When Did She Become a Person?

Ellie is such a little person these days. I just can’t get over the things she says, how aware she is. How many opinions she has. Oh, the opinions!

And she is such her own person.

Warning: Much Ellie kvelling ahead. This post is probably only suitable for grandparents but feel free to read if you’re feeling patient.

Ellie does not like to get dirty. This fact in itself is proof positive that kids come out of the womb with their own preferences. Because as much as I’m a “neat” person, I will admit that my kid is sometimes that one at the playground with the runny nose or muddy knees. Sure we come home and clean up but out and about? Sometimes I’m just too busy to notice.

But, Ellie: she is always asking me for a napkin while eating. Sunday the kids and I made banana bread. She carefully and precisely peeled six bananas (mushy and sticky and overripe, hence, banana bread material). You should have seen the look of horror on her face when she was left with the sticky hands. A perfect little pout of fear, like, what am I supposed to do with these yucky hands?

You can sort of make out her hesitation in the photos. And the only one where she looks truly comfortable is when she’s touching the butter. She loves butter. Straight. Don’t ask me where she learned to eat it like that.




A few other observations (which I remind you again, might only be of interest to me in the sense of “Blog as memory book” and Ellie’s grandparents, so feel free to skip:

The other morning I decided to drop off some overdue library books before school. I was rushing and pulled out perhaps a tad faster than usual, to beat the next car and Ellie called to me from the backseat, “You OK Mommy? You OK?”

And my she’s bossy! And a dish towel thief to boot! I can’t keep a dishtowel hanging on the oven door to save my life because to Ellie, dish towels are not merely dish towels, oh no, they are dolly blankets.

Yesterday afternoon as she and Leo played, she decided it was time to put Leo down for a nap (Oh how I wish!). She ordered “Lay down Leo! Lay down!” and followed him around with the dish towel, trying to cover him. The funny thing is, Leo actually listened to her. She might be the only person in the house he listens to on a regular basis.

And I can see her imagination brimming with possibilities. Saturday morning she (purposefully, it semed) dropped one of her dolls on the floor. She walked over to me and said “Mommy, baby fall down. She got boo-boo. Need ice.” (Ice in a little plastic baggy is, apparently big at daycare for multiple maladies).

And lastly, and perhaps most hilarious of all, Erin was teasing the kids the other night as they were being loud and silly (the usual at our place). Erin said to Leo and Ellie: “You guys are crazy!”

Ellie’s response: “No! I’m Ellie!”

Last night’s bedtime was a bit of a battlefield. Ellie used to be the “easy” one to put to bed. Now? Unless she is exhausted, actually, make that even when she’s exhausted, she’ll give us every excuse in the book why it’s not time to go to bed. “I have to go potty!” (Always.) “Read more books! I want water right now!”

But the best was when, after crying for a good, solid five minutes, I finally went into her room to see what could be done to console her.

“I need tissue Mommy. I’m all wet,” she said, patting the front of her pajama top. “I cried on myself.”

Oy. Pour salt in my guilty mom wounds. She cried on herself.

Did I mention that this language thing is both a blessing and a curse?