three and a half

I joke about waiting for the day when all the kids are in school full time and I finally have a moment to breathe. The truth is that hanging out with rara all day is a breeze. She is independent enough to play by herself - and still loves me enough to want to play right by my side. With no big kids home during the day, there is no one to start a fight with... because that little face is cute but she's an instigator. Rara has helped with the Christmas decorating and loves the story I tell about how this Advent calendar was mine when I was little just like her.

Rara talks all day long and makes me laugh all the time. She's rarely shy and loves to do things like shout, "Hey Mama! That guy right over there looks just like Santa!!" She will approach strangers to ask if she can pet their dog. She will run up to me out of nowhere just to give me a hug and a kiss.




The most painful part of the day is when she says those dreaded words, "Will you play with me?" Rara will spend about 10 minutes explaining who I am going to be and exactly what I am supposed to say. Inevitably I get it wrong. Then she spends another 15 minutes explaining it all over again... slightly differently this time. I am not allowed to say what I want or choose who I get to be. It's a bit of a dictatorship where rara is the supreme leader. I try to distract her with different fun activities like Play Dough or stickers or making a mess playing in the bathroom sink just so I don't have to play her game.




Rara asks every day if it is Christmas yet and tries to pry out of me what I bought her for Christmas. She was so excited to see Santa. She was the first one to climb up on his lap and the last to hop off. There was't even a moment of hesitation when he asked what she wanted for Christmas. She was thrilled to be talking to the big guy.




I love how little three and a half year old brains work. There is still enough magical thinking where things are never their fault. She doesn't always love to wash her hands yet she knows that by touching them I can tell. So she says, "I definitely washed my hands but I just don't want you to feel them." Every day rara comes to me with an ornament in hand and says, "This ormament accidentally came off the tree by accident." Just today I saw her do this:

Maybe in some other life these little things would make me mad or worried that she would grow up to be a liar. But in this life, she just makes me laugh.