More Kids Talk

Arabelle's personality is such an extreme mixture of passions.  She will dance in front of everyone at a restaurant one day and then run and hide shaking the next day because a stranger looked at her the wrong way.  She was excited for weeks for her friend's birthday party, making lists and pictures to describe the event, then when we got there she suddenly ran out of the room crying inconsolably.  She missed the first 20 minutes of the party because I could not get her to go back in the room.  She couldn't even tell me what was wrong, she would just shake and tell me she was too "scared" to tell me.  I'd say there are 3-4 fits of rage/hysteria/misery on a given day, and I think they are quite a bit more common now then they were a year ago.  She seems to "feel things more" now.  Hopefully this is a passing phase, but I have to assume there are underlying personality traits that we will have to deal with in the future. 

Arabelle (sadly):  I think we need a big dog so that I can put my tears on it.

At the dinner table John and I were asking the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up.  Arabelle thought about it for a while and got a worried look on her face.  Then she said, "But I don't know what I want to be yet.  There's just so many choices!"  I told her it was okay for her not to know yet.  She thought for a while more and looked even more worried, then said, "The thing is I just don't want to be stuck doing the same thing everyday!"  Wise words from a 4-year-old.   We talked about it for a while and she decided maybe she'd like to be a veterinarian.  We went to her friend's birthday party Saturday night and she told her friend excitedly, "For the longest time I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grow up, but now I know that I want to be a vet!"

The kids were getting ready for a Halloween party and Jeffrey said, "Charlotte is my friend."

Arabelle whined, "Why am I not your friend?", to which Jeffrey replied, "Because you're not nice to me."   So Arabelle knit her brows together in anger, lunged at Jeffrey, making a fist, and said "Then I'll punch you in the face!"

And...(I've just been waiting for this for weeks, because I knew she had a "crush" on him), Arabelle finally realized that she could maybe marry her friend Valin when she grows up.  She drew a picture of them getting married and then stared at it with a dreamy look on her face saying she was too distracted to play.  Then she told me that she would invite Valin to her birthday party, and then at the end of the party she would present him with the picture and tell him she wanted to marry him.  I really think Arabelle has a little too much of every kind of hormone.

Charlotte: Elsie can't catch the squirrels up in the tree because she's too little.  (Charlotte tells me this every morning, along with telling me that "Elsie's a baby!")

Jeffrey:  "Mom, thank you for letting me do my homework first thing in the morning because I like to start the day with my homework."  Ummm, okay.  Jeffrey's a really good kid but he does typically complain when I ask him to do his homework. Evidently I was just picking the wrong time of day.

Jeffrey:  I feel sorry for Swiper because he never gets anything.  (This is from Dora the Explorer, Swiper the Fox tries to "swipe" something and everyone yells, "Swiper no swiping" and somehow this stops him everytime, much like the Trix Rabbit).

Jeffrey: I love Memaw because she's always nice to me.

 

Jeffrey works so hard at school and tries so hard to be good.  He makes an effort to compliment me on my meals and say thank you for even the little things.  He tries to help out with Charlotte and tries to get Arabelle to cooperate.  Of course he spends plenty of time teasing Arabelle too and whining about certain things, but for the most part I am amazed by his empathy, his thoughtfulness, and his desire to please.  It almost makes me sad because I can foresee the struggles he will have in the future and I think his sensitivity will only make them harder for him to bear.  I really hope he can get some toughness from somewhere.