I love my girl. She says some of the funniest things. I guess that can be said of most people's kids, but since I'm with mine all the time, I am limited to telling the stories of her rather than all the other cute kids.
So, first off, my girl is very helpful. We pray as a family before meal times, and in the evening before bed time. My girl LOVES to be the one to say the prayer. She has a couple things she says in every prayer, including being thankful for the food and for all of the blessings we enjoy. We have been encouraging her to add something. Usually she will open her little eyes, and then express thanks for the first thing she sees, like her stuffed cougar Kisa, or a balloon she earned, or a book she'd been reading. Many times she expresses gratitude for all the members of our family, including herself. She is also becoming more.....'leader-ish'. She likes to pick who should say the next prayer. The way she does this is pretty funny. We will all be sitting around her dinner table, and I will say, "Do you want to say the prayer?" My girl will either say, "Sure," or she'll say, "Ummm, no thank you." Then is the funny part. She'll point to either her Daddy or me and say, "You're it!" by which she means it is our turn to pray. A couple days ago she declared it was my turn, and then said, "Don't worry, I'll help you, cause I'm your Mama." She likes to pretend that I am her, and she is the mom, so I said, "Ok, thank you." She then proceeded to instruct me on folding my arms, bowing my head, and closing my eyes. When I was properly ready, she whispered things to me to say in the prayer. I, of course, tried to include the things she wanted me to say, and added some of my own. She wasn't too impressed with my embellishments. When she told me to say "thank you for the tv and my books", I instead said that we were very thankful that we were able to spend time together as a family doing fun things like reading or watching a movie. She looked at me disappointedly and repeated her whisper, "thank you for the tv and my books." Well, she is persistent, and knows what her expectations are, and is good at communicating what those expectations are to others.
Yesterday morning we were getting ready for the day, getting dressed, brushing teeth, and such. Elise wandered into the hallway, then ran back into my room and said, "I hear a weird noise!" She usually thinks it is Daddy coming home from work, but it was too early in the day. As she didn't offer any explanation for the noise, I teasingly said, "I hear you!" since she had been singing and dancing around and making noise like all 3 year olds. She looked at me, shocked, and said seriously, "I am NOT WEIRD!" She paused, as if thinking momentarily, and then declared, "I'm cute!" I had a good laugh, and had to agree she is pretty cute! I love that she is old enough now (or I guess age doesn't really have anything to do with it), or her hair is long enough now, for us to do some fun things with it. Growing up with so many sisters, I had lots of practice doing braids and ponytails. I have had to dust off those skills recently, and have had to re-learn how to do a french braid fast enough that the braid-ee doesn't get tired of standing in front of the mirror while her hair is pulled. My girl is a trooper, and has asked for braids a few times, and is even girly enough to request ribbons as well. We've been having fun being THE GIRLS, and Elise will frequently tell me that we're sisters, or friends, or that we're "all together, like a family".
Then this morning, I was vacuuming the rug in the front room, and decided the couches could probably use some attention as well. Elise was sitting back, watching the action, until I pulled the cushions off the couch to vacuum underneath. She moseyed nonchalantly over, and climbed up into the space the cushion usually occupies. I had to ask her to move off the couch until I was done, which she did, but she stayed really close, waiting....When I finished the one couch and moved to the next, she said, "Please, I have these?", gesturing to the cushions. I agreed and proceeded to vacuum the second couch. She commandeered those cushions as well, and declared that the cushions and their spaces on the couches were the swimming pool, and that she and her doll Suzy were going swimming. She even invited me to join in as she taught her doll how to swim. I had forgotten that she loved to do this at her grandparents house in Oregon when we stayed with them....we'll have to take some pictures for some comparison shots....What fun! She has such an imagination....
Which sometimes leads to funny situations. She likes to pretend that Clifford the big red dog is playing at our house, and either she is Emily Elizabeth, or she is just borrowing Clifford. At nursery on Sunday, Clifford, apparently came to play. Elise doesn't often play WITH the other kids, she prefers to have me play just with her. But this last Sunday as we sat in class, she informed me that she would be playing with Clifford, and went to an unoccupied space of carpet. Then she said, "Clifford, you are running so fast!" and pretended to watch him run around, and then ran around with him. The other teacher turned to me after hearing Elise address Clifford, and said, "Is she playing with her imaginary friend?" I had to laugh, because Elise pretends all kinds of friends, and frequently pretends to dress up in costumes and be different people herself. I hadn't really thought of this as having an 'imaginary friend', so it was a bit funny.
This morning I asked Elise to help me with a project. She said, "Absolutely" (so funny!) Then she said, "Well, maybe we do a different project for me. Like make a lion costume for me to wear!" She compromised and agreed we could paint a mask that looks like a lion (we got a couple masks at JoAnn's for $1) instead of making a whole costume. FUN TIMES!
Anyways, that is all the fun things from lately....that I can think of, at least. We'll try to do better at putting those fun stories and our pictures up....we have just been side tracked with getting some projects done lately. We'll try to do better! In the mean time, we're all healthy, happy, and glad that we get to spend time together!
So, first off, my girl is very helpful. We pray as a family before meal times, and in the evening before bed time. My girl LOVES to be the one to say the prayer. She has a couple things she says in every prayer, including being thankful for the food and for all of the blessings we enjoy. We have been encouraging her to add something. Usually she will open her little eyes, and then express thanks for the first thing she sees, like her stuffed cougar Kisa, or a balloon she earned, or a book she'd been reading. Many times she expresses gratitude for all the members of our family, including herself. She is also becoming more.....'leader-ish'. She likes to pick who should say the next prayer. The way she does this is pretty funny. We will all be sitting around her dinner table, and I will say, "Do you want to say the prayer?" My girl will either say, "Sure," or she'll say, "Ummm, no thank you." Then is the funny part. She'll point to either her Daddy or me and say, "You're it!" by which she means it is our turn to pray. A couple days ago she declared it was my turn, and then said, "Don't worry, I'll help you, cause I'm your Mama." She likes to pretend that I am her, and she is the mom, so I said, "Ok, thank you." She then proceeded to instruct me on folding my arms, bowing my head, and closing my eyes. When I was properly ready, she whispered things to me to say in the prayer. I, of course, tried to include the things she wanted me to say, and added some of my own. She wasn't too impressed with my embellishments. When she told me to say "thank you for the tv and my books", I instead said that we were very thankful that we were able to spend time together as a family doing fun things like reading or watching a movie. She looked at me disappointedly and repeated her whisper, "thank you for the tv and my books." Well, she is persistent, and knows what her expectations are, and is good at communicating what those expectations are to others.
Yesterday morning we were getting ready for the day, getting dressed, brushing teeth, and such. Elise wandered into the hallway, then ran back into my room and said, "I hear a weird noise!" She usually thinks it is Daddy coming home from work, but it was too early in the day. As she didn't offer any explanation for the noise, I teasingly said, "I hear you!" since she had been singing and dancing around and making noise like all 3 year olds. She looked at me, shocked, and said seriously, "I am NOT WEIRD!" She paused, as if thinking momentarily, and then declared, "I'm cute!" I had a good laugh, and had to agree she is pretty cute! I love that she is old enough now (or I guess age doesn't really have anything to do with it), or her hair is long enough now, for us to do some fun things with it. Growing up with so many sisters, I had lots of practice doing braids and ponytails. I have had to dust off those skills recently, and have had to re-learn how to do a french braid fast enough that the braid-ee doesn't get tired of standing in front of the mirror while her hair is pulled. My girl is a trooper, and has asked for braids a few times, and is even girly enough to request ribbons as well. We've been having fun being THE GIRLS, and Elise will frequently tell me that we're sisters, or friends, or that we're "all together, like a family".
Then this morning, I was vacuuming the rug in the front room, and decided the couches could probably use some attention as well. Elise was sitting back, watching the action, until I pulled the cushions off the couch to vacuum underneath. She moseyed nonchalantly over, and climbed up into the space the cushion usually occupies. I had to ask her to move off the couch until I was done, which she did, but she stayed really close, waiting....When I finished the one couch and moved to the next, she said, "Please, I have these?", gesturing to the cushions. I agreed and proceeded to vacuum the second couch. She commandeered those cushions as well, and declared that the cushions and their spaces on the couches were the swimming pool, and that she and her doll Suzy were going swimming. She even invited me to join in as she taught her doll how to swim. I had forgotten that she loved to do this at her grandparents house in Oregon when we stayed with them....we'll have to take some pictures for some comparison shots....What fun! She has such an imagination....
Which sometimes leads to funny situations. She likes to pretend that Clifford the big red dog is playing at our house, and either she is Emily Elizabeth, or she is just borrowing Clifford. At nursery on Sunday, Clifford, apparently came to play. Elise doesn't often play WITH the other kids, she prefers to have me play just with her. But this last Sunday as we sat in class, she informed me that she would be playing with Clifford, and went to an unoccupied space of carpet. Then she said, "Clifford, you are running so fast!" and pretended to watch him run around, and then ran around with him. The other teacher turned to me after hearing Elise address Clifford, and said, "Is she playing with her imaginary friend?" I had to laugh, because Elise pretends all kinds of friends, and frequently pretends to dress up in costumes and be different people herself. I hadn't really thought of this as having an 'imaginary friend', so it was a bit funny.
This morning I asked Elise to help me with a project. She said, "Absolutely" (so funny!) Then she said, "Well, maybe we do a different project for me. Like make a lion costume for me to wear!" She compromised and agreed we could paint a mask that looks like a lion (we got a couple masks at JoAnn's for $1) instead of making a whole costume. FUN TIMES!
Anyways, that is all the fun things from lately....that I can think of, at least. We'll try to do better at putting those fun stories and our pictures up....we have just been side tracked with getting some projects done lately. We'll try to do better! In the mean time, we're all healthy, happy, and glad that we get to spend time together!
