Some similarities to her mama

As all mother's probably do, my mother once said that she hoped I had a child just like me one day. Shockingly, she wasn't saying that because I am so wonderful. Elisabeth is not just like me, but let's just say there are some similarities. She maintains that she can't read. If you show her a word over three letters, she almost always refuses to even attempt it. That is, of course, unless she is all by herself with no one to help her. Or if it is a show on TV that she wants to watch that I'm vehemently arguing isn't on. Or anything else that we don't want her to read. The funny thing is, she can read most of those things surprisingly well.

But if you ask her to read words out of a book at bedtime, she gets grouchy. "NO." "I can't read it. Yooooou read it." She either just really enjoys having things read to her, or she hates feeling like she's failing while people are watching - she wants to read perfectly (there's my girl!). But her new favorite game is Spelling Bee. She's the blue team, I'm the red team, and Doug is the moderator. We played this on the way to the airport last week, and again this morning. And while she would tell you she can't read these words, she's perfectly capable of accurately sounding out words like plane, plate, spoon, and other five letter words. Maybe I need to make reading into some kind of competition. Again, she might be just a little bit like her mother in that she seems to have a competitive streak. She actually engages in some pretty good smack talk during a rousing game of Spelling Bee. Hmm... maybe we'll make a "Reading Bee." With flashcards. She looooooooves flashcards. (as a flashcard side story - we have these animal flashcards that I've caught her doing with Charlotte. Poor Charlotte is still mastering saying the word "cat" and Elisabeth is trying to get "octopus" out of her. Of course Charlotte says "blgiesfrau" and Elisabeth hears "octopus" and then reports to the pediatrician that Charlotte can say "cat, clap, dog, Maggie, and octopus.")

She asked Santa for "books she can read all by herself without any help from Mommy and Daddy." And a "pongo" stick. Oh and some kind of camera that lets Mommy and Daddy watch her all of the time when we have to go very far away. I'm not sure where it is we're going, seeing as we've left her with a sitter exactly 3 times in her life (four if you count when Charlotte was born and my mom was here), but apparently Doug and I need some kind of super duper "shmooper" binoculars.

I'm wondering if this is related to the fact that she wants Doug to just drop her off at playdates and not go inside and stay. Next thing I know she'll be asking me to drop her off a block away from preschool so she can walk in with her friends.