I think I had my first real life conversation with my emyri tonight. I know we've talked to each other billions of times before, which most likely consisted of me talking at her or to her, but tonight I sat her in my lap and face to face we talked and really communicated and I both loved and hung on to every last minute of it. It started out when she started to cry once she realized her daddy was gone for the night. We sat down and talked about how that made her feel and what she missed most about her dad. It just kind of snowballed into a full on chat about the time when her cousins bonked heads and started crying and how grandma held Bailey until she stopped crying. We covered how Jaxton slept on our couch this last weekend and how funny it was when he pretended to fall off of it when he woke up. She brought up the time when Kaylee came up to go swimming with us and we played ring around the rosies in the water together, oh and we also played "sharks". She remembered that after we swam we had to be quiet (shhh), because baby Olly was sleeping. I could almost see when a new memory or thought would enter her little mind and then the conversation would shift to something else she thought was hilarious or that she wanted to talk about. We even ended up talking about Abinadi in the Book of Mormon and how the "tigers" sitting next to King Noah in the picture had their mouths wide open. As I watched her use her words, sound effects, facial expressions, and movements to tell me all about what she was thinking, I was amazed at how well she actually can process things, remember, feel, and communicate, and also shocked to realize how often I probably pass what she's really trying to tell me about what she's thinking by. I loved being on her level tonight. I loved listening to all she had to say. It makes me wonder just how much more she would say if she had the means of communicating it. One of my greatest goals in life is to be a mom that listens and a mom that talks with her kids in a way that they want to, can, and love to talk back. I was grateful for the reminder that that starts now, even with a one and a half year old. Those kind of precious moments, like the ones I had with her tonight, are the kind that make my life so meaningful. Isn't it the best!
