Little Princess in the Dirt

So far, and I am happy to report this, our daughter loves everything that her brother does.  From little cars and trucks, to coloring on the easel, to playing outside in the dirt, she is taking after her brother's interests...to an extent.  I am not by any means saying that she is exactly like him, for she is not.  Her temperament is completely different than that of her brother.  Where he is the more emotional, shy, one, she is the outgoing, opinionated, throw it in your face little girl.  And she is only 15 months old.  Yet while she may be obstinate and opinionated, giving me flashbacks of my youth, she is also adorable and quirky in all the right ways.  Simply put, she knows what she wants (or at least she thinks she does) and will make you smile right after she throws a fit.  Seeing her now, at her age, I know I am in trouble.  But I will love every second of it.  Especially the fact that she loves to try and eat topsoil right now.  Whenever we are out side, which happens to be whenever it isn't raining, she and her brother take to playing with the dirt in their wagon.  Our son has filled it up with dirt and brick, to "build his house" as he says, and with a little addition of water, they have mud to play with.  Our daughter absolutely loves the mud.  Its fun to sit back and watch her stick her fingers right into the mud, relishing the cool, squishy feeling, and then pulling them out wondering if she should feel disgusted by the dirt on her fingers.  There are times, I swear, when she almost has a desire to shaker her hand in disgust that she just got it dirty, but she never does.  She will, however, grab a handful of dirt, and if we are not quick enough, turn her back to us and shove it in her mouth.  While she may almost get disgusted by the dirt on her hands, for some reason whenever she sneaks that dirt in her mouth (which isn't very often once we figured out she likes it) a smile erupts on her face as if she has found gold.  

Just like her brother, our daughter loves being outside.  Whenever she is ready to go outside, which happens to be quite a bit, she will head right to the back door and try to get out herself.  She even tries to get her own shoes on, which while a noble effort on her part, usually leads to her getting frustrated that she can't do it herself.   Once outside, aside from attempting to eat dirt, she loves following her brother around and attempting to do whatever he does.  If he is riding the tricycle, then she must also ride the tricycle and will waddle after him as he cruises along.  And thanks to her Grammy who showed her that she can sit on the tricycle and be pushed around, she now loves for the adults around her to be her chauffeur and drive her around our driveway.  Yet, the fact that she loves being on a bike outdoors is all that matters to me.  The fact that she now has one more object to share with her brother when she doesn't understand the concept yet makes it ever more interesting.  Our son has become excellent at sharing.  So much that he expects our daughter to share with him just as much as he shares with her.  To be honest, his version of sharing is a bit on the selfish side, but at three and a half, I'm not complaining.  Its comical to watch at times.  He will bring over one of his toys to "share" with his sister, just so he can have whatever toy she is playing with.  Ah, the joys of childhood and learning.

While our daughter will follow her brother around much of the time, she also heads off on her own and wants to go exploring different areas of the yard.  She will reach for either my wife's or my hand and take us on a journey.  She waddles along, perfecting her gait, and taking in all of the outdoor world.  From sticks and stones to rocks and random seashells left in the yard, she has to touch it all, feel it, get to know what life outside is all about.  She even has taken to trying to throw the ball to one of our dogs.  We have one of those Chuck-It objects, the ones that hold a tennis ball and are essentially an extension of your arm to make throwing the ball easier.  She has figured out what needs to be done in order to throw the ball, even if she can't do it yet.  She picks up the tennis ball from our dog Aspen, places it in the Chuck-It, and half throws the entire Chuck-It with the ball onto the ground.  It is cute to watch.  Other times, she will try putting the ball from the Chuck-It right into Aspen's mouth at which point Aspen glances at me wondering why she isn't throwing it.  The important thing is that she is trying.  I don't care if she doesn't always like dirt, but as long as she loves being outside, the world will continue to turn.  And if she doesn't, than I will still love her, I will just have to drag her outside periodically.