Pandora's Last Gift: ELF

I should be finishing up some work, sleeping, or cleaning up from dinner....but I have to write these down before I forget.

"House on Mouse"
The other morning we were playing with Eva's stuffed mouse. I said something like, 'there's a mouse in the house.' Eva looked at me and said, 'hop on pop!' I thought this was a random comment out of nowhere. We hadn't read the hop on pop book in a long time (since before she was speaking very much), I thought maybe she just wanted to jump on chris or read the book. No jumping on Chris, she hopped out of bed and brought back the book and flipped to the page with the 'mouse on house, house on mouse.' I can't believe she made that connection and remembered the book that well. Just goes to show you that you just don't realize what a child is comprehending....even though they can't verbally communicate.

"Booby help"
I had a scratch that was bleeding and thought this would be a good time to talk to Eva about ouchies. I told her mommy had a scratch and it was bleeding. First she suggested to 'kiss it' then she said with a slow knowing smile, 'booby help.' As in, booby help make it not hurt so much. I've always tried to avoid directly using the boob as a comfort aid, usually I can kiss the hurt away, put ice on it, or Chris will bite it off :) So I was surprised that she so clearly made the correlation of breast feeding with comfort and could verbalize it!

"Difficult car conversations"
I have to go on a business trip to Boston early in May. It will be my first trip w/o Eva in tow and I'm kind of dreading it. Jessica suggested we start talking about it early, so Eva has some time to comprehend. I guess today Jessica broached the subject. On the car ride home tonight Eva said, 'mommy go bye bye. mommy go work, go bye bye.' And then she started crying. I found this a little strange, because I go to work every day and its never an issue. But then I realized Eva must be talking about me really going bye bye! So I talked to her about me going on a trip, but I would come home and while I was gone, daddy would be home to put her to sleep and give her hugs. More crying, but I wasn't in a place where I could pull over and comfort her. So we talked more....about how I would talk to her every night on the computer and give her a big hug when I came home and we'd sit on the couch and read books. I was able to engage her in a discussion of what books we'd read, etc. and she slowly stopped crying. Wow.....a lot going on in that little brain!

BTW... I never thought I'd still be breast feeding my child of almost 2 years. (however, the W.H.O. does recommend breast feeding until at least 2 years) Anyway, if I had thought that I'd still be breast feeding when she was verbal, I would have come up with a more PC code word for breast feeding than, "booby." Kind of funny (and a little embarrassing) when she shouts out in public, 'mommy, I want the booby! BOOOOOBEEEEEe' Oh well, live an learn I guess.