And what did Sweetie answer? No, she didn't go the Beatles route and fill it in with the easy to spell "gun" (ya know, since I'm pretty sure she's never even heard of that song and all). No, she took an even simpler route by keeping the blank there, as is, and just adding an "et" at the end of it.
"Happiness is a warm ______et"
(get it? you must! "Happiness is a warm blanket." Ha!)
She's so funny.
You know what happiness is to me? Go on - guess! That's right.... Sweetie. Sweetie makes me incredibly happy.
I love listening to her babble and sing as she plays in the unconventional ways that she does. She has a tea set, but does she play tea party? No. She turns the cups upside down on their saucers, takes out her Winnie the Pooh figurines, and plays house with them (the cups and any other surfaces she can think of being the friends' houses, you see.) We got her a children's set of magnetic poetry words a couple years ago. Does she use the words to make up sentences and poems? No. She spends her time playing with her word friends ("Fiddle" and "Honey", for instance), sliding everyone around on the fridge to form different shapes and to visit different "houses".
I love how excited Sweetie is to make new things and test out new theories. She loves to create and is as curious as ever to see how things will work out in the end.
I love how much of an individual Sweetie is. Being so "whatever" in the face of bullies at school. Not only being able to but actually loving playing on her own at recess - Super (Sweetie) is always to the rescue! (Although I admit to being a bit happier now that she's regularly playing with a couple of little girl friends at recess. Individuality and personal strength is a great thing!, but fitting in, making friends and occasionally following other's leads is also a valuable skill to learn, I think.)
I love how polite and helpful Sweetie (mostly) is. She helps me distribute clean laundry to the upstairs room. She helps Daddy with gardening. She helps me clean up the house with not much of a big deal. And she politely asks for, and thanks us for, the things that she wants. (Scene from yesterday: She gets her little piano and tells me she's going to sing a song for me about the way she feels and what she wants. Then she plays while singing - "Mommy, I'm thirsty! Please get me a drink! I'm thirsty! Please get me a drink!" So cute. And she thanked me as well, once I got her that drink.)
And I love how loved I know Sweetie feels. I love that I can be beyond mad at her - enough to make her start crying and let her know without a shadow of a doubt that what she's just done is completely unacceptable.... And then within a half hour or so, we can come together again, talk about the problem, and be done with it. She'll sidle up to me on the couch once more to cuddle or will start in again with her crazy, spirited play - singing and dancing around again... "I love you, Mommy! I love you, Daddy!" She knows that it's certain behavior of hers Daddy and I don't love. But we will always, ALWAYS love her more than words could ever express.
Sweetie makes me happy. Even when she's frustrating, not listening, whining, and just plain being a pill. She is still absolutely amazing to me. Her bad moods don't tend to last all that long. She is a good girl. She's a responsible girl who thinks about others. And if I'm feeling like not too much else in this world is going particularly great - I know that Sweetie is always great and that's good enough for me.
If she's great, that means I and Hubby must be doing something great as well. We're raising a really wonderful little girl.
This parenting job pays really terribly, but I'll take it. The benefits package is unbeatable!
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