Nope, she's not a tomboy anymore! She's now a princess. Loves pink. Loves dresses. Loves pretty things. Wants nailpolish and lipstick.
Well, when I say she's not a tomboy, let's say: she doesn't look like one and well, while many of her games are now "princess" games, she still does a lot of running around, climbing, jumping and even wrestling. But all in dresses.
Today I tried to put a T-shirt on her..."No, Mamma, no. I just a girl!!!! I need a dwess!" (in the exasperated tone as if to point out how daft I am.) Was however still above board and cute. ;-)
I think she's really at a stage where she's identifying herself as girl and therefore different from a boy. And she wants her identity not to be mistaken by anybody. So gone are the days where I could just put on any coloured T-shirt I liked. Now, it either takes a bit of convincing to get on my choice or else let her choose something she likes. Actually, it's nice to give her this independence and power to choose...letting her grow up a bit.
Lipstick however is labello (just strawberry flavoured lipice) and her nailpolish is clear with a bit of glitter. Oh, she loves it!! And we have girl nailpolish parties. Pappa has been invited to join, but so far has declined and merely watched from the sidelines with a thick pair of socks on. Evie couldn't care less yet.
She's started with sayings like, "Mamma, nobody loves me." or "Nobody cares bout me". A real surprise hearing that for the first time all from her own. I must say, I was so surprised and it was so obviously not true in the situation it happened in that I even started to smile when I said to her "Hey, Jozie, how can you say that??" only making her smile at her own comment. All I can put it down to was a bit of attention seeking. But it does make one feel pretty bad and start to wonder why she says these things. I guess, it's normal. But on the other hand, I think she is getting a bit of the short end of the stick at the moment....Evie is quite demanding and needy at the moment (always having to watch for her safety etc) that many games Jozie and I are playing together are often interrupted or disrupted or whatever.
Putting her to bed this evening, I spent about 2 hours with her (Michael is at a business dinner tonight) and we had some time together after I put Evie down. We read, cuddled, played some games. Finally, when it was her bedtime she wanted me to go to sleep next to her. It would be fine if it would be once-off. But such a thing is never once-off. With Jozie, habits are learnt from a single occassion. She'd be heartbroken if I didn't do it tomorrow or the next day or the next. So, from past experience, I've decided that however tempting it is, rather not. So, I held her hand and we chatted a while, but then I said goodnight. She sat up in bed saying "Mamma. I just get so ustrated!! Nobody wants to sleep wif me." ;-)
Yesterday at the Japanese dept of Home Affairs type thing, we were waiting in a queue...Jozie doing role-plays right there with a large audience. Unfortunately, she chose to pretend she was a movver (mother). Dolly was along for the ride, and in the middle of everyone, she shoved dolly under her dress and announced she had "a big belly and da baby was going to pop out at da doctor." "Mamma", she directed me, "You be da doctor and I come to you wif my big belly." So she spread herself out lying down across 3 chairs on her back. "Puuuuuuush! POP!! Look Mamma, look! Dolly popped out of me!" Red-faced me...."Yes, Jozie! Look how cute your baby is!" Reply was...."Yes, Mamma, and now dolly is going to dwink from my boobies." Great! Pure innocence, but pure embarrassment at the same time. A game for home not at some government office with queues of bored people looking at wierdos like us. So dolly got some milk and then dat was dat. Phew! Fortunately, she moved on to pretending to be a ballerina. That was far less embarrassing. Actually I was so proud of her. She lept and twirled and twisted her hand at the end to keep all her fingers tightly together. And with eyes half open, she danced away in another world. She was beautiful. She is beautiful. I love her soooo much. Could eat her up alive!!!
Jozie is also eating a lot more things this last week. Usually she's such a picky eater. This week, she's been so much better. I have hardly given her snacks inbetween meals which has meant she's genuinely been hungry. "Mamma! Huwwy wif da food. My stomach is scweaming to food! It's gwowling so loudly Mamma." and then she ate: sushi (now is that impressive or what!?!?) and fish and brocolli (hello!?!) and potatoe and even a mushroom. Not bad for anyone's standards, but especially Jozie's. I'm super chuffed!
Tonight I asked her a couple questions about Gwan and Gwamps. She remembers where they live, what their place looks like, where Gwan used to hide the hairy worm for her, etc. And when I asked her what Gwan and Gwamps look like she said "Gwan is just like this little litltle hedghog lady." (showing the size of how little Gwan is with her fingers and speaking in a high pitched voice).
And Gwamps? "Gwamps is just like this huuuuuge hedgehog man. He's weally weally huge." (Jozie with big eyes showing the size of how tall Gwamps is with her whole arms spread out. Speaking with a deep voice too)
She's starting to like doing little games. There are some kiddie educational games on the internet where they give you a picture of 6 worms and ask you to find the one with red and green stripes, blue eyes and a long body. Each worm looks different and so it's a listening and recognising game. She really enjoyed that. Afterwards she said to me: "Mamma, you can buy me a liiiitle (high pitched voice) computer all to me? I weally need a small little computer all to myself. And also you can buy me a telephone. A long stwaight one? Dats what I weally like! You can just take me to da shops and I show you."
....um, hello! Cute, yes (edible actually) but ... er....well, maybe for her birthday or so we can find something like a small girl computer with little educational tasks. Let's see. I don't want another toy put to the side or spoiling. She has to learn to wait for things and not get them too easily. Let's see what Pappa says.
Lastly, I would like to say that I think she's getting taller. There's a definite growth spurt going on. Maybe the reason for all the good-food-eating going on? But she's no toddler anymore. She's definitely a little girl now. And we're so proud!! Just don't want her to grow up too fast...our little Jozie darling.
