Ready for Big Kid Pants? - Day 684

Well, I haven't written in a while. This was partly due to my vacation to California to meet up with an old Army buddy, but it was probably more a reflection of just being busy. As Anna grows up and demands more interactive time (read: fun-filled days and discipline), I have less time to tap away on the computer. It is hard to remember the days when she would sit still on a little patch of floor for an hour.

Anyhow, there have been some notable events. Anna has started to potty train, though we aren't pushing it much at all. Every now and then we ask her if she wants to sit on the toilet when we go to the bathroom and she often wants to. But there is one catch, Anna demands that we take off all of her clothes before she sits on the toilet. So it takes a little prep time and she usually ends up walking around without clothes on for a while. I guess we will have to teach her to dress and undress now too. Once in a while she will go potty, and other times she will just sit there and chat. It's nice either way. Unfortunately, she has also become aware of the toilet, which means that any number of things get thrown in there during a week. She's pretty quick.

Anna lost one of her Nya-Nyas a while back so we had to replace it. Of course, we thought she might reject the new one, but instead just calls it "New Other Nya-Nya" and loves it just the same -- only it is much cleaner. For a while it was called "clean other Nya-Nya." She still has her favorite Nya-Nya.

We have also started looking at toddler beds for Anna. She can now put her leg over the edge and it will only be a matter of time before she learns how to break out of her bed. Just this week she has also started to climb into her high-chair by herself, so the climbing has begun. On the positive side, she is pretty skilled at climbing steps now, so we don't have to worry so much about her falling -- though this will probably mean she will take a tumble or two as we get more relaxed about it.

Anna's music classes are now done, but we have signed up for a class starting in early July called Kindermusic Zoo-Train. Imagine two of Anna's favorite things in a music class. How fun. I bought Anna a xylophone to keep her music up during the break from class and she really likes it. She also loves to recite the alphabet while banging on bars.

The terrible twos -- as they call it -- have most likely begun. Anna has learned the power of a toddler meltdown and the limp-body defense to prevent you from picking her up. When this happens, she can be quite a handful. It is kind of like pushing a rope. Regardless, we are getting pretty good at extracting her from the meltdown zone and calming her, and she is responding really well to whatever corrective action we dole out. All in all, it hasn't been too bad -- at least so far.

We have been taking Anna to the National Building Museum a lot lately. The Building Zone area at the museum with all sorts of blocks, legos, and building toys will be closing in July. It will reopen later and likely be expanded significantly, but this may be after we leave. I can't imagine how I am going to explain this to her.

Anna has also become quite the drawer. Sure, all the drawings look the same, but she is very convincing when she titles her drawings. Usually, after a series of slash and jerk motions with a crayon she will say, "That is an octopus," or "That is a bird." She will go on and on with dozens of subjects. I was particularly impressed with "That is a monkey wearing a bow." She actually had two parts to the drawing, and one part looked like half a boy (good girl). My favorite, though, was when she would draw a squiggle with a blue crayon and say, "That is a yellow car." Then she would use the same blue crayon and scribble again and say, "That is a red car." Every now and then I would ask her what a certain squiggle was and she would study it a few seconds by putting her face about 3 inches away and confidently proclaim, "That is a [such and such]."

I'll end this entry with just a few Anna sayings:

When asked, "How old are you?" Anna replies, "Twenty-five pounds."

When I turn on the TV, Anna says, "Daddy watching David Letterman."

When it thunders out she says, "There is thunder on the back porch."

When I take a picture she says, "Daddy taking pictures like Gampa." (Gampa took in excess of 1,000 photos while visiting in May/June.)

Muffin Tins Video

This video is probably from August or September of last year (2005). I previously sent it out, but thought I would send it again.



Muffin Tins on Vimeo

Frozen Treat Video

Here is a short video of Anna doing some basic licking of her first frozen treat.



Frozen Treat on Vimeo

Frozen Treat - Day 663

Well, Anna had attention overload this last week or so with the North Dakota grandparents in town. She definitely loved the attention and it was fun to have family around, but now comes the time where Daddy must break all bad habits. Now she must wear shoes again, ride in the stroller, read less than a dozen books before bed/naps, and we can no longer let the cat ruin my flower garden. I think I have made some progress already, but she also misses the grandparents.

Just for your information, she is now wearing shoes again. I told her that it was a safety issue and that she may step on glass, cut her foot and need a band-aid. She replied with significant worry in her voice, "Need to go for a check-up?" I then also added that she may step on rocks and that might hurt too. Anna got into it too and added that she may step on bees and that could hurt too. So now it is glass, rocks and bees that proved the behavioral basis for wearing shoes. I am sure that I will come to regret this at some point.

In the last couple of days, Anna has also picked up a fear of bugs. I have tried to get to the bottom of this problem because whenever she wakes up from a nap she talks about the bugs, and sometimes she wakes up in a slight terror. I usually ask her where the bug was, and she will point to a place in the bed. I ask her the size and she will say, "big and fat." When I ask her the color she says, "blue," but sometimes it is also red. And when I ask if it was flying or walking, she will usually alternate, but often it is flying. Anyhow, I am on the lookout for a big, fat, blue and red bug that sometimes walks and sometimes flies. Apparently, it is pretty scary.

I fed her today a frozen treat for the first time and it was made out of banana, yogurt, apple juice and peaches. At first she didn't know how to handle it and it was too cold, but she eventually learned how to lick and it was a (messy) hit. I will include in a post right after this one a soundless video of her licking her treat.

Otherwise, today was a pretty low-key day, though Anna did start the day off by setting the agenda. She woke up and told Mommy that she wanted to go out on the 'front (or back) porch, read five monkeys, and play with August [the neighbor cat]'. She's calling the shots now. Sure, it was a bit more dramatic than that. My favorite episode was when some solicitors came to ask for donations for a charitable cause. Anna came over to check things out (trouble was brewing) and she flatly told the ladies, "Lady, go away. Lady, go home." They didn't go, so I had to get some promotional material and let Anna play with it.

Well, so much has happened since I last wrote. Anna has gone on the carousel several times (see photo). Anna received many presents. About 1,000 photos were taken by Greg and Rae (see photo again). And there is just so much more, but I will have to leave it at that for now.