Ree

I know I haven't blogged much about Ree lately.  She is old enough that I kinda feel like I am talking about her behind her back.  Also, I'd hate for her to see something embarrassing, and I'm not quite sure how much she can read. She is always surprising me on that front.  The girl spends hours each day playing alone in her room.  She may be working her way through Faulkner for all I know.  (And now that I think about it, all that stream of consciousness stuff probably makes more sense to a four-year-old than it did to me in high school.  Have you ever heard a preschooler play?)

Anywho, I am going to write about her anyway.  One thing I've noticed lately is what a GIRL she is.  Not that it is a huge surprise.  Despite my best efforts to keep everything gender neutral around her when she was a baby (I was such a silly first-time parent!), she is just programmed to be a girl.  She likes pink and princesses and all things girlie.  She was only two when she and I started getting into cat fights.  (One of the hidden benefits of having a stay-at-home-dad is that she still worships her primary caregiver.  Daaaad can do no wrong!)  But there are other, apparently innate, girl traits that she has showing lately.

She is very nurturing.  There was one day at the beginning of soccer season this fall in which Jeff was gone to a game and I was alone with the kids.  The boys were napping, and Ree was busy playing.  In a perfect world, she would've been napping too, but she looked at Jeff one day last November and said, "Dad, I'm not going to take naps anymore unless I'm sick," and she has kept to that statement despite our best efforts to make her rest in the afternoons.  I was completely wiped out, so I told her that I was going to take a little nap on the couch, but she could get me if she needed anything.  As I headed to the couch, I heard her trailing behind me.  She had gotten me a sheet from her bed because she knew the ceiling fan was on and she thought I might be cold.  She then brought her toys to the living room and played quietly while I slept.  She did wake me three times during my 20-minute nap (I was REALLY tired and kept passing back out), but it was the thought that counts.

Lately, in practicing to be a big sister to the new baby, she has started being a much better big sister to Leon and Michael.  She has actually been taking care of them and helping out.


Ree is also a girl in that she is always annoyed with her hair.  (Well, maybe this doesn't apply to all women, but it certainly applies to me at times.)  On Saturday night, while I was washing her hair, I noticed the hair over her left ear looked a bit short.  I figured her bangs were just messed up.  As I brushed her hair after her bath, I realized that part of her head was clearly reminiscent of the Joan Jett shag she sported for the first day of preschool last year after the wackadoo hairstylist went to town on her hair.  So I asked her if she had cut her hair.  She said, "Yes."  I asked her why.  It was too long.  I asked her if she threw away the hair she cut off.  She said it was all in her trashcan.  (I later checked and it was.  The scissors were neatly put away too.)  I never got upset, because I figured there was no point.  It hadn't even occurred to her that cutting her own hair was wrong.  So I told her that maybe next time she should tell me and I could cut her hair or we could take her to get her hair cut.  After all, it probably isn't safe to cut your own hair (and I hoped she never witnessed me doing it!) what with the scissors around your face and all.  I briefly contemplated taking her to get her hair cut to even it out, but it's too dang short.  She is just sporting a crazy punk 'do and she seems okay with it.  I'm sure she would be a hit with the 15-year-old emo crowd.

Ree also has an insanely practical sense about her.  When we go to the grocery store, she is always allowed a treat, and I am lucky in that my daughter considers Disney Princess Campbell's soup or Goldfish crackers to be a treat.  A couple weeks ago she was looking for a big treat.  She asked if she could get fruit snacks, but she added, "Are they on sale and do you have a coupon?"  I smiled.  I could remember asking the exact same question at her age.

More of her practicality came out tonight.  As we were cleaning her room she noticed a label on the lid to a large Rubbermaid storage container.  It was a warning that babies shouldn't play in the container, and she wanted to know what it meant.  That's when she proudly expressed that's why she keeps the baby gate to her room shut - so babies like her brothers can't get in there and get hurt.  As excited as she is about the new baby, the one thing we hadn't told her yet was it means she's going to have to share a room.  I figured it was time to break the news, and I told her that when the baby got a little bigger she would also sleep in Ree's room.  Silence.  An odd look on her face.  Anger?  Fear?  Frustration?  Then she proclaimed, "Wellll, when she's a little baby, she can sleep in my [doll's] pack-and-play," and she proceeded to start cleaning the stuffed animals out of it.  Love her!