Another point of view

Joelle and I were playing with her “Christmas” Playmobil set. The way Joelle plays with figures right now she usually has them all do something as a group. For example, “they are all going to go ice skating” and she takes them via a sleigh ride in groups to the lake. If she asks me what I think various characters should do I usually engage them in dialogue and make up situations.

So, I was surprised when Joelle abruptly started a dialogue between two characters: Santa and a boy. I was further surprised with the direction the discussion went:

Santa (Joelle): Ho, ho, ho. I am brining GOOD NEWS to Playmobil Land.

Boy (Joelle): What, Santa?

Santa (Joelle) : There will be NO CHRISTMAS this year.

She stopped here as if that was the full script she had worked up by herself, so I interjected as “the boy”.

Boy (me): No Christmas? That’s not good news!

Santa (Joelle): It is for me, I get to take a break.

Santa (Joelle): Actually the elves and the reindeer aren’t available and they usually help me so Christmas has been moved to May 25th.

Boy (me): <silence>

I guess one of the hardest thing for kids (and adults) to learn is to look at a situation from someone else’s point of view. Joelle impressed me with her insight there!

 

Here Kitty, Kitty

After having kids, some things become so obvious to you. Today, I had the opportunity to see little Elise try to keep up with her big sister and her friend. Joelle and her playdate would skip down the hall and Elise would watch (imagine a tiny baby head following a tennis ball in a tennis match.) When they reached their destination, Elise would go after them in hot pursuit. Her tiny hands pounding the wood floor with much determination. When you hear the hands hitting the floor, you know she’s in a hurry for something good.

So, the thing that became so obvious to me? That’s exactly why Sarah and I always played at my house. Sarah had all these cool German toys, including a super market set with real food and candy. I didn’t exactly know why we always played at my house until I realized today that we were probably more content not having to battle it out with a sibling. (Yes, I do have a brother, but, um, he’s way older – he had no reason to mess with us… Although, he did mess with Sarah sometimes. Peaches?)

Joelle, for her part, didn’t mind Elise tagging along today. She still thinks it’s cute when Elise follows her around like a pet. So, I had to smile and enjoy the peace because I know the trouble will come between those two.

 

I Knew You Would Pick the Red

A day in the life of Joelle (November 16, Thanksgiving Feast at school and Ms. Martha’s birthday):

I bought a bouquet of red carnations and told Joelle she could pick a flower for Ms. Martha’s birthday. (All the children bring one stem and it creates quite a colorful and strange arrangement). We were harried that morning (imagine that!) and Joelle told me to just grab a flower. I did. She walked in a few minutes later and said, “I knew you were going to pick the red one!” I laughed and said, “Yeah, what else was I going to pick? The baby’s breath? That’s a filler.” She then said, “Then why did you want me to pick? All the red ones look exactly the same.” I had to concede that they did indeed look very similar. I’m just so used to giving her an option to do it her way whenever I can.

On the way home from school, I heard all about the feast. She seemed to eat a lot, so I said, “boy, I guess I didn’t need to send a lunch.” She said, “I ate all my carrots and I threw away all my trash.” I repeated back what she said in a slightly different way, “oh, you threw away everything?” Thinking I knew the truth and she was caught in a lie, she said, “I didn’t really eat all my carrots, mommie. I didn’t want you to be mad.”

When we got home, she went out to play while I ran to the bathroom to pee. I found Elise at the glass door standing, laughing at her big sister through the glass. Joelle said (through the glass), “Mommie, I’m going to put on my jammies all by myself tonight.” I said, “what’s up? what’d you do?” She said, “I peed outside.” I said, “why.” She said, “I couldn’t make it inside and I sort of peed all over my panties and pants. I didn’t want you to be mad.” There’s a theme here, what is it…. hm, I’ll figure it out shortly…

When daddy came home from work, I suggested that Joelle show daddy all the things from her Thanksgiving feast at school. She said, “Oh daddy, it’s a ton of pop up good fun.” It was pretty darn cute. She tried on her pilgrim suit for daddy first, “Pilgrim Joelle.” She was an indian in the feast though… “Daisy Petal.” Chris and I asked Joelle if the kids had come up with the names. She said, “well, the teachers gave us some suggestions.” We then asked what some of the other names were: “talking rock (this made us laugh), sky woman and fighting rainbow.” Chris and I wondered if there were subliminal messages about the kids’ personalities in these names.

The only tragedy we had all day was the tv going off when Poppy shut off the electricity. She didn’t even get angry when we took too long at Target and couldn’t get ice cream or that the cashier at Target forgot to give us her Barbie. I loved seeing my baby girl happy. I’m the luckiest person in the world to get to share all these moments with Jojo.

 

A Little Salt for Your Day

I may regret trying to teach my daughter this trick, but I’ve been trying to teach Joelle that sometimes when you ask for things sweetly, you’re more likely to get what you want.  In any event, she usually gets what she wants anyway, so it’d be nice to have a little less attitude and rudeness.

So, I said to her, “maybe you should ask for things sweetly, like sugar.  When you ask for things in a mean way, like salt, we’re less likely to want to do it.”  Daddy, Joelle and I take turns choosing restaurants for our Saturday night out.  Daddy’s up next, but Joelle has been really wanting to try a new cafe down the road.  I coached her on how to cajole Daddy to choose Wellby’s for his next dinner out.  We’ll see if she remembers (I’ve coached daddy to concede defeat if she does ask nicely.)

If she doesn’t heed my advice, at least she listened.  She said, “mom, I like salt.  So, I think we should say it’s salt when we’re being nice and pepper when we’re being mean.”  If you hear me say, “Remember to ask saltly,” you’ll know what I’m saying. 

 

Familiar Pose

Someone at work asked for pictures of Joelle and Elise and I obliged – forwarding Petie’s online Halloween photo album. As I was in Kodak Gallery I saw an album marked “Graduation” for my MBA graduation in 2003. I flipped through it and found a couple of funny pictures of Joelle (around 14 months) watching TV in an odd pose.

Funny by itself, sure (how is that comfortable?). But worth an extra chuckle because I came home the night before to see something like the following picture. I took a picture of it tonight to compare:

They aren’t ANYTHING alike…..

Petie has brought up that Joelle gets jealous of Elise getting a lot of attention because she is at a very cute age. I have noticed, however, that Joelle does seem to find it funny whenever we say “Joelle, you used to do that, too!” as opposed to “that is so cute”. When I showed her another picture of her in that series from 2003 where you can see the TV, her first comment was “what was I watching there?” When I answered “The Wiggles”, she recognized the episode and wistfully remarked “yeah, that was one of my favorite ones” like an adult recollecting her youth. Such an old five-year-old.

 

Halloween 2007

Joelle woke up this morning and said, “Momma, I love Halloween.”  She’s adorable when she first wakes up – bleary-eyed with bed head and a sweet little voice.  I smiled and said, “I know – it’s pretty fun, isn’t it?”  Luckily, she has lots o candy to remind her of her festivities!

On an unrelated note, Joelle also told me this afternoon that she was bored.  Elise, after all the fun yesterday, is probably thinking the same thing.  Annie came over to play after Joelle’s desperate attempt to find Jillian or Hudson (our immediate neighbors) failed.  Joelle held it together pretty well when Annie wasn’t cooperating with Joelle’s “plan of attack for play time”.  I’m impressed… I’ve seen many glimpses of my old Joelle today.  Did Halloween trick her into being a sweet girl again?  Maybe it’s all the sugar going to her head?  Or, maybe I just jinxed myself and we’ll have a sour girl again tomorrow.

 

Long Time No Post

I know I’m not writing as much as I did at one time.  Some readers are missing this (ok, just my dad) and I apologize.  Although it’s true that I’m busy juggling my two chickies and work on the side, I think the underlying reason I haven’t been writing much is Joelle.  I adore my life and there have been many good times in the last couple of months, but Joelle has been in a funk.  She’s a source of a lot of blog material!  Without her good natured humor and smiles, what could I possibly have to say? 

I do have other things to say.  If nothing else, I have Elise!  It doesn’t seem right to write about all the cute things she does when I think it’s the underlying issue for Joelle.  Elise is so darn cute.  When she was first born, Joelle didn’t have too much to complain about.  Sure, she lost a little mommie and daddy time, but Elise just slept and ate.  Now, she’s the Gerber baby.  Absolutely adorable.  Joelle hears how adorable she is everywhere we go.  Like Joey says about me as a baby, Elise attracts a following.  What Joelle doesn’t realize is that she did, too.  She was just as cute. 

Was just as cute.  I have a lump in my throat just thinking about how hard it must be.  How do we react?  With bad moods and some yelling.  Joelle throws temper tantrums again.  I’m embarrassed to admit, that I have also thrown my share of temper tantrums over the last couple of months.  I pray for patience every day… and for Joelle to finally realize that she can get attention (and does get attention) in her own way.  When she reads and knocks our socks off with her witty intelligence.  When she smiles and lights up the room with her charm and twinkling blue eyes.  When she makes Elise laugh, a special laugh Elise saves just for Joelle. 

Baby girl, we love you more than you know.  I hope the old Jojo is back soon.  I miss you.