Yeah, But It's The Thought That Counts

Brigid's nocturnal proclivities have lessened a bit in the last few days. She's actually gone into her own bed -- the crib with one side off of it to ease the transition into big-girl bed -- most nights for the last week. She still ends up with us; you can't have everything all at once. But She's not bouncing back up like she used to when it was "the crib." She seems to understand the difference now that the side is off.

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of a special surprise -- the toddler bed I ordered from Target. It's a pink princess bed, and I think it is going to make a big difference in her attitude about going to bed on her own. I had a wave of sadness roll over me the other night after I got her into her crib-as-toddler bed when it dawned on me that soon we'd be taking it down for good. I mean for good. We'll never again have a crib set up for one of our babies, and that's a sad realization. When we put it away after Patricia was done with it, there was the feeling that it was probably the last time, but the possibility existed. This time, it's done, and that is sad to me. However, that being said, there's no way I'll part with it. I'll unload the clothes, the toys, maybe even some of the books. But the crib stays. I know, I know -- people will say I'll be able to placate myself some day with grandchildren. I'm not looking forward to that time because it means the children will no longer be children. And I'm certainly not ready to be a grandmother, especially when I look at Brigid who's still a baby herself.

The other night, when I told Brigid, "I love you," while we were sitting in the big chair in her room before bed, she told me, "I love you, too." It wasn't prompted and wasn't expected because until that time, she hadn't replied in kind unless prompted. So it was a nice surprise and filled me with warm, fuzzy love. She's showing a lot of self-awareness and awareness of things that are not right in front of her. You can tell she's bringing up images in her mind's eye when you talk to her and ask her questions she has to think about. She's started to enjoy talking about school and her friends there. We'll go through the list, naming them, naming the teachers, naming anyone else who may have anything to do with school. It's part recollection, part stall tactic, but it's a nice way to have a conversation. You can tell she's visualizing the individual kid when she's trying to come up with the names. Then she'll say something like "We don't hit our friends," or "We don't yell at our friends." I don't know if that's just a declaration of her sense of right over wrong or something she's been told out of necessity. I just know she's right and agree with her.

We're also working on her not saying, "Yeah" to things when she means "yes." So now, very deliberately, she'll say, "Ye-ss" as though it had two syllables. She'll quickly add, "We say 'Yes,' not 'yeah.'" I have to check my own speech because I'll more often than not say, "yeah" to something. It just sounds so rough coming out of such a small mouth.

She's still very much into pretty princess things and enjoys dressing up. But yesterday, before church, she decided she wanted to be an angel, dressing in one of her princess dresses. It's a dress-up costume that actually has a bunch of fiber optic filaments throughout that light up when you push a little button under the skirt. But at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, I wasn't going to get into a big fight with her over wearing the thing to church, so Brigid was a pink frilly angel at church. You have to learn to pick your battles with a 2-and-three-quarter-year-old.