The Likes and Dislikes of Bee at four years old.

Ten Things Bee Love, Love, Loves:

1. Mischief. “Mischievous” will always, always, always be the first word I use to describe you, Bee. Your eyes positively glow with excitement whenever you think of a new plot to destroy my sanity or to make me laugh. I don’t think there’s anything you love more than making your family laugh. (And I don’t think there’s anything I love more about you than that trait!) When you helped me wrap Gracie’s birthday present, you teased me, “I’m gonna tell her…I’m gonna tell her!” just to hear me shriek and laugh, “Don’t you do it! Don’t you dare!”
2. Bouncing. You can’t walk anywhere – you have to jump. Or bounce. I think you’re part Tigger.
3. Cuddling. This is one of your biggest changes this year, this new cuddling thing. You bounce up to me, give me a hug and tell me you love me, completely out of the blue. You’ll stop mid-game or mid-meal to give me a kiss. You’ll even put down your cheese stick to lay one on me. Man – that’s love.
4. Manners. You say “please” and “thank you” more consistently than any other little person I know. Whereas your sister did it because she was supposed to and she wanted to show off to the grown-ups around her, you do it without even thinking about it. Or to get away with something. “Please can I have some money?” you asked – because I told you it wasn’t polite to just ask for money. Wrong interpretation, but sweet problem solving skills.
5. Playing in the water. I once offered you and your sister a dollar if you put your face in the bath water; I wanted to see if you’d do it and I wanted you to learn to not be afraid of getting your face wet. Your sister chickened out. But you? You stuck your face in and demanded I pay up. Well, that trick became a little expensive, so I switched to chocolate. And then I quit giving you anything because you? Are fearless. You put your face so far in that you smoosh your nose against the bottom of the tub. You jumped into Crisanna’s deep end without any water wings on (once. By accident, maybe? That’s all I could take, thankyouverymuch). You try to swim underwater at Captain John’s. I never knew my sneaky plan would work so well!
6. Cheese. I still think you love cheese first and me second. That’s okay, because I control the cheese. Heh. It doesn’t matter if it’s cheese sticks, slices of cheddar cheese, or – your go-to meal – mac & cheese, you just want cheese in whatever form you can get.
7. Being in charge for the very, very short time that your sister will cede control of the universe. Picking movies. Deciding who gets to be line leader. Making any sort of decision. You take on a new voice and make a big production out of it. And since it’s eons in between occurrences, I can hardly blame you.
8. Wearing skirts. Just try to a get a pair of shorts on you. Man. You’re not having it. And even a skirt is a stretch most days – you want a dress. And you don’t own that many dresses, and fewer pairs of short-shorts (which you have to wear underneath your skirts and dresses because you also love flashing your friends).
9. Playing with the big kids. You love tagging along with Gracie and E on their adventures, you love playing with Gracie and Julie, you asked for Gracie’s friend Ash to come to your birthday party… yep, you definitely think you are one of the big kids. You insist you know how to read, ride your bike, swim, and talk to dinosaurs – all because Gracie says she can, too.
10. Doggies, kitties, polar bears… Whenever I ask you what want for your birthdays, Christmas, or any other gift-receiving occasion, you answer very promptly with, “A doggy.” Except for that one time when you changed your mind and demanded a polar bear. Yeah. Thankfully, you’re so far content with playing with CeeCee and dodging traffic to play with Jimmy Buffet’s cat. I listen to endless stories about your step-dogs and how much you miss Cooper. Maybe one of these days you can twist my arm and I will give in. Maybe.

Ten Things Bee Really, Really Does Not Like:

1. Bedtime. Good lord, do you not like bedtime, Bee. But what I don’t understand, is that you also do not like waking up. I try explaining to you that if you don’t go to sleep, you will be tired and grouchy in the morning. But then you yell at me in the morning because I make you get out of bed for school. I understand, Bee-baby. You don’t want to miss a minute of what everyone else is doing. But trust me on this: sleep is wonderful.
2. Waking up before she’s good and ready. See above. And imagine it ten times worse than what you’re picturing.
3. Food (or texture) she does not like. Ever since Bee was a baby, she has an alien-like gag-reflex. If there’s a hair in her mouth, she gags and vomits. When she was little, she couldn’t eat spaghetti because it triggered her gag reflex. Any food she doesn’t like? I’ve learned not to argue with her and I let her spit it out. Doubters get throw-up spewed in their direction. I’ve learned my lesson, thanks.
4. Cleaning up. Oh, you cannot imagine the epic battles that have been fought over cleaning up the toys strewn over the floor. Gracie doesn’t especially care for it, but she cleans until it’s done. Bee? She will dawdle over one toy until her sister has finished. (Hey, I didn’t say she wasn’t smart.) It doesn’t matter if I put her in time out, take away privileges, or any other parenting ploy I devise – if she don’t wanna, she ain’t gonna. Yes, I carry the battles through to the end because my daughter is not going to think it’s okay to be lazy.
5. Feeling left out. There’s a reason Bee isn’t crazy about bedtime and pretends to know more than she does: she hates feeling left out. When Gracie and E write notes to each other, Bee cries and cries because there isn’t one for her. She gets up and down (and up and down and up and down) out of bed because she’s afraid we’re having super secret fancy parties without her. For someone who doesn’t mind doing her own thing, she cares an awful lot about keeping up with her sister.
6. Playing by herself. I hear a lot of whining that starts with, “Gracie won’t play outside with me,” or “Gracie won’t play dolls with me,” or…well, you get the picture. While Gracie is happy to let her imagination run wild in a universe created by her and her alone, Bee craves the interaction of playing with other oeople still, and that’s cool – except when Gracie is happy watching TV and Bee – needing interaction – won’t let Mommy enjoy her first cup of coffee in peace.
7. The dark. Bee still wakes me up during the night at least once, separate and apart of the Up-and-Down Bedtime Brigade. Once, she even ran into my bedroom, screaming, at the top of her lungs. Her fear is very real and not unlike my own fear of bad dreams. So how could I mock her? I take her hand (still chubby with baby fat) and walk her back to her room and tuck her in. I have always had 5 or 6 bad dreams a night; I’m a sucker for making sure she feels comfort afterwards. Besides – how much longer will she let me hold those cute little baby hands?
8. Pancakes. Don’t ask me why. She will eat yogurt, fruit, scrambled eggs, toast and jelly, or waffles for breakfast. She eats a Silly Face Pancake at IHOP. But if I make pancakes on the weekend? She is not having it. Not with tons of butter, not even with control of the syrup bottle. Bee? You’re weird.
9. Slow songs. You want to dance, and you want to dance now. You don’t understand why there are these silly slow songs on the radio. I mean, what up with that?! How can you shake your groove thang? How can you be silly? How can you delight everyone when the song will not “go faster!” as you so adorably demand?
10. Taking turns. There’s a new rule in our house: you can’t talk over each other. Gracie gets a turn to say something and then Bee gets a turn. Bee doesn’t like that rule very much. I can see her thinking, Gracie has had a turn to talk for the last four years. Now, it’s MY turn. Consequently, you have both mastered the art of compound-complex sentences. Word most frequently heard in our house? “And.” It even gets used more than “Mom.” Le sigh.