Elsie at three has been just quite a puzzle for me. She's funny but takes herself very seriously. She wants to be helpful, but breaks into tears when she realizes that the mastery she was hoping for is a long way off. She wants to play with kids at the park one day and the next day she hopes there will be no kids at the park. One thing remains constant, however, and that is that she likes to watch shows! There are certainly other things that she likes to do: play with her ponies, barbies, and farm animals, jump on the bed, tell stories, help with baking, make up songs, "care for" the pets, and make paintings.
Elsie's emotional life has been tumultuous, but I think we've turned a corner at three and half years old. She's started off days by stating that "today is going to be a happy today", and then an hour into the day something will make her just so upset that she says through her sobbing "but I wanted today to be a happy day". We were recently driving to visit a fellow three year old friend and I began explaining that we were taking a toy to share while we were visiting, but the toy is still hers and we will take it home with us, etc. She interrupted me and said "I know mom, I will act like a normal kid." Although we've dealt an awful lot with Elsie pushing Arthur and biting him on impulse, this too seems to be improving. Elsie will sometimes catch herself about to bite Arthur and divert her bite to a toy, and she's been playing side by side with him lately with no pushing whatsoever. Tantrums were a weekly occurrence, on average, and even those have declined, thank goodness. I used to try hugging/holding Elsie during her tantrums, but I found that only worked some times and the times it didn't work, well it just made things worse and made me feel like I was trapping her. Often I felt like holding her tight was the lesser of two evils in that she might throw herself down on ceramic floor or hit her head on the coffee table otherwise. But now, I generally try to stay calm, keep to myself, engage her with an expression of sympathy and wait until the storm dies down. I've read about tantrums that can last up to two hours and am so glad that we have not had to endure anything like that. Both Martin and I try to convey to her (after the tantrum) that we understand being three is hard, because there are so many things that she wants to do, but so many things are still just so hard for her. Oh, she will keep growing up and she will soon be able to do just about everything she can think of!
Note added about two months later: the tantrums have all but disappeared since I wrote this. Yay!
It's easy to focus on the negative side of her emotions, but she is certainly quick to say "I love you" and she often says "I'm sorry Mom" whenever she's done something that she knows has made me upset. "I'm having a happy day" is one of the very reassuring things (for me) that she says.
Elsie still has little "elsieisms" like saying "gank you" instead of thank you and "puffet" instead of puppet (she even pronounces her own name "Essie"), but her voice has been changing to a kid voice and her unique accent is fading. She's so quick to pick up on new concepts (the differentiation between earth ponies, Pegasus ponies, and unicorns in My Little Pony, for instance), and she's even starting to tell jokes (the interrupting cow and its accompanying variations) and have fun with words, for example making every word start with a "P" has become a favorite game.
November height: 1 metre
weight: 32 lbs
Recent Comments