Elfie At Three Years Old

Can you believe this girl is three already? It seems that every day she’s becoming a little bit more grown up though it feels like only yesterday she was crawling around causing havoc like her baby brother. It’s crazy that she’s a bona fide little person with thoughts and opinions already.

And oh, does she ever have opinions. She knows exactly what she likes (yoghurts, ham, playing outside, other children, choosing her clothes, strawberries, Peppa Pig), what she doesn’t like (hair washing, going to bed, Octonauts, tomatoes, being tired, balloons) and isn’t afraid to tell you. Her favourite word is “WHY?” and one of these days I’m going to count the amount of times she says it in one day because it will probably blow your mind. When there have been one too many “WHY?”s in a day I have to admit to resorting to saying, “why do you think, Elfie?”. A bit of mind-boggling never hurt anyone.

Elfie’s third year of life has not been plain sailing. She took her dad moving out much harder than Hux (obviously), and because he lives in London now she misses him a lot. If she’s sad or being told off she often asks for him which can be pretty brutal for me: I’ve ruined her life etc etc. The upside of this is that I have been doing everything I can to make the rest of her life as fun and exciting as possible, lots of toddler groups, crafting, playdates and trips to the park. Because of this she’s completely flourished lately and is one intelligent, switched-on little girl.

Our relationship is a lot stronger, too. She loves nothing more than cuddling up to me if she’s feeling a bit under the weather and is always saying “mummy, I missed you” (heart melts). It can be tough being the principle disciplinarian but I’m happy she knows right from wrong and is going to grow up to be a well-rounded mummy-loving individual.

Elfie had her first taster of pre-school a couple of weeks ago and absolutely loved it. As soon as we arrived she was off playing dress up and building sand castles with no worries about the other children or the unfamiliar surroundings. The great creche my mum takes her to for a couple of hours a week can probably be credited with her confidence and independence. That and her mother’s influence, natch… I don’t think there’s any chance of her being a wallflower.

One of the best things about watching Elfie grow up is seeing the relationship she has with her brother. It’s not always harmonious – this morning she socked him one for no particular reason other than there was a battle over a banana – but they truly love each other. She asks for him first thing in the morning and is always concerned that he will come to the shops/playgroup/day out with us. She likes sharing meals with him, as long as sharing means that he is giving her food rather than the other way round. Luckily he mostly complies though the wailing that goes on when they’re ‘playing’ together can be ear-splitting.

Elfie’s health is always a worry, no more so than this weekend when all three of us have been struck down with a nasty tummy bug. First Elfie went down, then me, then Hux. Triple whammy. Elfie dealt with it really well, and though she seemed to be affected a bit longer than the rest of us she was very brave throughout the whole thing. I wish the same could be said for me, though: single parenting is never harder than when you’re scraping toddler sick out the carpet at 4am whilst your baby screams and you’re trying not to throw up yourself. Character building, I guess? Madam E kept her sense of humour throughout and was happy to tell me that “the sick won’t come again tomorrow, mummy”.

Elfreda Harold you are one very special little girl who is very loved. Bring on year number 4: a time for more fun, more friends and big old Pre-School.