Lazlo just came down the stairs, trailed by Ramona and Wren. He asked me, "Prior to just now, when is the last time you've seen the dog?"
"Hmm... that would be many hours ago. Maybe this morning before we left the house to run some errands. Now that I think about it, it's weird that she didn't come greet us when we got home."
At this moment Lazlo is having yet another conversation with Wren about how it's not okay to shut Ramona in the bedroom closet and poor Ramona is enjoying a very very long pee in our tiny strip of a yard. Poor poor Ramona. She was only discovered because Wren decided that the closet was "the barn" and Lazlo, or "daddy-horse" as he's currently known, needed to go to sleep in the barn. I'm sure we would have found her eventually, the next time we went to hang something up (ha...).
Hurray for Preschoolers. Someone in Wren's class is sure to be sick all the time, which means our little family was probably all healthy at the same time for about 27 minutes back in November.
Jane got shots yesterday, and she and Wren both cried. It was very sweet and sad that Wren got so upset, but it unfortunately translated into multiple tantrums on the way to the car. Jane is not her usual easy self, and was so hot and feverish last night we ended up putting her in a cool bath for a while. Poor little baby. She's such a dear- she's in the 'flapping like a bird every time anyone looks at her' stage. She giggles, and squirms and sits up (sort of) and chews on ANYTHING that gets remotely close to her face.
Recent victims: everyone's hair (poor Wren lost a clump this morning), everyone's noses, the half and half bottle from my coffee this morning, diapers, whatever book I'm reading, the laptop cord, the laptop, whatever Wren has just become attached to (necessitating a screaming fit), and Ramona.
So far Three, or almost three, is looking a lot harder than Two. Wren is wonderful. Spontaneously singing, showing off her dance moobs, astounding us with her brilliance and breaking hearts everywhere with her beauty. She's also contrary, shrill, stubborn, selfish and usually sticky. She's not interested in potty training, per se, although she's very interested in flushing anything -else- down the toilet. She is most expressly not interested in following directions or listening. She is perfectly capable of dressing herself, unless you ask her to, and then she isn't. Things she's done since she was tiny, she won't do anymore, like hold your hand in a parking lot...
A lot of this new 'tude is due to the baby, the move, me getting sick and disappearing for a week, and just all the new stuff all at once. It's a lot for a little person to process. Also though, I blame the other perfectly nice kids at her new dayschool. Most of them are boys, and they do things like wrestle, sword fight, yell and knock down towers of blocks. In their spare time they cook up super-viruses to cough onto my daughter.
She's trying on some of this aggression, and then some of it is just home-grown three year old angst. I need to get ahead of the curve on parenting, here. Or at least find a way to catch up. Any parents with older kids have some suggestions? Other than constantly reciting the fruits of the spirit in my head (emphasis on "patience" and "gentleness")...?
Anyway, as ever, I'm so lucky to get to be home with her blah blah blah. I really am. She's changing so much right now. Breaking away from us, learning things without us. She'll start singing a song, or repeating a conversation, and Lazlo and I will ask each other, "What's that from?" and neither of us knows.
It's awesome and scary and a glimpse into a rose-tinted but also really sad future where she's hopping out of the car before I've stopped to go stand in line at some stupid movie with a bunch of kids whose parents I don't know.
She's going to be so so embarrassed by me. Especially if my dreams come true and I'm rolling a WVO Eurovan. Poor Wrennel.
