Brigid Becomes a Storyteller -- of Sorts

We had a story the other day, told to us by Brigid. It went something like this:
"There was a castle with a girl princess who fell down in the pig mud puddle. The princess went swimming. She fell in the mud puddle. She fell down, singing, 'Lady song, lady sing, lady song.' She fell down in the pig muddle puddle. The dragon was so happy and Brigid swimming in the lake."

We were enchanted. Brigid has been making up stories lately and filling in the gaps when we start stories for her. We started one the other day where I said, "Once upon a time, there was a --" and she said, "Dragon." Then the dragon went on to do a lot of things, including, at one point, chase a monkey, who then climbed up in a tree and laughed. It went on and on, and I wish I wrote it down, but she's showing a huge development in her imagination and ability to visualize what is happening and what could happen next.

Brigid is also becoming quite the songstress. She has always enjoyed singing, but lately she has been singing songs we all know -- Itsy Bitsy Spider, ABC Song, Twinkle Twinkle -- in tune and to completion. She is also singing things that she makes up, another nod to the imagination and visualization development. She loves to sing along with the soundtracks of her favorite movies. Some of them are very complicated songs. Or, if you start to sing something that is featured in one of the movies she's familiar with, she'll tell you, "That's from 'Aladin'" or "That's from 'Mermaid.'"

Brigid also has an uncanny memory -- for all things. She can tell you which direction to drive to school or home again; she can tell you where the mall is or will know if we are close to the house. She remembers conversations you may have had with her the night before and it's the first thing she talks about when she wakes up in the morning. But her memory and her imagination and visualization may also be contributing to her sudden spate of nightmares. She's been waking up screaming on occasion, and I think she's having bad dreams. She (unwisely) was allowed to watch the Disney movie, "Dinosaur," which is sweet and cute but has a lot of T-Rex-type violence in it that I forgot about (I go on record to say I was not home to supervise the approval of this movie). She had nightmares that night, but the crazy kid bounded out of bed the next morning and wanted to watch the rest of the video.

She's mastering skills like a real kid -- fork and spoon and regular cup and the other day she almost successfully pulled up her pants. She is, afterall, on the other side of two and a half and will be three in a few short months.

Meanwhile, Patricia and Margaret continue to mature and grow in ways that I find fascinating. I try to imagine myself as the mother of a teen and almost-teen, and it's hard because I don't see myself being old enough, first of all, and second, I don't see myself the way I used to see the parents of my friends when I was that age. Although I've had a little teen 'tude from Margaret, so far, things have been pretty good between us. I'm hoping that continues. Patricia, on the other hand, continues to be my funny, charming kid who gets as much of a kick out of me as I get out of her. The three of us are going to an all-day scrapbook retreat tomorrow that I am looking forward to. We did a similar one in March and had a very good time. This is the same organization hosting this one. The girls took a lot of pride in the fact that we had so many supplies because we've been doing this for so long. Patricia was saying how neat it was that a lot of the ladies at the crop came up to her and asked to see her work, commenting on what she had done. I'm glad to have something like this that we can share.

Tessa continues to work her way in our hearts. She is a sweet dog, and we're seeing some personality traits emerging that make me wonder if she wasn't spoken to harshly or even hit. She cowers when you raise your voice and often drops to the ground. We're trying to just let her know we love her and want her to feel secure. But she has shown no aggression or any signs of anger. In fact, I still haven't heard that dog bark. She does want to chase squirrels, but cars seem to scare her. It's an ongoing project, trying to assimilate her into our family. Ultimately, I think we'll have a wonderful family member out of this. Now if we can only get Brigid to tell us stories involving a chocolate lab and not think it means a dog made out of chocolate.

If We Travel With Her, It's Called 'Tessering'

Well, we’ve added another girl to the household. Poor Jack, he’s so out-numbered. We picked up Tessa on Saturday from the North Country Animal Shelter. The week before, Patricia, Brigid and I went to Malone because they have a JoAnn Fabric’s store, and we were at the lake anyway (It’s only 20 minutes from the lake). We were on a Halloween costume mission, but on the spur of the moment, we went to the animal shelter. We’ve been talking about getting another dog for a while now. We wanted to wait a reasonable amount of time for Brigid to get big enough. Something must have been telling me to go, because among the many dogs they had to choose from, this very docile, beautiful chocolate lab with German shepherd mix was there. She was beautiful and had a temperament to match. I didn’t want to take her that day because I wanted to confer with Jack. When we got back to the lake, he said, “Why didn’t you just get her?” Figures.


Anyway, we were going to be back at the lake on Saturday, so I called the shelter to let them know we would be by, and we were still interested in the dog. She had been there for a whole year. I asked why, and the woman said people just walked by her. I think it’s because she was waiting for us. They called her “Tessie,” but we changed it to Tessa. Jack says it’s after a tesseract, a wrinkle in time, which, of course, is the name of the book where we were first introduced to the term. The rest of us just think Tessa sounds better than Tessie. Regardless, she seems like she’s been part of the family all along. When the girls and I picked her up, she was a little excited but when she got in the car, she laid down on the seat like she had always done so. She came into the house like she owned it and laid down on her blanket like that is where she always was. Brigid is happy that “she licks you,” Brigid’s way of saying “she licked me.” Brigid has already dubbed her “Brigid’s Tessa.”

So far, she is very docile around the baby, although we are not leaving them alone together, and she is very interested in the cat, who is less interested in the dog. We hope they’ll strike an accord soon. This morning, they seemed to be making progress. What the dog hasn’t done is all-out attack the cat. I think she’s just curious. She’s also young – probably two and a half. The one thing we haven’t heard is her bark. Not once. She just seems serene.


Other than having another mouth to feed, the only thing that this does to the status quo in the household is pose a different type of challenge for me: Now I have to come up with a new idea for our Christmas card.

Brigid Shows She Gets It, and It's Hers

How can a child go from incomprehensible babbling baby to intelligent, articulate and conversant toddler almost overnight? I don’t know the answer to that, but Brigid seems to have done it. Yesterday at dinner, she was giving us an explanation of what was on her plate. “These are chili beans,” she said. “This is torn (corn).” “This is rice.” Our friend, Kim, was there and she said she was amazed at how she understood everything Brigid was saying. Of course, we’ve understood her since she started grunting and pointing because we’re with her 100 percent of the time and know the nuances of her communication skills. But when people outside her circle can understand her language and voice, and do so almost overnight, it’s a huge developmental milestone.

What I like to see as well is how she has developed from a baby who understands a portion of what you’re telling her to a kid who gets it all and can react – or choose not to react – to whatever it is you’re telling her. Yesterday, after she had naked time right after I picked her up from Sibley, I needed her to put her clothes back on so we could run out to the store. She was compliant, but when I got to her socks, I discovered I only had one of them. The other was in the other room, near the rocking chair. I asked Brigid to get her other sock. At first, she stood in the middle of the living room, looking around. I told her it was on the floor over by the rocking chair. I didn’t point to it or give her any other direction. She took a second, as though she was processing the direction, and then went over to the rocking chair. I told her it was on the floor, and she looked down, found the sock and brought it over to me. She has been getting better at helping me get her dressed, too. She can put her Crocs on her feet all by herself, and she has started trying to put her tops on herself. She has a little trouble pulling up her pants, but she’s trying. If she could change her own diaper, I’d be all set. Although, I have to say I’m impressed because she will come over and tell me she needs her diaper changed. We’re getting to that ultimate goal of potty readiness day by day.

She is beginning to get the idea of talking on the phone, although when she does talk on the phone to Jack or anyone else she knows, the only thing she can think of to say is that she “had a nice nap.” It’s pretty funny, and she will still answer a question by nodding, as though the other person on the other end of the phone can see her nodding.

Yesterday, I also heard her use the personal pronoun, “I,” more consistently and appropriately. She will still use her name in place of “I,” as in, “Brigid do it.” She certainly knows the word, “MINE!” I got her some ice cream last night when I stopped to get milk, bread and eggs, and she declared it was hers. I said, “You need to share.” She said, “No, I not sharing.” And then she complimented herself on the use of her spoon. “Good job on the spoon!” she says. And how can you argue? She is doing a good job on the spoon.