She's uncannily perceptive for a four-year-old, in my {none-too-objective, perhaps} opinion. Her teachers at church and other adults who spend time with her have sometimes commented on her fine motor skills, her understanding, and her ability with language being surprising for her age. I don't have another four-year-old in the house to compare her to at the moment, but I can definitively say that sometimes she blows me out of the water simply in the way that nothing seems to get past this girl. For example, earlier this week she wanted cheerios and milk for breakfast, and was tearfully protesting when I responded that we were having eggs. Frustrated, she declared,
"Nobody ever gives me what I want! They give me what they want me to have, and then teach me to be polite about it."
I mean, that's pretty perceptive for a four-year-old, right?! I had a hard time keeping a straight face!
She calls the Hershey's Kiss Nell brings home from choir rehearsal every week a "Wooshey Kiss," and mis-pronounces the word "handicapped" as "candycapped," which if we're honest, sounds kind of delicious. She calls armpits "ticklepits," and still calls pistachios "spasmashios." I'm enjoying these last lingering little mispronounced words while they last.
The queen of silly faces just as she's always been, Ree has been realizing that her facial expressions don't always default to the most appropriate or expected reaction in a given situation. Recently, as Nell was throwing up during a brief virus, Ree covered her own face with her hands and wailed, "I don't know how to make the right faces because I know it's sad that she's sick but I can't stop smiling!"
And that actually paled in comparison to the time that Nell was coughing, and Ree said sweetly, "Ohhhh Nell, I'm soooooo sorry you're sick!" But then turned to me, mere inches away, and said matter-of-factly, laughing a little, "Of course I'm just saying that. I don't even love her."
I think I just sat there and blinked at her for a full five seconds at that one.
Boy, does this kid know how to calculate her words for full impact and reaction! She's really smart! I mean... Usually I think I'm a step ahead of the game, but sometimes I have moments where I think... what if she's the one who's a step ahead? What if she's running this whole show? And if she's like this at four, what will the future bring?!
{Oh, and I've googled for signs that your child might be a sociopath a time or two. I'm 99% certain we're in the clear. ;-) }
Ree doesn't love going to bed alone, and is always looking for someone willing to snuggle with her. She recently told me, "I feel like I'm going to die. And also I'm worried our house is going to be on fire." My heart! Poor sweet girlie. {See! She does have feelings.} So of course, we try to snuggle with her whenever we possibly can. And hey, the bedtime snuggle times almost always provide some pretty good Reeisms in the course of our conversations!
Pontificating on theology at bedtime:
Ree: "I don’t like dying and sometimes I think about it and I don’t like it."
Me: "Oh darling, you aren’t going to die for a very long time. You get to be a kid for a very long time first, and then a grown up, and then maybe someday a mom and then a grandma. And when you do die, you get to be with Jesus."
Ree: "I know but then we'll just be in a world with no food and I don't like that. There's no food with Jesus really."
Me: "Why don't you think there's food with Jesus?"
Ree: "Because they only had bread and wine remember? That's all they had at the dinner. And some kinds of wine I don't really like. Some kinds of wine I do like though I guess. And I like bread. So maybe it will be okay."
Me: {explanation of how we don't know what the feast will be like but it will be far grander than the Last Supper, and exceed our imaginations in every way}
Ree {grinning}: "OH so Jesus would have grapes for me?!"
Me: "Yes."
Ree: "Oh yeah! God can make everything because God made everything. Well, with Jesus. Jesus maked things too with God even before he was a baby."
{I love hearing her little mind work. And notice how she's got that whole "all things were made through him" thing understood?}
Looking at a map, and studying detached, floating Alaska, set apart from everything else on the U.S. map with particular interest:
"Is that the God area? Is that where God lives?"
* * *
"Mama's big and strong and SO HEAVY!"
{Thank you. Thank you so much. #blessed.}
* * *
Half asleep one night, driving home in the dark:
"It’s mine. It’s mine! The moon is mine."
* * *
Playing in her play kitchen:
"I’m gonna have a french fry sandwich!"
* * *
"I’m going to make up a song on my violin about the shepherds of the sky."
* * *
A distinctly unexplainable one:
"Sometimes bugs come into my eyes and they don’t try to bite me they just snuggle in my eyes. They think it’s their couch."
(No, she doesn't really have bugs in her eyes!)
"But Mama, why don’t some families have any girls? Because... girls are so good and so fun! So why don't some families have any?"
Uttering a long, dramatic sigh while engaged in the apparently exhausting task of eating dinner:
"I’m tired of feeding myself every day and night!"
Outside last summer, playing with Nell:
"We like dandelions. We like to pick them and blow them up to God."
"When I grow up I’m going to have a feast of chocolate. Chocolate for breakfast, chocolate for lunch, chocolate for dinner."
Ree: "What’s for breakfast?"
Mama: "Toasted rice cakes, and a smoothie."
Ree: "Wow! Wow! I wanted it to be chocolate and gummy bears but it turned out to be something even yummier!"
{I don't even know how she knows what a gummy bear is! But pretty pleased she knows a smoothie is preferable, ha!}
After being sick recently, she woke one morning and croaked:
"I’m all better except my voice is a little smudged up."
Descending the stairs at 9 pm (two hours after she'd gone to bed):
"Mommy, I need to draw a picture. Of a cloud. Right now."
After giving away a few bags of donations of things we no longer needed:
"YAY! Now our house is cleaner and their house is gonna be so messy!"
* * *
Uttering a long, dramatic sigh while engaged in the apparently exhausting task of eating dinner:
"I’m tired of feeding myself every day and night!"
* * *
Outside last summer, playing with Nell:
"We like dandelions. We like to pick them and blow them up to God."
* * *
"When I grow up I’m going to have a feast of chocolate. Chocolate for breakfast, chocolate for lunch, chocolate for dinner."
* * *
Ree: "What’s for breakfast?"
Mama: "Toasted rice cakes, and a smoothie."
Ree: "Wow! Wow! I wanted it to be chocolate and gummy bears but it turned out to be something even yummier!"
{I don't even know how she knows what a gummy bear is! But pretty pleased she knows a smoothie is preferable, ha!}
* * *
After being sick recently, she woke one morning and croaked:
"I’m all better except my voice is a little smudged up."
* * *
Descending the stairs at 9 pm (two hours after she'd gone to bed):
"Mommy, I need to draw a picture. Of a cloud. Right now."
* * *
After giving away a few bags of donations of things we no longer needed:
"YAY! Now our house is cleaner and their house is gonna be so messy!"
Watching the King's College choir singing, and quite enamored with the sheer number of boys:
"Mama, how do their mom and dad fit so many children in their car?!"
Running down the stairs from the bathroom, wearing a dress-up scarf and smiling suspiciously:
Me: "Ree, have you done anything naughty?"
Ree: "I just put spit on my eyelids like makeup. And then I put water on the spit. Like makeup."
Me: "Of course."
"God is in my bones, right Mama?"
Nathan: "Ree, did you ever move any of my records? I can’t find the one I'm looking for."
Ree: "No. I didn't and I know that I didn’t because I was watching myself every day."
Handing me a lucky penny she found:
"Here Mama. I was going to keep it for myself but then I thought, I love Mama even more than I love myself, so I want you to have it."
Running her mouth across a piece of dental floss over and over:
"I like licking all the mint off because it’s yummy."
In church, after the priest said, "All things are yours, oh Lord, and of your own have we given you," Ree asked a whispered question about that. I replied, "Yes, all we have belongs to God. Did you know that?" And she replied, "Even our poop? I don't think our poop belongs to God." Well... maybe God doesn't want our poop. Valid point.
"Mama, how do their mom and dad fit so many children in their car?!"
* * *
Running down the stairs from the bathroom, wearing a dress-up scarf and smiling suspiciously:
Me: "Ree, have you done anything naughty?"
Ree: "I just put spit on my eyelids like makeup. And then I put water on the spit. Like makeup."
Me: "Of course."
* * *
"God is in my bones, right Mama?"
* * *
Nathan: "Ree, did you ever move any of my records? I can’t find the one I'm looking for."
Ree: "No. I didn't and I know that I didn’t because I was watching myself every day."
* * *
Handing me a lucky penny she found:
"Here Mama. I was going to keep it for myself but then I thought, I love Mama even more than I love myself, so I want you to have it."
* * *
Running her mouth across a piece of dental floss over and over:
"I like licking all the mint off because it’s yummy."
* * *
In church, after the priest said, "All things are yours, oh Lord, and of your own have we given you," Ree asked a whispered question about that. I replied, "Yes, all we have belongs to God. Did you know that?" And she replied, "Even our poop? I don't think our poop belongs to God." Well... maybe God doesn't want our poop. Valid point.
Looking at the sky one evening:
"One of the colors in the sunset tonight is black. No no no that’s not pretty at all."
Curiously feeling the perimeter of her eyes with her fingertips:
"Hey, is this thing just a round ball in there??"
Me: "Did you know you fell asleep in the car?"
Ree: "I wasn't asleep."
Me: "You were!"
Ree: "Oh! Well, I didn't see myself sleeping so I didn't know!"
Singing a hymn together at bedtime:
"God set the stars to give light to the world..."
Ree: "Can we sing the word 'earth' instead of 'world' because I can't say 'world' very well but I can say 'earth' really well."
{both she and Nell sort of pronounce 'world' like... 'wouwd'. That rl sound together is tricky!}
Out of the blue, at 5:34 one evening:
"It’s eleven o’clock! Time for me to clean up!"
In the bathtub:
Ree: "I can hold my breath for maybe thirty-nine-twenty-six minutes."
Nell: "Ok, go."
Ree: "No, Nell, I can't do it because it would take too long! It would take every single day until we die!"
Nell: "Yeah, see, you couldn't do it."
Ree {sighing exasperatedly}: No, Nell, I can do it but I don't have time to do it."
"One of the colors in the sunset tonight is black. No no no that’s not pretty at all."
* * *
Curiously feeling the perimeter of her eyes with her fingertips:
"Hey, is this thing just a round ball in there??"
* * *
Me: "Did you know you fell asleep in the car?"
Ree: "I wasn't asleep."
Me: "You were!"
Ree: "Oh! Well, I didn't see myself sleeping so I didn't know!"
* * *
Singing a hymn together at bedtime:
"God set the stars to give light to the world..."
Ree: "Can we sing the word 'earth' instead of 'world' because I can't say 'world' very well but I can say 'earth' really well."
{both she and Nell sort of pronounce 'world' like... 'wouwd'. That rl sound together is tricky!}
* * *
Out of the blue, at 5:34 one evening:
"It’s eleven o’clock! Time for me to clean up!"
* * *
In the bathtub:
Ree: "I can hold my breath for maybe thirty-nine-twenty-six minutes."
Nell: "Ok, go."
Ree: "No, Nell, I can't do it because it would take too long! It would take every single day until we die!"
Nell: "Yeah, see, you couldn't do it."
Ree {sighing exasperatedly}: No, Nell, I can do it but I don't have time to do it."
Describing someone to me: "She had a crumbled face."
"Oh Mama, I love your necklace. Can you get me a fancy necklace? Or just take somebody else’s to give me?"
Ree: "Mama, when you were a little kid what did you call Daddy?"
Me: "Well, I didn’t even know Daddy yet."
Ree: "Ohhhhh. And Nell and me weren’t even born. We weren’t even in your tummy. I was still a tincey little drop of rain."
{where does she come up with this stuff?!}
Singing an elaborate and very long improvisation recently, she concluded with this bit of made-up lyrics:
"Get that axis out of your head! Get that axis out of your head! And leave that special ice.... cream..... iiiiiiiiinnnnnnn!"
Ree: "When is the person gonna die who is really old like maybe 20 or 69? The lady with a crumbled face. She goes to our church."
Me: "I don’t know. Only God really knows when someone is going to die."
Ree {matter-of-factly}: "I guess when we don’t see her anymore then she’ll be dead."
{I don't think young children are very good at tact. Or subtlety. Or social niceties. But I remember Nell going through a big phase of talking about death a lot too around this age, so maybe it's normal?}
We were watching a YouTube video of a violin song Nell is working on over lunch one day, and Ree just kept shaking her head. Finally she said, "It’s so weird because a girl is playing the piano and a boy is playing the violin. Isn't that so weird?!"
{In our household, the boy plays the piano and all the girls play the violin! How could it be otherwise?!}
"I want to be the bestest of all the entire world. That's what I want to be when I grow up."
"I'm gonna be the goodest and nicest violinist in the whole entire world. Well, earth. Because I can't say world. Can you teach me to say world?"
{because, as mentioned above, world comes out "wouwd" every time, which is actually pretty cute.}
* * *
"Oh Mama, I love your necklace. Can you get me a fancy necklace? Or just take somebody else’s to give me?"
* * *
Ree: "Mama, when you were a little kid what did you call Daddy?"
Me: "Well, I didn’t even know Daddy yet."
Ree: "Ohhhhh. And Nell and me weren’t even born. We weren’t even in your tummy. I was still a tincey little drop of rain."
{where does she come up with this stuff?!}
* * *
Singing an elaborate and very long improvisation recently, she concluded with this bit of made-up lyrics:
"Get that axis out of your head! Get that axis out of your head! And leave that special ice.... cream..... iiiiiiiiinnnnnnn!"
* * *
Ree: "When is the person gonna die who is really old like maybe 20 or 69? The lady with a crumbled face. She goes to our church."
Me: "I don’t know. Only God really knows when someone is going to die."
Ree {matter-of-factly}: "I guess when we don’t see her anymore then she’ll be dead."
{I don't think young children are very good at tact. Or subtlety. Or social niceties. But I remember Nell going through a big phase of talking about death a lot too around this age, so maybe it's normal?}
* * *
We were watching a YouTube video of a violin song Nell is working on over lunch one day, and Ree just kept shaking her head. Finally she said, "It’s so weird because a girl is playing the piano and a boy is playing the violin. Isn't that so weird?!"
{In our household, the boy plays the piano and all the girls play the violin! How could it be otherwise?!}
* * *
"I want to be the bestest of all the entire world. That's what I want to be when I grow up."
* * *
"I'm gonna be the goodest and nicest violinist in the whole entire world. Well, earth. Because I can't say world. Can you teach me to say world?"
{because, as mentioned above, world comes out "wouwd" every time, which is actually pretty cute.}
On a day when Nathan took Nell in to work with him for a bit, and Ree was quite sad to be home without Nell to play with, we found that we could watch footage of the Prix de Lausanne online thanks to a tip from a friend, and this cheered Ree up immensely. Watching the skilled dancers, she kept proclaiming confidently, "I can do that. I can do that too. I can do all the things that dancer is doing."
Watching a male dancer compete:
"This one is not so fancy. I mean I do like boys but... I like fancy boys."
"How can I stop my toots from coming so I can be a real ballerina?"
* * *
Watching a male dancer compete:
"This one is not so fancy. I mean I do like boys but... I like fancy boys."
* * *
"How can I stop my toots from coming so I can be a real ballerina?"
And maybe my favorite one ever:
Molly went up the stairs, and I called up after her to check on things:
Me: "Ree? What’s Molly doing up there?"
Ree: "She’s just coming into my room and happying me."
*pause*
"It means she makes me feel happy."
Molly went up the stairs, and I called up after her to check on things:
Me: "Ree? What’s Molly doing up there?"
Ree: "She’s just coming into my room and happying me."
*pause*
"It means she makes me feel happy."
You'll never stop happying us around here, Ree. We love you!
