Evie has been practicing a new trick lately, which I will dub “The Redirect”. Basically, it works like this: when she suspects she’s pushed an issue too far, she turns it around on you. So, instead of saying what you think she’s going to say, she says something she knows you want instead. I’ll give you an example:
“Can I have some candy?”
“No.”
“But, can I have some candy?”
“No.”
“But, can I have some…”
::raise eyebrows::
::impish grin:: “…smooches?”
As if that is what she was going to ask for the whole time.
I really love if when she does this. First off, I get smooches, or some other similar thing she knows I want (for her to drink her milk, etc.). Second off, for her to do this, shows such an adult awareness of things. She understands that I’m getting annoyed with her questions. She understands that continuing to ask the question is not going to get her anywhere. She understands what sorts of things an adult wants from her. And she understands that subtle art of buttering someone up.
As always, Evie amazes me with her ability to grasp complicated, contextual situations and behave in ways that I would have said were far beyond a 2 year old. Kids are so much smarter than they are given credit for!
So over the weekend, my mom was going to drop Evie and I off at the doctor’s office, and she managed to nick the fence in the back with Sara’s car. It was no big deal, nothing hurt, nothing really damaged (the fence took a little hit, but I think it’s probably fine), but it gave us a lot of fun teasing her about it all weekend. So hopefully, whoever has my mom’s name for Christmas is reading this, because I think any poem about my mom would be remiss without this incident (in my mom’s family, we draw names for Christmas and usually write poems about the person who’s names we get…mostly making fun of that person).
Anyway, I’m sure we will all forget about this little incident shortly…all of us, that is, except for Evie who continued to bring it up all weekend.
::Me backing the car out::
“Don’t hit the fence daddy!”
“I won’t.”
“Grandma did.”
::Sara backing the car out::
“Mommy, do you always hit the fence?”
“No, we don’t.”
::Evie functioning as tour guide::
“…and this is where Grandma hit the fence…”
And another driving-related-but-not-Evie-related quote that made me laugh:
Sara: “That George Lopez billboard really annoys me. Look at how annoying it is! He’s just looking at me, annoying me.”
Not the actual billboard, but similarly annoying
If anything could cause me to drive into a fence, it would be those billboards.
The weather was so beautiful this weekend. Summer’s last hurrah, I suppose. We tried to spend as much time as possible outside, since Evie is going to be penned inside all winter. This may have backfired a little bit in the sense that she now is really excited for playing outside, and is going to be disappointed when the weather turns cold and we can’t.
Anyway, we practiced riding the tricycle on Friday and Saturday, and her improvement was incredible. On Friday she was constantly steering into things and had trouble keeping the trike going in a straight line. By Saturday, she was steering pretty well. She still gets distracted easily, and then forgets to steer, but at least when she is paying attention she does a good job. She also figured out how to peddle on her own. The tricycle has a handle on the back, so normally we push her. But once she figured out how to do it on her own, she didn’t want anything to do with that handle. In fact, she made me remove the handle and carry it, so she could be sure we weren’t pushing when she wasn’t looking. She usually needs a push to break her inertia, but once she is going, she can keep going until she stops. Then she needs another push to get going again.
Growing up, we could play in the yard whenever we wanted, but living in the city, it’s not so easy for Evie. Finding a place to play means walking to a designated playing area. So, on Sunday, Evie and I walked up to the Midway to play in the grass there. We played tag, kicked balls, climbed up and down stairs, had races, and played hide and seek. It was a lot of fun! I figured Evie would have a good time, but I was surprised at how much fun I had.
One of the funny things that happened was when we were playing hide and seek. We were basically in a big field, so there really wasn’t many places to hide. Evie didn’t care though, she thought it was so much fun. She would just run out into the middle of the field and stand and wait for me. Not wanting to just walk right over to her, I would make a big show of looking around a few places before “finding” her. If I took too long, she would helpfully yell, “Daddy!” so that I could find her. So, when it was her turn to count, she told me exactly where to “hide”. I ended up hiding a few feet away (by hiding I mean sitting in the open, but covering my head). When she was done counting, she got pretty mad that I wasn’t hiding where she told me to. So I told her to count again, and I moved to the exact spot she indicated. When she was done counting, I expected her to run right over to me. She knew exactly where I was; she placed me there. But instead, she made a big, exaggerated show of looking in a few other places first. Here I thought I was fooling her. I guess there’s no putting one over on that kid. 🙂
She continues to surprise me with her grasp of language. Like when she told Sara, “Maybe we could wear similar sweatshirts!”
She also continues to surprise me with making up songs. I would expect at her age she would be into repeating songs she hears a lot, or in making up songs about what she is doing. And she does do both of those things. But when she and Sara both wore pink shirts, she burst out singing “Two pink girls, singing in the rain!” No idea where that one came from. It wasn’t even raining.
Finally, the other day she was taking a nap when she cried out, “I want it, I want it, I want it!” so I opened the door, but she wasn’t sitting up. I whispered, “Are you awake?” as a joke, since I knew she was awake; I had just heard her. But she wasn’t awake, she was completely out. We have been noticing lately a new possessiveness, a new demanding-ness, a true toddler I-want-it-all-and-I-want-it-right-now-ness…but usually not when she’s sleeping.
“I’m petting your fur.”
“People don’t have fur.”
“You have fur daddy.”
Evie was a little candy crazy after Halloween. Finally Sara took the candy away from her altogether. Evie said, “Give it back, you big twit!” It took us a little while, but we eventually remembered that this was a line in a book we have. Who said T.V. was a bad influence? Turns out it’s books you have to watch out for.
Sometimes Evie really wants Sara to do something, but Sara is busy doing something else, so I have to do it instead. This usually involves tears and tantruming. For instance, Evie needed to get her sweatshirt on, but Sara was getting ready to go, so I did it for her. In these situations, Evie asks Sara, “Mommy, did you put my sweatshirt on?” and Sara says, “Yes” and then Evie is fine. I guess her logic is that, her mommy wouldn’t lie to her, so even though she clearly remembers me putting it on her, if mommy said I didn’t, then I didn’t.
Ah the innocence of kids. Your mommy lies to you, dear. Let’s see if she figures that out first, or how to operate the computer and find daddy’s blog!
If Evie asks you to see her “muscles” you’d better say no. For some reason, Evie got it in her head that her “muscles” are on her bottom. Well, to be more specific, the whole thing is a bottom, but each cheek is a muscle. And who doesn’t like to show off their muscles?
Me: “I’m pretty hungry, I think I’m going to come back there and eat that cookie!”
Evie, getting upset: “No daddy! Don’t eat my cookie!”
Me: “Aw, I’m sorry, I was just teasing. I won’t eat your cookie.”
Evie, handing me the cookie: “You can have it daddy.”
Me: “Oh, no honey, I…”
Evie, yanking it back: “Just teasing!”
Shane Halbach 