As most of you know Emmuska loves pigs. I clearly remember the day she showed this preference - she was about 18 months old and we were in the toy section of a store allowing her to pick out one toy. She spied a pig and held onto it but I being the naive parent I was thought 'why would she want a pig?' and put it back in favor of some other animal. Thankfully at some point I realized the error of my parenting ways (on this point at least) and stop trying to 'guide' her preferences. Nowadays there is definitely not a shortage of pigs in this house.
Maybe 9 to 12 months ago I had a feeling that Liberty had an animal preference as well and that it wasn't really anything we'd gotten so far. It's hard to explain beyond the fact that I knew she wanted a particular animal but wasn't/couldn't communicated what it was. Then one day as we were driving around she started talking about wolves and how much she loves them. I was a little surprised as it seemed a little bit random. We hadn't read any stories, watched shows or talked about wolves at all so where was it coming from? She continued to talk about wolves for the length of the drive and off and on when we got home. Then when she went to bed she said she wanted a wolf to go to sleep with.
Me: 'Ummm...okay...ummm...I don't have any wolves kiddo.'
She was pretty persistent that she needed a wolf to go to sleep. After a bit of bartering and begging she finally accepted the green Care Bear as an acceptable nighttime companion for the time being but I could tell that I was going to have to come up with a more long term solution.
A few days of this same routine went by until I finally got her on my lap to look at wolves on the computer. Sure enough she knew exactly what a wolf was and that was what she wanted in her life. So Mycal found a few different options and let her pick out which wolf she wanted. She religiously checked the mailbox everyday (sometimes a few times a day...) until it arrived.
It was exactly what she had been hoping for. When I asked what it's name was she informed that it is 'Woof Woof the Wolf' (the whole purple Care Bear thing happened after this - having that point of reference the wolf is pretty lucky it didn't get named 'grey' ;) Later when Mycal was talking to her about it he said it was a dog and she corrected him saying it wasn't a dog it was a wolf-dog. On a side note huskies qualify as looking wolfish enough to be called wolf-dogs as well which is a good thing because you just try finding a wolf in most stores you go into. (Seriously I've started looking since then and so far I've found one very small stuffed wolf some nice artsy things and four huskies - just not a lot to be found especially for a two and a half year old.) In a recent trip she found a husky wolf-dog in a store and added it to her burgeoning collection. She named it Woof Woof too. (Once again - it dodged the 'grey' bullet...) One of the greatest (and at times most exasperating) things about being a parent is watching your children express their opinions and preferences. It's especially rewarding with Liberty because she was so particular but unable to communicate exactly what she wanted for so long that being able to understand and fulfill wants and needs has been a huge relief and joy.
