Our sweet Elizabeth is now three! Three?! THREE?!?!
I find myself really loving this age. But honestly, I have found myself loving all stages of development of this sweet child. So perhaps this proclamation is not very earth shattering?! :) She is growing into a lovely little girl. I love those glimpses of her grown-up self that appear with ever increasing regularity. It emerges in a variety of ways.
She has become my little helper. I find myself asking her to do little things around the house more often. I smile every time I see her walk away to do said task with an air of importance radiating from her. She clearly enjoys the feelings that come with helping me. Recently, when I gave her a choice of reading a book, playing a game or helping me clean the bathroom sink – she chose the cleaning! (I will roll with that!). She loves to help, and I want to encourage her. I want to help ignite that proud sparkle in her eyes throughout her life; a sparkle that comes from being made to feel valued, appreciated and important. Helping me clean the bathroom sink may not always be what brings out that sparkle in her eye, but I hope I will always know what I can do to help her feel loved and cherished.
Her grown-up self also emerges in the form of empathy for others – towards her sister, towards her parents, even towards strangers she encounters. When Sarah cries, Elizabeth often caresses her and asks her what is wrong. Or she will go and find a favorite toy to give to Sarah to try to help her be happy again. When she notices that I am feeling sad or frustrated, she can look at me with such concern in her eyes. “Why are you sad, mama?”
I also notice a more grown-up Elizabeth in how she plays. She has become more independent in her play and can keep herself well entertained for long periods of time. She remains a lover of books and can sit for quite a long period of time looking at books by herself (although she much prefers to be read to). I love to observe her fantasy and imagination take form in her actions. She has a series of imaginary friends who make regular “appearances” in our home. Her best “friend” is named Kaikai. Kaikai lives in our neighbohood but sometimes is away on a trip to America or Holland. Our refrigerator is filled with empty containers which in her mind are filled with cakes, strawberries, salad, etc. Every night when we kiss her goodnight, we are given “date chocolates” (her creation…I have never seen such a food) – there is a paper wrapper and 3 pits in each date chocolate, in case you were curious. But currently, the store is out of stock (they only have date chocolates in the summer). Sarah is usually a happy participant in the fantasy play of her older sister. But I also love that we, her parents (and often her sister), remain her most preferred friends and playmates. I recently had an “ah hah” moment at a playground. I was frustrated that she kept wanting me to go with her to the slides and other playground areas. She is clearly old enough to be more independent with these things! But I then realized – it was not that Elizabeth was scared and needed me to go with her, but rather, she really just genuinely enjoys sharing life experiences with me and it is just that much more fun to do it with “mama”! It was a good thought to have and reminded me to cherish these years when I am considered her best pal.
Several other little sweet things that characterize Elizabeth at the moment.
- When her feet stick out the bottom of her blanket she calls out “my feet are leaking out”.
- “I know a song about (fill in the blank)!” We hear her say this on an almost daily basis. When we ask her to sing it for us, she sometimes makes up a tune, but usually she responds with “I don’t know it yet. I need to learn it”.
- Speaking of singing, Elizabeth loves it! Her usual bed time routine (after we leave the room) is to sing through her repertoire of songs that she knows until she falls asleep.
- She has recently started talked about feeling scared. This new phase has also marked the beginning of nightmares waking her up at night. Most times she cannot identify what she is scared of…she just is! But one night when I went to her because she was crying and scared, she fearfully told me “the cows were coming, mama, the cows were coming!” And after calming down, she looked at me with big eyes and said “THAT was scary, Mama!”. Later that same night the barnyard pigs were stealing her blanket! She clearly needs to spend more time on a farm to lessen her fear of barnyard animals!
- And to continue with the sleeping theme…Elizabeth has also recently declared “I only sleep on holidays”. We usually hear this in the evenings we put her to bed when she is less tired. We aren’t exactly sure where this idea comes from! During the summer in the month of Ramadan, there was a building that turned on a blue light in the distance outside her bedroom window. She loved this light and we told her it was a special light for a holiday. And she will still occasionally ask – “is it a holiday? Is the blue light on?”. So maybe this conversation translated in her brain that she should sleep on a holiday because it is so rare?! Who knows how the mind of a toddler works. She has recently updated her proclamation on a night she did not want to go to sleep: “I only sleep on holidays. I don’t sleep on good days.” I suppose I should take this as a compliment that the day had been a good one!!
