What do I remember about when each of you were born? (Emily)

Of course, Mom and I new that Emily's birth would be very close to Christmas.  I thought that it would be great to share a birthday with one of my children, but realistically, I knew that the only way Emily would be born on Christmas would be if there were an emergency.  So we planned the C-section for the 26th.  I can't remember new if the 24th had been an option, but in hind sight, I would have chosen that day.  The 24th is Christmas Eve, and the night before Christmas when all through the house....  You know the story.  But the 26th is Boxing Day?!?  Really?  It's too big of a let down.  

     While Mom was in the hospital recuperating, BYU had a bowl game against Pitt State.  It was a very high scoring game--each team scoring about 50 points.  And the game was very close--wasn't decided until the very end.  I believe that BYU lost.  But what I really remember was the woman in the room next to ours banging on the wall and asking me to hold it down.  What!!  It was a BYU bowl game.  I was at the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, Utah.  This was Cougarville.  But I turned down the volume and quit shouting at the refs.  

    Little children's personalities show though very early.  I knew that Emily was going to be different than Jeannette from the start.  Jen is much more like Mom and Mom's family.  Emily is very much like my sisters.  

     Jeannette and Emily were closer in age than Mom and I would have planned.  Mom was getting some pressure from her family to have her tubes tied, and I was worried about Mom's ability to handle the stress of four children with the two youngest so close in age.  I was opposed to the idea of having Mom's tubes tied, because I felt that we would have more children, but Mom's doctor assured us that the process was reversible.  So, I didn't argue about it.  Mom sometimes feels that she should not have agreed to the operation--that she knew that we were to have more children.  

     As I mentioned in another post, when Mother and I were engaged, her bishop told me that Mom would know when it was time for her to have children.  I trusted in that council and we had the operation.  So, Emily came close to being our last.  

     Emily was the most cheerful little thing.  She always had a great smile and she loved to laugh this uncontrolled, turn-it-all-loose laugh.  She has toned down a bit since then, but only a little.  

     Mom liked to get matching dresses for Jeannette and Emily, so in many of their early pictures they will be wearing matching red or blue dresses.  

    When she was little Emily was the most obedient child.  She would do whatever Mom or I asked her to do--right up until she read the book, Ella Enchanted.  That book is a curse.  Don't let it near your children.  Reading the book taught Emily how to say "No," and she's been her own boss ever since.  

   Emily was the slowest of all of our children at language acquisition.  She communicated a lot with sounds and gestures.  When she was about eleven I finally decided to insist that she speak in complete sentences.  Once I set that expectation Emily's spoken language improved immensely.  Prior to that I was surprise at how much she could communicate without sentences.  

   When Emily was about four years old (we were still living in Pleasant Grove) we almost lost her.  We had a metal frame bunkbed that she and Jeannette shared.  Someone had decided to string some ribbons and ropes through the springs under the top bunk.  Emily had decided to try and crawl up into the ropes and ribbons.  Somehow she slipped and in falling out of the mess she was caught around the neck and was choking.  Grandpa Brown was visiting--it must have been Christmas or maybe Easter.  But he found Emily and saved her life.  After that we removed all of the ropes and ribbons.  

    Emily used to help me in the garden.  This must have been at Shallow Water.  We didn't have a garden in Scott City, and in Pleasant Grove, Emily was probably too young.  We didn't have much of a garden in Shallow Water, but we did have a small one.  I don't remember growing much, and the shade from the Elm trees didn't allow the garden to thrive much.  

    One of my favorite memories is the trip that Emily made with Mom and I to Paris and London.  We made and sold cookies and pies to raise the money.  And we had a great time.  The best time was our first morning.  We were all jet lagged from trying to stay up for a Shakespeare play the night before, so Emily and Sierra (who had gotten up and then went back to bed) missed the tour bus.  I took the two girls on an unplanned tour of down town London which included a stop at the world's largest toy store.  The adventure concluded when we met Mom and the tour for lunch and then went to the London Tower.