ELLA: Our 2 ½ Year old “Wii Lovin’ Wanna Walk” Child

Ella has brought such joy to our lives - she’s full of life and adventure, yet so very stubborn and independent (she really is Phil and I all rolled into one . . . and that’s pretty dangerous!) During a phone call with my sister-in-law yesterday, we laughed over some of Ella’s toddler behaviors. My goodness – at 2 ½ years old, she is quite the crazy kid and certainly has us on our toes!

Her “Wanna Walk” Demands started when Ella believed that declaring “I Wanna Walk” before arriving at a grocery store would truly prevent her from being placed in the cart and pushed in the cart through the store. The first time she made this demand I could not believe my ears. We were putting her shoes on in our kitchen and Phil was telling both girls to get ready to go to Target. Little 2 year old Ella stood up in the middle of the kitchen and declared, “I Wanna Walk” (which in her language translated to: I am NOT sitting in the cart and riding throughout the store.) I looked at Phil and we both cracked up because we couldn’t believe she just told us that she was going to walk. Seriously – we hadn’t even left the house yet. But she needed to set the scene, in advance. She was walking. Period. End of story.

A few months after that, we were in New York visiting Maria (and family), when we were again reminded of Ella’s independence. Auntie Ria (Maria) has the most amazing connection with children and I have witnessed some great moments of her communicating with my daughters through the years. This particular conversation between Maria and Ella went as follows:

AR (Auntie Ria): Ella, we are going to Costco, and Auntie Ria needs you to be a good girl and sit in the shopping cart.
E: I Wanna Walk.
AR: Honey, I need you to listen to Auntie Ria. I need you to be a good listener and ride in the cart. OK?
E: (thinking)
AR: So when we get to the store I need you to listen to mommy and daddy and sit in the cart, ok?
E: (pause) ok.
AR: Let’s shake hands on it, ok? Shake Auntie’s hands and agree that you will ride in the cart.OK?
E: ok. (shakes hands)
AR: Good girl. So when we get to Costco, you are going to go into the cart and ride in the cart, right?
E: OK . . . (pause) . . . Maybe I Walk.

A fairly recent habit of Ella’s is her fascination with . . . the Nintendo Wii. Awful, I know, but true. It’s not that she understands what she is doing; she has a very limited understanding of how to play any of the games. But she sees the rest of our family play it, and sees everyone having so much fun doing it, that she wants to be part of it. . . ALL OF THE TIME. Originally we had an extra Wii remote that we removed the batteries from which became Ella’s remote. That worked only for a short time – as it didn’t take her long to realize that, “Hey, this remote doesn’t light up and make noise like the other remotes do.” So, she now has a remote with batteries and all. I thought it would be ok. Except, now she wants to play Wii all of the time. She carries the Wii remote with her throughout the house. When she wakes up from a nap she asks, “Can we play Wii?” When she comes home from being out she asks, “Can we play Wii?” Before dinner, during dinner, even after dinner she is asking to play Wii. Please know that we do not play Wii all day long, there are many days that we don’t play it at all, so please don’t think that I am this awful mom who lets a computerized game occupy her child 24hrs a day (although, the thought did cross my mind. . . I mean, what would it really hurt? I’M JOKING!!) I knew we needed an intervention to the Wii game one day when she came from a visit at her Grandma’s house. I asked her what she did at Grandmas and she said, “We played bubbles,” and then began shaking her head side to side in such a disappointing manner, and concluded with “Grandma doesn’t have Wii.”

Our Ella. All she wants to do is Walk & Wii. A couple simple requests from this "Not So" Simple Girl!