Alice Update

As mentioned previously, Alice has two favorite games: mothering baby dolls and preparing/serving pretend snacks. She's pretty creative with it, too. She'll use any object in either kind of play. Even dirt. Seriously. Baby dirt clods, dirt snacks, the works. This afternoon she turned a tiny string of sandwich meat into a baby who had lost its mom. Then the "mom" meat came leaping out of the bowl to hug and kiss the lost baby before Alice chomped them both with a sinister giggle.

Alice has recently taken to calling herself a baby, too. It's another game. She changes her voice to a higher, softer pitch and simpers around calling "Mommy, Mommy." She keeps her fists closed and her eyes squinty as she shimmies up to me and reaches up her arms to be held. I pick her up and coo at her like I would a baby, and she just whimpers and says "Mommy, Mommy" in that quiet little baby voice, sometimes petting my shoulder with her balled up fists. I guess that's what babies do. Then she tells me "Baby wants..." and we run off to the "store" or the "potty" or the "snacks" according to baby's wishes.

Speaking of the potty, Alice is still making progress. She stays dry overnight and wetting accidents are few and far between. Number two is still tricky. We've only had two messes on-target in the last week. Bummer. It's STILL less mess than diapers, though, and she's still very young, so I'm happy to be patient while she learns this next hurdle. To be honest, I'm just glad she's staying regular and still enjoying the whole training process.

Alice seems to be preparing for a growth spurt. She ate 3 steamed dumplings last night, along with a small scoop of lo mein, a small scoop of rice, a couple pieces of sesame chicken, and 2 fortune cookies. Lunch and dinner today were similar in volume and variety. Wow! She's been a pretty good eater for as long as I can remember, but the volume is starting to make a difference. We have also noticed a significant increase in our household's use of milk and toilet paper and dishes. Hmmmm.

She runs, climbs, and swings on everything. I think it's time to look into acquiring some playground equipment for the backyard. She loves her friends and cousins. She also plays well by herself for long stretches of time every now and then.

She's still quite independent. Most of our disagreements stem from her dawdling pace when she's asked to do something she doesn't want to do. There are things she has come to do for herself (i.e. dispense liquid soap for hand washing, fasten the top buckle in her car seat, choose bed time stories, select clothes, etc.) that will lead to a meltdown if I forget to let her do them herself.

Every day, I am learning more and more that persuading a child to follow you is all about "spin." Rachel was the first one to point this out to me. It's how you sell the idea to them that matters, giving them as much control as you can creatively squeeze in there, but still limiting the choices to something you are happy with either way. "It's time for us to leave our friend's house. Would you like to go straight home, or to the store and THEN home?" Alice almost always chooses the "store", so a sad goodbye and mom's list of errands turns into another adventure of Alice's choosing. It doesn't always end that nicely, of course, but it sure feels good when it does :)

Hm. This blog entry is long enough. I don't have any recent picts to show you, either. The Evanses came over for a little Mother's Day prep party yesterday. We made gifts for grandmas and the kids had fun playing together. Unfortunately for us, only the Evanses were taking pictures :( We'll have to beg copies from them once their computer is up and running.