Sugar and Spice

Still not in the mood for posting about the distant past.

I think every mother of a little girl, who is at all girly herself, relishes in moments like this. Last week, this little doll had her first dance class.

Did I have future visions of an interview of her on So You Think You Can Dance saying, "I've been dancing since I was 2 1/2?" Oh yes, I did. Although, I have mixed feelings about my daughter wearing some of those costumes, and doing some of those moves, but I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

For the time being, this outfit that we borrowed from sweet Mina, was about the cutest thing I'd ever seen.

I was happy that she didn't cry or make a fuss about being left there. Although I did have to reassure her that I'd be right upstairs.

Her teacher has a video camera set up in her basement that feeds to the TV in her family room, so the moms can watch. So sweet!

If you have trouble spotting her, she's the only brunette in the class.

She wasn't too thrilled about the hair do. I wondered why I didn't do it like that more often. And then I remembered how much she cried while I did it and ripped it out soon after we got home.

I had to bribe her with candy for the post-dance pictures.

Speaking of candy, this little girl is proving to be a little less "sugar" and a little more "spice" lately. She is super sneaky and makes more messes that I can manage.

Some cases in point:

The other day she wanted a piece of candy. Then she said she needed one for Harrison too. Wanting to encourage sharing and thoughtfulness, I obliged. Later Harrison came up asking for candy. "Didn't Elizabeth already give you one?" "No." Well, at least she's not dumb.

The last two times I've watched people's kids, she has gone through the bag their mother has left for them and pilfered out whatever goodies she can find for herself. One day I found a very cute Princess Pull-Up that was Averi's in with Elizabeth's diapers. Another time she went through Logan's lunch, took out his gogurt, pudding, and fruit snacks, went to one of her sneaky hiding places and opened them all. I quickly caught on to the gogurt and pudding, but had no idea about the fruit snacks until I was telling Mina about it and she said, "I think there were fruit snacks in there too." Sure enough I found the wrapper to the fruit snacks shoved in a cupboard a few days later.

The other night Nate said, "There's a stain on the carpet in the office and I can't get it out." I asked, "Well what is it?" He said, "I have no idea." Then Elizabeth matter-of-factly declared, "It's lipstick." So I said, "Oh, did you put lipstick on the carpet?" "No, but somebody did."

(FYI - Grandma's Secret Spot Remover, found in the check out lanes of some fabric/craft/home decor stores, got it all out.)

Although this wasn't sneaky or messy, it was funny, so I want to document it. Tonight the wind caused the door to their room to suddenly slam, which led to much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. I went in to comfort them and once Elizabeth calmed down she said, "That willy (really) freaked us out. So bad." That cracked me up. Then she said, "When Daddy gets home you gotta tell him that the door closed and I cried and he'll say, 'Awwww.' And 'Oh my gosh.'"

She is talking SO much. She's more and more grown up every day. She ends a lot of things with, "Okay?" And, "Wight?" She told a little boy at the store today that "We hag (have) a new TV." (That's one of the past posts I need to do.) And, "When you're on the hepane (airplane) you got to stay buckled or the bad guys will come get you." Nate came up with that scare tactic and it worked really well. The flight attendants really do act like bad guys sometimes.

She's completely obsessed with my friend Julie (who all children adore because she's the sweetest person ever.) Anyway, she always wants to see Julie and talks about Julie and tells me that her name is Julie and to call her Julie. When she's not being Julie, she's either being a doctor or a puppy, and insists on being called by those names. "Mommy say, 'Thank you, Doctor. Say, it's time to go now, Doctor.'" The puppy routine is complete with several licks on the face.

Anyway, she's a very funny girl. Let's just hope that most of this spice passes quickly and we're left with all the sugar, because when she's not spilling things or sneaking things, she sure is sweet!