Precious Phaedra

 

This kid has spunk, I tell ya.

Phaedra is so very dear to me. I love both my girls equally, but since Eleanor is such a Daddy’s girl and Phaedra is a total Mommy’s girl, I feel a bit more connected to her for the time being. She needs me more. She’s my girl.

First thing in the morning, I am the one she wants. Even on days when Grant tries to entertain the kids so I can sleep in a little bit, not a half hour goes by before Phaedra is crying for me and pounding on the bedroom door. It would be more frustrating if she wasn’t so elated whenever I open the door for her and climb back into bed. She toddles up to my bedside, and as she’s struggling to get up onto the bed, repeats the request, “Nuggo,” (snuggle) several times. How can I refuse? She lays on my chest for a bit, the duration of which depending on how sleepy or hungry she is, and then she charms me for a bit with her playfulness before trying to drag me out of bed. She is my morning sunshine.

Phaedra can say just about any word. There’s no reason to list her vocabulary, because she’ll repeat just about anything you say. She still has some fun, quirky ways of pronouncing things. I like how she says cereal: see-yo. Within the past month or two, she switched from calling both Grandma and Grandpa “bah-paw,” and now she says gwamma and gwappa. I might have to return to this subject since I had a long mental list of the words I love to hear her say, but now I can’t seem to remember any of them. Today was a busy day. My mind is shutting down for the evening.

Phaedra is really interested in books. There have been some books that quickly became her favorites, such as Jumpy Jack & Googily by Meg Rosoff and Cat the Cat, Who Is That? by Mo Willems. She likes to look at books by herself, just flipping through pages. She usually tries to be gentle with books, so I’m finally getting to the point where I can trust her. Every now and then, she still rips one, though. She used to sit through stories better, but she’s going through a short attention span phase. She still wants you to read to her though. At any time of day, she’ll come up to Grant or me with a book, demanding, “Weed it! Weed it!” She’ll keep on insisting until she gets a response, and if for some reason the answer is no, it’s not pretty. She likes to have control of the reading. Her independent phase is really strong right now, so she insists on holding the book and turning the pages, which causes many pages to be read out of chronological order.

Phaedra loves to be outside. She loves to play in dirt, toss rocks, and even chase bugs. She doesn’t have much fear of bugs at all.

As part of her independent streak, she likes getting down to walk rather than being carried. Grant and I have trained her the same way we did Eleanor. If we are in a parking lot or a place where she needs to hold our hand, we tell her to hold a finger. As soon as she lets go, she gets picked up and carried until she’s ready to promise to keep holding on. There have been some situations where we have told her it was safe to let go. Now, she holds a finger for a few seconds, and then comes to the conclusion herself, saying “Yet go,” and letting go to walk on her own. The main problem when she lets go is that all progress is lost. She is so easily distracted, wanting to explore everything around her. She isn’t interested in getting from point A to point B; she just wants to enjoy her surroundings. Having her hold on to a finger is sometimes the only thing that keeps her moving, but it’s hard to insist that she hold on when she can see that Eleanor doesn’t have to hold a hand.

Phaedra is a total mimic right now, watching what Eleanor does and trying to do the same thing. She also is very aware of what the adults do and say, and she tries to copy them, too.

Sometimes she shocks me with how well she is paying attention. I was driving with my kids and my mother in the car a few weeks ago, and I was talking to my mother about Phaedra having a hard time going into nursery at church. After a bit of talking, Phaedra chimed into the conversation, naming off some of the kids at nursery, mentioning snack and song.

She is such a communicator. She mostly only uses telegraphic speech, but she also puts two words together here and there. She’ll keep telling you words until she gets her point across. She loves to pepper me with words after we’ve been apart to tell me all about what happened while I was gone. She’s starting to say, “Me,” and hearing her say, “Phae,” is just about the cutest thing in the world. She says Phaedra too, but it isn’t as clear as Phae. She certainly knows to whom those words refer, pointing to her chest sometimes as she says them just to make sure we’re catching on.

Phaedra loves to sing and dance. She was so jealous that Eleanor got to go to the front of the chapel and sing on Father’s Day, and she didn’t. She usually pulls out a Hymn book during the songs at church and tries to sing along. Some songs that she tries to sing on her own are “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” “Following the Leader,” and “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam.” “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” sounds like this: “Twinko Twinko Yiddo Yiddooooooooh” and “Following the Leader” sounds like this: “Folllleader, Folllleader, Folllleader . . .” I LOVE it. I need to take more video of her!

Ever since she started nursery, Phaedra has some serious “stranger danger.” She used to be pretty easy going about hanging out with other adults, but now, she’s leery of anyone with whom she isn’t familiar and comfortable. At church especially (and after sacrament especially—during the hours when she thinks all adults are trying to take her away from her mommy), she glares at anyone who tries to talk to her, and she has some pretty cold looks coming from those baby blue eyes of hers. Also, if we are in any situation where I am close by but there is another adult nearer to her when she needs any sort of guidance, if they touch her in any way (even to help her up after a fall or something like that), she looks at them, thinks about it, and comes crying to me.

I think that’s all I’ve got right now. My mind is really winding down for the evening, so maybe I’ll have to write more as I think of it.