1. Swimmer. Olivia has been doing great at swim lessons this summer and passed the "float test" at her swim school. She was overflowing with pride and has told just about everyone we know.
This was her "practice" round. I wasn't able to attend the real test and Matt wasn't able to tape it, but apparently they threw her in with all her clothes/shoes on and she floated to the other side and rang this bell. Pretty cute. Then she got a little bag of goodies to take home, including her own "Houston Swim Club" bell that she rings constantly. Funny story - the bag also came with a Houston Swim Club pink shirt. She immediately looked at it and told me to donate it because its not a dress and she won't wear it. This girl! At least she is self -aware?
2. Care-giver. I caught a terrible stomach bug a few weeks ago so one afternoon I was in the bathroom throwing up and Olivia came in and said "Okay. Mommy. Hold on. I will be right back." I wasn't really planning on going anywhere, but she quickly ran back in the room with her piano and proceeded to play some horrible tune as I continued to be sick. Let me just say - if there is anything that will make the experience of vomiting worse - its bad piano music (maybe any piano music). Later, when I asked her why she did that, she just cracked up and said "Mom! It was your sound machine!"
3. The law. Recently we have been discussing how everyone has to follow rules and I introduced the concept of the law to her. She knows that sometimes I go talk to a judge for my work, so it wasn't a huge leap. We talked about all kinds of laws - buckling your seat belt, not stealing, not littering, etc. Then Olivia asked "What about cutting people? Is cutting people against the law?" With slight fear in our answer, we quickly replied that yes, most definitely, cutting people is against the law. Well, of course the obvious follow up question - so what happens if you do cut someone against the law? Thus, we introduced the concept of jail. Its a tough concept to explain to a 3 year old but I thought we did an okay job. Until the other night at bed time. Olivia was asking her usual barrage of questions to delay the bedtime process and that night's theme was Jail 101: What do you eat in jail? Can you sleep with your friends? Can you wear a tutu? Can you bring your babydolls? Can you bring your toys?
She seemed most upset by the fact that you cannot wear a tutu and you have to wear pants and a shirt (there is basically no greater punishment to Olivia than being forced to wear pants and a shirt that are not purple). She thought about it for a minute and then said "Well, what if I don't want to wear that?" I said "Then you better follow all the laws so you never have to go to jail." She nodded. (But then she broke a Dean Law 10 minutes later by coming out of her room after bedtime, so fingers crossed with this one...).
4. Working girl. At dinnertime, I try my best to get Olivia to tell me what she did at school that day. Most of the time, to no avail. She will usually say "I played with Cate." or "I played with the baby dolls." But lately, her days sound very familiar to Matt and I. Some of her tasks recently have included "drafting contracts" and "answering emails" or "meeting with clients." (All tasks mommy does on a daily basis!). The other day she did give us one piece of insight into her day - apparently she and Cate were playing outside and Cate was just "stressing her out" because Cate told her to make pretend snacks for all the pretend friends. It is t-o-u-g-h being 3!
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