Terrible twos? check. Terrific threes here we come!

Elisabeth turned three today, and true to our word, she got her books back. At "quiet" time, we presented her with all of the books that had been living in our room for the past 8 months or so. She was thrilled. We were thrilled.

After about an hour, I peeked in to check on her because it was unusually quiet. She had her books spread all over the floor, and was playing Twister. Then about half an hour later, I peeked back in and much to my horror there was a page from a book sitting in the middle of the floor. My entire body tensed up, but as part of my "try not to yell at Elisabeth on her birthday" plan, I remained outwardly calm. I went over to the book and said, "did you rip another book?" She looked at me like I was nuts and said, "no. I'm three, I don't rip books anymore." Much to my glee, I realized that the page was in fact a page that had already been ripped out. It was from a prior ripping that resulted in the booknapping. So far, so good. One day down.

Among the returned books are the two Shel Silverstein books: Where the Sidewalk Ends, and A Light in the Attic. I should warn fellow parents about a poem in A Light in the Attic. It is one of Elisabeth's favorites. It taught me a very important parenting lesson: read stories and poems quietly to yourself before reading them to your kids. There is a poem about a little girl named Abigail. It is now one of Elisabeth's favorites. Abigail wants a pony really, really badly. She says that if she doesn't get this pony, she'll just die. Her parents say, "no, you won't. No one ever died from not getting a pony." And you know what? I bet you do.... Yep, little Abigail dies. She dies because she was so sad from not getting a pony. Thanks, Shel.