Dinosaur Anna -- Day 823

I think I left off the last post at Halloween, so if you didn't already know, Anna went as Elmo this year. Last year she refused to wear her costume. Everyone thought she was really cute, and we switched off with the North Dakota Grandparents in taking her out to gather sugar. This year we bought cheap Chinese toys instead of candy to give out. The scary vampire teeth, glow-in-the-dark skeletons, rubber snakes and other little trinkets went over well. The only problem was that it all came packaged, so there was a steady stream of Chinese-cheap-crap garbage leading away from our house. It didn't bother us too much though as Anna absolutely loved to go out and pick up garbage. It was sort of like a treasure hunt -- except no treasure.

Anna also got a load of candy, and we had to hide it so she wouldn't want to eat it all. Unfortunately, Kerry hid it on top of our dryer, and we subsequently did a few loads of laundry the next day. Well -- let's just say that these two parents did the unthinkable and melted our little girl's first Halloween candy haul down into a nice messy bag of glob. But frankly, I must admit that there was a bit of me that just sighed in relief that we didn't have to manage candy intake for the next week or so.

Anna continues her day school. We try to get out of her what exactly she does during those days, but she has been conditioned into saying very mechanically phrases such as, "I shared and listened to my teacher." Never mind that the question we asked was about what songs she sang in class. She is well trained, and any question about school is answered with noncommittal boilerplate.

Granted, I do know what goes on the days when I work, but I worked my last day for this term and now have two months off. The last time I worked, during reading time the teacher was going over some story. I can't even remember what it was or what was said, but one of the kids blurted out, "My mommy dresses up to go exercise." The teacher, Miss Laura, just looks and says, "Ooookay, that's nice," and continues reading. Then another toddler says, "My Mommy puts make-up on in the morning." Now sure enough, this is cute, but when YOU are a potential a target of discussion, the round of toddler tell-all was not all that comforting. In one second I realized the so many things Anna could say, but I really hoped she wouldn't. But the contagion was released in the wild amongst innocent toddlers, and they started telling what their Mommies did during the day with absolutely no filter and bent to the reality of a toddler's life. Fortunately, it stopped rather quickly, but suffice it to say, I am a bit more careful with Anna. No more pull-my-finger jokes.

Anna has also been resisting naps lately. I think she is transitioning away from -- well sleep in general, but I really can't say what has caused it or what her motivation is. She is a toddler I guess. My suspicions are on the trove of toys and gifts from recent visitors that has put a premium on being awake and playing, but I am probably wrong. Anyhow, Anna will now call out at the top of her voice (when she should be sleeping), "Want to get out. Want to get out. I got a gooooooood nap. Want to get out." You see it is the sell. If she could just convince me that she actually slept, I would take her out of bed -- right?

Of course, I never fall for this, but I will fall for some things. After the get-out-of-bed-rant, she often makes up excuses that have no anchor in reality. For instance, she will call out that her Nya-Nya (her lovey) needs a diaper changed. Yes, her Nya-Nyas wear diapers too.

Anyhow, it is all a game. Of course, I know the stuffed animal doesn't need a new diaper, but if I can call her on a bluff here and there and keep my actions random enough, maybe I can just hack the system enough to get her to sleep.

But then again there was an episode like today. She was awake the whole time trying to convince me to get her out. I held out and kept up the defense, but finally I went in -- and lucky for me I did. She had yanked down a duffel bag of Play-doh and with a bunch of play tools. She was just having fun with Play-doh -- not sleeping. Thank goodness she couldn't get the canisters opened.

Anyhow, I will end this post now. The pictures are from the debris of Anna's bath time. The play things strewn about are a mix of pails, dinosaurs, pirates, boats, keys, rubber snakes and other knick-knacks that were all heading towards the drain as the water receded. It looks like a battle royale between pirates and dinosaurs.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The reason for the post title "Dinosaur Anna" is because she is now really into dinosaurs. We have taken her to the Natural History Museum a couple of times in the last week, and she is so excited about dinosaurs now. Anna has also changed her identity, and now she is is an astronaut.