COMPASSION
It is heartening to see compassion in a three-year-old. One day we were walking in a park and saw a homeless man. Later, as we were walking home, Chely looked up with me with worried eyes and said, "What could we do about that man?"
She gets upset when someone is sick or hurt. She always tries to figure out a solution, often involving giving the person a massage or medicine or a great big hug.
She has cried at several videos, including
The Red Balloon (when a teacher encloses the boy in a room, and when some mean kids hit the balloon with rocks),
Sesame Street: Follow that Bird (when Big Bird and the other characters sing a song in the moonlight about missing one another),
Ice Age (when the mammoth and sloth say good-bye to the baby), and
Sesame Street: Learning to Share (when Big Bird gets upset when his/her block tower is knocked down).
Sometimes we worry that she is too sensitive for this harsh world...to the extent that she will end up getting hurt because she has no protective shell. She has had no exposure to hitting or other abuse and rarely even hears a raised voice -- as Edwin says, "at our home it's like living in Sweden." !! So she reacts quite strongly when she encounters something upsetting.
The first time I saw a child treat Chely in a mean way (on my birthday this year, of all times) I felt that my heart was going to break...even more so when I realized that she has a lifetime in store for her of hard moments, and as a parent I am powerlesss to prevent her pain.
But I am so pleased to witness and encourage her compassion and generosity. One of my precious memories of her is when friends of ours had just had a baby and I suggested that she choose one of her toys to give to the new baby. She picked out her very favorite doll!!! As she gave it to the baby's dad, her face was aglow with joy.
IMAGINATION
One of the most wonderful parts of being a parent for me so far is witnessing my child's rich and active imagination. Anything can become anything. Chely makes up stories and plays with anything at hand. She particularly likes to do pretend birthday parties, school, trips, and meals. She'll spend close to an hour making an elaborate feast out of flowers, leaves, and water.
Here she is playing airplane:
In this video a plate of beans with nachos becomes a slide:
She has made up a game called Montaña, meaning "Mountain" - make sure you pronounce the ñ as "ny" i.e. "Montanya"- it is not at all related to Hannah Montana - she wouldn't have a clue who that is! The game involves one person calling out "¡Montaña!" and the other person trying to grab him/her by her ankles or shoulders. It's pretty fun.
Chely has several imaginary friends, the one she most commonly mentions being "Pimbili." She also has an imaginary language, which fittingly enough is spoken by her imaginary friends. Here she explains one of her made-up words:
Her drawings are also a treasure to me. Recent works have included A Crab That Dances, Pizza, A Snail with a Big New Hand that's Touching the Water and is Going to Plant a Seed Next to a Plant, and a whole series of people with chicken pox (she had chicken pox recently even though she'd been vaccinated against it - a mild case, though). Speaking of chicken pox, one night at supper she announced that her tortilla had chicken pox. Here it is:
And here's a design she made in the Ixcan:
