The Queen's Rambles

This girl loves to sit on things that have a seat. She can make the plasma car go, which is thrilling even though we have a very small space that it will actually “go” on. It requires smooth surfaces for the physics to work. This Kettcar is not nearly as thrilling, though every kid in the neighborhood wants to take it for a spin (and none want to bring it back when they realize it kind of sucks).

She had her Lyme Disease follow-up appointment today. Things are fine, I guess. She is no longer on antibiotics. She still has a red mark where the tick was attached and I am probably imagining it, but it seems like the rash might be coming back. She has her 15 month check-up next week so we’ll keep an eye on it until then.

The girl loves books. I admit, when I used to see people posting about their kids loving books I thought they might be exaggerating or making things up. It was very hard for me to picture since Erik never wanted anything to do with books. He might rip them up or chew them, but he absolutely would not sit still and look at them.

Elsa constantly wants to be looking at books and she has very specific pages that she wants to look at, mainly animal pages. She can say bunny and meow, so it thrills her to no end to say those things while looking at the pictures. She’s usually so thrilled that she throws her arms around and knocks the book out of my hand.

Also, she insists on looking at a book while nursing. Sure, why not twist mama’s boobies in a complete 360?

She’s not as physically capable as her brother, but she still does all right for herself. I suppose it’s not exactly normal for a 10 month old to be able to run full tilt. Elsa can sort of run, but isn’t all that great at it. She can climb up just about anything, including our bed. I am quite sure she is going to kill herself because she doesn’t have Erik’s sense of balance.

She loves baby dolls, but not white baby dolls. She has one of Erik’s old Dora baby super twin dolls that she carts around. Today she saw a black baby doll at Target and went nuts. She had to have it and kept hugging it, kissing it, and calling it baby. She was not totally happy, though, until she took all it’s clothes off. I offered her white babies of the same type just to see what she would do (I don’t care what color baby she plays with), but she threw them on the ground. I was laughing pretty hard. Erik is the same way when it comes to people. I don’t understand why, but he has always been attracted to darker people. If there’s a diverse crowd, you can almost guarantee that he’ll be playing with someone who is African or African-American. The only reason I find it strange is because I’ve read that research shows children prefer to be around people who look like them. I guess Erik didn’t get the memo.

I suppose it is unfair that I keep comparing her to Erik, but they are so different that I can’t help but notice.

I can’t remember what Erik was like at 15 months and what expectations I had for him. I was probably a lot tougher on him than I am on her since she still feels like a baby, but at 15 months he was feeling like a big boy. She is actually a pretty good listener and is very good at making her needs known. When she wants her diaper changed, first she’ll start pulling at her clothes. If you don’t get the message, she’ll grab your finger and climb up the stairs. If you still don’t understand she’ll try to climb onto the changing table.

We can tell her no about things and sometimes she’ll listen. She loves to pick up random things, so I usually say “yuck yuck” and she’ll leave them. In the past I would step on things like cigarette butts or trash so she couldn’t get to them, so now when I say “yuck yuck” she goes and steps on the thing she’s not supposed to have.

I guess that’s enough about Elsa for tonight. She is such a funny, sweet girl. Erik was always a funny little guy, but his humor was a little different. He was (and is) so serious that you couldn’t help but laugh. She is more funny with intent to be funny. She is very happy and full of laughs. She’s in that age where she is exploring things that make her body feel different, so she likes to bang her head, stand on her head, spin, do flips and all that fun toddler stuff. She is so much taller than Erik that it is kind of hard to flip her on my lap. She’s so tall my arms aren’t long enough if she doesn’t bend her knees.

I suppose to be fair I’ll have to do a post about Erik later this week, or at least post a picture of him (if he’ll let me take one).