Petie showed Joelle a present she was getting me for Christmas, saying “Joelle, you can keep a scecret right?”
Joelle: “I can keep a secret, you trust me don’t you? I Think it’s THIS one (pointing at Elise) you have to worry about, mom.”
Petie has a saying – “commercials only work on kids and dumb people” and we have definitely seen that they work on kids lately.
A few weeks ago Joelle was watching American Idol and she came in and said “Dad, I heard that Zyrtec works better on allergies so maybe we should use that instead of Claritin”.
When we were getting toothpaste at the store Joelle said she wanted Crest because it was the best. I asked why and she said “because the commercial said it gets your teeth whiter and cleaner than other toothpastes.” She was so proud of her informed buying decision.
The other day in the car the topic of Michael Phelps came up – I don’t remember why. This was her monologue as part of the conversation. She kind of said it in spurts as she was thinking about it.
“Oh, when I grow up I am not smoking”
“and if I drink it will just be like one glass of wine at book club or something”
“not every day, just like at book club or bunco”
Ok, so we’ve had our share of battles with the Jojo lately. She’s headstrong and, well, I guess just like me. My mom’s idea to buy a vintage Sea Wee doll (she had one left from my childhood and loves it) and offer it as incentive to be good is the only thing that has even remotely worked to get her to snap out of these tantrums. …and when she isn’t having a tantrum, she is a gloriously sweet little girl. I mean really sweet. She makes us sometimes have an audible, “awww. That was so nice.”
For example, she came home from a party yesterday with a goody bag. Chris asked if she liked sweet tarts. She said, “yes, but why?” He said, “well, I would’ve liked them if you didn’t like them.” At first, she didn’t really say much, but in a little bit, she showed up with the candy and gave them to Chris. Joelle loves her stuff and her candy, this was amazing.
Secondly, we left a party today where she got a diary as a goody. She asked why it had a lock on it. I said, “so you can write down your private thoughts and your friends, mom, dad and Lisie can’t read them.” She said, “but you guys are my family. I trust you guys. Maybe not Elise. When she can talk, she may tell people stuff. You and dad are my best friends though.” Sniff.
Yesterday, when I picked up Elise from school, Ms. Iva said, “Elise must be tired or about to get sick because she was very crabby today.” The substitute helper kindly chirped in, “she woke up on the wrong side of the bed.” Indeed, their greetings at pickup were true. Elise was crabby. Elise is learning about an average of one word a day now. Yesterday’s word? Crabby. On the way home, she said, “I crabby.”
Joelle was actually pretty sweet yesterday. Since she had her first Mad Science class (another story I should share), I was worried she might also be “crabby.” She was good… until bed time. She has this thing, which I also share, where she has to finish whatever it is she’s working on. Joelle and I are not procrastinators. I get that, but I was also bone tired from the work going on in the house and Elise’s crabbiness. So, she got the short end of mom’s patience and we ended up in a fight. This morning, she was still a little sore with me. I said to her, “baby, it looks like you just woke up on the wrong side of the bed.” There was a slight pause and then she said, “I only have one side of the bed.” That was enough to make me laugh and then she giggled back. The dreary mood was lifted.
…and then there is me. This house project needs to be done. It’s very hard for me to continue to have strangers in my house, particularly when they continually leave huge messes, scratched walls, floor with tape stuck on it, broken furniture and dust – so much dust. Poor Chris. I forget what he said last night exactly, but it was something like, “women have ups and downs.” He’s right and he has a whole house full of them. I think our good days totally make up for the bad, but I’m sorry for the rough days, Chris.
A few weeks ago I received an empty text message from Petie. I asked her about it later and apparently Elise had gotten hold of the phone. Her first text message by the age of 2, not bad.
That reminded me of Joelle’s first instant message. She was 5 months old and was sitting in Petie’s lap when Petie was IMing me at work. It went like this:
petietx (9:26:43 AM): she’s trying to type
petietx (9:27:16 AM): ‘,….
petietx (9:27:37 AM): ,mmmmmmmm
petietx (9:27:47 AM): d
petietx (9:27:57 AM): gv x
Now Joelle IMs me all the time from Petie’s account. She likes to abbreviate random phrases. Like “from joelle” is “fj” …to let me know that she is the one typing, not Petie.
Joelle asks if I want to play with the stuffed nativity set we have. She is trying to put all of the wise men, shepherds, Joseph, Mary, etc. on the animals that come with the set – sheep, a cat, a dog, etc.
“Why are they riding the animals?” I ask.
Joelle answers, “All the nativity characters need an animal, so they can attack stuff and use them for food. Baby jesus doesn’t need an animal because he can use this (she pulls out the manger) to shoot guns and fireballs. Baby jesus is a big boy now.”
When Petie walked by and I told her what we were doing (I was stationing a wise man behind the manger to “take cover”) she said, “I bet you almost forgot how to play this type of game”.
What happened to changing clothes on the Barbies to get ready for the ball?
Don’t worry, the next night we were “taking care of babies”.
We’re seeing little glimmers of the Joelle we treasure back in attack. Tonight, after dinner, I pulled up to McDonald’s and she said under her breath, “please be chickie nuggets.” When I asked the guy over the mic for 4 sundaes, she said, “YES!” Elise said, “I cream,” when she saw it handed over.
When we pulled out into the street, Joelle said, “This is Joelle DiPaolo and I am reporting from the dark.” Chris and I both chuckled, so she continued, “It’s so dark, I can’t even see what I am saying.” Hilarious. I love that girl.
On Sunday, after a friend’s birthday party we were talking about what kind of party to have for Elise’s second birthday in January. Joelle asked if she could invite a friend. We said yes, but also told her that a lot of kids her age will be there because a lot of Elise’s “friends” have older siblings. One sibling we mentioned, Hannah, got her going, “oh good! Hannah is my best friend in the whole world…” and went on about how much fun they have on the playground, etc.
Thursday night, the day before her 6th birthday, she said “can we invite Maya to my next birthday party?”
“When you turn SEVEN?” I asked.
“Yeah, she’s my best friend in the whole world, we are SUCH good friends!!”, she squealed.
“I thought Hannah was your best friend,” I recalled.
“Well, she went to California and has been out of town so I’ve forgotten ALL about her. Yep, completely. Now it’s Maya.”
This reminds me of how she would be mad at me, even at age one when I would return from a short (3-4 day) business trip or even if I would get home after her bedtime the night before so it seemed like I had been away. Out of sight out of friend with this one.
I haven’t written in a bit and decided to share a slice of what our mornings are usually like. I now see a new value in these blogs because we may go back to scan them for proof of Joelle’s gifted and talentedness. I actually didn’t really think she was until Chris came home armed with information from the seminar. Turns out, I think Jojo actually does fit a lot of the descriptions. If she is, she totally got that from daddy because I’m just your typical “high achiever” student.
Back to the morning. Joelle has been super, super cranky. She’s wiped out from school. I could go more into the GT stuff, but I won’t. There may be a deeper reason behind it, but whatever, she’s grouchy this week. She woke up this morning and Elise and I were both already at the table eating. She’s been waking up at 7:12, almost every morning. Which gives us about 25 minutes to eat and get ready. I just try to let her have every ounce of sleep she can get.
She screams from across the room, “I DON’T WANT SAUSAGE PATTY. WHY CAN’T YOU ASK ME WHAT I WANT?” I calmly reply, “because you’re waking up really late and I have to have your breakfast ready or you won’t get to school on time.” “I WANT CEREAL WITH MILK. (big scream.)” Elise is sitting in her little chair, mouth open. Joelle walks to the kitchen and pulls out the milk and bowl. She then walks to the cupboard and almost loses it when she says, “I can’t reach the cereal.” Again, calmly, I say, “it’s on the counter.” She lets out a tiny giggle, grabs it and returns to the table. I offer to help pour the milk and she says, “yes, please, mommie.”
The moment is past us and Elise lets out an audible display of relief. She kicks into her high humor mode where she starts making faces and shaking her head. She likes to also put her head down on the table sideways. Without fail, it always makes me laugh…. and it makes Joelle laugh.
I hope our family dynamics do evolve into this. I know Joelle will always be emotional and high drama, she just came to us that way. I like that Elise tries to break through all that and make us laugh…. and her timing can be impeccable.