"Mama! Maa Maaaa!"
I walk in to find her standing in her crib wearing her purple Princess Sofia pajama dress and rubbing sleep from her eyes. Her curly hair is poking up and matted in all the right places, "Princess Bedhead".
"You ready to get up?" I ask. She nods, and I lift her out of the crib. I know she is definitely old enough to have her bed turned into a "big girl" bed but if it ain't broke... Besides, I'm pretty sure she was just a little baby like last week.
I usher her into the bathroom, set her little ducky seat onto the toilet, and plop her on top. A few seconds later-- "Mama, I'm doing it!" She's been potty trained for three months now, but she still gets very proud of herself with every bathroom trip.
We finish up and she says "Mama, I have music?? I need to dance!" This has been a daily request for months. "You're not hungry?" I ask. "No, not hungry... I need to dance!"
So we walk into the living room, and I spot the bag from the dollar store with the little Princess Sofia painting set inside. I quickly toss it onto the couch because I know the second she sees it she's going to want to paint, and then we're never going to get around to eating breakfast. Getting Avery to eat these days is... tricky.
I turn the TV to Pandora ("Mama, right there! Music right there!"), and turn on my "Part of Your World" station. "When Will My Life Begin" from Tangled starts to play, and Avery starts to dance. Some leg swings here, dramatic arms there, bending over and sticking her leg straight up behind her, and a lot of skipping and jumping and twirling in her dress. Her musicality is impeccable.
Then, before the song even finishes, she spots it-- "OH! Mama! I don't need to dance anymore, I need to PAINT! Pleeeease???"
I probably should have just made her stop playing and eat breakfast right then and there but! I was tired. I did however make her clean up some of her toys that were out before she could paint. She was surprisingly more than happy to do so, singing to herself and even telling somebody on her toy phone as she walked into her room to put it away: "I gonna do some painting! You're gonna love it."
When she's all done I get out her little artist smock and get her all set up. She tells me she wants to start with pink for Princess Sofia's crown, and surprises me with how carefully she paints just the crown. It's not all within the lines, but it's close! Her technique is improving. However, it's not long before her artistic choices become more and more abstract and creative - "Mama! I'm painting the clouds green!" I think the cutest though is how anytime she paints, she says "Dada is going to looooove this!"
And then, after maybe 20 minutes of painting, it happens. As she's stirring the paint brush in the water she stops and looks at me and says- "Mama? I'm reallly thirsty. And really hungry!" So I walk with her into the kitchen, she picks out some cereal (Cinnamon Toast Crunch), and without a single protest, she's eating!
I sit down across from her with my own bowl of cereal. She holds up her spoon, waiting for me to hold up mine. "Cheers!" we say, and pretend to tap our spoons together.
Saturdays are the best days.
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(These are actually from a month ago, but here's the petite artiste in action.) |
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