The really funny thing about the sticking dress is that I distinctly remember writing about how 2 summers ago, I could not for the life of me convince her to wear a dress. She wanted nothing to do with them. Well that attitude has taken a complete 180 and now that is all she wants to wear. And wouldn't you know, even though she DID wear a lot of sundresses in the warmer months, I do not remember it being a prerequisite of our day. Now that the temps have cooled down, she would be happy to wear her sticking dress every day. She cries when she gets it dirty, cries when it is the hamper and cries when I tell her she can only wear it with the matching sweatshirt and leggings to keep her warm. If I try and get her to wear jeans (which unfortunately make up a large portion of her winter wardrobe) she cries and tells me she won't be pretty. I have explained to her that it is not what you wear that makes you pretty but she disagrees. She argues that princesses don't wear jeans. I asked her if she still thought I was pretty since I wear jeans a lot myself and she abrubtly answered no. Well that one certainly did backfire. Luckily she has a few other outfits that are acceptable in her book and occasionally she wears the jeans without a fight. This last weekend when I finally let her wear her Christmas outfit to the winter festival, she thanked me repeatedly, although that was only after we had to argue about how she was going to wear her hair and which bow went best with the outfit. Jadyn is definitely a girly-girl and she is also very opinionated. I wonder where she got that from?
Sometimes, I am convinced that Jadyn's own stubborn personality coupled with the desire for more independence at this developmental age was designed to test my patience and challenge my parenting abilities to the utmost extreme. I really am already starting to fear the teenage years with her. For the most part, she listens to Joe but me - I swear she argues for the fun of it. Telling her no is never good enough and once she accepts no for an answer, Little Miss Drama Queen lets you know she is unhappy with your decision. She has even started refusing to go into and stay in timeout. While I am standing my ground and know with a little hard work, this phase will eventually pass, it is pretty hard when big brother is around trying to give her everything she wants. One day while she was time out for not cleaning up when asked, Jake went behind my back and cleaned up her mess for her. I didn't want to reprimand him for being helpful and sweet so I dumped the box out again to make Jadyn clean it up and the minute I turned my back, Jake cleaned it up again!
On the flip side, Jadyn has become so creative and imaginative. She loves to draw and color and has become quite proficient in drawing people - better than my stick figures. She also loves to make up and tell stories and songs. She also collects sticks at the park or around Jake's school and then pretends they are certain animals based on the shape and size of the stick.
Developementally the last few months have seen quite an explosion as after a lot of hard work and frustration on her end, she finally learned to write her name. She can now ride Jake's 12 inch bike (which makes it perfect that Santa is bringing one of her own for Christmas). She has fallen in love with playing the game Memory, I think in large part to the fact that she is so good she can easily beat Jake and me, even when I am really trying. She insists that I copy Jake's weekly homework folder she can do homework too, most of which she can do with a little help. She loves to cut with scissors and as I recently discovered can play with Play-Doh uninterrupted for over 2 hours and is easily occupied with one of my colored pens and some blank paper. I love to see her doodles.
Jadyn is also immensely helpful. She loves, loves, loves to help Joe (and I to a lesser extent) bake and cook. She loves to help me clean, do laundry, feed the dogs, take out the trash or whatever task I ask of her. And I love that she is so willing and eager to lend a helping hand.
After months of sleeping with Jake in his bed (ever since the visit from the paci fairy), one night when they were not settling down to sleep I threatened to separate them. To my surprise, Jadyn then voluntarily got up and got into her bed. Since then most nights she starts off in her own bed but of course she is seldom alone, since Jazz loves to snuggle with her. And you have to keep checking on her because she has been known to get up, turn on her light and quietly start playing with her baby dolls and princesses. She will also bring stuffed animals in to Jake's room to keep him company. It is quite amusing but trust me - not so much at 8 p.m. when I am in desperate need of some "me time".
Even though Jake is overall more mellow and compliant, I love the creativity and imagination that accompanies Jadyn's spitfire nature and despite there obvious differences in personality, it is also nice to see how well the two of them play and get along together.
I was hoping to get a really good run of outdoor pictures of Jadyn but since that has yet to happen, check out how excited and happy she was in these pictures. We were out shopping for a few last minute gifts when she spotted these VERY girly PJs that came complete with a tutu. She put them on last night and was dancing around like a ballerenia. We really need to try dance classes again but I think these shots capture our high-spirited princess pretty well.
3.5 is a roller coaster ride. The ups are really, really great and the downs are miserable.
ReplyDeleteI love the pictures. She's growing into such a little lady.