7-0-0

Elisabeth isn't allowed to get out of bed until the clock in her room reads 7-0-0. Sometimes, though, she wakes up at 6-1-5 and is forced to wait 45 minutes to come out. Often this just irritates me because I have to hear her making noise and then of course I'm not sleeping. But some mornings, like this morning, she babbles and talks and it is really funny to hear what she says. Some of this morning's gems:

"sometimes I don't cooperate and mommy gets angry. But mommy still loves me..."
(in a gruff voice) "rrrrawr rrrrrawr rrrrawr get in the car, hurry! rrrawr rrrrrawr rrrawr" (I don't know who talks to her like that...)

My parents were here this weekend to have an early birthday celebration with Elisabeth. Elisabeth has four distinct birthday celebrations planned. She's beyond excited about each of them. There's one with my parents, one with Doug's family, one at preschool, and one with the little girls in the neighborhood. Each (at least in her mind) has a different plan - some with cupcakes, some with cakes, some with birthday hats, some without. I suppose I might have to break down and throw her a birthday party next year. She just gets so excited over her birthday.

She is still letting people know that she gets her books back when she turns three. For those of you who don't know, about a year ago (after she turned two, but not too long after) - she started ripping her books in her room during quiet time. After about 6 of these incidents, I told her she couldn't have books in her room during quiet time anymore until she turned three. We still read to her, lots in fact. And, miraculously a few books have weaseled their way back into her room, and they haven't gotten ripped. Nonetheless, approximately 4 times a week since then, we've been out in public and the following conversation has ensued:

random stranger: "oh you're a cute little girl. how old are you?"
E: "2 and a half. But soon I'll be three. And then I get my books back."
stranger: "I'm sorry, you get your books back?"
E: "yes. mommy took them away. I can have them back when I'm three."
stranger: (disapproving and shocking look at me....)
Me: "yep - no books until she's three. only TV, and only Baywatch reruns at that."

Today I have to go take a practice multistate bar exam. 200 multiple choice questions written by the bar/bri folks. They must be mean spirited individuals, and that's all I have to say about that.