"I can't hold back my tears any longer..."

That would be a quote from my five year old daughter as she lay prostrate on her bed, hugging the neck of her rocking horse that was pushed up alongside her.

"I just know I'm never going to get a real pony."
"Cricket(the pony) is the only thing I love in the whole world!"

Me: But don't you love mommy, and daddy, and mary and elizabeth, too?

"Yessss. I love you all, but Cricket is just the only thing that love. I can't hold back anymore."

I have to admit, my dear Emma feels deeply. It literally broke her heart last week when she had to put a big, doe-eyed stuffed fawn (a companion to this book) back on the shelf at Barnes and Noble.

"It just needs me. I can't bear to put it back on the shelf."

And it broke her heart even more this afternoon when she accidentally found it stashed away under my bed, waiting to be wrapped. But it was sweet. Her heart was broken for me, because...

"...we can't afford to get many presents. And now you won't have many special surprises for me."

(I hope you're reading all these quotes with lots of dramatic inflection and phrasing.)

She's just one big, soft, pulsing heart. She feels deeply and responds to everything deeply. Dan and I always remark that she's a lot like the classic nursery rhyme:

There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
In the middle of her forehead.
And when she was good, she was very good.
And when she was bad, she was horrid.

Well, at this point, I can't even remember what I came her to post about. Something about gingerbread houses or how absolutely edible this one is.
After I erected the structure of the gingerbread house today, I gave Emma full reign. I was going to try to make it something Martha-Stewart quality, but in the end decided to just let go and let her make her own fun. It was wonderful to watch.

Happy Wednesday.
Six days until Christmas....
Here's a song for you that we're singing along to today...