Brynn's creativity

 Brynn loves to play, imagine, and create.  It makes me so happy to see her doing those things. pretty much constantly.  I think if we never watched another movie or tv show, she wouldn't even notice.  She almost never asks me to put on a movie.  She's way too busy for that. Although if Bryce puts one on then often it pulls her in.  Because Bryce is a different story.  He loves movies and asks to watch them all the time,  but he's actually been doing a lot better at keeping busy since we started our sporadic no-tv weeks.  Anyway, I just wanted to document a few little things about living with her.

First of all, there are princesses all over the house.  The first love of her life was the set of "sparkly princessess-es" we got her from Disneyland.  They had a very special bag they all went in, because if one disappeared then she would cry for days until we found the missing princess.  She would play with those figurines all day every day (seriously).  Then at her fourth birthday party, she discovered "squishy princessess-es."  Then, we realized how much she loved little sets of figurines, so at this point she's got quite a few princesses.   We no longer have to stress about keeping them all together.  If one Snow White is gone, there is a different Snow White to take her place.  I find them all over the house in the oddest places.  I found this one while emptying the dishwasher.  It bet this one was ultra-dramatic. :)

Last night I came upstairs to find her out of bed and riding to the ball in a carriage.

 I think Ken (the driver) is my favorite part.

This is the phrase I hear more from Brynn than any other: "Can I have a piece of computer paper?"  It seems like every time I go to Walmart I am buying another package.  I know that sounds terrible, but it's the price I've decided to pay for her creativity.  I promise I recycle! :)

I found her at the piano writing music.  It was adorable because she couldn't figure out how to get the notes down on paper - probably because she had drawn about twenty lines!  So I gave her a piece of manuscript paper to play with.

And I came back to the piano to discover she'd written an actual song, which she played for me!  It looks like she gave up trying to get all the notes on the correct lines and spaces, and there is no real timing whatsoever. But I remember how much harder it was than I thought it would be when I started trying to write music (in 6th grade!).

It's also interesting to me how she can be so spacy at sometimes and so focused at other times.  She's very dedicated to her art. :)  Recently she asked me how to draw a star.  I made her a little paper that showed each step, and then just left.  When Marty got home, she was dying to show him how to draw a star.  I figured she just picked up on it.  But then later I saw her notebook laying open on her little red table.  It looked like she didn't get it at first, but then practiced.  And practiced, and practiced, and practiced, and practiced.  If I'm giving it my best estimate, I'd say she drew about...a billion stars?  :)  That's dedication.

Today while she was playing I told her it was time to get ready for school and that we were going to stop at the library (her favorite place) first.  She looked disappointed, which surprised me.  Then she said, "Will we have time to come home and play before school?"  I told her we wouldn't.  Then she let out a big dramatic sigh and said, "Can I play the SECOND I get home from school?"  I said, "Yes, the SECOND we get home."  And she wouldn't get ready for school until I promised her I wouldn't clean or even touch her toys.  Again, that makes me happy.  Now, if I could just get her to be a little more active.  It's starting to cool off enough that I think she'd be ok outside in the morning, but she has no interest.  I know it would help if I would go outside with the kids in the morning, but for the life of me, I just can't seem to put aside my work in the early mornings.  It's the only time I really feel like doing it.  It's like it's morning, or never for me.  jabber, jabber, jabber....


Also, she has started saying a couple things that are kind of annoying that, sadly, I KNOW she got from me.

"What...the...heck?"

And, "Duh."  Actually, that one just started this morning.  It went like this:

Brynn:  If I were a real princess then I would never die because princesses don't really die.  They just die for a minute and then wake up.  
Me:  Why don't they die?
Brynn:  True love's kiss!
Me:  Oh, right.  Duh.
Brynn:  (pause)  Yeah, duh!.  DUH, Mom!!  Ha ha, duh!

And now everything for the rest of the day has been, "Duh, Bryce!"   I guess I should tackle this one sooner rather than later.  Sigh, it's my own fault.

P.S.  I know the princess stuff seems way out of hand, and it probably is a little.  But at this point I at least know she knows she is just playing (yes, I used to wonder).  I think she's gone through a bit of a princess trauma at kindergarten because she's realizing she may be getting too old for them.  Big girls play with Barbies and Hello Kitty, apparently.  So she cooled it quite a bit with princesses the last month, but then just the last few days it's been back FULL FORCE, like she's filling her princess canteen or something.