Gabbie's Horrible, Awful, No Good Week

Poor Gabbie has had a rough week, for many reasons, including:

• Croup - She was fine on Saturday evening when she went to bed at eight. Three hours later she had a barking cough and a fever. She spent Sunday through Tuesday resting and recouperating, even though she was not happy about it. On Tuesday she was suffering more from Cabin Fever than the Croup (but she still had to stay  home from school because the last time she was running a fever was less than 24 hours before), so we went out for lunch - Chinese food, her choice. She got vegetable fried rice, and I had the most amazing Pho Ga. (Also, Gabbie ate all my cilantro. Plain. It is so weird to me, a cilantro-tolerater-because-my-family-likes-it kind of person, when she does that.)



• Then she had a temper tantrum at the grocery store because she wanted to hold the yogurt covered pretzels, and I had the nerve to put them in the cart without thinking that possibly she would rather hold them.
• Then, I had the nerve to make her take a nap (she finally submitted when I offered to rock her to sleep).
• Yesterday she threw a fit when, after she asked me what kind of animal we are, I told her that we're humans. She doesn't want to be a human!
• She has been testing out the whole lying thing lately, and I am amazed at how stupid she obviously thinks I am. I will catch her doing something, (SEE IT WITH MY OWN EYES!) and then she'll deny it. ARGH!
• The toughest part for me was today, after her preschool Holiday Party, when she had to stay instead of going home with me, and she lost her shit in a spectacular fashion. She had to be peeled off of me by a teacher. It didn't help that I forgot something in the room and couldn't get another teacher's attention so she could hand it to me, so I had to slip in real quick to get it and she saw me again.

There's only one more day left this week, and I'm hoping I can make it a good one for her. Then this weekend, she gets a mommy date, and we're going to bake cookies with the rest of the women in Aaron's family. Gabbie's no good week needs turned around, and I think those two things may just be the way to do it.

Reason 193 That I'm Sure She's My Child

If we let her, she would subsist solely on food that consists of carbs and cheese.

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."