School Girl -- Day 826

Anna is at school as I write this. She goes every Tuesday and Thursday. For those interested in what goes on at school: the days at school usually start off with play, then they do some stories. After that they may work on art or have some more play time. They eat a snack about half way through, then go out for a short recess. This usually means that Anna's pants get filled up with sand somehow. Once recess is done, they go inside and play a bit more then have lunch before going home.

Towards the end of the day when Anna is getting tired, she often asks for her Nya-Nya. I usually leave him in the hallway until needed. The cute thing is that Anna knows this and tells me all the time, "Nya-Nya waits in the hallway." And sometimes when I mention that her Mommy is at Russian school, Anna makes sure to point out that Mommy also takes a Nya-Nya to school and leaves it in the hallway. I'm sure she does.

The other kids in class apparently know that Anna sometimes needs her Nya-Nya lovey when she gets frustrated and will tell the teacher or parent on duty very seriously, "She needs her Nya-Nya." It's nice to have little friends watching out for you.

The other day, I went to pick up Anna and one of the mothers who is Hispanic says to me, "You know what Anna said today at school?" (I'm bracing myself.) The mother continues, "She said 'Yo quiero frijoles'." For those who don't know Spanish, this means, "I want beans." The parent was quite amazed Anna knew some Spanish. Yes it is pretty good, but I know that Anna loves her books, and this is really only Skippyjon Jones Spanish.

She was also at the Natural History Museum this last weekend, and Anna kept running around yelling out, "Ay carumba." Some more Skippyjon Spanish. Most people probably thought we were letting our 2-year-old watch The Simpsons.

The whole dinosaur thing has been helping us with Anna's eating habits. Broccoli is now popular because they are now trees, and dinosaurs eat trees. The other day, I was eating some caviar on crackers (not the expensive kind from endangered sturgeon), and Anna was really curious. I told her that it was fish eggs, and she tried it. Then she wanted it on crackers too, so I got her some small Elmo crackers. So Anna and Daddy just sat there eating black caviar on crackers for lunch, right after eating a round of dinosaur trees. That's good eatin'.

Speaking of dinosaurs, Kerry and I were at the bookstore the other day to see if any books really interested her. We weren't going to buy any, but then right before leaving I noticed a book that was called "Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs." This book was apparently tailor made for Anna, and she loves it oh so much. She has even picked up some more pirate talk and roars like a Tyrannosaurus Rex throughout the day now. All useful skills.

I wish more books would combine kids topics like this. Dinosaur Astronauts would also be good book too, so someone needs to start writing it.