On her Own

I just posted over at Doing Good Together about today's Meals on Wheels experience. It's sort of a rambling post, but it essentially made me realized the best thing about Maya trotting off to Kindergarten for half the day.

 For too long, I've joked that these two think they are twins. They play so well together. Maya's friends all treat Elle as one of the group. Elle runs to her sister for comfort, or offers it if she can.

Clearly, they are not twins, and Elle's soft little girl voice and overwhelmed too-much-to-say stutter means that big sister often overshadows what she has to say. She does it out of enthusiasm, rather than malice, but still, it leaves Elliot as the little kid with nothing to say. That's just not true.

On her own, whether she's helping me with Meals on Wheels or walking to the park or leading me in a dance party sing-a-long (which she usually improvises), Elle's personality is all her own. She isn't the loud one or the impassioned one or the high strung one. With two kids it is too tempting to label them in terms of opposites. I really need to try not to do that anymore.

Elle is silly, extremely creative, and incredibly articulate if you give her enough time to sort out what she's trying to say. She is content to entertain herself, which is nice when there is work to be done, but she is so overjoyed by one-on-one attention that you can't help but want to play with her. She says please and thank you sweetly and consistently, but then she just might turn around and bite you on the arm... just a nibble really, to see how you react. Followed by, "sorry." She's constantly curious about how people will react. She's constantly testing me to see if I'll follow through on my promises. "One more time and..." I had better mean what comes next. And if you promise to read an extra book a bedtime, don't expect her to forget.

I once promised a book first thing in the morning, just to tame her pleas for one more that night. She woke up at 5:55, book in hand.


She's so empathetic, too. Like her sister, only in her own way. Maya wants to console and comfort. Elliot wants to save us all. I, um, stumbled on a rug this morning while she was holding my hand. She looked up at me right away and said, "You're okay because I had your hand and I wouldn't let you fall." And when Maya was bummed about not getting to help with something this evening, Elle said, "Oooh, it's okay Maya. I have an idea." She then proceed to rattle off a complicated (and not fully understood) plan of action.
This is a night of rambling posts, I guess. I suppose it's this birthday. This little girl who has barely been away from me in the last three years continues to surprise me everyday.