Last night we had some guests over for dinner. Emma, upon hearing guests were arriving, announced, “It’s a party!” before dashing off to her bedroom to don the appropriate attire. When she returned, wearing a dress my mother wore to dancing school in the ’30’s, we all oohed and aahed.
“Emma! What a pretty dress you picked out.”
“Look! It’s so beautiful!” She said bouncing up and down and twirling around.
My mother told us it was a Hungarian dress that had a velvet vest and a faux fur hat, which evidently Emma had chosen to forego.
Emma seated at the dinner table wearing her party dress
Emma loves a party. She always has. She has no inhibitions, loves nothing more than to sing and dance in front of a crowd – the more the merrier. Her love of parties is something I am always surprised by, as both Richard and I were so very shy at her age. It’s one of those things, like her talent for holding a tune that we joke about. “She must get that from you,” I tell my husband.
“Not me. Don’t know where that came from,” Richard will respond.
And if my mother’s in the room, she’ll usually get the credit. “Must be Mom,” I’ll say, looking over at her as Nic rolls his eyes.
So after dessert (Nic and his Granma made a fabulous cheesecake, which Nic decorated) and the plates had been cleared, Emma ran downstairs in her pajamas and said, “Ready for performance!” She gestured with her hands for us to gather in the living room and take a seat. She waited until everyone had sat down before launching into a song, neither Richard nor I had ever heard. The song whose lyrics at one point are – “I am the thunder, you are the lightening” was sung in a loud voice while she did a little dance.
Emma singing and dancing
When she’d finished she said, “Sing it again?”
“A different song, Em. You can sing one more song, but it has to be different.”
So she chose an old stand-by, Gwen Stefani’s “It’s my life”.
For more on Emma’s journey through a childhood of autism, go to: www.EmmasHopeBook.com
Nic’s cheesecake
Emma's Hope Book 