1. Anna has a special blanket. I tried hard in the beginning to keep her from getting too attached to it, but ... like mother like daughter, I guess. I sucked my thumb, as a kid, while I rubbed silky material and she sucks on her fingers while she holds her pink silky blanket. It's a necessity for every nap and at night, and it makes several appearances throughout the day. Basically, it's her little buddy.
It's become such a large part of her life, however, that I sometimes still get a little nervous when I need to tell her it's time to wash it or she can't sleep with it tonight because we left it somewhere. But her response always surprises me. Even now. She's always totally mature about it, saying something like, "It's okay. I'll sleep with it tomorrow." or "Oh, good. Thanks for cleaning my blanket, Mom." Seriously. She really says stuff like that. So even though I totally failed at keeping her from becoming too attached to an inanimate object, at least she can still be reasonable about it.
2. After a recent interview, Anna informed us that she was going to have three children when she grows up. She will name them Moon, Chair, and Smoothie. She doesn't want to have a cat, but she will have a dog and a cow—which she will also name Smoothie. When asked if she will get married, she said yes, she will marry a man and his name will be Martha. A perfect plan.
3. Anna turned to me while on the potty the other day and said, "Mom, I like to wipe while I'm on the potty. That's one of my favorite akvickities."
4. Anna saw a wilted flower in the kitchen one morning that she had picked the night before. She got all sad and moaned for a while that her poor flower had died. But then she got a solemn and reconciled look on her face and said, "But it will be resurrected." I ask you what other 3 year old knows the word "resurrected" and knows how to use it correctly ... even if it's applied to a dead flower. She's brilliant, if you ask me.
5. When we were in the car the other day, Anna started singing the word "loser" over and over again to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." Nice.
6. I have had to dissuade Anna several times from picking other people's flowers, and I make a big deal about her needing to ask first to see if it's okay. When we were out and about one day, I picked some little wildflowers for her and, after the exuberant thanks she gave me, she paused and looked at me reproachfully and said, "Did you ask Jesus if it's okay?"
How did she know they were Jesus's flowers, I ask you?
Whoa. Tiny picture. In case you can't read the title, this one's "Parakeets and Peach Pies."
The slightly-unnerving "Doctor De Soto." (You shouldn't write children's books about animals in danger of being eaten. It's just not right.)
This one was a favorite of my mom's so it became a favorite of mine.
"Tikki Tikki Tembo"
"The Magic Fish." (As a sidenote, I think it's funny that I grew up thinking I had read Hemingway's "Old Man and the Sea" because I got the title confused with this favorite. Strangely, Hemingway's book is nothing like this one.)
Basically anything about the Berenstain Bears
And anything about the Little Critter
And the nightmare-inducing "Mr. and Mrs. Pig's Evening Out." Have you read this one, the one with the wolf babysitter? What were they thinking?
I love this little guy.
1. Anna has a special blanket. I tried hard in the beginning to keep her from getting too attached to it, but ... like mother like daughter, I guess. I sucked my thumb, as a kid, while I rubbed silky material and she sucks on her fingers while she holds her pink silky blanket. It's a necessity for every nap and at night, and it makes several appearances throughout the day. Basically, it's her little buddy.
