Yes, as we have determined several times over now, I have been unemployed since January. Well, I guess right now I'm employed part-time so we'll say, "unemployed/under-employed since January." As such, I have spent a great deal of time with RP, and for that I am oh-so grateful, as I know this is a rarity and like all good things, will eventually come to an end.
That being said, over the past few weeks I have noticed the following things about my child that surprise me, and that they surprise me is a surprise in and of itself:
- RP is one funny little girl. She has an amazing sense of humor, and never fails to crack herself up. I love when she throws her head back, mouth wide open, laughing hysterically, then throws a hand back to cover the wide-open mouth, now laughing because of the physical position she has put herself in. She loves to laugh, takes tickling and pillow fights very seriously, and finds anything that you find funny just down-and-out hysterical. Her belly laughs are infectious, and I have found myself these last two weeks doing everything I can to evoke more and more of them, just to hear the rumble and see her shake with glee. It's truly amazing.
- RP is one smart little girl. I didn't notice until a couple of weeks ago how many questions RP was asking already. Perhaps this is because we were in Wal-Mart and I was showing her a fiddler crab they had in the fish section and had been standing there answering questions about the crab for at least 5 minutes when a woman came up to me, pointed out all the questions, then told me that her daughter, who just graduated from medical school was the same way and how "smart" RP was already. Now granted, all the questioning sometimes drives me bonkers, but I've taken some time to really listen to her questions, as well as everything else she says, and I have to say I'm amazed at how much she remembers and how deep her questioning of things goes. It also seems that over these last two weeks she has mastered counting 1-5, is about 50% on 1-10, and today decided that we needed to add the "teens" to her counting abilities, counting as such: "eight, nine, eighteen, nineteen, fiveteen, twoteen, eighteen, nineteen, twelve!" Hey, she's three - cut her some slack! :)
- RP is creative. She doesn't need a toy in-hand all the time, or Mommy playing with her, although those certainly are her preferences. She spent over two hours tonight reading herself to sleep with her books, then proceeded to build a pillow fort in her bed - well, until I caught her and made her take it down and finally go to sleep. She sings and makes up songs and stories for everyday situations, which are funny and adorable at the same time, and she expects you to remember them as much as she does (my favorite is the "brushing my teeth" song which is exactly that - "brushing my teeth" is the ENTIRE song, but god help you if she goes to brush her teeth and you don't sing along!). She alternates between playing fairy princess with her wand from her Princess luncheon at Disney World to hostessing a tea party in the bathtub as Superman.
- RP really is the center of the world. Okay, okay - MY world anyway. I have a lot of decisions to make in a relatively short period of time here, and these decisions are WAY different now than they would have been two years ago. It isn't about me and what I want/need - it's about what's best for her. Wait a minute, what's best for her IS what I want, so I guess in a roundabout way, it still is about me, but you get the idea. I'm not sure when and how someone so tiny garnered so much control here, but she wields it, without knowing, in her little finger - Mommy is a complete goner.
There are so many things I have noticed lately - RP dressing/undressing herself without assistance, putting on shoes without needing me to do it, working on ABC's but knowing all her colors and most of her animals and numbers - that even though I've been around for it all, I've just never noticed before. Perhaps it's because now that I'm home with her, I'm taking for granted all that she is doing and saying, and I've just allowed myself the opportunity to step back, stop talking, and start listening. Perhaps it's because in this same time frame I've started back to working part-time so I notice this stuff more when I have a small break from it day in and day out. I know every parent says/thinks this about their child, and now I truly understand why, but for the record I'm going to say it too, "RP is absolutely an amazing child." And just when I think I can't love her any more than I already do, I find myself doing just that...
No comments:
Post a Comment