Marea has been on a very interesting kick lately. She wants to cook, have a lemonade stand, or a garage sale, or build a house, for REAL. Every day, she comes home and wants to do one of these things. The cooking thing started when one day, while I was cooking, I gave her scraps to play with and she created her own 'soup'...lemon juice, celery leaves and ends, spices, and water. She squeezed, mixed and chopped for an hour. Then it had to be refrigerated so we could all eat it for dinner!! And she was quite serious. For days after that, that was all she wanted to do...make a soup. I let her do it another day, and on the third day I tried to show her how to really cook a soup over the stove. But she still had her own ideas and it wasn't quite edible, although Gary and I tasted it. She's still asking to make soups but I need to figure out a way for her to do this so that we're not wasting food. Since I don't really have all that many scraps every day, it can be challenging. I think next week i'll prep all the ingredients for a REAL soup while she's at school, and when she comes home it can be our project. I've also let her juice lemons before and then she got the crazy idea of having a lemonade stand...on a tuesday afternoon at 2 p.m. in the neighborhood. I tried to explain that I just didn't think it was a good time, plus we live in a cul-de-sac....in fact, we haven't done this one yet because the time just isn't right, but i've promised her one over the summer. Then, one weekend the neighbors were cleaning out their garage, and she got the idea in her head that they were having a garage sale, even though I told her otherwise. So then, she started dragging out her stuff, pulled herself up a chair and had her own 'sale'. And this past weekend, her and Gary started dragging out a bunch of wood and playing with tools. They ended up building a balance beam. But then the other day, Marea tells me that she wants to build a small house. So I had to explain to her the idea of planning such projects, and that we can't just come home from school and whip up a little house. Her ideas are hilarious, I just hope we don't break her spirit because they are a bit difficult to pull off the minute she suggests them, or because she's only 4 1/2 and needs a little more training!
What she is good at planning, though, is a party. She gets so excited about parties. First it was the tea party that she decorated for, weeks in advance. Then it was valentine's day, with the chocolate covered pretzels and strawberries. Then it was Gary's birthday, and we made a cake and decorated. And she's always planning more stuff....especially the next tea party and her birthday (she wants fireworks). She digs that kind of stuff. She gets so excited.
Evie is absolutely amazing me with her vocabulary. Full, complicated sentences and big words for a 2 1/2 year old! But one of my favorite phrases right now is one she pulls out in social situations, or when we're dropping Marea at school (often when she's on the swings) and it's "This is everybody?" It's very funny, and cute. Evie will be so excited to go to Hilltop next fall. She's all registered and ready! She never wants to leave that place, in fact, the other day, as I drug her kicking and screaming out of there, she bit me! She is so different from Marea in her approach to social situations and learning, I am excited for her to have the preschool experience and I can't wait to watch her take it on. She dives right in to everything she does, fully.
She's really turning into a big girl. She drew a real face today ('Sophie', from the angry book). Her hair is growing, she even needs a hair clip now. She's wearing 3t clothes....a full 6 months before Marea did. Now we just need to get her on board with the potty training, sleeping in and sleeping in a big girl bed. But she just seems like such a baby to me still!! Guess it will always be that way.
