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The way that no pool of water is too cool to take a dip in! She'll jump in a down-right chilly swimming hole (which happens here in Bangkok, if the sun hasn't warmed the water up), and even prefers her bathwater on the colder side of lukewarm ...
I've slowly let my guard down, and thought that it would be perfectly harmless to let Madeline play with some princess-themed items. A book here, a movie there, the dress-up outfit, tiny dolls, etc. … and now I'm suffering with the consequences of that decision.
For the past three mornings, as I've assisted Madeline in getting dressed, she's told me that she has to wear a dress or else she won’t be pretty, like a princess. No capris, no practical shorts. Only a dress. Madeline is only three years old (and barely three years, I must add!) and she’s already holding herself up to this pretty=princess=dress standard. I’m surprised by how passionate she is about this issue, and how stricken she looks when I take a pair of shorts out of her chest of drawers. Her feelings are real, though I wish that she was just having a laugh.
Why do people have to fuss over little girls so much more when they're in dresses? It's so superficial, and my little girl needs to know that she's lovely no matter what she's wearing, or even that what she's wearing doesn't count.
Madeline, as
nearly always, is being a trouper. She was pretty terrific on the flight over
to Bangkok, and it was a long one, too. We flew from Edmonton to Denver to LA
to Singapore to Bangkok. I lost track of how many hours it was. I gave her an
exemption from the “you must sit in your carseat” rule for the flight from LA
to Singapore, as we were flying in the business class cabin (courtesy of
Chris’s company) and she’d need to use her tray to enjoy the yummy stuff that
Singapore Airlines feeds it’s youngest passengers, let alone recline her seat
into a bed for sleeping. Madeline did really well without the carseat, staying
seated and belted in. She was pretty mesmerized by the in-flight entertainment
system and watched “Meet the Robinsons” at least three times. Kicking myself though – I brought the
portable DVD player with me, but neglected to bring the power cord that also
charges the battery. Ugh.
Now that we’re here, she’s adjusting. It took her three days to sleep in to a decent hour (and by that, I mean until after 6 am). Behaviourally, she’s quite a bit more whiney and needy than usual, but I know that it’s unfair if I get frustrated with her.
So, we haven't bought Madeline a bed yet. She was sleeping in her crib until the day that it was packed up by the movers, two weeks shy of her third birthday. She's never climbed out, though she had recently started climbing in.
Since leaving Calgary, we've been splitting our time between her nana's house in Sherwood Park and her grandparents' house in Edmonton, and as Madeline's outgrown the Pack n Play, she's been sleeping in regular beds. She popped out a few times on the first night of sleeping in a bed, but since then, she'd taken bedtime in stride, kept to her usual routine, and hasn't fallen out once, despite being a master of nocturnal acrobatics.
Madeline's crib is set-up and waiting for her in Bangkok. I wonder how she'll react? I haven't been talking up the concept of sleeping in a bed just yet, so I am hoping that she and her crib (with the battery-sucking-but-beloved Fisher Price Aquarium) will have a happy reunion, if only until our sea container arrives in August. We have a bed there for her, if she wants it. I know that she's ready, if she wants to make the big leap ...
Before I tuck Madeline into bed at night, after jammies and tooth-brushing, after all of the bedtime stories, and after a last-minute snack and a sip of milk, I ask Madeline what she's planning on dreaming about that night. Lately, she says that she's going to dream about her daddy, because she misses him. But sometimes, she figures that she'll dream about ice cream :)
