I can't sleep for some reason, so I thought, why not post on the blog? This is a question that's been on my mind a lot lately as I've watched my bizarre little daughter go about her life...she's got some oddities that have me wondering at what point you classify a person as "eccentric"...
She is pretty much convinced that she's a puppy. You can't go an hour in our house without hearing things like "Lily, stop licking your brother" or "Lily, please stop barking while Mommy's on the phone" or "Lily, you need to use your words, I don't know what 'arf arf' means." We come downstairs to find her on all fours on the kitchen floor, eating her food like a dog out of a bowl. It's a little more than disturbing.
She has a crazy fondness for rocks. Every day when we go to pick up Connor and Maddy from school, she has to stop and pick out rocks to give to them. If we're in a hurry and I try to dissuade her from picking the rocks up, she goes into meltdown. When she's handed over her little treasures, Connor promptly throws his back onto the ground from whence it came (which, oddly enough, doesn't bother Lily at all). But Maddy is made to put them in a special pocket in her backpack, and Lily checks the pocket spontaneously to make sure all the rocks are there. I swear, Maddy's backpack probably weighs 3 pounds more because of the pocket of rocks.
Here's the weirdest thing (in my opinion). I tried to scan some of Lily's artwork, but it wasn't dark enough to show up, so I'll have to do my best to explain. Many of you have had the great pleasure of viewing one of her masterpieces, but for those of you who aren't so lucky...if you ask Lily to draw you a picture (or even if you don't), she sits down and draws a big oval/circle, with a tiny little circle sitting on top of the big one. It's fairly easy to picture, but just you try and figure out what this work of art is!!! Give up? It's a TRASH BAG!!!??? I kid you not, every notebook in our house is filled with page after page of Lily's trash bags. None of us can figure out what started this obsession, but obsession it is. She will not draw anything else, and she totally loves her trash bags. That's odd, right?
So, help me out people. Am I raising the next "neighborhood cat-lady" or is she just charmingly unique?
20 Questions: Collin 10/08/13
10 years ago
12 comments:
I believe that you have raised a very creative daughter. She just has an amazing talent for imaginative ideas. She makes ordinary things extrodinary. You should feel blessed, in my opinion.
When children are around four years old they are just so precious,it is by far my favorite stage. I just loved the rock story ! I agree with Sarah. I remember when Jordan was about that age he went through a stage that he would tell random, made up jokes. For example, the school bus picked up the kids for school and got a flat tire, then he would laugh and say "do you get it?, It's a joke"
I am sorry you couldn't sleep, but I must say you do good work in the middle of the night..very entertaining post.
I chuckled out loud when Amy brought me back from California none other than one of these famous trash bag drawings. I think Lily is adorable. I was odd at that age, and I grew out of it...right?
Justin
She is charmingly unique! I wouldn't give any of that one moment's worry. She's expressing herself in ways important only to her.
The puppy thing is something that lots of little kids go through. Be glad it's rocks and trash bags...Debbie had a thing with saving BUGS, any bug...ladybugs or bees, it didn't make a difference..she wanted them in a certain place so she could see them. Lori was obsessed for a while with blankets...had to have one with her at all times and had to make sure that Debbie had one too. She'd outgrown that by the time Danny was born. Danny would sit in a corner and take apart a clock (old time windup, not digital) and put it back together over and over and over! Linda liked taking off her clothes and leaving a string of them around the house, much like leaving bird crumbs in the forest to find your way back to camp, I guess :) John had a thing about cheerios...I'm sure the older kids remember that. Would carry a huge bowl of them around and offer them individually to all hapless visitors. Wendy liked twisting words, would laugh and say "please" when thank you was appropriate, yes when she meant no, etc. So...they all come in with their own set of behaviors that make their little world important in their eyes. All we can do is watch and appreciate, and wait for the next phase to come along. It always does.
Everything Lily is doing sounds perfectly harmless and kinda winsome, to me. Poor Maddy though...it's be much more comfortable for her if Lily would get enchanted with feathers!
A question. Did Lily TELL you that the pictures are trash bags..or how did you find that out.
Rest easy, DeEtte...it'll be fine:) And you'll have great stories to tell her later.
On another note, it's so lovely hearing about your thoughts..you express yourself beautifully...
I say charmingly unique. When I was little I would make rocks with mud and pretend they were my pets. So at least she doesn't make these rocks into imaginary friends. And about the puppy thing... personally I am just happy she is pretending to be a puppy and not a cat. Dogs are WAY better than cats. I think she has a good little head on her shoulders (cute one too:)) I just love your kids!
Love, Amy
Bag Lady.
She's just awesome...
Seriously, I love Lily and I don't find her eccentric in the least, then again, she does get along with Sydney pretty well...
We could call her DEMP for short...
DeEtte McPherson, there are 4 capital letters in your name. On a seperate note, you are my music soul mate. Your playlist is ridiculous. Also perfect.
Cora is over a year behind Lily in age and she's doing 2 of those 3 things already. Well, she's not a puppy to quite the extent that Lily is, no eating food off the ground or anything like that. And I guess it's not always a puppy...sometimes it's an elephant, a frog, a kitty, any animal really. She just crawls around and makes the appropriate noise. The rock thing drives me nuts! When Shawn comes home with Cora each night after work she HAS to get a rock from the front yard and bring it inside. So I come home to a little rock on the couch each night after work.
I think Lily is awesome and I wouldn't change a single thing about her. She's just awesome!
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