Domesticity

I don't think I've ever done a real post here about being a single parent (or being a parent in general). Weekends tend to bring out whatever problems LG and I are facing (as well as being the time that we get to play together!). Three things that we're dealing with right now:

1. LG is speaking gibberish. She's a highly verbal, pre-literate child. She started talking at 10 months and hasn't really shut up since. She has an extraordinary vocabulary. I like this about her, I really do. (I've read that children of single moms are often verbal because they are talked *to* during the day and not talked *about*) And yet...as she goes about her day she babbles on and on in a language only she understands (this is in addition to whatever else she says in Spanish and sign language, not to mention plain English!). I have no idea what to do about it. It's driving me nuts.

2. LG, who used to eat anything "safe" (she has food allergies), now has the eating habits of a typical preschooler. That is to say, she asks for a sandwich (sunbutter and jelly) and then says "no, Mom, I didn't want a sandwich." So today her lunch was 4 bites of sandwich and a few pieces of apple. She won't eat meat (though she will have salami and sausage). She can't have dairy or soy products at all, and eating beans more than once a week seems to be problematic (probably related to the soy problem). I'm lacking safe protein products to give her that she will actually *eat*. She's been the same weight (or possibly even lost up to a pound) since the summer. I know kids plateau and don't gain as fast, but she's certainly getting much taller...

3. The "I wants." On the one hand, I recognize that it must be incredibly difficult to be on the cusp of five (because, you know, five is BIG, five is KINDERGARTEN, five is practically adult!) and have someone (namely, me) boss you around all the time, telling you to get ready for bed and brush your teeth and eat your vegetables, and prohibit all kinds of things (no more TV, no more candy, no more stories...). But our day seems to involve a neverending list of things that LG "wants" that she can't have. Every toy she sees on TV (and the only commercial TV she watches is Saturday morning, if I sleep in), every kid-marketed food she sees at the grocery store. She asks constantly if we can go places and do things and buy more things and and and... Well, again, I'm amused, incredibly amused, that the offspring of a stay-at-home introvert wants to be a world traveler at age four (she started crying yesterday when I told her we couldn't go to *Egypt* this summer to see the pyramids!). I'm glad she's adventurous and generally unafraid of the world. These are good traits. I recognize that. And I hate to have to say no all the time (even if it's not the word "no," it's the general idea). I find myself saying "we can talk about that" or "we'll see" or general phrases that hold off saying "no" until some unspecified future date.

So right now, she's in her room having "quiet time" and listening to some radio station that plays 80s music all weekend, and I'm taking my own break in my bedroom, with the cat, typing. I used to do chores during quiet time, or even try to do academic work (not really realistic for 40 minutes). But I finally realized that we both do better in the afternoon if I slow down and really relax for at least a few minutes. Especially weekends like this one when the weather has us largely cooped up and she's home for MLK Day. I see a children's DVD in our future...