Thursday, September 22, 2016

Maren: 3 years old

Maren turned three in August, and her birthday is a great time to record some thoughts about her.
  • Maren loves to ride.  Maren got a three-wheeled scooter from her Grandma Denise as an early birthday present.  She loves her scooter like Ezra loves his bear, and that is really saying something.  Maren is off like a shot on her scooter as soon as the garage door opens.  She is her very happiest on her scooter.  Truly, the best part of her day is scooter riding.  She has absolutely no fear, flying here, there, and everywhere at lightening speed.  Maren has mastered the hip lean in order to turn, and looks like a real pro at parks.  She really turns heads: wavy blonde hair flying, princess helmet, often a big poofy skirt, pink clogs, and an Olympic smile as she whizzes up ramps, and through people, around obstacles, and back again to where I watch.  Again, and again she make loops, and comes back to me just long enough to say, "Mommy, this is the best fun ever!"  I love that she has found a true love, and can feel so free and happy in an activity.  Thank you Grandma!
  • Maren is feisty.  It is her personality.  She is no push-over, and she doesn't have a passive, or even passive-aggressive response to anything.  If she has been slighted, she will make it known.  It is just a matter of course that my three-year old yells at me quite a bit in the course of a day.  I pick my battles carefully, because she is a fighter.    
  • Maren is emotions-focused.  When Ezra and Maren get into a skiff, no matter the type of insult from her brother (pinch, push, bite, kick, mean words, stolen toy, etc.), Maren comes running with great sobs (because she is also quite theatrical), and exclaims, almost without exception, "Ezra hurt my feelings!"  I find this rather fascinating.  She has been using this expression for a good three months.  There may be pain involved, but it is always a feelings issue with her.  Her feelings have been damaged, and her emotional psyche is wounded.  I am intrigued that she has made that connection, and needs balm for injured feelings.  Ezra, as verbally adept as he is, just doesn't communicate about emotional injury.
  • Maren is kind of dreamy, and lost-in-a cloud sometimes.  Schedule?  Time constraint?  Follow-through?  What?  Maren Marie, darling, darling girl that she is, has a really hard time with task completion.  "Maren, find your shoes," for example, can be a 20-minute endeavor because she forgets and/or gets distracted by more enticing activities.  Unless the task is directly related to going on a scooter ride, she has little motivation for things like "find clothes", "brush teeth", "clean room", etc.  Lately, her favorite things are princesses and ballerinas, and at times she spends hours doing mostly nothing with her princess things and singing to herself, very much absorbed in her own little world.                   
  • Maren is very compassionate and tender.  Nearly every time I threw up during this current pregnancy, if Maren was in ear-shot, she would come running, rub my back, and bring me tissues.  "It's ok mommy, it's ok mommy," she would repeat again and again, staying with me until it was over.  At other random moments, at least once at day, Maren will come running and squeeze me in a tight hug and say with real conviction, "You're my best mommy ever!!"  Or "I just love you, you're my sweetie-heart."  
  • Maren is strong.  Recently, at Ezra and Maren's well-child exams for their birthdays, they both needed a shot.  Ezra declared bravely, "I'll go first."  But, as soon as the needle came into view, however, he dissolved into violent sobs, and pleaded not to have to undergo such torture.  The nurse proceeded, Ezra howled and ranted.  Ezra was shaky, teary, and clingy for the next 30 minutes.  Maren, who was in the room to witness what her brother had just undergone, watched silently.  When it was her turn, she sat on my lap, squeezed my hand, and didn't make a peep.  Needle went in, not a whimper, not even a flinch.  In fact, the nurse paused, looked, and blinked mid-syringe in surprise.  Bandage was applied, and Maren, calm as ever, hopped off my lap, as if nothing whatsoever had happened, and then comforted Ezra in his pain.  She often gets up from scooter crashes without a sound and goes again.  When she does fall and skin a knee, she needs a kiss, a smile, a little squeeze, and then she is back to riding.

1 comments:

Jane said...

And they try and say that kids come into this world as blank slates. Hahahahahaha!!
Such a fun little girl.