Last year, every day when I dropped Mallory off at preschool she’d ask for a “Big Queeze.” She’d “queeze” me and then “queeze” Phoebe too. This summer she went through a weird kissing phase – she’d come up to me and say, “Don’t kiss!” and then kiss my right cheek, say “Don’t kiss!” again and then kiss my left cheek (the point was that I was not allowed to kiss her). Lately she’s been requesting a “hug with arms” (because those armless hugs are no good, I agree). Yesterday she hugged me and then said, “Mommy, I just can’t stop hugging and kissing you!”
She’s been very affectionate, as well, in the notes she dictates. In the past week she’s had me write notes that say, for example, “Phoebe is my favorite kind of friend,” and “Phoebe and Mallory really really love Krista.” I can’t reveal too much about the note she dictated for my mom’s birthday card because it was just put in the mail today, but rest assured it’s full of lovey-dovey stuff too.
And it’s a good thing that she’s so full of affection lately, because she’s been a real pain in the neck lately too. On Saturday she drew, with marker, all over her bunk bed. She picks on Phoebe relentlessly. She whines incessantly, she pinches me when I thwart her, and she refuses to comply with basic requests (brush your teeth, drink your milk). And Saturday night she drew me into this conundrum:
“Mommy, do you love me?”
“Of course I do.”
“Do you love me all the time?”
“Yes, all the time, no matter what.”
“Even when I do bad things?”
“So then it’s okay!”
“Yes but….”
And she wasn’t really interested in hearing my thoughts on the matter after that. So I’m trapped! I’m doomed, as she is fond of saying, because I’m not quite able to explain the concept of goodness for goodness sake to my almost-5-year-old.
Just Finished
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Noah has been very affectionate too. Loves kissing me on the mouth, over and over. I think he does it to make up for the times when he is absolutely...not affectionate, let's put it that way!