Last night, Emilee comes out of the bathroom and runs over to me. I was laying on her bed reading (oddly, her bed is my favorite place to read) when she ran up.
"Momma! You have to make her stop!"
Thinking that this was probably another silly fight between her and her sister, I set my book off to the side and asked her what was wrong.
"She is killing the spiders! Tell her to stop. Please mommy?!"
Ok, so I laughed at her, but only a little. And it was only then that I realized how upset she was. Apparently, she had said everything while holding back tears.
"You want me to make her stop killing the spiders?" I said as I laughed.
She became very upset and pushed me and said, "It's not funny Mommy." And then burst into tears. Tears! Realizing that this was one of her Emilee Moments, I sat straight up and reached for her. She pulled away, still crying.
In my stern yet sympathetic voice, I said, "Emilee, first of all, do not push me. Even when you are angry, you use your words, not your hands. Secondly, come here so I can talk to you, baby."
She only needed that small nudge, she was in my arms in seconds. Crying.
I smoothed her hair and apologized for not taking what she was saying more seriously. How often I forget that everything they are saying is not typical kid stuff. And more importantly that what they are saying is of the utmost importance to them and deserves my full attention and seriousness.
When she had calmed down, I asked her what was the matter and she explained it to me.
"Mommy, we have to stop killing the spiders!" She said again and this time as tears are literally spilling from her eyes.
"Ok, ok, sweety. Why do we have to keep killing the spiders?"
This was all so sad and so sweet to watch because she had to keep calming herself down in order to get it all out without bursting into tears again.
"Because we are killing their families, Momma! When we kill the spider, we are killing some other spiders families! Yai-Yai [this is what they call my mom] says they will bite us, that's why we kill them, but they are only biting us because we are killing their families!"
Holy crap. I think my daughter was a monk in a previous life, like a Tibetian monk.
After reassuring her that we would not kill any more bugs, I went and talked to my mother and Amanda and told them to please, please not kill any more insects in front of Emilee.
Amanda kind of laughed at her and I told her to get lost and then I just had to dote a little on Emilee. I told her that she is so special because her heart seems to be so much bigger than normal people's hearts. She smiled at me. I am truly lucky to have her for a daughter.
~K
