Growing Up, Theatre

I have been absolutely astounded by the seemingly overnight change in Evie's level of cooperation.  Not that she's been terribly uncooperative, but typically our requests for her to go potty, for example, have been met with whining, complaining, and/or crying.  Suddenly, this past week, she's agreeable to pretty much anything we ask of her, and she's taken on a lot of self-initiated responsibility.  For instance, now that the child-proof cover is off of her bedroom doorknob, she's able to get out of her room whenever she pleases.  So, this past week, she's gotten herself out of bed, thrown away her pull-up, put on underwear and picked out an outfit, let the dogs outside, and fed them breakfast all before she comes into our room to wake us up if we're not already up.  This is a routine entirely of her own invention and I am just amazed by it.

The most anticipated event of this week was Evie's stage debut.  She's been taking an acting class for kids ages 4 to 6, where they read a book and then assign parts to act out the story.  Evie was assigned the part of the Field Mouse from Frog and Toad and I've been helping her memorize her (4) lines.  Saturday was the day of the show.  Seth, my mom, and I were there to see her.  The video is below.  Evie's part comes in about minute 5:30.  It's a little hard to hear, but Evie was one of the few kids who had her lines memorized and seemed to understand where to look to give focus to whichever character was being talked about at the time.

Other moments:

• Playing "guessing animals" in the car, Seth says, "I'm an animal with eight legs-". Evie interrupts, "A spider!"  Seth says, - and I live in the water."  Evie thinks about it for a moment and says, "......a wet spider?
• Evie has a slew of baby dolls now that she inherited a few from Addie.  She brought them out to the kitchen table one day while I was cooking at informed me that my grandchildren had come for a visit.  She spent a while telling me their names and ages and asking me if I could babysit them (this is a customary thing we play).  Then she asked me if I liked having grandchildren and if I would make them macaroni and cheese (see last week's post about mac and cheese made by Granna).  And I thought to myself, it will feel like a blink of an eye and we actually will be in my kitchen with a grandchild or two.
• My dad's sermon yesterday included mention of a moment he had with Evie playing her favorite game of hide-and-seek.  They were on one of the school playgrounds that was in view of the parking lot, and they were the only two there.  Evie hid first and then when it was my dad's turn, he hid behind a tree.  He heard her stop counting and waited for her to come find him, but she didn't seem to be moving toward him.  He peeked out from behind the tree and saw that she was looking in the direction of the parking lot, and he could tell from the way she was standing that she was afraid he'd gone without her.  He called for her to reassure her he was still playing and renewed her faith that he would never abandon her.  I get teary-eyed just thinking about it.