Eliza and I went walking on the Lake Murray dam a few weeks ago in the hot, hot sun right before we went and jumped into the lake. Eliza was stylin' in her sunglasses.
It's funny because at the beginning of the summer, Eliza was afraid to even get in the pool, especially past the first step.
But she's made a total transformation! Now she wants to swim "by m'self!"well, with floaties, of course! She was even trying to do it by herself at the beach on Monday, which was really stressful for me! Now she's obsessed with being a "lil' mumaid!" and letting her hair flow behind her in the water.
She's also obsessed with being a princess, much to my chagrin, but I'm trying to flow with it. I'm trying to think of it as sort of like the parents that are worried about their little boys loving the color pink and baby dolls... I'm just hoping she'll kinda grow out of it. I'm trying to commission a princess drawing or book from Steve (during all of his free time that he doesn't have) that has a princess who's tough and plump and happy getting in the dirt or something.
My favorite princess book that I read to Eliza is The Paperbag Princess that I used to read when I was younger. The princess's name happens to be Elizabeth too, which was my middle name and, ya know, sounds like Eliza! Perfect!
When a dragon smashes her castle and burns all her clothes, and steals her fiancee, Elizabeth doesn't take it lying down. She pulls herself together and heads off to fix things.
She tricks up the dragon leaving him fireless and exhausted, which enables her to rescue Ronald (my dad's name-btw).
Ronald, it turns out, is no prize and in a truly ungrateful manner he insults her appearance and tells her to come back when she's dressed like a real princess. The last page of the book is the best...
"Ronald," said Elizabeth, "your clothes are really pretty and your hair is all neat. You look like a real prince, but you are a bum." They didn't get married after all.
Cool, right? I want my Eliza to be that kind of princess! But in the meantime, I'm humoring her with dress up shoes (that she immediately calls princess shoes), letting her wear pink dresses and watch Cinderella, and allowing her to explore this not-so-unique interest.
In my art therapy group with the parents at my internship on Wednesday morning, we made collages of images, phrases, and colors that reminded us of our children. I ended up making one too while I talked with the mom's at my table.
(The pic was too big for the scanner so I collaged the collage on the computer. You can click to make it bigger...)"Redefining Sweet" and "Finding great pleasure in the smallest moments."
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