Lizzie updates

Liz is growing and changing so much. I can't believe my little baby is now approaching eight years old, about the finish 2nd grade. It's going by so, so fast. I figured I'd jot down a little bit about her so that I (and later, she) can remember this stage.

For starters she's just as passionate and dramatic as ever. Last Sunday she tearfully complained because I wouldn't let her wear makeup to church, saying "You always look pretty and I look plain all the time."  One night this week she told me about some of her friend's divorced parents and then worried that Drew and I would go that same route.  Nothing I said seemed to satisfy her.  She kept saying, "but how do you know" until I was too frustrated and tired (it was well past bedtime) to continue.  And of course, I am regularly the meanest or worstest mom ever, she never gets to stay up late, and she always has to clean up everything.  
She's trying out new skills and vocabulary and boundaries. The other day I put my feet on Lizzie's chair (we were seated opposite one another in a booth) and she exclaimed, "I don't want your feet to interact with my territory!"

The hair in the face is typical.  It drives me crazy, but she doesn't seem to mind it at all.  Argh!
She's really interested in Legos.  I'd say she pulls those out to play with about as often as she pulls out her My Little Ponies and Barbies. So far she prefers to follow the instructions instead of building her own creations. She has two sets: one builds a Harry Potter Quidich field, the other builds a plane, helicopter, or boat. Of course she's also excited about her American Girl dolls and has been carrying around a baby doll the last few days. I'm glad she's still young enough to play with toys. She's lost a couple more teeth this month and then she promptly lost both before she could put them under her pillow at night. For the first tooth she wrote a sweet note to the Tooth Fairy, addressing it to "my dearest friend" and requesting personal information, such as the fairy's real name. She didn't even know she lost the second tooth until I pointed it out to her. After that she agonized about whether or not she swallowed it and talked about throwing up so much that I wrote her a tooth fairy note assuring her that she did not, in fact, swallow it.

A few days later, Andrew told her the truth about the tooth fairy when she pointedly asked him. When I asked her if she was sad, she said "no, because I asked Daddy to tell me the actual truth" (which left me feeling a little guilty for doing the opposite when she asked for the "actual truth" about old St. Nick). Liz was just sad that her teeth had gone in the garbage (according to Drew) and was relieved when I told her that they were actually in her memory box. I'm a little sad that she knows the truth now and I'm worried that we'll have to tell her the "actual truth" about Santa and the Easter bunny this year as well (I want her to stay young longer).

Liz is a great big sister to the little ones. They both copy her. In the following picture Alaina is showing me her loose teeth, "like Lizzie."A few weeks ago I let the girls decorate their own throw pillows with fabric markers. Two days ago I notice that Lizzie had written "I love (some boy from school)" on the back (I'm leaving the actual name off so she won't be teased at the family reunion next month).

Lizzie got to serve as a model for a photography workshop back in April. She was really excited about it and afterwards told me it was fun, but you wouldn't know it from the pictures. Drew was with her and he said she absolutely refused to smile, though I suppose having a dozen photographers in your face is a little intimidating.

These next shots are from a photographer that said she got her shots of Liz simply by hiding in the background and snapping some pictures in between everyone else (and probably, unbeknownst to Liz).