Family | Lessons from my daughter

I haven’t written in what seems like a really long time and for that I am sorry!

We’ve enjoyed life!

I promise to update you on everything but in the meantime, let me tell you about board games.

In our house, we play board games following rules we make-up!

The rules on the boxes are normally a little too complicated for Emily. Games for younger kids, she can manage but games for teenagers/young adults are another story.

Some games we don’t play, others, we give Emily more time or play with our cards on the table…

This works perfectly for the 3 of us but enters cousins and other relatives, it gets complicated again.

It’s difficult to explain to younger cousins why Emily can’t do things like they can. I don’t want them to look at her differently, I want them to get to know her. Once you know her, the struggles and challenges are secondary.

First, she’s Emily. Yes, she has cri du chat syndrome but she’s Emily!

Back to our game night.

Last year, we discovered “Headbanz”. Emily’s cousins were all younger than her and speaking French. They were faster than her and understood what they needed to do.

Last week, we played again.

This time, we all had a blast.

Emily knows her Disney characters more than the boys so I picked cards accordingly and helped a little but that wasn’t the fun part.

The fun part was when the cheating started. None of them were subtle about it. All of them did it and the dads joined in.

We played a game! All of us! Regardless of our age differences. From 2 to 42 years old, part English and part French. Some cheating… And lots of laughter.

We played a game!

For most, this is a simple feat. For us, it was amazing.

To see Emily having so much fun was heart warming.

So, we bought another game.

We changed the rules a little.

It’s just the 3 of us. Everybody else is gone home… So we played our way and discovered that Emily can draw!

We had 9 cards on the table and we had to find which card she was drawing.

We are still discussing this last one!

We say sheep. She says lion.

What do you think?

I am sure I am to blame for this!

I have always encouraged Emily to make her decisions with regards to her clothing.

I gave her some ground rules, I have been repeating them for at least 13 years now!

1. No cleavage showing (until you are at least 35 🙂 )

2. No mid-section showing (EVER!)

3. Track pants are for the gym

and at some point I had to add…

4. Pyjamas are for bed time

Those are the rules!

With that being said, on Saturday afternoon, after her shower, Emily came to the living room wearing this:

Beautiful! But not really a staying at home doing nothing special outfit… It lasted maybe 15 minutes than she realized it wasn’t really comfortable and changed.

Here are some other Emily picking her clothes highlights!

I never said “limited jewelry”!

Pretty dress and crown at school!

Orange phase

Pink phase with awesome cowboy boots

I know, you are thinking short skirt….. actually skort!!! skirt in the front, shorts in the back!!!

She liked the dress and decided to wear it

Glasses, no prescriptions! It lasted maybe a month

Biker chick without the biker boyfriend or the bike…. thank goodness!

Pretty dress over pants or leggins. Little vest. I love that look on her

This almost looks too old for her

I loved her pixie cut! Cute dress again!

Long to the ground summer dress

Please don’t get out of the house like this outfit…. She’s not breaking any rules so she did go out like this! Pink tank top, purple thingy to wear over a swimsuit, pink mexican top worn as a skirt and hard to see on the picture but still… grey leggins with skulls on them!

Of course this is just a sample, she has many more looks. Every morning as she walks in her new high school she receives an onslaught of compliments from the educational assistants.

“Wow, you are mixing lime green and purple, this is so pretty”

“Oh, I love your boots”

“What a nice scarf”

“I need to go shopping with you”

“What a beautiful dress”

And so on!

I did this, I created a little monster who likes to wear pretty clothes and matches them up pretty well (most of the time). I remember Emily being little and my mom telling me to stop spending money on clothes. Over the years, my answer stayed the same.

Emily will forever struggle with being accepted, she might be made fun of for being slower, for being different but she won’t be picked on for her clothes. That’s the one thing I can give her. I can do this for her.

She is now capable to see in a change room which clothes work well with her figures and which don’t. It’s no longer just about how it looked on the hanger. I am extremely proud of her for seeing the difference on pretty on the hanger and fabulous or non-fabulous on her.

We have built her self-esteem so high that she can wear that last outfit but I do prefer something more like this one!