Another episode of "The Girl Behind the Annacdotes"

After the last dose of Annacdotes, I felt once again like it was time to explain a little more about the girl behind them. She does say some pretty amazing things, but her whole self is noteworthy too. Here's what's been on my mind, of late, to round her out a little.

1. She takes a lot of time in the bathroom mostly because she's singing. She sings A LOT. I think she likes to watch herself in the mirror. And it's mostly songs she makes up herself, which is even better, somehow.

2. Just so you don't get the wrong idea and think her a total diva, she LOVES to clean the bathroom with me. Her favorite thing to do is spray the counter tops and scrub them with a sponge.

3. The girly streak in her continues to run deep. If you ever need a compliment on your outfit, Anna is the one to go to. She regularly tells people, and sincerely so, that they look "spectacular" and "amazing." She will also frequently comment on how she likes the "pops of color" in her outfits and others'. She loves to have her nails painted, but she really loves to mix it up, which most often means using as many colors as possible and in a pattern. The pattern is a must, and it sometimes carries over to her toes. Sometimes I'm like, "Must I get out ten different bottles of fingernail polish?" But then I think, "This is what makes her so brilliant."

4. She says often, and very clearly, the word "immediently." I can't help but smile with each use.

5. Whilst shopping at Target the other day, I told her she could pick out one thing to get from the dollar section. After a LOT of deliberation, she decided on a pink lacy sleep mask. What the what?

6. A big water cooler was sitting out in the kitchen the other day, and Anna appropriated it and made it her new toy for a few days. She brought it nearly everywhere she went. Instead of sitting on a chair, she pulled up the big jug and sat on it at the table. Sometimes she would even use a tall kitchen chair as her table. During a game of backgammon, she put the dice in the cooler, rolled them around, and dumped them out instead of using her hands like everyone else.

7. Anna has always been a pretty good reader, but a few months ago, she really took off. She started burning through book after book from the Magic Tree House series and those rainbow fairy books there are a million of, and nearly anything she could get her hands on. After I put her to bed one night, I  heard some rustling around several minutes later and walked in to find her reading under her covers with a flashlight. The next day we talked about when it's okay to read and when she should be sleeping. The next morning after that, Anna sheepishly admitted that she got up the night before and read in the closet so she wouldn't get in trouble. I LOVE to see her curled up with a book and I'm amazed at how she's taken to it.

She also LOVES to read the comics, which reminds me of this picture from 2010:

I think in this photo she was probably just looking at the pictures, mostly, because she had just turned 4, but her obsession with the comics probably started about then. She pants like a happy puppy whenever she sees the comics—especially the beloved, colorful Sunday comics—and she collects the Sunday ones and keeps them in a little cubby she has made for herself behind the couch. Garfield is a particular favorite.

8. Anna is very dramatic. When she's happy, she'll dance and cheer and violently hug me or whoever's nearby and say she's the happiest girl there ever was and that I'm the best mom in the world. But when she's sad, she's in the pit of despair and she takes things VERY personally. She'll say she's the worst person in the world and she'd rather die than live with what she's done (which is usually something small like not hang up her coat).

And sometimes, I feel like she's going through emotional episodes way ahead of her time. Like a teenager. And it's weird. One time she was upset and ran into the bathroom (the room closest to where she was), whipped around, and yelled, "My life is RUINED and it's all because of YOU!" and then slammed the door. Truthfully, I'm glad she closed the door so that she didn't see my smile. When did we step into an episode of Full House?

Speaking of stereotypical, sometimes I play my part too. I was fixing her hair one morning before school and Anna got upset about something. Can't remember what. She started to cry and said she was hurt and it was all thanks to me.

Unamused at this point, I said, "Yes, you have many things, thanks to me. You're alive, thanks to me. You got fed this morning, thanks to me. You learned to read, thanks to me."

Then she cried out, "I don't even care! I wish I didn't even have parents! I wish I was an orphan!" How old is she, again?

And then, as though reading from a script, I said, "We can probably arrange that." I felt a little ridiculous saying it, but it seemed to be the thing to say.

9. I don't want to end on that note because Anna truly is 95% of the time happy and cheerful and a total delight to everyone around her. She's sentimental (we're going to bury her mermaid bath toy that has passed on), she's a little bit of a pack rat (which is probably related to her being sentimental), she loves to play games and will find awards for everyone at the end of the game, she has a very spiritual soul (is that redundant?), she loves all colors and often chooses her outfits based on how many colors she can combine, she loves plays and concerts and the ballet and will cry and clap enthusiastically when it's called for, totally enthralled . . . and that's all I can think of. For now.