Self awareness

"Mommy," Rachel announced, "I'm the mommy and you are the kid, ok?"

Oh if only... but ok, I will play along. Besides, I see an opportunity here and decide to seize it.

"Mommmmmy," I call, "I'm hungry."
"Ok, what do you want?"
"I don't know. But I'm sooooo hungry. I want a snack right now!"
"Ok, I will get you a banana!" says Rachel.
"No! I don't want a banana. But I'm hungry and I want something right now."
"Um do you want some crackers?"
"No."
"Ok, I will make you dinner."
"No I don't want dinner, I want a snack. Now. Because I'm so hungry and it's taking you so long to get me my snack."

Suddenly Anna pops herself into my lap with a knowing smile. "Hey! Are you being ME?"

I certainly hope that admission is the first step to change when it comes to annoying unreasonable preschooler behavior. But I'm not holding my breath.

Ten random things about my 4-year-old

1. Anna had such a good experience with her first teeth cleaning that she wanted to be a dentist when she grows up.

2. This changed after her trip to SeaWorld in March and now she wants to be a whale trainer.

3. Anna is very proud of her artistic skills and when she's not sketching mermaids on every scrap of paper she can find she does very accurate portraits.

4. When she started eating solid foods Anna's favorite veggie was carrots. She ate so much that her nose turned orange for literally months.

5. The only two foods that Anna will now refuse to eat are raisins and... carrots.

6. She has amazing balance.

7. Any girl over the age of six is as magical to Anna as fairies and unicorns.

8. It is difficult for Anna to have her picture taken without striking a "rock star" pose. This usually involves turning sideways, throwing her hands behind her head or onto her hips, sticking one leg out and giving her best coy smile. It is three-quarters hilarious and one-quarter disturbing, at least to her mother.

9. Anna is afraid of only three things: dark, very loud noises (but only the ones not coming from her of course) and being completely alone.

10. She maintains that she wants to marry one of her classmates because "he's a nice boy and he's never naughty." Mommy and Daddy hope her taste in boys doesn't change too much.

Size war

To be filed under Made Me Laugh From Two Rooms Away

Dan was getting dressed the other morning when Anna came around the corner and noticed that he was not putting on anything casual.

"Why are you putting on those pants Daddy?"
"Because I have to go to work."
"Oh. You know I saw your tushy."
"You did?"
"Yes. Mommy's is bigger."

Two worlds, one house

I exhale loudly as I load the umpteenth load of the day into the washing machine. Anna is in her usual position - approximately five inches away from me, formulating her next barrage of questions. How does the water get into the washing machine? Why do we need to the put the soap in? Why does the soap go into that part of the machine? Can she taste the soap? No? Can she smell it? Why is it greenish?

I get the cycle started while finishing this round of Twenty Questions and Anna goes off to draw for a while, momentarily satisfied in her quest for knowledge. Rachel sees her opportunity and heads right for me with a serious look on her sweet face. I brace myself as she places her hands on my shoulders and leans in to share a secret. "Stumatruntrun," she informs me, "means 'you're a girl.'" I raise my eyebrows, expecting further explanation but none is forthcoming. She dances back to her play kitchen, singing to herself about a princess who could only go in her castle if she was wearing a purple nightgown. Planet Three-Year-Old seems like a lovely place.

Virtually from the moment Rachel was able to move of her own volition Dan and I have marveled at how different she was from her sister. The past year has highlighted these differences more than ever as they attended the same preschool. Rachel tends to indulge the fantasy part of her brain much more than Anna does. While Anna is at the sensory table, touching, smelling and trying to sneak a taste of sand or rice, Rachel is playing dress up and having imaginary conversations. Anna will pepper her teacher with questions about how something works, why it works that way and how soon she can do it herself. Rachel wanders off during lessons to sing herself a song or make up a game.

This is certainly not to say that Anna is not creative - her artwork speaks for itself and I am planning a post to highlight her latest drawings. But even in her creativity she is goal-oriented. She wants her elephant drawing to look like a real elephant; she wants to make sure the eye color is correct if she's drawing a specific person. She enjoys mixing colors and seeing the outcome but it is usually because she needs just the right color to make something more realistic.

Rachel does touch down on Earth occasionally and is suddenly (now that school is out for the summer, ha) showing tons of interest in learning the numbers and letters she hasn't yet mastered. And just when I thought she was never paying attention to the stories I read her, she started opening those books and spewing out whole sentences from memory. Of course she's reading them to imaginary students but I am not complaining. She just always seems to be having so much fun. And getting to witness it all, so am I.

Paying for Anna's nap

The sound of Anna's finger restlessly drumming against her father's pillow would on a normal evening be mildly annoying. Tonight however I fear it may be my complete undoing. It's 12:30 am and Anna is still awake because I was foolish enough to allow her to doze off on the couch this afternoon. Not that I had a choice. After a two weeks break from school, two days back had exhausted her completely. And so my tired child slept and I am now paying for it seven full hours later. Seven hours! Shouldn't she be tired just from being awake that long? Seven hours of consciousness usually wears me out.

I performed all of my evening chores with Anna underfoot, trying to "help." She followed me around asking me what else she could do and snorted when my answer was "go to bed." When I was finally ready to go to bed myself I made her lay down with me. For over an hour I tried to fall asleep but instead was tormented by Anna tossing and turning and fixing her nightgown and snickering as she tried to touch strands of my hair without detection. I finally get her to lay still and be quiet but that rogue finger and the odd popping sound it made against the memory foam material becomes the proverbial straw. My patience begins to completely unravel. I whisper harshly for her to stop and threaten to put her back in her own bed.

A moment later I realize that under the blankets Anna is slowly snaking one long leg in my direction. Her big toe pauses at my knee and then wiggles, tickling me. Even in the dark she sees me smile and erupts in high-pitched giggles. I can't help but join in, it's my favorite sound in the world. I recover quickly, repeat my now-meaningless threat and turn so I am facing away from my little night owl. But the jig is up, she knows I'm not frustrated anymore. But hey, I'm not frustrated anymore. I am put back together by the sound of her laughter. So I give in, as I so often do with these tiny sweet complicated girls. Especially when they are cuddling me. I stay facing away from her, but let her play with my hair and sing silly songs into my ear. The singing finally gives way to snoring and I fall asleep with the sound of her mermaid song in my ears. Not the worst lullaby in the world.

Twisting the rules of hospitality

Anna is somewhat obsessed these days with other people's houses. This is a direct side effect of preschool and the resulting play dates she's had with classmates. Interestingly enough she doesn't yet compare the other houses to ours, she just gets excited to see what kind of stuff other families have. So I wasn't all that surprised when on a recent car trip she looked out at the residential neighborhood we were driving through and asked if we could go to "those people's houses." When I pointed out that we don't know those people, she thought for a second and boiled it down to a rule.

"So, if we don't know the people, we don't go to the house?"
"Exactly."
"But we could try."
"What should we do, just go up and say 'hi I don't know you but I want to go in your house'?"
(Giggling) "Yes!"
"And when we got in their house what would we do?"
"Ummmmm, ask them their names."

Some recent creations

I've been trying to get my digital scrapbooking mojo back. Here is what I've come up with.