Emma is five!

Baby Emma

Little Emma turned five years old today. Five! It seems only moments ago she was a tiny little baby melting my heart with her ready smile. Emma has completed her first year of school and after taking a while to settle in she now has a lovely little group of friends and really enjoys school. She is still small for her age and is one of the smallest in her year. She hasn't long been wearing size 4-5 year clothes, but she still wears a lot of smaller sizes. Her favourite sundress, which still fits though it is getting a little worn now, is size 18-24 months and I haven't needed to buy her any shorts for a while as she still fits comfortably in her age 2-3 pairs! My little pocket Podling!

Emma's has a wonderful imagination and loves small world play. She spends ages happily engaged with her little dolls and ponies and is happiest when she can play with them in water. She is still a complete water baby. You can't keep this child out of the water, no matter how cold it is! Her favourite thing to do is dress-up and she has amassed an impressive array of costumes. There isn't a great deal of point dressing Emma in normal clothes unless you are going somewhere as she spends the day changing between her various dressing-up costumes.

Emma has the potential to become quite a bookworm, despite not yet being able to read very well. She certainly loves books! She adores being read to and will sit and spend ages looking through books, even though she can't yet read them.  I am confident that, like her older siblings, something will just click when she is ready and she will become a keen reader. She has been, I think, slightly put off actually reading by being made to start learning before she was ready (that's mainstream education for you...all must start learning to read at four!). She is now a little intimidated by the actual process of reading, though I am thankful that this hasn't affected her love of the books themselves. 

Emma loves music and her ability to carry a tune still continues to amaze me. She picks up new songs incredibly quickly and when singing them back she not only sings the tune pitch perfect, she copies the intonations of the singer. She tells me she wants to be a singer when she grows up! I think she has the potential to become very musical with the right encouragement and I would love to explore how we can develop her love of music (and, it seems, natural talent) further.

Emma continues to delight us with her sunshiny personality. She is such a happy child and incredibly even-tempered. She is the most patient of all her siblings and is always willing to share or compromise to please them. She adores Lily and there is definitely some hero-worship going on there. She will do anything to be like Lily and will do anything to please her (which is not always a good thing!). She is a lovely big sister to her new baby brother and loves him very much, although she isn't as all over him as Tom and Lily. She is quite content to admire him without the need to constantly poke at him which is definitely a good thing!

Emma is just the most delightful, happy and sweet little girl and she brightens up the whole family. We are lucky to have such a sweet little daughter.

Happy 5th Birthday Emma!

You make the world a better place and we love you very much!

Five year old Emma. She's too cool for school!

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