Friday, May 5, 2017

Pretending: To Play Princesses; To Parent


I 100% bribed Quinny to put on that princess dress and take a picture with her girlfriends. I can't remember what it took, but I'm pretty sure I remember chocolate chip cheeks soon after this snap so my guess is that the Costco-sized bag of cocoa in the freezer had something to do with that darling grin. Despite a rack full of dresses and a drawer full of Little People, Quinny only pretends to like princesses. Mostly she's in to cheetahs, scary cheetahs, and wants to run around the house all day saying, "See! I fast wike a cheetah! Watch me run faster, faster!" She is fast like a cheetah, that's for sure. And are cheetahs super stubborn? Because if so, her likeness to cheetahs just went up a few notches!
 
Her lack of girly-girlness surely doesn't come as a surprise to me, I was a ball over Barbie gal myself, but from where I'm sitting as an almost 32-year-old it's incredibly fascinating to watch her navigate her world as an uber confident two-year-old. She knows what she likes and what she doesn't. She has definite ideas, opinions and plans. Her passion knows no bounds, nor does her ability to express her thoughts and feelings (loud...and long...and strong). At moments all I can do is take cleansing breaths and say silent prayers that I can make it through the day because she is SO MUCH for being SO LITTLE and I worry that I'm so caught up in surviving that I don't spend enough time savoring.

But a relatively easy bedtime routine tonight (even after a heck of a day) has allowed me the mental energy to revisit all the good moments in my day, and I'm sitting here marveling over that fiery little cheetah dressed in princess garb and how proud I was when she spent the afternoon throwing and catching a football in the backyard, how brave she was when she took a hard fall and hopped up with a smile and an "I OK!" and then tonight, how sweetly she sang "I love to see the temple" before a prayer and a kiss goodnight. Gosh, I love my Quisabel, and it's so easy when she's acting so cute.

When it comes down to it we're playing the same game, Quinny and I. We're trying our hardest to do things that don't always come naturally, but we want to do well. She's pretending to play princesses, I'm pretending to know how to be her Mama, and with enough chocolate chips I'm hoping we'll both be successful!

1 comment:

  1. This was so beautiful! I guess we all are playing pretend, trying to do the best that we can! I agree, chocolate makes it possible!

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