Preferences

Chillaxin with my morning milk and Wiggles

One of the biggest surprises of motherhood has been how early children develop preferences and opinions.  Although I taught for 5 years, I had VERY minimal experience with children under the age of 6.  By the time the time students got to my class in first or second grade, they had LOTS  of preferences and opinions, but they were all older than 5-- that wasn't too surprising.  Ella on the other hand, started having specific expectations as soon as she started eating...which we totally expected...I mean everyone prefers one food to another.  But, her preferences extend FAR beyond eating.

She is particularly picky about which DVD is suitable to watch.  I know I've mentioned this several times before, but from 12-14 months, she LOVED the Wiggles DVD, You Make Me Feel Like Dancing and loved to dance a.k.a. "dee" to it's music.  I also bought her Pop Goes the Wiggles...which she showed very little interest in at the time.  Sometime last month she started loving Pop Goes the Wiggles and would cry when I put the other Wiggles DVD on.  I'm still trying to figure out how she can tell a difference between the two.  Both feature 4 grown men dressed in costumes dancing and singing similar songs.  But believe you me, she KNOWS the difference and will start crying at the opening credits if I dare put the wrong one on.  So we are on a Pop Goes the Wiggles kick as of now.

This is the DVD of the moment...

When we moved, Pop Goes the Wiggles went missing for 2 weeks.  Somehow she kept finding the case and would walk around with it, showing it to me.  I would try to sneak on You Make Me Feel Like Dancing and she'd cry every time and throw a diva fit.  Sheesh. I thought she'd forget about it, but this went on for 2 weeks. So, we found Pop Goes the Wiggles on Saturday when we unpacked Brent's Xbox 360.  We showed it to her and she clapped and smiled.  When we put it on, she went nuts dancing.  It really looked like she had won the lottery.  I wish something as simple as a Wiggles DVD could me so happy!

So, Ella has her "jam" back and couldn't be happier.  You Make Me Feel Like Dancing is collecting dust on the shelf for now--because heaven forbid you make her watch THOSE Wiggles songs and dances.  I have a feeling Ella will always have lots of preferences and opinions as she gets older.  It's just not in her personality to sit back and let others make decisions for her!  I don't think being assertive will be challenging for her.  And have no fear, Pop Goes the Wiggles has been recovered and all is right with Ella's world...until she changes her mind next week!