I continue to be fascinated by Bella’s imaginary family.
Her oldest girl is Jane, who seems to either be about 12 or an adult. In Bella’s world I suppose the two are about the same. Jane is competent and cares for the younger children. She often takes a very maternal role, taking them on outings to museums, to the store, etc.
Gina is the oldest and doesn’t seem to have a very distinct personality. Not as much as Jane. She mainly exists in Jane’s shadow as part of the dyad, Gina and Jane. I think Gina is about 11. Also almost grown up and a caretaker, helper, organizer personality. Both Jane and Gina are deputized to help me do housekeeping tasks that Bella is too young to help with.
Meredith is 10. She’s another older one. I think she used to be one of the babies but has been promoted upwards as other babies have been added. It’s hard for me to keep track.
Then there are the younger ones: Petunia, Kateri, and Baby Rose. Petunia is about two, Kateri is one, Rose is about five months old. When Bella wants to talk baby talk and pretend to be a baby she pretends to be Kateri or Petunia. She’s always regaling us with stories of how Petunia mispronounces certain words. It’s amusing to hear Bella’s idea of how a baby mispronounces things.
Today Bella was telling me a story about Jane taking Petunia to the science museum while Kateri was napping or playing with her cousins.
The confusing thing about Bella’s stories is that she edits aloud as she goes. Often she’ll start a sentence a dozen times or launch into an episode half a dozen times until she gets it right in her head. While she’s doing this I find it hard to pay attention and not let my mind wander. Especially if I’m cooking or washing dishes or otherwise preoccupied.
I think part of Ben’s nighttime talking is a symptom of his frustration that Bella won’t let him get a word in edgewise during the day. He has so much to say and he just wants to be heard. Plus I think he’s just a nightowl and doesn’t want to go to bed as early as his sisters do.
Sophie is much more content to tell stories to herself as she pages through a book. She’ll make up all sorts of things about the small details or about things that aren’t in the book at all. Because she’s less needy of an audience, I don’t tend to pay attention to her storytelling as much as I do Bella’s but it is there.
Good job, and hang in there. I remember these days, and I know you’re inexpressibly tired. It will get better—I got viciously sick Thanksgiving week, and while it completely sucked to try to clean and cook with a kleenex smashed against my face (or worse)—no one was teething. So it was much, much better than that. Take care and get well.