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.