Emily Day

This is a special story written for my granddaughter Emily to celebrate her eighth birthday.  Happy Birthday Emily!

Once there was a girl named Emily who had a hard day. First, her baby brother Andrew wouldn’t stop crying while her Mommy fixed breakfast. When Emily picked him up, Andrew spit up all over her pajamas and then his diaper leaked. While she was gone to school, her little sister Sandy lost the shiny lady bug pin Grandma gave her. At supper, her little sister Libby reached over and knocked her soup off the table into Emily’s lap and burned her legs.

“Did you have a hard day?” her mother asked while she tucked Emily in bed that night.
“Yes,” Emily answered.
“Sometimes do you get tired of being the oldest?”
“Yes,” Emily sighed.
“Sometimes do you wish you didn’t have to be a good example all the time?”
Emily nodded.
“I have an idea,” her mother said. “Tomorrow will be Emily Day.”
“What’s that?” Emily asked.
“That is the day when you don’t have to be the oldest and you get to do whatever you want and make a mess if you feel like it without getting in trouble.”
“Really?” Emily asked with a smile.
“Really,” her mother answered.
The next morning Emily woke up when she felt her mother lift her from bed and take her to the rocking chair. Then her mother rocked her back and forth for a long time.
At breakfast Emily ate ice cream with strawberries on top just because she felt like it.
When her little sister Sandy asked for ice cream with strawberries on top her mother said, “No, this is Emily Day.”
Emily decided she didn’t want to go to school. She played in the field next to their house instead. She took all day to build a fort with sagebrush and old rocks. Emily got so dirty a dust cloud followed her everywhere she went.
When her little sister said she wanted to play in the fort, Emily’s mother said, “No this is Emily Day. She doesn’t have to share.”
In the bath that night Emily splashed so high she made a lake on the floor. Just before her father was about to scold, Emily’s mother said, “This is Emily Day. She can make a lake on the floor if she wants to.”
“Did you have a good day?” her mother asked while she was tucking Emily in bed.
Emily smiled and nodded.
“If you ever need another Emily Day, just let me know,” her mother said.
Emily smiled. Then an idea came into her brain.
“Do you want a Mommy Day?”
Her mother smiled.
“How about tomorrow?” Emily said.
“I think I’d like that,” she answered.
Then Emily and her mother gave each other a great big hug.

* * *

Happy Birthday Emily. I love you SO much!

Hugs and kisses,

Grandma Baadsgaard