Lately, Evie has been doing a lot of writing. Originally she was asking us constantly to spell things for her, but we eventually convinced her to try to figure it out on her own. Since then she has been scribbling away, writing more or less phonetically. She’s actually amazingly good at it, but sometimes it can be very difficult to figure out what she wrote. For example, she might write something like:

Im Sary For Wat Im Sary For Lav Evie Fram Evie

In addition to some questionable spelling, the letters are not always formed in the most clear manner, and she’s not big on putting spaces between words. It’s very adorable, but it is also extremely tricky: if she hands you a note, you must read it correctly, and not let on that it’s not perfect. It absolutely breaks her heart if she’s written it incorrectly. We try to explain to her how much it means to have something written by her, even if it’s wrong, and how it doesn’t really matter if something is spelled correctly, as long as the person who reads it understands it. Doesn’t matter. Poor girl.

The worst part is that she sometimes tricks you into a trap. You’ll end up spelling something to her, only to have her totally flip out when she realizes that’s not how she’s been spelling something. She’s such a perfectionist. Yesterday I accidentally spelled “love”, only to have her immediately break into tears when I didn’t spell it “lav”, the way she has been spelling it.

It would be impossible to keep up the charade forever because she never misses anything. Inevitably, she’s going to learn how to spell everything correctly, no matter what we do. But I hope we can drag it out a little bit longer. It’s just so cute, and I will be sad when its over.