Girls Are Complicated

My life has changed dramatically in the past couple years. Guenevere just turned 2 1/2 years old, and boy does she give Chris and I a run for our money. She’s a smart one and VERY persistent. When the boys were her age they didn’t really have much interest in drawing, in fact, Eamon still doesn’t express very much interest in drawing or coloring. Guenna on the other hand, there is not a day that goes by that she doesn’t spend at least an hour drawing, writing, coloring, cutting, pasting, not to mention the hours spent reading and looking at books. The complicated part about her abilities is that she is just not satisfied with “her” abilities, she knows that I am much better at all those things that she would love to see on paper. She will ask for a pen or crayon (pink, thank you very much), and a piece of paper (or one of our bills from the desk will work just fine). She will say that she wants to draw and as soon as she’s drawn one baby, she asks me to draw a pink girl, and a boy, and a letter A, and J, and M, and then draw a blue boy, and now a blue baby, with a hat. Now I want you to draw another baby, crying, and a letter T, and a little letter t, and now a…you get the picture. I could literally draw pictures and letters for her for hours. I’ve taught her how to draw her letter A, H, j, J, i and I. She knows how to draw a girl, a boy and a baby and a few other things but they are just not enough! She doesn’t have enough hand control to be really satisfied with the outcome and so she begs me to draw for her!

Yesterday I worked on a project, drawing a tree for literally two hours and she sat right next to me watching me the entire time. She was fascinated. I’m glad that she is content to watch me, but I will also be very pleased when she is capable of drawing for herself. Sometimes it would be nice to sit her down to color without hearing her exclaim anxiously, “draw a pink girl mommy!” And at the same time, I’m amazed at her love for anything to do with academics and art. She may be a tough one to understand (just ask Chris, he gets really confused at times), but she is so sweet too. She loves being a big sister and cant wait to see her new baby brother, she has tried to convince me a few times that there is a girl in my tummy though. She’s both nurturing and defiant, a sweet little lady and an active little tom-boy at times. She cracks us up because she calls the boys, “Kids” or “Guys” or “Boys” when she’s trying to get their attention, and she says it in a really high-pitched, sweet voice. “Come on kids!” or “Hi guys!”

Sometimes I wonder what she will be like when she’s a teenager. I hope that some things don’t change, and of course many things will change. But there is a special sweetness to her personality that we’ve learned to love so much. She loves to sing and pray and she loves to talk about God. She wants us to “pretend we are God(!)” or she will say something random “looks like God”. It’s hard to imagine life without our little Guenevere, she’s a joy and a challenge, but so well worth the challenge. She makes me want to be a better example of a mother and wife because I know that she looks up to me, she reminds me often that “we are girls,” and will often count how many girls and how many boys are at the table or in the car. I know that she sees me as her hero, as her role model and as her confidant, what a huge responsibility for such a weak vessel. But I love my job, and I love my girls, they bring beauty and flowers into our male-dominated family ;) Chris would disagree with that last statement, he claims they were outnumbered even before Guenna was born! He may have a point. I’ve asked Chris many times where she gets her tanacity, he just smiles and says nothing. Isn’t he sweet?

Untitled from Chris and Jenni on Vimeo.

And another video of the preschoolers at their gymnastics class.

Homeschool Gymnastics-preschoolers from Chris and Jenni on Vimeo.