A Little of Each

I have already given an indication of one of Muriel's defining character traits, that of being unable to stop trying to eat things... and I was getting ready to discuss another one, when I realized that Naomi should be getting the press, this being her week and all. So, after the Muriel mention, we'll see if I can remember what I was going to say about the big one...

I think I have already mentioned this, maybe more than once, but Muriel is very, very, wait for it... IMPATIENT!! She cannot wait for anything. When she was a baby, and it was time to nurse, she would see that it was time, and then start to fuss and cry because things weren't moving fast enough for her. In the car now, when we are driving together, I offer to sing songs for her, and she agrees, and then once I start singing, she says, No! No! Not that one! And then she goes into one of her unintelligible but very earnest monologues, from which I attempt to suss out the song request, and I say, Itsy Bitsy Spider? ABCs? Doe, a Deer? The Bumblebee one? And no matter what she says she wanted, if I start to sing, she objects. Maybe she just doesn't like my singing?

It is on my mind because it happened again tonight, when I was reading her some stories before bed. I cannot turn the pages fast enough for her. And even though she picked the book, she is ready to quit the thing before it's done. The girl needs action! Constant action! I am loving this kid, she is so different from her sister, and so out of my range, so her own person.

So, the big sister? We went through a patch with her, a few weeks or more, where everything was a struggle, and we felt like we were yelling at her non stop, which we probably were. And now, just in time, with four years old in our sights, she is so grown up and agreeable. She is solicitous of her sister in a new way. She says OK when we ask her to do something, and then does it. She talks about her angry feelings in good ways - "I am so angry that I am going to stamp my foot at you!" She still threatens to tell on me, which I never get tired of. But overall, she's measuring up to four pretty well, I think.

Here's an anecdote that is too tortuous to post, so of course I'm going to. Jim gave the girls some applesauce, but only the tiniest trace. I insisted they have more- it's applesauce. He said, do you know how much sugar is in this stuff? I said, no, I buy the no-sugar kind. This is the kind of thing that passes for an argument in our house. Good stuff. We are getting deep into it about whether the kind of sugar in fruit is identical to just spooning it out the sugar bowl, and whether applesauce is basically the same as fruit, blah, blah, blah, and Naomi, who has been amusing us for weeks with this song about some raw food item sitting on the railroad tracks feeling this and that, and around the bend comes number ten, Choo Choo, processed food (tomato becomes spaghetti sauce, banana becomes banana split), pipes up with a verse- Apple sits on the railroad track, feeling lonely and lost (or something, I don't know- that sounds too depressing for a kids' song?), Around the bend comes the Number 10, Choo Choo! Applesauce! Then she says, See? No sugar! Just applesauce! She is totally on my side.