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December 21, 2003
We took Ella to see Santa Clause this week. As I pretty much expected, she was excited about the visit, agreeing that, yes, she would sit on his lap, and yes, she would tell him what a good girl she had been all year, and yes, she would thank him for bringing presents to her and yes, she would even give him a hug. Excitedly she got ready and agreed to let me do her hair and (amazing for her) even kept herself from immediately pulling out the ribbons. And, just as I expected, she began clinging to me harder and harder as we got closer to him and then full on attached herself as I was gently placing her on Jolly Old St. Nick’s lap. What I didn’t expect, actually, and what I was pleasantly surprised about, was that she was eventually able to not only sit on his lap, but muster up a big old smile and leave me with a picture perfect shot of the two of them. HOORAY!!! For fear of seeming gushing, I won’t post the website link AGAIN, since I just posted it on my last entry (and it’s the only new picture), but suffice it to say the picture is up there, if you are interested.
One thing that has really surprised me about having a little girl is how much I love to dress her up. Growing up, I was never much of a Barbies fan and I know that I’m not much of a fashionista myself, so I am continuously surprised by how much enjoyment I get from dressing Ella up like, lets be honest here, my own little dress up doll. It is so much more important to me that she has on a matching outfit then if I do. I love the dresses, the frilly socks, the pinker the better. It is a continuous source of frustration to me that she is still incapable of wearing her hair up for any significant length of time before announcing “They’re falling out, Mama” and then ripping out all my hard work. I especially love to dress her up around the holidays. Red for Valentine’s Day, a bonnet around Easter, and Christmas, forget about it! She has three different ‘Christmas dresses’ that we rotate through the various occasions but countless more ‘pretty dresses’ that I use any occasion to dress her up for.
For the most part Ella has been willing to put up with my primping and fawning all over her, and has enjoyed the attention when she is all dolled up. More and more often lately, however, she is determined to reign in some of this control and is determined to pick her own clothes in the morning. I knew this day would come sooner or later and I am proud of her independence and growing skills but I do have to admit that there is some small, shallow part of me that is sad to give up my little living doll and I often have to consciously restrain myself from re-choosing outfits for her or denying her mismatched, less-then-Barbiesque choices. I mean really, Ella, red pants with that ratty old pink shirt—you are SURE that’s what you want to wear!?!
Along with her self chosen wardrobe, Ella is starting to really get serious about trying to put on her own clothes. I never realized what an amazing combination of gross motor skills, fine motor skills, abstract reasoning, and almost physics-eque knowledge is required to go through the simple act of dressing oneself, however watching Ella struggle through these tasks has really given me an appreciation of how many steps are involved. She literally was breathing so hard it was tantamount to panting while trying to get her socks over her heels this morning and, while she is able to get her pants on her legs (after I arrange them in front of her) and pulled up in the front, the back is still out of her range (remember, with the diaper on she not only has to reach behind her to pull them up, but has to pull them back too, in order to get past the bulk of her diaper). Shirts too, have their own challenges, not the least of which is finding those darn arm holes and not mixing them up with the neck hole, a predicament that, once she finds herself in, she quickly becomes hysterical, shrieking “Nee some help! Nee some help!” The other day she actually grabbed her shoelaces and seemed ready to take on that challenge but I could see her poor brain obviously could not even fathom where to start. All the same, she was clearly disappointed to give up the challenge. Velcro shoes, however, she HAS mastered, and she will take the shoes on and off and do the Velcro straps over and over in her joy
Spilling the beans
Well, I don’t know if Jamie was consciously testing her or not, or just seriously underestimating our daughter, but we have definitely determined that, yes, she is paying attention when we are Christmas shopping and, no, she can not keep a secret.
We all made a family trip to the mall together and Jamie took Ella while we split up for a while. When we met up at the food court later, we had barely seated ourselves before Ella delightedly bleated out “Mommy, we got you a PWESENT!!!” Hee hee. Difficult chuckles from Jamie but, not wanting to make a big deal, I brushed it off , the awkward silence died down, and we went on with our snack. But Ella was not to be deterred. A little louder now, “Mommy, we GOT YOU A PWESENT!!!” Another silence, some nervous giggles, and a faint “That’s nice dear” from me. This was clearly less then the reaction Ella was hoping for so she continued on, impressing upon me how exciting this all was “Its… its…. Its… its…..” Jamie is frozen, his face rapidly turning a bright shade of pink…. “Its……….. SWIPPERS!!!!!!” Now there is visible sweat on my poor husband’s brow and Ella is just beaming. Later we were able to chuckle that he had learned his lesson and I tried to console his poor shattered surprise. After all, I didn’t know what COLOR or STYLE the slippers were. Hee hee.
Dawn noted on my TTM that she loved entries about the holidays, so she should love this one as well. It’s not hard to fill my entry with holiday ‘stuff’ since it’s pretty much saturated everything we’ve been doing lately. I actually worry a little bit that Ella will be completely confused and sad when all this anticipating and celebrating and decorating and visiting abruptly ends after the 25th. I hope it’s not too much of a let down… If I can distract her away from the chocolate advent calendar maybe we can have a few more days of this special treat and everything won’t have to end at once….
So this will do it until after the big day. I hope everyone’s festivities have been and continue to be wonderful and I will come back with a full report of how the big day went. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!!!
As always, thanks for reading.
Bonnie
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