The Darndest Things

I wish I was spending more time recording the way Elizabeth talks. It's incredible! A couple of recent examples:

Joey was worried that Elizabeth's top was going to fall over, as it was wobbling. She said, "Don't worry. It's stable. It has a flat base." Remember folks, she's three and a half!

Showing me her treasure map, which included a fabulous depiction of a lighthouse, she said, "See this line? It indicates water." Indicates!

Recently Barb replaced an ancient dried flower arrangement. At first she didn't want me to give Elizabeth even one flower from the arrangement, as it would cause a mess of desiccated floral bits. The next day, Barb had given Elizabeth the entire arrangement. Such is parenting.

Anyway, last night Elizabeth decided that some of the flowers were "wishing flowers" and she made up this incantation: "Wishing flower/tall and tame/come to my name" after which came the wish. Awesome!

Plus, Suzanne indicates she wants food by going, "Mmmmmm. Mmmm. Mmmmmmmmmm!" Cute as all get out.

Joey's Car Seat

 

Safety-minded Elizabeth decided that Joey also needed a car seat in order to ride in the van.

Suzanne Walks!

The Big Baby took her first steps today at Grandma's. Barb and I were there to bear witness. Unfortunately for her, Elizabeth was in the bedroom watching Caillou, and missed the historic event.

Elizabeth's Playground

Like most (all?) kids, Elizabeth loves to make art. (Although, she doesn't think of herself as an artist. Tonight she told me she's "almost" an artist.) Lately, she's been working on this project started with a 2x4 scrap. Barb has allowed her to use screws, nails, and pins (!) in addition to her usual paint, glue, whatever. Elizabeth loves using her wooden toy hammer to drive the nails -- it works like a champ.

I'm very impressed by the fact that she's actually making something -- it's a playground that she's sculpting here -- not just randomly driving nails and turning screws and spraying glue. And she works on it not every day, but consistently, adding a bit here and there as new material comes her way.

The Joey Show! Episode 2

This is a pretty funny one.

Click this link if you prefer to see this larger size on YouTube.

Suzanne and Sherry

Grandma, too, has made inroads with Suzanne. The clingy, shy baby had a great time in late September hanging out with Grandma and Daddy at Grandma's place. After a slow start, she moved from Daddy's lap to Grandma's and spent a good 45 minutes playing and cooing in perfect baby Zen happiness.

Access to Grandma's cell phone didn't hurt, either.

Suzanne and Frank

 

Grandpa Frank had some success in holding the very Mommy-dependent Suzanne.

For those of you troubled by our baby's clinginess, let me just say that Elizabeth was the same way, but the attachment parenting method Barb and I use (per Barb) has resulted in a pre-schooler (i.e., Elizabeth Rose) who is incredibly independent.

The idea is that the "attached" child becomes so secure that her parents will be there for her, that when older she doesn't feel insecure about being away from Mom and Dad. Barb saw this in action last Wednesday when she went to pre-school with Elizabeth and Elizabeth paid her almost no mind. She (Elizabeth) was too busy playing with her friends. Whereas other kids cling to their parents when their parents are the teacher's aide.

I'm pretty sure attachment parenting works.