A Little Bit Little: Happy Birthday Ila

Although Ila is big, as she likes to tell random strangers in the parking lot, she informed me she is still “a little bit little.”  She seems quite a bit big right now.  It’s wild to think that a year ago she was just turning two.  She was still sort of a baby – speaking in little phrases, nursing, newly potty trained, still wanting help do many things.  Now, she is almost a preschooler, wanting to do everything on her own…except, say, picking up her toys.  These early years really pack in a lot of changes. 

Ila in her first month.

Even crazier than all of this, is the fact that before three years ago, she didn’t really exist.  Now that I have some baby comparisons, I must say that Ila was a generally sweet, calm baby.  She has always been kind of a serious child, watching everything very closely.  The cool thing about this is she is very perceptive and understands so much going on around her.  The down side is that she is very perceptive and understands so much going on around her.  We can’t have any conversations not meant for little ears around her at all, not even a stray comment.  She also has an uncanny ability to understand us when we try to spell something out. 

She also, now, doesn’t want to do much when we ask; she usually tells us she is “not ready” for her hair to be brushed or to put on sun screen or to eat or to get her shoes.  Lately, we ask her how many minutes until she is ready (the answer is always 5 minutes; good thing that’s the upper limit to her concept of time right now).  Then, no matter the answer, we set a timer for about two minutes.  Fortunately, the passage of time is still pretty abstract.  This gives her time to adjust to the idea that we are doing whatever it is.  Mostly it works.  Sometimes she will never be “ready” for whatever we are suggesting.  We try to not get into situations where it becomes an out and out battle of the wills because, and this certainly wasn’t happening a year ago, we end up with a screaming fit. Wooo.  Three is quite an age.  Somebody recently commented that she felt the “terrible three’s” were more accurate than the “terrible twos.”  I must say that Ila certainly has a more decided opinion about the way things should happen now.  This is both exciting and, in the case of a screaming fit, quite challenging. 

Fortunately, screaming fits are not the norm.  Mostly, she is a lovely, snuggly little goose.  I can’t quite remember our house without her plane trips to the beach (a line of little chairs in her room is the plane, the beach is the rug) or her work as our in-house doctor (she always measures your stomach with a little paper measuring tape she got from my obstetrician, even if you are complaining of a head ache and cough) or her discussion of her many babies, several of which are usually still “in her tummy,” or without all these little bags filled with sundry, unsorted stuff tucked in every corner of the house.  This is, perhaps, her favorite activity: putting crap into bags.  Puzzle pieces, books, papers, random articles of clothing all together in a bag.  It doesn’t matter what it is, she’ll bag it. 

Three years ago this week, she was born.  She came out howling (and kept at it for a good 45 minutes) but settled into a calm, watchful little baby girl.  She is so funny and thoughtful and just her own little her.  I can’t wait to see what this year brings.