Miss Independent

True to her age, Allison Clare is growing very independent. Everything is "by self." We came home from a pizza party one night, and as we drove home, she was prattling about the party, naming the friends she had seen there, and remembering that she had eaten cake. "And pizza," I prodded. "Say 'pizza.'" "Pizza--by self!" she exclaimed, because apparently the fact that she held the pizza by herself was an integral part of the memory.

It is fun to hear her putting words together, even if it means she has her own ideas about things now. I was looking at a magazine while she played with her new Christmas kitchen set and table and chairs (oh, blessed new toys! and the newfound peace they bring . . .), and she realized that she had left her Elmo doll in her bedroom. "Find Elmo!" she said, coming over to me and pulling at my hands to take me walking through the house with her. "Mama, find Elmo." She looked at what I was doing, took the magazine out of my hands, closed it, and said, "All done book! Find Elmo!" All done book, indeed . . .

She received the Elmo doll for Christmas this year. It was a big relief for us to give it to her, because a few weeks prior to Christmas, she developed an enormous affection for Elmo but had no representations of him except a disposable diaper with his picture on it, left over (unused) from a trip we took months ago. She carried the diaper around, tenderly hugging it and kissing it and offering it to us to hug and kiss. It was awkward. We considered giving her the Christmas Elmo ahead of time, but we also thought about how exciting it would make her Christmas morning to find Elmo under the tree, so we held out.

So now, Elmo is her new BFF pretty much all the time, with just one exception. She was sitting on my lap, holding Elmo, and since it was almost naptime, I said, "Elmo is really tired. He wants to take a nap. Elmo is so tired!" She eyed Elmo thoughtfully, then hopped off my lap, threw him by one arm over the railing into her crib, and turned back to me to announce matter-of-factly, "By self." At not-yet-two, she is already nobody's fool, not even mine. Sigh.