Eliza Lately

Eliza is such a joy to be around.  (Except when she's not.)  She can be fun and sweet and full of adorable girly happiness, but she can also cry and scream for 30 minutes when I won't let her have what she wants for breakfast because she had an upset stomach the previous day.  That may or may not have happened this morning.

I'll give you a few examples of the many sides of Eliza, all from the last few days.

One night at bed time I was with Eliza in her bedroom, encouraging her to get her things cleaned up before she went to bed.  She did not want to clean up.  She sighed, exasperated, and said, "My life is just not what I wanted."

"I think your life is pretty good, Eliza," I told her.

"I should be the oldest," she said woefully.

And I understood what she meant.  She likes to be in charge as much as Cat does, and she wishes she could do all of the Big Kid things her sister gets to do.  Sorry, Eliza.  You'll just have to make do as #3.

Cat and I have started trying to teach Jack and Eliza how to play piano.  Eliza has really enjoyed this opportunity and is learning a few songs already.  Also, she seems to prefer that Cat teach her instead of me.

*****

This morning Eliza was in trouble and needed to have a time out.  After serving part of her sentence, she decided a vicarious punishment would be better.  She asked me, "Could my penguin have time out instead of me?" referring to a beloved stuffed penguin she received as a Christmas gift from cousins.

*****

Last night I was reading Eliza the first story in a book of children's literature we gave her for Christmas.  The story was "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," which I guess she hadn't heard before, or just didn't remember.  When I got to the part where Goldilocks ate all of the baby bear's porridge Eliza interjected, "Oh, he's gonna be SO angry."  Yup.

Eliza has LOVED the makeup set Santa brought her for Christmas.  She particularly enjoys putting on the various colors (shades of purple and pink) of lip stick, then kissing people on the cheek to see her lip marks.  She did this to me tonight, multiple times, while we had some friends over.  I didn't mind.

*****

Last night when Eliza was getting ready for bed, she put on footie pajamas.  With sparkly red shoes.  And a flowy black ballerina skirt.  Tonight when she went to bed, she accessorized her footie pajamas with a tiara, which was still perfectly in place when she'd been asleep for 3 hours.

Oh, how I love this girl.

PS> Photos by Cat.