One night, Paela woke me up four different times, calming down when I came to her each time. One time, I asked her why she kept waking up. The fact that I bothered asking a rhetorical question like this is evidence of my own grogginess. She, however, was more coherent than I was:
"There are no monsters in my room, but I really think that there is!"
I was in the other room when I heard Paela shout "I did it!" and race from her room. She ran this way and that way in our apartment, shouting "I did it!" over and over as she went, carrying a plastic tiger with her. When she was finally calm enough to ask, she told me she spelled "tiger". I was surprised, of course, and asked her to show me. She took me to a toy of hers that has all the letters of the alphabet on it. She pressed the "T" button which proclaimed "Tiger begins with T" and Paela shouted she spelled tiger again and ran all over the apartment.
And that is the level of excitement I hope she maintains as she learns more about what this "spelling" thing is.
Princesses in our house:
"Princesses dance. They do not twirl and whirl. They just dance. They also sing. And they help people, like my friends. Princesses also hug and kiss people lots."
And then Paela gave me and Wayne each a great big hug. I guess she must be a princess!
We aren't big cereal eaters in our house. Well, we weren't. Until the time we bought a certain kind of cereal and Paela decided she loved eating our "crunchies." The name stuck. And the cereal is still a must-have on our grocery list:
Crunchy Granola Raisin Bran
But Paela does not like the raisins, she informs us as she picks out every raisin to line it up next to her bowl. She likes raisins. She just doesn't think they belong in her "crunchies" bowl. And heaven forbid we buy Crunchy Granola Bran (do they even make that?).
Last week I thought Paela was so grown up the morning she told me "I think I want to try my raisins today." She ate the whole bowl, raisins and all.
The next morning, she had a line of raisins next to her bowl by the end of breakfast. Old habits are hard to break.
Sometimes Paela will tackle Aderyn. Her full body goes into the hold in an attemptto keep Aderyn from something, out of something, away from something.At home, it's usually to prevent her baby sister from getting into her toys and making a mess. Sometimes she does the "baby tackle" for a less self-serving purpose, like trying to keep her from reaching the oven or the electrical outlet.
Today, Wayne called from the mall to describe this scene: Aderyn crawls away from him in the play area as fast as she can to the caterpillar tunnel; some random kids follow her because, hey, she's cute; Paela notices and hurries to her sister's side where she casually drops a hand on her back (this one is mine!) and follows Aderyn to the tunnel. Where she sits and holds her sister while the other kids crowd in to watch the baby. Holds her tightly. Much to her sister's chagrin. read more »
One evening after Aderyn went to bed, I went downstairs to watch a short show with Paela. We shared a blanket and a bean bag chair together, cozied up. I told Paela I liked to snuggle with her, and she looked at me and said "I love you, Mommy."
Yes, she's at that age.
It is interesting to watch the more complex nuances of language develop with Paela. She recently started apologizing for everything. She would say things like "I'm sorry, but I don't have shoes." I would remind her that there was nothing to apologize for, as she had done nothing wrong. She would also say things like "I'm sorry, but I can't play trains." This continued to confuse us until we realized that her usage of the apologetic phrase was more metonymic than we had presupposed. read more »
"I'm a frog!" Paela shouted this morning. She crouched down and stood up and took a short hop. She did this again and continued, "I'm being a frog!"
She then slithered on the ground (picture a snake) and declared herself a turtle, stood on one leg calling herself a flamingo, went on to be a fish, and then asked me to be a duck with her. What a fun game she created.
And if my attention moved to Aderyn a bit, she would shout "Look at me! Look at me now!"
"Look, Paela! It's a worm!" I said to Paela.
(P briefly admires the worm I pointed at and takes a turn on the slide.)
(She comes back to look again, and quickly pokes the worm.)
"I did it! I touched the squirm!" exclaimed Paela.
