Don't get me wrong, every child is awesome. The pain in the butt ones- awesome, the quiet ones- awesome, the energetic ones-awesome. Every child, no matter what their quirks, gifted areas or downfalls is awesome in their own way. This is a list of the top 10 reasons Ellie is. . . Forgive me for being biased.. I grew her, that kind of tips the scales a little. These are in no particular order and are just my favorites, there are plenty more reasons, and more will come along... I will update. =)
1. She leaves me kisses. . . On my clean windows, dirty ones too but they are less noticeable. She recently learned to shove her face up to the window and blow, leaving chunky cheek marks and licking lines all over the windows.. Adds character to the house, because if you have kids you already know that there is no one area of your house that is allowed to be clean for too long.. Unspoken house of children rule.. If you don't have children... The rest of the world wishes you a fun time!
2. She likes to feed the dog. . . waffles, puffs, sandwiches, crackers, cat food, cheese.. and just in case the dog gets tired of water she gives her a little milk here and there... you know to rinse the evidence of all the "snacks" she has eaten through the day. I no longer worry about whether the dog is hungry.. I know without a doubt that Ellie has taken care of that problem for me, and dog food is simply to make sure she does not fill up on the junk food.
3. She is teaching me to be quick, attentive and sneaky. . . Otherwise she is up the stairs before I can blink, hand in the kitty litter before I find something to block the stairs with, pulling all the clean clothes down off the table that I just finished refolding from the last time she pulled them down, or in the kitchen dumping the cat food on the floor for the 10th time because her brother has some issue with keeping the baby gate closed.
4. There is nothing she won't eat. . . bills, scraps of paper left on the floor, whatever her brother dropped, anything and everything you put on her tray, Ian's new years resolutions. The upside is she saves my vacuum from having to work so hard.. all the big stuff has already been devoured..
5. She helps me keep the toys organized. . . by dumping them all out everyday. Every bin she can reach, every shelf she can see, every container of blocks must be dumped at least one time a day, allowing me lots of time to resort the toys in case anything made its way into a bin that it does not belong in..
6. She is teaching our house patience. . . by repeatedly doing things that annoy each one of us. Touching JT and taking his food. Never did I think that having to separate my children would happen at the ages on 1 and 2. Let me tell you though, we had another thing coming.. She is the largest antagonizer I have ever met, and it has shown me that my patience level is not where I thought it was.. we are learning though.. as a whole.. not to yell, that the little things are not that big of a deal, and that sometimes what we would like to be doing needs to wait.
7. She reminds me to clean up after myself. . . I have always had a weak point here. I have been bad about leaving folded clothes (or unfolded) where they are rather than putting them away. Leaving my dishes on the table. leaving food on the coffee table for when I decide to snack later, not putting the mail away. This is a habit that is changing little by little as her little chubby hand reaches new and more important piles, and bags of things.. For instance.. The other day she got hold of a store bag that I had brought in from the car containing some odds and ends that had been left in there over time, including a to-go mug of coffee that I thought was empty. I was wrong. I now have some coffee stained notebooks, and a scarf that smells awfully nice when it gets warm... Coffee scented perfume YUM!
8. She helped me get over the fear of cutting the cats nails on my own. . . I have a 14 lb cat, he is 6 years old and until a few months ago I had never cut his nails without the help of my dad or my husband. There is something I fear worse than the sharp claws that I have 4 yr old scars from clawing into me and not releasing until I am covered in blood, and that is my daughter catching the wrath of those babies.. Fortunately for her she is fearless, and determined... we shall see who wins this battle of wills... stay tuned for Mommy's protectiveness v.s. Ellie's stubbornness.. they are bound to have it out in more than one area.
9. She finds money for me. . . Under the couch, behind the shelves, in the bottom of boxes and hampers, behind the toilet.. The advantage of having a child that actually crawls (unlike JT who army crawled) is that when they get tired they plop down on the floor for a few seconds and rest their heads, allowing them to see all the things that you have missed in your quick vacuum job, and all the things you did not know had fallen out of your pocket, and sometimes you end up a dollar richer!
10. She talks . . . in her sleep, when she is awake, not that most of it is distinguishable, but the things that are sure do crack me up. She can say about 10-15 words or phrases now.. her newest are "go go go" and "bad bad baby" this should tell you how fun it is at my house..
When I was pregnant with this amazing bundle of laughs everyone would look at JT and tell me how terrible Ellie would behave. That I could not get so lucky 2 times in a row, that Ellie would be a terror and that JT was God's trick on me to have more babies. I told them they were wrong and they were wrong. She is fast, she is sneaky, she is into everything under the sun. exploratory and loud, messy and GLORIOUS. Since she turned mobile and started talking I have rarely stopped laughing. My house is a mess because she is on my heels tearing it down, but there is nothing that this little girl can not do when she sets her mind to it. She is a problem solver, can get around any obstacle that you set in front of her, will figure it out faster than you realize she has even started working on it and she is going to be a head strong, determined, stand up for what she believes female powerhouse. This past year has opened my eyes to so many new opportunities and pushed aside so much fear in me because I know if she can do it I can.. She is a 1 yr old.... If she can do that in me at 1, think of the changes she will make in this world as an adult..
My daughter is anything but a terror, she is amazing, and your negative words can not change that, now that I have moved past your terrible advice, let me give you a piece of good advice... Don't wish something on someone just because you can't handle it. No child is a terror, each and every one of them are AWESOME.
No comments:
Post a Comment