- Her imagination is running wild these days! We are constantly hopping from one scenario to the next. She pretends we are family members, friends, teachers, and book characters. I can't keep track of who I am from one minute to the next, so I answer to anything she calls me. We pretend to do lots of things, like go to work, go to school, and swing her (imaginary) sisters in the playground swings. A boy started to sit down on "her sister" and she said, "No! That's my sister." He looked at her like she was crazy, so I felt the need to intervene on her behalf. I suggested we take her sister to the bucket swing where she would be safer, so she carefully picked up the sister and carried her to another swing whispering to her, "it's okay."
- Her longest running character is Harry Potter. It all started when I was listening to a book on CD in the car. I think she had also heard his name from asking questions about Ryan's books. She latched onto Harry and here we are a month later still talking about Harry every day. Ryan is usually referred to as "Ron" more often that "dad." She and I are a multitude of characters depending on what she wants to pretend. If someone asks what her name is, she answers, "Harry." The librarian at story time looked at me incredulously and said, "That's one I haven't heard before." I poked the lenses out of a $1 pair of sunglasses because "Harry" needed glasses.
- Weighs 27 pounds on the scale at home
- Size 8/8.5 shoe
- She loves nursery rhymes. My parents' neighbor sent her a book of rhymes, and we read some every day. Her favorites are "Mary had a Little Lamb," "Jack and Jill," "Georgie Porgie," and "A Tisket, A Tasket." We hear her singing them in her room at night while she is winding down. She also makes up her own funny versions of some of them.
- points to things and people with her middle finger
- She loves picking out her clothes each day. The most important thing is that the outfit has pockets. She likes to wear her stretchy jeans backwards so the pockets are in the front. And I don't even care. My criteria are: the fit and weather appropriateness. Other than that, I don't bother arguing over it. Exhibit A:
- She makes us laugh every day. Last week we were coming out of a shop and I smelled fried chicken next door. I said, "Ooooh, that smells like fried chicken," and she immediately said, "Yeah, baby! Let's get some fried chicken." She's never even had fried chicken, so I don't know why she got so excited about it. She's very quick witted.
- She eats a wide variety of food but would probably eat candy all day if we let her. Candy came into her life when we began potty training. See next bullet point.
- She's doing great with potty training. Her favorite treat right now is a jelly bean. She tries to get treats for the above mentioned invisible sister going to the bathroom. Nice try.
- She's curious about anatomy, and I've made myself use correct terminology. That is so hard for me, but I feel better for doing it.
- She will start pre-school in the Fall, going two mornings a week. We are very excited for her and she is ready to go today!
- She strikes up conversations with strangers, usually women. This week at the grocery store she told a lady "My dad is cute."
- We are back on the playground scene. As the winter started to warm up she didn't want to go, but I really wanted to get out in the fresh air. On our first warm/non-windy day I convinced her to go. She said she needed to go to the bathroom at the community center next to the playground. Well, she just wanted to play in the lockers and be silly. I told her to try to go and she ran from me. I grabbed her and told her to try or we were going home. She ran from me again, so I picked her up and carried her straight to the car. I was so frustrated. The whole way to the car I was fussing "This is a beautiful day and I wanted us to play outside, but we have to go home because you didn't listen." Did she care? Nope. I just wanted to have a tantrum and scream, "I WANTED TO PLAY OUTSIDE!"
- We went through a rough patch a few weeks ago with her not listening to us. I know she heard us but chose to ignore requests like, "Put on your socks," Get in your car seat" etc. She lost lots of babies, puppies, and privileges. Most of the time she didn't seem to care. She is happy-go-lucky and makes the most out of what she has. One day I took all of her babies, so she made one out of Play-doh and wrapped it in a tiny Play-doh blanket. Problem solved.
