What a gal

Ok, so I must admit I copied this concept from David Letterman and another mom blogger: the Top Ten list.  Below I have the top ten things I love about this extraordinary daughter of mine.  Here goes….

10. Her kick-butt body that is strong and beautiful and ready to lift high in the air any person that she deems worthy of her bear hug!
9. Her love of home.  Keeping her pj’s on all day long would make her the happiest girl on earth. 
8. Her empathy for others. She picks up on others’ feelings quickly and knows when she needs to comfort versus when she can act silly.  We visited my grandma’s and grandpa’s graves the other day.  She stood nest to them and spoke to them both. She told Grandpa that she was sad she did not meet him but that Grandma loved him and she told Grandma that she misses her house and loves her.  When we went to my Aunt Sue’s wake, she kept looking over at Uncle Bill and asking how he was doing without Aunt Sue.  For a month after that wake and funeral, she would draw pictures for Uncle Bill to remind him that Aunt Sue loved him. 
7. Her loudness!  When she finds out something great is going to happen (a day off school or a trip to Grandma’s house) she is her mother’s daughter.  She is hyper as all get out, she screams every word until her voice is too hoarse to continue on, and she runs around like a complete lunatic! 
6. The way she begs to stay up a little longer or play a little longer – “just 20 and 80 more minutes” or “how about 5 and 20 and 1 million minutes, pleeeease.”
5. The way she rushes all around the house to find something that she thinks will calm her brother down when he is upset, and the way she talks to her brother when he is climbing and pushing all over her “Ahh, I know you love me, little brother.”
4. The way she comforts me as I watch a sad movie and cry: “It’s ok, daughter, I will hold you and you will feel better” as she wraps her arm around my neck and squeezes me. 
3. Her constant reminder that she is growing older each day: ” I am turning into a woman – I have hair on my legs” and “I have to turn five and then six and then seven and then eight …. You cannot stop me mom.” 
2. Her response to me when we play “girlfriend and boyfriend.” She acts like she bumps into me on the street, I ask her to tell me her name, she asks mine, and then I shyly ask if she would like to get some pie sometime.  She looks at me coyly and whispers “I can get some right now.” That is the way, sista!     
1. The way she responds when I tell her that I want to do her hair a certain way or want her to wear certain clothes: “It’s my body and I can do what I can do with my body.” She does the same for me when dad tells me to do something – she will chime in and look at my husband pointedly asserting: “Mom can do what she can do because it is her body!”
 
My precious, strong-willed daughter!  Oh, how I just love you to the moon, and the sun, and the trees, and my heart, and my blood (this is another thing I love about Maria – how she took my quote “I love you to the moon” and embellished it to include all the above – what a poet!).