Playdate

Daisy and her absolutely adorable friend from preschool, Gigi

Beseechingly

That's the title of this post, because my first random update is that Daisy used the word "beseechingly" today in a sentence. I did a double-take and made her say it again, just to be sure. She is so funny, the way she tries out language. She has no idea what it means, but it was used correctly in the strictly grammatical sense--something like, "Mama, watch me go down the slide beseechingly!"

Second thing from today... I asked Daisy, "Who loves Daisy more than anything in the whole world?" fishing for the obvious answer, ME ME ME ME.... and Daisy said, "Zeezus Cwist." "Jesus Christ?" I asked. "No," said Daisy, "not Jesus Christ. Zeezus Cwist." Uhh... my daughter is really a bit odd.

Third update: things have been better at bedtime, and no repeats of the night terror. Whew.

I have been noticing some changes in Daisy, who is now three and a half. She, in conjunction with her friends, seems more capable of extended imaginative play. It was interesting to see Daisy and Henry today pretending they were on a ship, casting themselves in various roles, inventing narratives, and acting them out. This must be the wave of the future. They pretended things before, but their ability to sustain the imaginative play seems noticeably greater now, and it's also somewhat new that they are making the story up collaboratively, taking cues from one another, and developing this whole imaginary world together.

They made up that there were threatening sharks and pirates in the water, which Henry caught with his "shark and pirate net," and then they pretended to eat them. My favorite Henry line: "Look, I'm eating a hammerhead shark sandwich. Do you see his long, flat head sticking out of the bread?"

Okay, that really is a little weird

I posted yesterday that Daisy has started saying she hates things with holes, particularly blankets. During her horrible night terror episode the other night, she kept grabbing my blanket and flinging it off me, which was not much fun for me since I was cold. I was kinda hoping this antagonism toward holey blankets would calm down after she was finished with the night terror, and she did seem totally back to normal the next day.

But: this morning she asked to get in bed with us, and because she's been having a hard time lately, we said yes. I heard her asking Mark suspiciously, "Does Mommy have a hole-y blanket on her?" I had to throw the blanket away before she'd climb in and cuddle with me! She doesn't even care that the blanket is on ME, not her. She doesn't want it to be on me, either.

Ummm.

I almost forgot...

...one of Daisy's preschool teachers told Mark today that she is really advanced at math! This thrills me. I knew she was highly verbal, the way I have always been, but math was not a strong point for me. (I got better at it over the years, but it took a long time and was often a stressful area for me at school.) So I am delighted that Daisy is showing early signs of being mathematical.

I just wrote a sort of lengthy post, but I thought I'd add some little Daisy factoids that will allow me to remember her quirky self at this age.

--Daisy continues to like tank tops better than any other clothing, and she explains that it saves you having to roll up your sleeves when you wash your hands
--Daisy does not like HOLES. Okay, that sounds funny, but I'm serious. She doesn't like blankets with holes--just quilts. And if she finds holes in food, she doesn't want to eat it.
--Daisy has an absolutely amazing MEMORY. In this, I suspect she's going to be like her dad. The other day she told me in a perfectly casual way what kind of frozen yogurt everybody had on a particular day over the Christmas holiday: she, Daisy, had vanilla, Hannie had chocolate, Rachel and Gommy had vanilla and chocolate swirl, and Mama had chocolate with M and Ms on top. Uhhhh... how does she remember this? She was right, too--which I guess means I remember it also, but only upon hearing someone else rattle it off.
--Daisy prefers vanilla to chocolate.
--Daisy likes to be cold. This is kind of weird, and I hope it doesn't turn out to be some big signifier of a disorder when I go to her OT appointment. She always asks me to turn on the cold air in the car, regardless of what the temperature is outside, and she particularly wants to be cold when she's trying to sleep. Uhhh... weird.
--Daisy is fascinated by the VILLAINS in books and songs. I had noticed this about her before; she would closely question me about the feelings of Grand-duke Wilfred (a naughty little boy in Bartholomew Cubbins and the 500 Hats), the Wicked Witch of the West, and Lord Licorice, the villain of the game Candyland. She will often tell us she wants to converse with Lord Licorice, or Grand-duke Wilfred, and she confides in them about her own naughtiness. Her latest interest: the song "Bad Boy" by the Beatles (the one that repeats, "Now Junior, behave yourself"). She made me play it about fifteen times in a row in the car the other day, and each time she closely questioned me about the meaning of the lyrics. What did it mean that he was a bad little kid? Why did he put "twigs" (haha) on teacher's chair? It was cute. But I think it's a serious thing for her. She is trying to figure out what it means to have naughty feelings and impulses. I suppose books often make it seem like these characters are bad guys, whereas of course, we all have naughty feelings and make mistakes... so I am trying to show her that it is okay to have those kinds of feelings and it doesn't relegate you to the status of a villain in a story. But that's a complicated message to get across to a 3-year-old. One time she said something sort of rude to me and then paused and asked, "Does this mean I have rotten insides?" This was an idea from a book, but I think it genuinely connected with her.

Okay, guess that's it for now.

The latest

I have not been good about posting! It makes me sad when I look back at the baby years and realize how much more diligent I was back then.

Daisy continues to be a delight in most ways, but she's definitely been going through a rough patch lately. I would state unequivocally that three has been harder than two. I don't think she ever really had "terrible twos," but as a three-year-old, she has been setting her will against us more and more and giving us a hard time when there's something she doesn't want to do... namely, go to bed. She had not given us any trouble in this department in a long time, but all of a sudden, it bubbled back up again. She was saying she was scared of the dark and of monsters, but that seems not to be it, really; we started letting her sleep with the light on, and it did not improve the situation at all. Then, tonight, she was screaming and crying hysterically that she wanted her daddy to stay in her room with her. We tried to tough it out, but it was just too hard-- so I came up with the idea of having her sleep in her travel bed on the floor of our room. She instantly cheered up. We set her up there, and she went to sleep. No problem. So: what this proves is that she was not so scared of the dark, of being alone, or of monsters... because she went to sleep alone, in a room actually darker than her own. All she needed was the concept that it was Mama and Dada's room. We'll have some more figuring out to do on this one.

Other than the sleeping issue, Daisy has been doing pretty well lately. She greatly enjoyed Rachel and Hannah's visit and was elated to introduce Hannie to her teachers and show her her classroom today. Every day she seems to me to be growing ever more mature, grown up, compassionate, and thoughtful. Her preschool teachers told Mark in a recent conference that she is blossoming at school, and I've noticed that more and more artwork appears in her folder (showing that she's doing more stuff, not just reading books the whole time). Now, when I take her to school she says she wants me to read her a few books and then she'll show me "a work" she is doing (that's what they call it in Montessori). This is fairly new--eagerness to do something other than read books together. She is starting to cut with scissors--a fine motor skill that has continued to elude her all these years! And she is eager to try new physically daring tasks at the playground.

I still have the OT appointment for her this Friday. I'm sure I'll post on how it goes!