Dinner with Emma

Looking through my notes on Facebook, I found a few stories I wanted to add to my blog.  This one is from December of 2008.

We try to eat together as a family as often as we can and I look forward to the conversation. I am sure that many of you can imagine how sitting down for any extended period with a child who is ADHD can often be quite frustrating, but when taken with the right attitude it is usually humorous and fun. Emma has a tendency to talk nonstop and I have to remind her to take a bite of food every now and then. Lately she has been spending tons of time down at our neighbor's house and dinner has been quiet without her.

We did manage to eat together the other night and our conversation somehow came around to whether or not people could lick their own elbows. Yes, you read correctly, I said lick their own elbows. I was very steadfast in my response to Emma that it is impossible for people to lick their own elbow. This, of course, was the only prompt needed for everyone to put down their forks and try to lick their elbows. Much to Emma’s dismay she quickly realized that it was indeed an impossible feat. She did, however, continue to insist that someone could lick their own elbow and I continued to gently assure her that noone could lick their elbow.

For a moment Emma seemed defeated, when suddenly she looked over to me with her mischievous green eyes sparkling and declared “Uh huh Momma, there is somebody who can lick their own elbow.” I could not wait to hear this answer. Would it be Sponge Bob Squarepants? Perhaps the Avatar could do it? No, it was not a cartoon at all. Full of pride Emma sat up straight in her chair and declared ever so seriously “Gene Simmons can lick his own elbow”.

Ah yes, her mind is amazing. She is outrageously talkative, creative, and energetic and all mine – until the meltdowns in public convince me that I must have brought someone else’s child home from the hospital nine years ago.