Lessons from my daughter

This might look like a strange title but I am going somewhere with this.

So, if you don’t know who Carlena Britch is, check it out. She’s on twitter, facebook and instagram.

I also found this post about her:

http://www.christinadun.com/2012/07/dancer-in-spotlight-carlena-britch.html

She was on So You Think You Can Dance Canada a couple of years ago. This was one of our favorite performance.

Why am I telling you all that?

Is she a friend I am trying to promote? No, she’s not. She doesn’t know me, Emily or Jonathan. She has most likely never heard of the Cri Du Chat Syndrome either…

Emily and I discovered her when she was on SYTYCDC.

I was trying to get Emily interested in dancing. Not to do it, just for her to see the beauty in different styles and recognize the art of dancing as something beautiful…

Emily and I watched the tv show and picked Carlena as our favorite. She didn’t win the competition but for us, she was the best.

We liked her so much that Emily named one of her American girl doll after her.

Our Carlena doesn’t look like the real one but both of them are dancers! 🙂

Although Emily’s doll is named Carlena, we kinda forgot about the real Carlena until…

During the holidays, we saw the latest Justin Bieber movie. I know, you all have an opinion on Justin Bieber and this is not a post to argue or discuss my daughter’s love for him… This is a post about Emily and Carlena.

While watching the movie, we realized Carlena was a dancer on Justin’s last Tour. We were both quite happy to see her there and Emily couldn’t wait to tell her doll all about it!

Than, it happened.

I believed we discovered her on So You Think You Can Dance the US show and Emily believed it was on the Canadian show.

We left it at that! Or so I thought!

Earlier this week, I was reading in bed, Jonathan was napping and Emily was quiet in her room.

Suddenly, Emily walked in and asked me to come in her room. Here is how the conversation went.

Emily: Mom can you come to my room?

Me: Why?

Emily: I want to show you something?

Me: What?

Emily: Carlena, she was on So You Think You Can Dance Canada

Me: You found her on you tube?

Emily: Yes! I was right! …So… You were wrong!!!

She turned around and walked out of the room.

Jonathan and I laughed than I confirmed that this part of her personality was coming from him! 🙂

And this is why I am talking to you about Carlena Britch.

Months after we discovered her, Emily not only remembered her, she remembered the exact name of the tv show she was on, she managed to find her on You Tube and proved me wrong in my statement that she was on the US tv show.

If thats not a big achievement I am not sure what is!

We’ve open bank accounts for Emily a while back and we got her a checking account within the last year where she could put her money earn by doing chores or selling things in yard sales 🙂

Emily tried to use her bank card once or twice before and we kept running into issues with how the bank had it set-up.

Jon is a patient man who kept going to the bank with Emily to rectify the situation.

Last time, he spent nearly an hour with them on the phone while at the mall explaining what was going on.

After that, I was reluctant to help her learn how to use her card if it didn’t work.

Our first try was at our branch, we went in and Emily took $20 out of her account at the ATM.

She could read all the messages on the screen (thanks to some expensive tutoring…) and she managed to get her money out.

On Thursday this week, I had to attend dinner with work and I had Emily with me. Thursday is the only evening Jon has something planned and I try really hard not to impact his plans. I had denied the invite to dinner until someone said to bring Emily. I had done it before, most of the group know Emily, they know she can’t stay home alone and as long as I pay for her food, there is no issue.

When I picked Emily up for dinner, she told me she was paying and she made sure she had her purse.

I thought that was cute! I figured she would change her mind and I was ok with paying for her food!

I helped her pick her food, she made me order it…

Talking to strangers (servers) appears to make her nervous. She was chatting with Jessie and with others around the table but I ordered for her.

At the end, when her bill came to me… She took it and said she was paying.

Our big table got quieter.

Emily, grabbed her purse, found her wallet and got her bank card out.

I asked her if she remembered her PIN. She said yes.

All I could think of was “please work”

Our server brought the debit machine and I took Emily through all the steps.

It’s much smaller than the big machine so I helped her read the messages, showed her how to press harder on the buttons so her answer recorded, explained about tip and how to know which button to press to register your answer.

After all was said and done, we had an approved transactions and the whole table clapped for Emily.

I didn’t realized they were following what was happening…

Emily was so proud. I was extremely proud too.

That was another step towards independence…

Her independence.