Ever since my daughter Leila came into this world, I have been thoroughly fascinated by her thoughts and just the overall way she has found herself in the world.
I remember when she first discovered Elmo, for example. We had gone to church that morning and she was wearing a dress with a picture of Elmo on it. Naturally, people kept mentioning the word “Elmo” to her and at that point, she was absolutely clueless as to who that was and why people kept saying that to her. The confusion was written all over her face as she continuously repeated the word Elmo in the car wondering if this was an important word she was expected to know. Finally later that day, I handed her her Elmo doll and said, “Look Leila, this is Elmo.” She looked at the doll, then to her shirt and it was like a light bulb went on in her head. I would later come to regret that discovery turned obsession.
Anyway, now that this other life is growing inside of me and I have Leila at my side to witness it all, I’m so curious as to what all of this means to her. I’ve been thoroughly fascinated by the words that have come out of her mind and mouth since we told her she was going to be a big sister. She points to my belly and asks, “That’s your baby?” I say, “Yes, that’s your sister.” And just when I think she’s getting it all, she pulls up her shirt, points to her belly and says, “This is my sister.” Since then, there have been several more for the books…
1. The other day, she looked at my belly and noticing that my belly button has popped out, her face formed the most disgusted look and asked, “Mommy, your baby did that to you?” Why yes, yes my baby did do this to me.
2. When she got tired of hugging my pregnant belly, she said, “I want to hold her now.” I said, “No honey, you can’t hold her til she comes out of my belly.” She paused for a moment and asks me, “We can’t open it?” {A very pregnant me} thinks, “If only…”
3. Over Christmas break, she makes it a point to announce to everyone that while I’m her sister’s Mommy, “My sister’s Daddy is not here! *….crickets….* Mind you, my child does belong to my husband and thank goodness he knows that, since we all know that could have been a major oops moment! I’ve learned since that she does not care if I have 100 children, but to her daddy, it’s a totally different ball game.
How much of this she’s actually getting? I guess we’ll never quite know.
[…] mind and mouth since we told her she was going to be a big sister. There was of course the “Your baby did that to you?“ comment she made in regards to my protruding belly button, which still has me cracking up. […]