Thanksgiving Weekend Highs and Lows with Gabbie

There was a conversation on Twitter yesterday about three-year-olds, and how the highs are so incredibly high, and the lows are head-explodingly low, and I could not agree more with that sentiment. In my line of work, I couldn't present such a statement without some sort of follow-up evidence, so I present to you: The High Point and Low Point of Our Long Thanksgiving Weekend!

High Point:

Gabbie helped me make pieson Thanksgiving eve/morning. She made a cookie crumb crust almost entirely by herself, by crushing the cookies with her miniature rolling pin, pouring the crumbs in a bowl, mixing in the sugar and melted butter I added, pouring it into the pie pan, and pushing it down on the bottom and sides. All I had to do was the baking part. I can't believe how big and capable she (mostly) is these days!

Then the next morning, she sat at the counter with me and helped peel and slice apples (using an apple peeler/slicer/corer thing - she turned the crank while I did the rest), and kept me company while I did the rest of the pie making. I also taught her how to make pie treats (sprinkle leftover pie crust with cinnamon and sugar and bake), which we shared while the pies were baking. She also was assigned duties as chief spoon/whisk/bowl licker with the spoon/whisk/bowl that resulted from making banana cream pie. (SO GOOD!)

It was lovely and picturesque. She was doing the things I remember doing when I was a kid, and I loved sharing these moments with her. It's moments like that when I just want to scoop her up and put her someplace for safe-keeping, so she never, ever changes how she is right now.

Low Point:

Most of yesterday was not quite so awesome. She was obviously exhausted, but is dropping her nap (I am NOT READY for this), and so was insisting that she wasn't tired and didn't need to nap. There were instances of talking back ("Gabbie, stop it." "No, Mom, you stop it."), being generally unkind to her sister (like holding out one of Sophie's toys just out of reach, saying, "Sophie, you can't play with this," and then snatching it away), and then came the cherry on top of the crap Sunday (haha - I love a good pun!). She was playing with Sophie's walk and ride toy, and I asked her not to ride it onto the wood floor, because she's a little heavy for it and so I was afraid the wheels would leave scrapes on the floor. Not two minutes later, I look over and see her watching me as she slowly and deliberately rode the toy onto the wood floor. (!!!)

At this point, I got a headache due to lack of ability to make my head actually explode, and she was placed in time out for five minutes, because I had absolutely had it. Up to HERE even!

Of course, at the end of her time out, she came over and gave me a big hug and some cuddles and was all sorts of cute and wonderful again.

Three. Man, oh, man is it a ride.

Green Beans, Two Ways

This is, surprisingly, not a recipe post.

The other night I was preparing some green beans for dinner, and the following conversation occurred:

Gabbie: Mom, what are you doing?
Me: Cooking green beans.
Gabbie: How are you cooking them?
Me: I'm steaming them.
Gabbie: Oh....that's not how I do it. I cook green beans different at my pink house.*
Me: Oh, yeah?
Gabbie: Yeah. Here's how me and my baby** make them. First we put down butter. Then we put the green beans on top. Then we sprinkle them with oatmeal. They're really delicious.
Me: Sounds that way.

At his point, she walked out of the kitchen, and I had to wipe a tear of laughter from my eye. She is just so awesome and her imagination is the best. I remember living in a world that existed almost entirely in my imagination when I was little, and I think it's fantastic that she's in that phase right now.

* Gabbie has lots of things at her "pink house," which is the place where she lives in her imagination, apparently. Her friends also have imaginary houses, including a yellow house and a purple house, and sometimes they trade, although the trading hasn't happened in a while. Often, when Gabbie sees something new, after we've explained it to her, she will say, "Oh! I have one at my pink house, too." Alternately, if there's something she doesn't like, it won't be at her pink house, or she'll do it differently at her pink house, hence the cooking of the green beans differently. I love hearing about her pink house.

**Gabbie also has an imaginary baby (sometimes two - yesterday there were two, one who was three like her and one who is 21, whose birthday was yesterday (her baby has a birthday almost every day - often a colored one, as in, "Today is my baby's blue birthday" - which stems from Gabbie's Very Pink 3rd Birthday Party). Her baby often does things differently than we do them, or her baby gets to do things that we don't let Gabbie do, as in, "My baby doesn't have to wash her hands after she goes potty."