Conversations with a child

As Claire gets older I love watching/listening to how her mind works. It can be frustrating, but I can still laugh at it. Here are some recent conversations with our child...

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The other day I took her to a craft store. I usually park in the nether regions of the parking lot, which was great because Claire had CRAZY energy so the walk would do her good. There was a side walk leading up to the store and since we had a bit of a ways until reaching the intersection, I let her take off and run. As we approached the end of the sidewalk I see a car careening around the corner about to blow past us. I yell for Claire to stop. She continues running. Again, "STOOOOOP!!" She halts in place, pauses for a fraction of a second then says to me "You were supposed to say FREEZE?" Was I? Really? "No. A car was coming and I said to stop." "But I freeze when you say freeze?" I'm arguing over the semantics of stop vs. freeze with a 4 year old.

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This morning we're sitting at the dining room table. Claire and I are talking. Well, more like she's spewing words that make up some story that has no logical path, but makes her giggle. I just go with the flow, asking her questions and squeal in delight when appropriate. During this... conversation?... she says "Casey burned it." "Excuse me? Who burned it?" "Casey" Now in my head she knows 2 casey's: her teacher and daddy but I've never heard her call daddy 'Casey' unless she was imitating me motivating him to do something. Yes, motivating. Back to the story. I then ask "Who is Casey?" and she answers "Daddy". Oh dear. I don't think this is good and of course I did laugh over, which I probably shouldn't have, but just couldn't help it. Later in the morning, the story was shared with Daddy-Casey. He didn't find it as funny as I did. ha!

Best Friends

I've mentioned it before -- Claire doesn't like it when Casey and I hug or show affection towards one another. Last night, we finally figured out why.

Casey was at the computer and I was standing up stretching and moving. Basically not sitting still. Hmmm.. gee. I guess I now know where Claire gets it from. Anyway, at one point I go to sit on hubby's lap. We're hugging. Claire comes in and immediately digs her hand into my back, trying very hard to push me up. Once again we explain that we love each other and we're hugging and she disagrees with every statement we throw at her. We asked her if she wanted a hug. No! Do you want to sit on mommy's lap? No! She leaves the room.

Several minutes later she comes back in and is furious that I haven't moved. Now the piece leading up into this next bit is foggy in my mind (hubby, care to comment?), but I do remember Claire saying that daddy isn't my best friend. "No? Then who is my best friend?" Claire responds "ME!!!" Ahhh.. OK. The lightbulbs just went off. Now we know why she doesn't like it when mommy and daddy show affection, because that is only reserved for best friends, which apparently is just me and Claire. Now to figure out how to work this through.

The really unfortunately part about all of this is that I never had my night time "me" time because Claire would only allow her best friend to bath her and play with her. Luckily daddy was able to read her stories and put her to bed, but I think that's because Claire saw me passing out in my own bed. In case you're unaware of how important "me" time really is -- I'm an early bird. By 6-7p I start to turn cranky. By 8p my crankiness levels have start to rise exponentially. Since I fall asleep so early I like to have some wind-down time, that doesn't always include going to the gym, in order to get myself reset for the next day. So yeah, nighttime-me-time is definitely key.

She's Great!

When Claire gets excited she'll flap her arms and do this yelling "Ahh! Ahhhh!" thing. Most kids do it, but with Claire it's a bit of a crutch. We've been working with her (at home and school) to help her verbalize what she's feeling and minimize the arm flap/bellow.

This morning we were in her room. I was putting her hair up in pony tails while she was playing with her musical instruments. Something clicked in her brain and she started to get very VERY excited. As she was doing her "I'm excited" dance, I managed to get her attention, acknowledged her excitement and then asked "Do you know why you're excited?". Her response: "Because I'M GREAT!!"

I admire her self-confidence and hope she keeps it up as the years go by.

Dance for Me.. DANCE!!

The one bit about kids that I absolutely love.. and I mean LOVE.. is that no matter how fussy they may be, as soon as you start to sing a movement song (ex: Itsy Bitsy Spider) they suddenly join in either willingly or against their will. It cracks me up every time.

The other day Claire was zoning out on tv and so I started to sing 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' and without missing a beat her little hands began to crawl like the spider. All the while she was still zoning. It's just so strange!

Although my favorite time was when she was throwing one of her dramatic tantrums. I just stopped dealing with her and then started singing 'The Wheels on the Bus'. During her sniffles and sobs she began rolling her arms in a circle like the wheels of the bus. It was if she were 2 different people. The fussy side just wanted to continue throwing her tantrum, but the part of her that needs to show us her movement skills couldn't keep her hands from rolling those wheels on the bus. Such torment!!! Yet such delight for mamma.

Oh I'm going to miss these years as she gets older.

I Have Everything I Need

Last night Claire was watching 'Cars' downstairs. Upstairs, I was reading 'The Summer Tree' in the bedroom (quick side note: this book is really good. Of course it has to be the first in a series, which means I'll be buying the other books this week) and Casey was computing in the study. About 15 minutes into our respective activities I hear Claire call out "Daddy Daddy!!" and Casey gets up to answer her call.

Casey: "What is it sweetie?"
Claire: "Daddy! I HAVE EVERYTHING I NEED!"
Casey: "Well that's fantastic. That's such a turn-around from your other self."
Claire: "Daddy! I HAVE EVERYTHING I NEED!"
Casey: "Oh our lives are going to be so much easier now."

And to think she's figured this out only several weeks after turning 4.

Splinters and a 4 year old

I'm sure there are going to be future days that trump this one, but in the short time Claire has been in our lives, this one will most definitely be remembered.

The other day I noticed that Claire managed to get a splinter on her finger, right below the cuticle. You know the distance between your cuticle and knuckle? That's exactly where hers went, running parallel to her finger. And the best part was that the entire splinter was UNDER THE SKIN! No easy access. Since Claire ran from me the second I discovered this treasure, I knew that the delicate procedure was best left for the biologist, or so I thought.

Once daddy got home I showed him the splinter and immediately Claire started crying. Not a simple boo-hoo cry, but a red-faced flood of tears crying. Then once Casey started the removal process, we heard a scream from this child that shattered not only our windows, but those of our neighbors as well. But wait, it only gets better. Adding to the excitement, in less than a minute of this surgical procedure, Claire managed to work herself into such a tizzy, she vomitted up her dinner. I kid you not. All because of one splinter.

Once that mess was cleaned up we went back to trying to remove the splinter. After another couple of minutes I just told him to stop. I felt that we weren't getting anywhere and she just could not sit still. Besides that, her screams were deafening, and yet each time she released one we both had to stifle a laugh. Maybe it's because we were both going deaf in the process, but the blood-curdling screams were so ridiculously awesome it made us enjoy this horrific process.

Now she's walking around with a band-aid on the finger that we have to bribe to check each day. Love it!

Florida Fun

Last week we were in sunny Florida. Except it wasn't sunny for 95% of our stay, but we still managed to have a good time. Explored Orlando's "cultural" center that included the Orlando Science Museum. A quick side note about their "cultural" center. I put culture in quotes because it is quite a small area and not well marked. As we were driving up I-4, there was one sign saying "Orlando's Cultural Center" and then suddenly we find ourselves passed the exit and at the next clearly defined exit. That's right. The exit for this area is practically non-existant and unless you are really paying attention you'll fly right by it. Guess they're not big on culture unless it's Disney.

Anyway, there were some fun times had by the little one. Let's see. Friday night was bath night, which went a little something like this:

Us: "Claire! It's bath time."
Claire: "Noooooo! NO NO NO NO!" and so forth. Once she entered the tub it was nothing but a series of blood curdling screams until the washing was over. These cries were so bad, she almost vomited.

Casey: "There. All done. Do you want to stay in and play or get out."
Claire: *pause* "Stay In."

REALLY?!?!?

On another day Claire was in the bedroom and we're in the living room (we were staying at a Residence Inn so the rooms were like mini-one bedroom apts). Hubby and I were hugging. Claire sees this, jumps up off of the bed and yells: "Stop hugging! Stop. It." Luckily hubby's arms were long enough to reach the door and close it on her. Then from the other side you can still hear her saying "Stop hugging guys!" She doesn't like it when we show affection towards one another, but if she's the center of attention it's ace!

My favorite part of the trip was Claire's desire to hold in her bowel movements. Oh yes. We haven't seen this happen since our Cape Cod trip last summer. Unfortunately, this is a family trait from my side so I can completely empathize. We were going on day 6 when we finally bought some fiber and other items to help trick her into going. The evening before we were returning home, mother nature was making it known that Claire would not win this battle. Since we were down by the pool, I asked if she wanted to use the potty down stairs or in the room. Desperate for some comfort she said room and we flew down the hall and up the stairs. While holding her potty seat (I think she thought it was going to fall into the potty because every time she used it we had to hold the seat into place) she kept saying "No. No. No. No." then proceeded to punch my arm, followed by walking her fingers up and down my arm. This took place for several minutes when finally mother nature won and Claire turned into a perfect angel.

Luckily her punches aren't hard enough to cause bruises.

All in all we had a good trip.