It seems as though all too often I think to myself, "I need to write this down!" And you can extrapolate from how frequently I blog how well that's going for me! :( So I've decided to dedicate a post to the most recent Emily-isms in an attempt to save these treasures for posterity.
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Yesterday we were riding our bike (Em has a seat on the back of mine) with Norte. He was misbehaving or doing something silly and in search of a three-year-old appropriate insult I said, "Come on, Norte! You ding-a-ling!" Emily thought that was pretty funny. She laughed and said, "Yeah, I call Norte bell-y". I am always ready to assume my child's brilliant, but I wanted to be sure she had actually just made the connection between the onomatopeya ding-a-ling and a bell. "Belly?," I asked, "Why?" To which she immediately replied, "Porcause he's a ding-a-ling like a bell. He is bell-y!"
Confirmed. She's brilliant.
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During Semana Santa I actually had to Skype my parents to brag about my girl. Three times in one day I was astounded by her maturitiy and emotional insight.
The story goes back to lunes santo in Antequera. There are always carts with balloons, cheap toys (namely trumpets and drums) and junk food that follow along behind the processions. It is admittedly a very strange juxtaposition, but you'll be hard pressed to find a balloon-less child among the procession viewers, and the obnoxious honking of plastic trumpets is everywhere among the crowds. This year, along with the typical Dora the Explorer and Peppa Pig balloons, the vendors had some transparant ones that were wrapped in a this wire of multi-colored LED lights, which served as the string and as a weight the little AA battery pack they were attached to. Even I wanted one! I couldn't blame Emily when she began asking for a balloon.
However, we were far from the car and didn't want to be dragging a balloon around with us through the streets of Antequera. We explained why she couldn't have one and promised that at one of the processions in La Roda, we'd buy her a balloon. She understood, and that was the end of the story.
Thursday--one of the big days in La Roda--rolled around and Emily was thrilled. Ice cream isn't normally sold during the winter and Semana Santa is often the start date for ice cream sales. Emily had been chattering for weeks about how she'd have an ice cream at the café on the main street at Semana Santa.
After we'd watched the paso come out of the church we headed to the café. She was jumping up and down with excitment as we walked and blabbering non-stop about mint ice cream. Emily, ran into the café and announces, "Quiero un helado!", but when we looked in the freezer display, they had no mint chip. She was absolutely crest-fallen, and so we walked across the street to another place to check if they had it. Once again, we were out of luck.
I am sure that most three-year-olds in this situation would burst into a tantrum. Emily's little face began to contort into a terrible frown and tears welled up in her eyes, "Don't you want chocolate?" was all I could think to ask her. She just shook her head and fought back tears as she said, "I wanted mint". The thing, is that morning during our coffee break at a place just outside town, she had seen mint ice cream and asked for one...we had stupidly assured her she could have one in the afternoon during the procession...
Now you're going to accuse me of spoiling, my child, I am sure, but what was I supposed to do? Probably had she thrown a fit, we would have just gone home, or maybe she'd have ended up settling for chocolate; but my heart was breaking for her and the fact that she really asks for so little made me even more suceptible to her tears. "You want to go to Abades," I asked her. That immediately perked her up, and so we set off home to get the car and drive to the ONLY place in La Roda with mint chip ice cream!
Seeing as how we'd missed quite a lot of the procession after our ice cream hunting venture, we headed out again quite late. Emily was enthralled by the music and the pasos and insisted we go out again even though it was FREEZING and windy. I bundled her up in the stroller and we headed out.
No sooner did we get to the procession than she saw the balloon cart with the blinking LED balloons. Once again, I know a lot of kids who at best would immediately begin whining and begging. Emily looked at me and asked quite calmly, "Can I have a balloon, now, Mommy?" My heart instantly melted. In that moment, had she asked me, I probably would have bought every last balloon the guy had! So I was out 8 euros (!!!), but proud of my girl for being so grown up.
We stayed out until nearly 12 midnight--that's even late for my Spanish girl. She hadn't napped either! Finally she asked to go home, and none too soon because she began to whine and cry a bit on the way home saying that she wanted her bed. As I was unlocking the front door she said to me, "Mommy I'm crabby porcause I'm tired and I want to go to sleep." I was, once again left speechless by this tiny insightful, human. I scooped her up and changed her into her PJs as fast as I could. She was asleep in under five minutes.
Then I called my parents to brag. :)
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Peppa Pig has a pen friend from France, Delphine Donkey. Delphine says, "Bonjour, hee haw!" and sings frere jacques to help Peppa sleep. When my parents were here we spent the weekend on the coast in a B&B run by a French couple. Emily is now obsessed with French!
The few things I can say in French, she's learned and she's constantly asking how to say this or that. She will occasionally make words up and then tell me their meaning "in French". :) I've decided that we'll try to do some French classes this summer if her interest keeps up. A woman I work with teaches French at the academy, I think getting together with her in the park or perhaps at her home with some of Emily's toys just to play in French for an hour or so a week, would be great.
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We all know how much Emily loves Ballet. For her birthday her cousin gave her the DVD of Kirov Ballet's Swan Lake. So now her obsession has changed from Clara and Drosslemeyer to Sigfried and Odette. My mother gave us a CD of Tchaikovsky highlights, which used to be Maggie's. It's got music from the Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and Sleeping Beauty. At bath time she particularly likes to listen to it, and recently I have to skip through the tracks until I get to "Sigfried's music".
The other day she said to me, as the music was particularly loud and dramatic, "Rothbart is coming, Mommy! When the music gets loud like, Baaam, it means Rothbart is coming."
How very observant.
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She loves hearing stories and sometimes telling them, too. She makes up the most random premisis for stories that sometimes I have to wonder. Yesterday she asked me to tell her the story about the Man with milk in his tetas who came to visit her at her work... I told her I didn't know that story, mostly because I was slightly disturbed by the idea of a strange lactating man visiting my daughter. She kept insisting and finally I said, "Emily, I don't know that story, and anyway, men don't have milk in their tetas, only mommies do." She got a look on her face somewhere between disappointment and disgust at my apparent lack of imagination, but she didn't skip a beat: "Mommy, it's just a story!" she said emphatically.
I had to laugh.
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The other day as we were waiting in line to use the ATM at the bank she suddenly popped out with, "I'm proud of my Mama because I love her". :) ...Maybe not the most logical sentence, but the sentiment is adorable. Angelines was tickled.
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We have a feelings book. It goes through all the emotions using animal similies to talk about them: Sometimes I feel like a dog drooping--Sad; ...a canary singing--Happy. Nap time has become "quiet time" since we don't always nap, and it has also become treasured Mommy and Emily time. We usually read at least one book (sometimes the same one a few times), play like we're characters in the stories and then often times there's a little teta, too.
One day after reading the feelings book. She asked for teta and I decided to ask her how it made her feel when she had teta. She got pensive for a moment and then said finally, "Like and elephant!"--Sometimes I feel like an elephant stomping--Bold! :) I laughed out loud at that one!
---
So there you have it--a little sneak-peek into the mind of a most amazing three-year-old. It's so incredible to watch her put things together, connect the dots, so to speak, and to witness the way she is constantly working to make sense of the world around her. Her ability to express herself astounds me much of the time, not to mention the way her brain works.
I am, indeed, a very blessed Mommy.
I am sure that most three-year-olds in this situation would burst into a tantrum. Emily's little face began to contort into a terrible frown and tears welled up in her eyes, "Don't you want chocolate?" was all I could think to ask her. She just shook her head and fought back tears as she said, "I wanted mint". The thing, is that morning during our coffee break at a place just outside town, she had seen mint ice cream and asked for one...we had stupidly assured her she could have one in the afternoon during the procession...
Now you're going to accuse me of spoiling, my child, I am sure, but what was I supposed to do? Probably had she thrown a fit, we would have just gone home, or maybe she'd have ended up settling for chocolate; but my heart was breaking for her and the fact that she really asks for so little made me even more suceptible to her tears. "You want to go to Abades," I asked her. That immediately perked her up, and so we set off home to get the car and drive to the ONLY place in La Roda with mint chip ice cream!
Seeing as how we'd missed quite a lot of the procession after our ice cream hunting venture, we headed out again quite late. Emily was enthralled by the music and the pasos and insisted we go out again even though it was FREEZING and windy. I bundled her up in the stroller and we headed out.
No sooner did we get to the procession than she saw the balloon cart with the blinking LED balloons. Once again, I know a lot of kids who at best would immediately begin whining and begging. Emily looked at me and asked quite calmly, "Can I have a balloon, now, Mommy?" My heart instantly melted. In that moment, had she asked me, I probably would have bought every last balloon the guy had! So I was out 8 euros (!!!), but proud of my girl for being so grown up.
We stayed out until nearly 12 midnight--that's even late for my Spanish girl. She hadn't napped either! Finally she asked to go home, and none too soon because she began to whine and cry a bit on the way home saying that she wanted her bed. As I was unlocking the front door she said to me, "Mommy I'm crabby porcause I'm tired and I want to go to sleep." I was, once again left speechless by this tiny insightful, human. I scooped her up and changed her into her PJs as fast as I could. She was asleep in under five minutes.
Then I called my parents to brag. :)
---
Peppa Pig has a pen friend from France, Delphine Donkey. Delphine says, "Bonjour, hee haw!" and sings frere jacques to help Peppa sleep. When my parents were here we spent the weekend on the coast in a B&B run by a French couple. Emily is now obsessed with French!
The few things I can say in French, she's learned and she's constantly asking how to say this or that. She will occasionally make words up and then tell me their meaning "in French". :) I've decided that we'll try to do some French classes this summer if her interest keeps up. A woman I work with teaches French at the academy, I think getting together with her in the park or perhaps at her home with some of Emily's toys just to play in French for an hour or so a week, would be great.
---
We all know how much Emily loves Ballet. For her birthday her cousin gave her the DVD of Kirov Ballet's Swan Lake. So now her obsession has changed from Clara and Drosslemeyer to Sigfried and Odette. My mother gave us a CD of Tchaikovsky highlights, which used to be Maggie's. It's got music from the Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and Sleeping Beauty. At bath time she particularly likes to listen to it, and recently I have to skip through the tracks until I get to "Sigfried's music".
The other day she said to me, as the music was particularly loud and dramatic, "Rothbart is coming, Mommy! When the music gets loud like, Baaam, it means Rothbart is coming."
How very observant.
---
She loves hearing stories and sometimes telling them, too. She makes up the most random premisis for stories that sometimes I have to wonder. Yesterday she asked me to tell her the story about the Man with milk in his tetas who came to visit her at her work... I told her I didn't know that story, mostly because I was slightly disturbed by the idea of a strange lactating man visiting my daughter. She kept insisting and finally I said, "Emily, I don't know that story, and anyway, men don't have milk in their tetas, only mommies do." She got a look on her face somewhere between disappointment and disgust at my apparent lack of imagination, but she didn't skip a beat: "Mommy, it's just a story!" she said emphatically.
I had to laugh.
---
The other day as we were waiting in line to use the ATM at the bank she suddenly popped out with, "I'm proud of my Mama because I love her". :) ...Maybe not the most logical sentence, but the sentiment is adorable. Angelines was tickled.
---
We have a feelings book. It goes through all the emotions using animal similies to talk about them: Sometimes I feel like a dog drooping--Sad; ...a canary singing--Happy. Nap time has become "quiet time" since we don't always nap, and it has also become treasured Mommy and Emily time. We usually read at least one book (sometimes the same one a few times), play like we're characters in the stories and then often times there's a little teta, too.
One day after reading the feelings book. She asked for teta and I decided to ask her how it made her feel when she had teta. She got pensive for a moment and then said finally, "Like and elephant!"--Sometimes I feel like an elephant stomping--Bold! :) I laughed out loud at that one!
---
So there you have it--a little sneak-peek into the mind of a most amazing three-year-old. It's so incredible to watch her put things together, connect the dots, so to speak, and to witness the way she is constantly working to make sense of the world around her. Her ability to express herself astounds me much of the time, not to mention the way her brain works.
I am, indeed, a very blessed Mommy.
