"Mama, when we say our prayers this is how we keep our eyes closed to listen to our prayers, it makes Jesus happy when we listen to our prayers. I pray to go to a hotel mommy, I want to visit the red hotel where we can choose 2 friends to go to Disney World & sleep in our hotel. You get to pick daddy & I'll pick Maddy. I can bring all my princess dollies to Disney & maybe we can get Maddy matching ones & maybe we can get princess shoes & maybe & I smell something funny, oh yeah I tooted, and maybe we can have Maddys little potty in disney. I can lift Maddy high & show her how to potty, we have to learn her how & we can all girls across & maybe we can make a tiny igloo for me & Mad & where would the door go? & maybe we can make a TV out of our house & then we can put the TV in our igloo & we can pick a movie out & see what one I like & maybe a cat movie with the color rainbow cats. Remember the girl from the place where the man filled the machine with crackers & took all the money?"
And on and on she goes. Where she'll stop, nobody knows. It's hilarious. As long as I look interested & nod my head appropriately she'll keep going. I wonder at the way she can go from talking about princess shoes, to igloo tv's & then vending machines. And that is just the beginning! Given the chance Elizabeth would tell you all the nitty gritty details of daily living in the Clemmons house from the way she stepped on a spider and squished it good, to how often she uses the potty & washes her hands. She'd tell you about the letter "E" which is her favorite of course and then tell you that A starts with Apple. (Yes, that's how she says it.) My chatter bug keeps us entertained that's for sure. I know I'll miss these moments eventually but when you cross the threshold to hour 4 of randomness I confess a small (but growing larger all the time) part of me wants to play the "lets distract her with ANYTHING" game.
I love my Lizzy. She really is a hoot to live with. She's growing so fast... she's so tall & leggy. While Madeline takes after me (a bit squatty with short legs) Elizabeth takes after her Aunt Bethy. I bought their swimsuits at the Gymboree Outlets the other day. They were running all their suits on sale for $12.99 - which is amazing. I can't find them that cheap at Target and these will hold up much better. I got Liz her first big girl 2 piece. It's very modest though... more of a tankini. (Jay flipped out when I told him over the phone about it being a 2 piece, he's VERY conservative when it comes to his little girls, nothing too tight or skin baring is allowed in our house, but once he saw it he grudgingly agreed to taking the tags off & keeping it.) Here's some pics of the girls who immediately had to put their new suits on the moment we got home from shopping.
Yesterday we got to see a vending machine man (hence that part of the story) take out the money and refill the chips. The man looked like he was down & not enjoying his day. But my girls were frozen in interest, watching the "behind the scenes" tour of vending machines. So we waited and watched. I explained each step of the process to them in quiet tones while we watched the man unlock the door, pull it open & empty the change box. Then he pulled out each shelf and refilled the items. All the while Liz & Maddy sat absolutely still watching his every move. I realized this must be very facinating for them so we sat for awhile & just watched. The man overheard me talking to the girls and all of the sudden he became more animated, asking them questions about themselves. Prompting them to ask questions about what he was up to. He showed them where the money goes & how the machine buttons work. And then at the end he let them pick out some crackers for a snack... while the door was still open. Boy did they think that was awesome. Lizzy was in near reverance as she picked out her cheezits & with eyes wide as saucers she whispered "Thank you sir... thank you for my special snack!" I could see the mans chest inflate as he realized his job had made a child smile that day... it was a neat moment for all of us. Lizzy later spent 20 minutes explaining to daddy the thrilling process of refilling vending machines.
That brief encounter made me realize just how big this world is and how exciting it is for my girls to discover new things. The smallest things are thrilling to them.
Last night it occured to me that I have been guilty of skipping over Maddy's foundational education in favor of Lizzy's amazing progress into the world of reading. Every day I work with the girls on letters, sounds, and the exciting process of turning those letters into stories. But last night it dawned on me that while my 2 year old can identify the letters E & M without difficulty... she has no clue what a circle is. She can't color in the lines, and every crayon she picks up is "green". Oops. Big big oops. It was a sad reminder for me that I'm (accidentally) forcing Maddy to grow up far too quickly. She's 2, she's not ready to read. Letters which facinate her should not be on her radar yet. I skipped steps 1 & 2 in favor of the more exciting step 3 but what sort of foundation is that? So what if she can read if she can't understand *what* she's talking about? So back to the basics we go. Today I'm enjoying the smaller process of red circle, blue square & yellow triangle... and yes... the color green. The real one that is.
1 comment:
First of all, the vending man story made me all weepy. But then, I was back to dying laughing at Liz spending 20 minutes on the story... laughing that was only slightly less than when she commented on the toot. OMG, I can't read these posts while Liam is in bed! He's gonna wake up!
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