Annacdotes, Part 7

1. Don't you love it how things get mixed up in kids' brains? This is how Anna refers to the things we know as wheelchairs. "Hey Mom, what was the name of that man we met in the wheelbarrow chair?"

2. Anna went to a friend's birthday party and later told me how they played the game Simon Says. She also told me, however, that the other kids played but she didn't. When I asked her why, she said, "Because I just wanted to dance around and stare eagerly at myself." I don't know where she gets these phrases.

3. I went in to check on Anna the other night before I went to bed. When I got in there, her breathing was a little different, as though she might be awake. I froze, waiting for more clues before I made a disturbance, so that if she was awake she might go back to sleep without a huge ordeal. But she finally broke the silence and whispered, "Hey Mom?" I said, "Yeah?" She said, "You're so pretty." And then she rolled over and went back to sleep.

4. Words and phrases she's been saying lately that make me smile: investigate (this has morphed into in-vegetable-gate a few times), able ("I'm not able to see"), resist, perhaps, actually, suddenly, and I'm sure many more.

5. Anna just couldn't keep her hands off some glass Christmas decorations we had. I heard her messing around with them on the tree and went in to talk with her (for the 18th time) about being really gentle with them, blah blah blah. I gave her a very mild reprimand and then left the room. She came after me and was a little pouty and said, "Mom, I wish you'd just tell me I did it right."

At first I felt like I had just been named Worst Mother of the Year, which is the award they give you when your 3-year-old can comprehend and express the fact that you're not giving them enough positive reinforcement, but then I laughed. How does her brain come up with this as a good response to getting in trouble for doing something naughty?

6. When we were sitting down for breakfast one morning, Anna announced that, in addition to what we were having, she would also like 29 cups of sugar and 29 cups of salt. (She really does love tastes of both, but I put my foot down at more than 50 cups of anything to eat for one meal.)

 

This picture is filed under "Pictures that will Possibly Mortify Anna," just in case I need some leverage when she's a teenager. But I'm posting it here because it's a cool jumping picture—and the face she's making makes me laugh out loud EVERY time I see it.