Dr. Jekyll

This girl. Oh! This girl of mine.

I had a teacher conference at her school yesterday. My first chance to sit down and talk about Lily with the people who spend 2 1/2 hours, 3 times a week with her.

Here's what they said, "Lily is a delight! She is so smart and eager to share. We can always depend on Lily to have the answer to our questions. Like last week when we talked about houses made of ice and she immediately raised her hand and said 'Igloo!' She is kind and loving towards her classmates and happily plays with anyone...although she prefers the girls. She sticks up for herself when another student takes something from her, but she never instigates trouble. She never protests any activity and is eager to try new things. She prefers pretend play over coloring and crafts, but again, she never gives us any protest. She has age appropriate writing skills. If we could have a class full of Lilys, it would be the most perfect class ever."

Wait. Are you talking about this girl?

Are you talking about the girl that fights me tooth and nail about going to school each morning? The girl who at the time of this writing has already had 2 screaming fits about whether she has to wear pj's to school today for their Hibernation Party (it is 6:30am)? The girl who snatches toys from her brothers and laughs evilly and then screams in indignation when they reciprocate? The same girl?

Yes, it seems that Lily is the model student. She is Dr. Jekyll at school, while often Mr. Hyde at home. Which is preferable, I suppose. And I'm proud of her. I predict that she will be our most successful child. She is smart, but also willing to try new and difficult things. She sticks up for herself while simultaneously winning over the authority. Watch out world! Here comes Lily!

In other news, Lily has been really enjoying her little brother. To the point that they exclude Andrew many times. Perhaps we should have another baby to even things out. This odd-number always seems to leave someone out. Lily and Michael love to play cat and trains and baby. And Lily gets to boss Michael around...which she loves. When she plays with Andrew, he is in charge and threatens to stop playing if Lily tries to assert any opinions.

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It's like Lord of the Flies over here, people. It is amazing the negotiation and cooperation skills that they are learning from each other. And perhaps the odd number forces them to balance...if Andrew is being too bossy to Lily, then she'll just leave and go play with Michael. So Andrew has to find the perfect amount of pressure to manipulate Lily in order to control her but not lose her to Michael. Okay, so 3 kids is good. Phew.

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Really, I feel like Jane Goodall over here.

Right now, the large male I call "Andrew" is doling out bug toys to the loud female I call "Lily". The small male, "Mike" is currently out of the picture. We'll see how the female deals with being short-changed in the toy distribution.

At least they don't throw feces at each other like apes do. I should add yet. They don't throw feces yet.

How did this blog post disintegrate so quickly? Wasn't I supposed to be talking about Lily? Not throwing poo?

My Lily. My strong-willed, opinionated, mood-changing, observant, loving, imaginative girl. How she melts my heart when she out of the blue compliments her dad's hair cut. Or when she comes up from my mom's basement with no prompting and says, "Thank you so much for cleaning up the basement. It is really nice." Or when she cheers on her little brother if he adds an end sound on a word. Or when she runs into the room, throws up her hands, and sings dramatically, "Everybody DANCE NOW!"

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Oh! How I love my 4 year old!