His hair is none
His eyes are blue
His favorite food is Quesadilla
He is smart because He knows lots of songs
He likes to play hide and seek
He is the best dad because I love him
A page from the Father’s Day book we made
As she presented the book to Josh for Father’s Day, we realized how perfectly true it was. It IS all the reasons she loves him. It reminds me every time I look at it how perfect her words are. They are not always grammatically correct, and they don’t always make sense to me, but they always make sense in her world. In 5 years her words, thoughts and sayings will change, but we will be able to look back and see how she said and processed things as a 4 year old little girl.
Today I asked her what she wants to be when she grows up, her answer: “A ballerina, usually a ballerina princess, because I am a princess, and I’m beautiful.” Yes, you are sweet girl, yes you are! I hope her words are always full of such dreams and beliefs. I also hope that I remember to take a step back sometimes and let “Her” words be heard, not what I think it should say; allowing me to document the sweet thought process of a little girl growing up way too fast.
Her ballerina princess reasoning brought tears to my eyes! What a sweetheart. Beautiful post and a great reminder to live in the moment with our babies. Thank you for sharing!
Emma made one of these for Todd at school for fathers day…the answers…while not “accurate”…were sweet and exactly how she sees her daddy!!