Since her little brother got an update on his life the other day, I thought it was high time for a recap on what Our Little Mouse has been up to lately as well. She is now 3-and-a-half years old. One of the most enjoyable things about her is that she wakes up happy
every single morning.
No, seriously...she does. It is some kind of magic that she has, and it starts our mornings off better a lot of times. Her morning magic dust apparently does not waft a few feet higher on some mornings to her big sister sleeping in the top bunk, but whatever. Mouse will routinely either slowly creep down our front staircase to see if we're in our living room--one foot movement every minute or so-- or she will bound down the stairs and loudly whisper, "I want to do the iPad!"
We are very blessed to live next to some wonderful neighbors who, over time, have become more like family to us. I am a sort of skittish fool about who, what, and the location of those things I post online, so photos of our neighbors' homes won't make cameos on this blog for a while longer.
Lately, Mouse has treated their homes like her second home. We will be outside on a nice evening, and Mouse will hear one of our neighbors (there are six of them, living in three homes) and make a B-line to go see them. The next thing I know, she will appear, smiling from ear to ear, in their kitchen window, shouting down to us, "I am visiting L and D!" We really appreciate that our neighbors have made time for us, and have opened their hearts and homes to us, especially our girls.
Mouse is starting to make her own friends. From about the time that little, little kids can form a friendship, her friends have mostly been her big sister's friends, too. And that's been totally fine, since they're all pretty close in age. But last week, when Goose went on a field trip with her pre- school, Mouse was all bent out of shape about this special event (even though she went, too) and whined, "I want to do something fun! I want to see my friend Emelia!" She got my phone and started punching in some numbers, trying to spell her friend's name and entering in a sequence of numbers that, if she hit "send," would have probably called someone in Kuala Lumpur.
Speaking of Asia, Mouse had a recent habit of grabbing any random object in the house and telling us "
This is my Chinese." Could be a dishtowel, a toothbrush, or a broken toy. No idea where she heard that word. It reminds me of when Goose had a habit of taking something to put in the garbage and telling us, "
Throw it in Spanish!"
But, you know, life with a 3-year-old isn't all fun, cuteness, and silly sayings. Bedtimes have lately been a long, protracted struggle most nights with her. We scratch our heads on this, because Mouse is routinely the first one up in the morning, like on mornings when Becky leaves the house at 6:15 for a jog. With no nap, shouldn't Mouse be ready for bed by 7, 7:15 on those nights?
Nope! There she is, fighting wicked tiredness and her own sequence of whines, still going strong at a quarter-of-eight. Testing our patience, asking for one more book, one more drink, for the hall light on, all while rubbing her eyes and waiting to stop yawning to speak to us. She just does not listen to us during 80% of this time, as we get increasingly frustrated with her tired (and tiring) antics.
First one up, last one asleep. The most mild-mannered of our three kids, bearing the brunt of her daddy's annoyance at our sometimes stubborn kids. Makes me feel oh-so great as a father when I raise my voice at her at these times.
Mouse's favorite current hobby is being pushed in our backyard swing. She could probably sit in there for hours, just wiling away the afternoon. When I push her really high in the air, we excitedly encourage her to grab for tree leaves dangling above the swing's path across our backyard. She was elated when she finally grabbed one whole, entire leaf off a tree yesterday!
Such a simple joy, and something I wanted to remember. There are so many things I want to recall and want to write down about our little kids' lives at their stages right now. She has grown out of calling random objects her "Chinese," and she has repeatedly, and sternly, told us not to use her nickname of
Dilly anymore. Those were very cute moments in her little world and in our family's life, and now they've passed by forever. But there are and will be many other cute, weird, and nonsensical sayings, doings, and moments to take their place.
