Friday, November 18, 2011

At 4 years old...

She holds up one finger and says 'No, later. Later. Right now go downstairs go pee, go bed LATER Daddy.' Ha. He says he doesn't know where on EARTH she could have gotten such an attitude from. 'Who, my dear woman, are you referring to? I haven't the foggiest idea...' She is very much interested in 'saving' her toys and being a doctor and a chef and a farmer... as well as a cat and a dog or a pig and a robot.

She wants Mama to read to her nearly every night, sometimes is waiting for me when I get home with lots of 'news' to tell me and games to play or crafts to do... She puts unblown balloons over her head while sitting in a large Rubbermaid bucket and says she is taking a bath. Oh help me, I'm getting wet! She still shoves blocks and small toys into her clothes and/or her blankets and pillows and we have to 'clean out your bed' almost every night before she goes to sleep. She builds huge walls across the floor now with her blocks, and is paying attention to different thicknesses of blocks to make the layers even. I thought that was really cool when I saw it, as it took a lot of 'No, Mama.. like this.' to play the game with her 'correctly.'

She will wash her hands but only with the cold water, and then cry because it is so cold... yet the hot takes so long to warm up it is hard to tell her to use both. She won't leave her blankets on at night... but at least she has not wet the bed in several months *cross fingers*. She still does not go to sleep until midnight and usually wakes me up at or before eight-thirty. That is better than it used to be.

She really despises that it is getting dark at five o'clock lately - tells me the power is out outside and it should not be dark because it is morningtime and she does not want to go to sleep. She does know about the sun and the moon - and it will be morningtime when the 'sun comes back.' etc... Still sometimes she thinks the light is something we can 'do', or maybe she just hopes maybe? She is not quite as scared of the 'brown bears time' as she used to be -- but still worries about it. She wants a flashlight to chase them away outside, and/or not to be out there. That was my intention with telling her the 'brown bears will eat us' outside after dark. That all started a long time ago, when we were playing outside at twilight and she did not want to come in - and there WAS something crashing and 'breathing' in the forest.... probably a dog or a deer, but she does not disagree that there are things out there and we can't see them after it is dark. Sometimes she does disagree that they are bears... says they are monsters or just isn't sure. She still cannot open the door to outside unless she isn't thinking about it... not sure why, glad she can't yet though most of the time.

She insists all of her cats are now named Snowbell, because of the cat in Stuart Little. Everything has to be 'find it faster' or 'do it faster' or 'come faster come on come on come on downstairs' etc... lately. I'm not sure where she got the concept of hurry up from... but she has it firmly. She can repeat any combination on the xylophone - and has picked out more songs she knows on it. She can write a few words at a time and most of her paintings of 'elephants and Patos and trucks and dogs' don't look like much, but sometimes they do. I think that might be on accident! She loves her watercolor paints and I feel confident enough to let her have it at the desk upstairs now, as the downstairs 'school room' is very cold right now. She was fascinated with Elly from Pocoyo until she saw the pink elephants in Dumbo... now she isn't so sure and Elly has stayed on a shelf since then. I bet when she watches more Pocoyo again she will love her and play with her again.

She will break out with 'You must sing your scales and your a-petigos...' or 'Everybody wants to be a cat, because the cat is the only cat who knows where it's at...' from Aristocats at any time of day or night. She remembers more and more all of the time, and sometimes has big crazy run-around-the-house-acting-crazy fits when we have said we are going to do something and it is 'tomorrow' or 'later' and she had set herself up to go do it RIGHT THEN.... very toddler still on that. She is starting to recognize plays on words - such as 'everybody wants to be a dog, because a dog's the only dog, who knows where it's OG.' Instead of telling me I'm wrong, she finishes my 'the Esme's the only Esme' with 'who knows where it's me.' HAHA. She wants to be 'just like Grandma' hanging up her coat on a hook and 'just like Mama' putting on coats and scarves, doing dishes and laundry and playing with yarn and fabric. Her copying is helping her want to read and write, as well - she sees me typing and she wants to be involved, she sees me reading mail, and wants to know what it says etc etc...

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