Q and Other Writing

Your drawing has started to take greater shape. Your favorite things to draw are people (mostly yourself and sometimes our family) and spiders. You've also started "writing." Usually you just draw a straight line and verbalize what this straight line "says." But now you've started actually making a recognizable "Q."

Measurements

As of January, you are 39 inches (I think actually just under 40) and 37 pounds.

We still haven't gotten your hair cut and it is beautiful!

Big Sisters and Babies

You are very interested in big sisters. You always role play that you're a big sister and set up family dynamics with a big sister.

You asked me recently if we could have a baby so you could be a big sister. I tried to reason with you that you wouldn't like it because you wouldn't get all our attention or be able to sleep in our bed. But you said: "That's okay, I could play by myself while you are feeding the baby and then you could play with me after!"

Then yesterday you told me you really wanted a big sister. I tried to explain to you that this wasn't a possibility, but you weren't dissuaded! You did seem appeased though by the idea of finding other big girls to be like big sisters to you, like Elyse, Sophie, and Phoebe.

January 2010 - Birthdays and Broken Arms

Belatedly let me catch up a few highlights from your birthday and a few lowlights from your broken arm:

Low lights. It was terrible seeing you in such pain from your buckle fracture. You were so brave and it was so hard. When the radiologist gave you your xrays, your daddy hugged you and held you down while I crawled onto the table with you to hold you. Your heart was beating and your cries were excrucating. That's probably one of the hardest things we've ever had to go through with you.

Fortunately the buckle fracture is not serious and healed quickly. Unfortunately you became hooked on your splint. I think you liked it for the support it gave you and the reassurance that nobody was going to manipulate your arm and bend it in ways you didn't like. You cried hysterically every night when we took it off to redo it.

Finally, at your 3 year doctor's appt, the doctor was able to remove the splint from your healed arm. But you were so upset that he gave you a sling which you proceeded to wear, unnecessarily for the whole day, returning home with it hanging loosely about your neck like a purse! A few days later, we slipped off the bandage and you were back to normal. For a few days after, you would comment when you were doing something with your right hand that you hadn't been able to do with the splint on. But now it's like it never happened.

Even with the broken arm and a fever, you still were able to enjoy your birthday party. When your daddy came home with 3 helium balloons including 2 princess ones you delightedly said: "This is my best birthday ever!" You had fun, but then you got sick and everyone went home. Hopefully you'll have even better birthdays in the future!

Bedtime Distractions

You have been sleeping so terribly at night, waking up at random times, grabbing our ears, crying, asking for milk. So I finally asked you if you had any ideas why you were sleeping so poorly and what we might do to help you to sleep better. Your response:

"Sometimes when one of you goes to yoga and the other goes to bed with me. When the other comes to bed after yoga, I get distracted...depending on...I'm not sure whose ear I was going to touch."

Your solution? Either your dad or I could just sleep in your bed. When I suggested that we could take turns sleeping alone in your bed, you included, you were silent for a moment then said: "I'm done with dinner. May I be excused?"

You haven't learned to deceive yet so you stick with your strategy of not answering when you realize it might incriminate you or get you a result you don't want!

Yucko

There's a yucko in the front preschool room that you were telling me about. It's little, in a cage, and often asleep when you're visiting the big kids' room. I wasn't sure what you meant, then realized: "Gecko?" "Yes," you said.

Princesses and Poo Poo

You like to talk about poo poo a lot. I do not. Whenever you get on this train of conversation, I just ignore you or tell you that's boring talk and I'm willing to talk to you when you have something interesting to say, but until then, I'm ignoring you. To which you then will say: "I like trees" and we can proceed with a conversation.

When you're with Ella and Marcel, you really like this potty talk a lot. The other day, you said: "Ella and I like to talk about poo poo....and princesses."

Love that combo!

I hope the moon doesn't follow us home

We saw the moon large in the sky this evening on the way home from school. "Look," you said, "it's following us. I hope it doesn't follow us all the way home. What if it tried to get on the bus with us? The bus driver would say: Where is your ticket. And the moon would say: I don't have a ticket. So the bus driver would have to kick the moon off of the bus."

I'm not going to hit you anymore

After spending an evening with Ella, you realized, somewhat, that violence doesn't pay. At Ella's house, you were very clear in telling Ella that she wasn't being very nice to you. And you tried to make it up to Marcel by looking out for her: "I feel bad because Marcel is sad because Ella took her bear. So I am going to give her bear back to her so that might make her happy."

On the way home, you told us: "I'm not going to hit you anymore. If I am frustrated, I will talk to you, not hit you. I can tell you how I'm feeling because I am not a baby. And we can have a discussion."

Why Isn't Mommy Listening To Me?

Your daddy and I play dead at night. While we lie with you for minutes upon hours waiting for you finally to drift off to sleep, we pretend we're already in la la land. You've never questioned the oddity of the fact that we're somehow able to sleep while you are singing at the top of your lungs or crying or whining or asking endlessly for something. When you ask for water, we give it to you. When you ask to be wrapped up or for a big hug, we oblige. But otherwise we're unavailable.

But last night, you started to figure it out, or at least figured it out enough to be confused. Here's how it went down:
Q: Mama, I want some water.
E: (gave water, but didn't speak)
Q: Mama, I want Samantha.
E: (silence)
Q: Mama, I really need a baby doll, a big baby doll to hold. I need Samantha.
E: (silence)
Q: (many pleas for Samantha followed by some screaming and crying)
E: (silence)
Q: Please, Mama, may I have Samantha, please? I really need her, please.
E: (silence)
Q: Mama are you listening to me? Mama, please listen to me? Mama, I have something to say. I'm going to say it in your ear.
E: (silence)
Q: I DON'T UNDERSTAND! Why isn't my mommy listening to me? Usually my mommy listens to me. But now she isn't. When I ask for water, she gives it to me. But now I'm asking for Samantha, very nicely, and she's not saying anything. I don't understand.

At this point, I had to respond. Your desparation was so sad. We negotiated a compromise wherein I got Samantha if you promised to go straight to sleep. Every night a new negotiation. Why can't you go to sleep easily like other kids??

December 2009

I missed a couple of months so let me try to play some catch up and call out some of the highlights...that I can still remember. There are daily highlights, of course, some of which are now lost in the inner recesses of my mind, but I'll do the best I can!

December was a blur of holidays, parties, and travels. You liked hosting our Hanukkah party and enjoyed lighting the candles, though we missed more days than we celebrated!

When you went Christmas tree shopping, you were as decisive as ever; while I can agonize over the "perfect" tree for hours, you immediately went up to 1 tree, gave it a hug, and said: "let's get this one." I waffled a bit, had you look at a few more, but finally went with one of your choices (a second tree you agreed was good). We sorted through the ornaments together making two piles: 1 for those that could go on the tree and 1 for those that you wanted to play with so we needed to keep them off the tree. You were so gentle with the ornaments, reminding me again how lucky we are to have such a respectful and thoughtful daughter.

You really enjoyed Christmas in Dallas: as always, you loved spending time with Grandma Linda and Papa and you also loved your time with your cousin Elyse. This year you were more engaged with her (as opposed to last year when you mostly stared at her in awe repeating the question: "What is Elyse doing?") and you girls had so much fun playing in the snow, jumping on the trampoline, hiding in her castle. Later, in January, you commented how nice it would be to have a big sister and then noted: "But Elyse is kind of like a big sister."

NYE in Tahoe was great! You and Kate played so nicely together. And you were so brave in the snow! I wasn't sure if you were going to be interested in sledding, but you jumped right on and had a blast. When we had a bit of a wipe-out we both just giggled and giggled and you never got upset. You also loved playing with the snowmen that someone else had kindly taken the trouble of building! You kept hugging the snowmen and wanting to find some eyes and arms for it. Perhaps your favorite part about playing in the snow was eating it...handful after handful! And then, for dessert, you sucked on a big icicle popsicle that we pulled from the eaves of the McPhail's house!

Though you stayed up too late, you never got grumpy. When I told you, in desperation, multiple times in the night that you needed to go to sleep, you didn't argue. You'd just grab on to my ear gently and say: "Okay, mommy." While you're more often than not completely agreeable and reasonable, I'm still always greatful when a potential fight or tantrum is averted!