Tonight, as you explained a playground story to me, my heart broke.\u00a0 You reminded me how hard it is to be a child sometimes.\u00a0 You are so mature and so insightful, especially this past year when Mommy needed you to be so brave.\u00a0 You are patient and giving.\u00a0 You have humor and wit beyond your years, a beautiful smile and adorable freckles.<\/p>\n
As you grabbed me and cried\u00a0 like the 8-year-old that you are and that I sometimes forget you are<\/em>, you explained how you “laughed with them” at school.\u00a0 You did that because that’s what you do, my sweet girl, you love to make people laugh, even at your own expense.\u00a0 You have so much of your mommy and daddy in you, it’s wonderfully amazing, and yet sometimes hard for me to consume.\u00a0 I know the trials you will face.\u00a0 I can almost see them coming. \u00a0 I know how hard life will be for you sometimes and I know I can’t protect you from it all and my heart breaks for you.<\/p>\n Everyone has been teased.\u00a0 I know that words hurt and I know that you don’t understand why some friends say things that cause tears.\u00a0 I always tell you that what is in your head and what is in your heart is far more important than what others see on the outside.\u00a0 You are confident and beautiful.\u00a0 Please don’t let others tell you that you are not.<\/p>\n Differences make the world a better place.\u00a0 How boring the world would be without all of the McCanlesses and Mary Clares in it.\u00a0 You, McCanless, bring smiles to faces simply for being you.<\/p>\n Trials that you face even now make you a stronger person, a more tolerant, patient and graceful person.\u00a0 You, my sweetheart, are a beautiful swan that will emerge gracefully inside and outside.\u00a0 I love you more and more everyday and I can’t wait until I see the amazing, talented and understanding woman that I know you will be.<\/p>\n Although we have talked and I have said these words to you so many times before, what happened to you today will be what you remember.\u00a0 It’s funny how one thousand kinds words can be spoken and lost; yet, those two or three words that were hurtful will be with you forever, remembered in vivid detail.<\/p>\n I’m so sorry you were hurt.\u00a0 I’m so sorry to see you cry, but I do hope you remember what happened and how it made you feel.\u00a0 I don’t want to erase what happened.\u00a0 You will be a stronger person because of this, McCanless.<\/p>\n Life isn’t always easy.\u00a0 It’s a constant journey that molds you into the person you were meant to be.<\/p>\n I love you dearly, my sweet McCanless.<\/p>\n Love, Mom<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tonight, as you explained a playground story to me, my heart broke.\u00a0 You reminded me how hard it is to be a child sometimes.\u00a0 You are so mature and so insightful, especially this past year when Mommy needed you to be so brave.\u00a0 You are patient and giving.\u00a0 You have humor and wit beyond your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8030"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8032,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8030\/revisions\/8032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}