Conversations with EGR

I love talking to Ella because I never know what that child is going to say. She always surprises me with the depth of her thought processes. These are just a few of the things she's told me recently.

We were lying in bed one cool, Saturday morning a few weeks ago with the windows open. Then wind changed, and we smelled the chimney smoke from the neighbor's house accross the street. She promptly exclaimed, "I smell fire! Everyone needs to get out!" I explained that the smoke was coming from the neighbor's fireplace and that we didn't have to evacuate at that time, but that she was correct, we would normally have to get out. I guess she was paying attention when the fireman came to school, even though this is the first I've heard about that visit (in October) other than her insistence that she doesn't like firetrucks.

Last week on our drive home after work, she was telling me that she doesn't like dinosaurs. I reminded her that she had recently painted a really pretty one. She thought quietly for a minute, and then she asked, "Are they strong?" Yes. "Do we eat them?" No. This lead to an ongoing conversation during that evening about what animals we do eat. She was comfortable with the fact that some people eat "deers" but could not accept that we eat chicken, cows, and pigs.

For the last two nights, she has worn panties for bedtime instead of a pull-up. This was at her complete insistence, and both nights she stayed dry until morning. We were talking about it during our morning snuggle time yesterday and I pointed out that she is almost ready to say "goodbye diapers" completely, but she has to start pooping in the potty first. She told me that it is hard to poop in the potty and she doesn't want me to give her diapers away to someone else who needs them yet because she still needs them right now. I love that she was able to articulate that she can't get comfortable enough while sitting on the potty to poop there yet. We will respect this and wait for her to make that decision when she feels ready.

Last night, Pop the Pop ate supper with us. While we were eating, she asked him, "Are you going to spend the night with us?" (We've never had overnight guests at our house.) He asked her if he could sleep in her bed with her, and she told him, "No, you have to sleep in a big person bed." I guess she doesn't think hers is a big person bed because it's not on a frame, or maybe just because she sleeps in it and she's not a big person.

This morning as I was loading them into the car, she stopped me with her serious face and told me, "You need to teach Aunt Becca the bedtime song so she can learn about it." I said, "So she can sing it to the new baby?" She said, "Yes, I will help you."

She has already started asking what I think of as an intro to the hard questions, like "Where is God?" I've already noticed that she's put quite a bit of thought into the answers before she asks, so I try to feel her out before I answer to make sure I'm providing information at an appropriate level for her understanding. For example, she asked me where Jesus was, and I wasn't sure if she was talking about Jesus in Heaven or the baby Jesus from our Nativity scene, which she knows is stored under the house right now. She is still very literal in her thinking sometimes. This particular time, she was looking for me to tell her he was in Heaven.

The H. Luke Update
The Littlest Roper is on the brink of exploding into mobility. He can now sit unassisted, as of today, including getting into the sitting position by himself. Over the weekend, he pulled up on the side of the kiddie pool. He has crawled across our laps, but he hasn't realized he can do it on the floor yet. Here's a picture of him from his morning.

He mostly eats table food now, inlcuding the steak we had for supper last night, and he finally figured out how to get the puffs into his mouth by himself. He has pincer grasp, but he doesn't use it all the time yet, probably because stuffing the puffs in by the handfuls is more efficient.