A quick update on the cute things Anna is doing. Many of you get to see these often. Some of you only catch glimpses. But I know we ALL enjoy the wonderful wonder that is Anna!
When she sees ANY bug: "Oh bee!" Stated like this: "ohbeeohbeeohbeeohbee!"
Much like Forrest Gump, Anna is always running. She likes to advertise it, too! "Wunnnin, Wunnnin, Wunnnin". She's also currently quite proud of her jumping and marching skills. Although her jumping energy is mostly used up on the exaggerated squat she enters before jumping so she's a little low on the ups.
Anna likes to point things out. She's definitely gotten the idea of object permanence but doesn't quite get the concept of directions. If Daddy is at work and I ask, "Where's daddy?", she'll point in any direction. Also, every time she gets hurt and I ask her "What happened?", she'll point to what "hurt" her (the edge of the table, the concrete sidewalk, etc.) Another part of this idea that is quite cute is when you pretend you can't see her, she'll delightedly yell, "Heaw it is...Anna!" (Here it is! Anna!) to show you where she is. Oh so cute.
She's miss independent now. Two weeks ago I experienced my first order: No!...Anna! It was clear I was to step out of the way and let the little boss take over. (Go on, Anna, the world is yours!)
She's obsessed with when it is her turn. I hear "Anna's Nurn!" so. many. times. per. day. When she and a kiddo her own age get together, Anna's in that "I don't want it until YOU want it, then I want it" stage. However, when she's in a generous mood, she'll focus on OTHER people's turn "Kitties nurn!" "Baby's Nurn!"
She has to "dipt" ev-er-y-thing she eats now. It doesn't matter what the dip is or what she's dipping, but pretty much everything that enters her mouth is accompanied by some type of creative dip (if we have energy) or ranch (when we don't).
A few (a-hem) times per week Anna HAS to watch videos of kitties on the computer. She is convinced that is the only purpose of the old laptop we keep upstairs. The WHOLE PURPOSE of me borrowing that laptop from a friend was so I could check email and look things up without having to drag myself and Anna downstairs. But sure enough, just as children change ALL your expectations, nearly every time I flip the laptop open I hear "Kitties! Kitties! and footsteps running across the room towards me. Oh well. I'll check the email later. Blog later. Or maybe not.
She is making great connections all of the sudden. She held up a light blue marker the other day and said, "Wah wah!" Also her memory is amazing. We were going to the funeral of my roommate's mother-in-law in Kansas City and I was explaining to her that we were going to see our friends Kipp and Kylie who were in Chicago and she said, "Woo WOO!" because she remembered we went there on the train! And today, we got a picture of our other roommate Janelle and her family and I reminded her of Chicago and she said both "Woo woo!" and "Bubbooos" because she remembered that Janelle's husband Carl blew bubbles with her outside on our awesome patio. This is TWO months ago, people!
She's attempting to count but it's definitely a new skill! ("Wons, freeze") (one, three)
Oh boy I love her so. Not ashamed to say she's my best friend. Hooray!
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Monday, June 29, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Anna's First Camping Trip!
Check out the pics of Anna's first camping trip. We went to a cute little campground in Eldon, MO after the big family camping trip to Onodaga Cave State Park fell through.
A big thanks to Michelle who talked us into going!
It was a hot hot HOT trip but super fun. We had hot dogs grilled on a stick, s'mores, camp breakfast INCLUDING camp donuts and lots more yummy food.
We fell asleep to the gentle sounds of POUNDING RAIN the entire night. I was so proud of our tent for keeping us (mostly) dry. The floor of the tent, however, was a different story. Anna slept amazingly well. What a trooper.
Check out the pics: (My faves are "Camper dude Tim" and "Two hot girls on a camp chair!"
A big thanks to Michelle who talked us into going!
It was a hot hot HOT trip but super fun. We had hot dogs grilled on a stick, s'mores, camp breakfast INCLUDING camp donuts and lots more yummy food.
We fell asleep to the gentle sounds of POUNDING RAIN the entire night. I was so proud of our tent for keeping us (mostly) dry. The floor of the tent, however, was a different story. Anna slept amazingly well. What a trooper.
Check out the pics: (My faves are "Camper dude Tim" and "Two hot girls on a camp chair!"
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| Camping June 2009 |
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Why today is a great day:
After a grocery shopping trip with her Mimi (while Curt changed the oil in our car and Momma Maria stood by to make sure the car wouldn't fall on him)
Anna came home, ran up to me and shouted "Mah-MA!". I wrapped her in a full-body snuggle, and she said, "eyeohhuuu".
And that's why today is a great day!
Anna came home, ran up to me and shouted "Mah-MA!". I wrapped her in a full-body snuggle, and she said, "eyeohhuuu".
And that's why today is a great day!
Friday, June 12, 2009
Crazy Fun Family Time
My little Anna is getting older and older.
Tonight after a yummy dinner of homemade pizza (made by moi..., ahem.), Anna, Curt and I played forEVER with her new Pea Pod. For those not "in the know" a Pea Pod is a snazzy little tent that will TOTALLY replace pack n' plays someday. My hip college roommate Kylie had one and we splurged for one for the upcoming family camping trip. (Gulp.)
We decided there was no way Anna-the-Floppy-Fish would sleep on an air mattress with us and we assumed the pack n' play was illogical in a smallish tent. Anyhoo... Here's a picture of it:
I broke out the Pea Pod because I wanted Anna to get used to it and also because it's so dang cool and when it arrived in the mail today I squealed like a you-know-what! I hid it in my room all afternoon till it was dough-rollin time for the pizza. Sure enough, it caught that gal's attention right off the bat. She climbed in and out and had great fun.
BUT TONIGHT,
With a belly full of pizza, Anna went bonkers in the Pea Pod. The same girl that can't do the same activity for more than five minutes and who [sure as heck no way I don't see the point] never wants to play alone, climbed in and out of that thing for a while. THEN, Curt and I joined in and all fun broke loose. Curt and I were on the back (non door) side of the tent. Anna would dive into it and launch herself at us and smash her face into the mesh and try to tickle us. Then, we alternated closing the window flap and leaving it open so the little monkey never knew what she'd get when she dove in. Then, we alternated being on the back or on the sides. It was great fun and giggles had by all.
The neatest thing was, Anna created the game. When she'd climb out, she'd yell "AN-NA!" to indicate we were to yell her name. Then, she'd dive in for some parent location-guessin, face-smashin, tickle-tryin fun. When she'd had enough, she'd climb (fall) back out of the pod and yell "AN-NA!" again so we'd call for her and start the fun again.
As the game wore on (I'm talking 20-25 minutes at this point), she changed it up by staying in the pod, holding still, looking sideways at us and slyly saying, "Uh-oh" before trying to get us through the mesh.
People, we wore out WAY before she did. She was so much fun. We FINALLY folded the Pea Pod up, which is fun all by itself, only to have Curt let go and have it SPRING open into it's tent-y shape. Oh boy she LOVED that! We did that for a while.
What a night! What a big girl making up her own fun! Ahhhhhhh Anna Banana!
Tonight after a yummy dinner of homemade pizza (made by moi..., ahem.), Anna, Curt and I played forEVER with her new Pea Pod. For those not "in the know" a Pea Pod is a snazzy little tent that will TOTALLY replace pack n' plays someday. My hip college roommate Kylie had one and we splurged for one for the upcoming family camping trip. (Gulp.)
We decided there was no way Anna-the-Floppy-Fish would sleep on an air mattress with us and we assumed the pack n' play was illogical in a smallish tent. Anyhoo... Here's a picture of it:
I broke out the Pea Pod because I wanted Anna to get used to it and also because it's so dang cool and when it arrived in the mail today I squealed like a you-know-what! I hid it in my room all afternoon till it was dough-rollin time for the pizza. Sure enough, it caught that gal's attention right off the bat. She climbed in and out and had great fun.
BUT TONIGHT,
With a belly full of pizza, Anna went bonkers in the Pea Pod. The same girl that can't do the same activity for more than five minutes and who [sure as heck no way I don't see the point] never wants to play alone, climbed in and out of that thing for a while. THEN, Curt and I joined in and all fun broke loose. Curt and I were on the back (non door) side of the tent. Anna would dive into it and launch herself at us and smash her face into the mesh and try to tickle us. Then, we alternated closing the window flap and leaving it open so the little monkey never knew what she'd get when she dove in. Then, we alternated being on the back or on the sides. It was great fun and giggles had by all.
The neatest thing was, Anna created the game. When she'd climb out, she'd yell "AN-NA!" to indicate we were to yell her name. Then, she'd dive in for some parent location-guessin, face-smashin, tickle-tryin fun. When she'd had enough, she'd climb (fall) back out of the pod and yell "AN-NA!" again so we'd call for her and start the fun again.
As the game wore on (I'm talking 20-25 minutes at this point), she changed it up by staying in the pod, holding still, looking sideways at us and slyly saying, "Uh-oh" before trying to get us through the mesh.
People, we wore out WAY before she did. She was so much fun. We FINALLY folded the Pea Pod up, which is fun all by itself, only to have Curt let go and have it SPRING open into it's tent-y shape. Oh boy she LOVED that! We did that for a while.
What a night! What a big girl making up her own fun! Ahhhhhhh Anna Banana!
Monday, June 8, 2009
The Evolution of "Yes"
Anna has the cutest ways of saying "yes".
She began with a cute little shoulder wiggle dance, at times accompanied by a whiny, desperate little noise (the sound of a girl SO GRATEFUL to be understood or given a choice).
Then, it mysteriously morphed into saying "die" for "yes". Goodness knows where that came from. We'd say, "Anna, do you want more juice?" She's respond, "die!"
Funny.
Now, she's doing this slow and exaggerated up and down head nod, with an occasional "die" thrown in.
What a creative and crazy little girl!
She began with a cute little shoulder wiggle dance, at times accompanied by a whiny, desperate little noise (the sound of a girl SO GRATEFUL to be understood or given a choice).
Then, it mysteriously morphed into saying "die" for "yes". Goodness knows where that came from. We'd say, "Anna, do you want more juice?" She's respond, "die!"
Funny.
Now, she's doing this slow and exaggerated up and down head nod, with an occasional "die" thrown in.
What a creative and crazy little girl!
Because you asked..
I got a FULL BODY massage last night from Curt.
Yep.
I didn't even ask for it.
Just saying...
Yep.
I didn't even ask for it.
Just saying...
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Concerning Princesses:
Stolen from KG:
(I think you ladies will appreciate this letter as much as I do. It's written to Pixar from Linda Holmes and it reads as follows:
(You can also click here to read it from the NPR blog)
Dear Pixar,
This is not an angry letter. It is especially not an angry letter about Up, which I adored. I could have sat in the theater and watched it two more times in a row. I cried, but I also laughed so hard in places that it wore me out.
So I'm not complaining; I'm asking. I'm asking because I think so highly of you.
Please make a movie about a girl who is not a princess.
I'm counting on you, after the jump...
Of the ten movies you've released so far, ten of them have central characters who are boys or men, or who are anthropomorphized animals or robots or bugs who are voiced by and imagined as boys or men. These movies feature women and girls to varying degrees -- The Incredibles, in particular -- but the story is never "a girl and the things that happen to her," the way it's "a boy and what happens to him."
I want so much for girls to have a movie like Up that is about someone they can dress up as for Halloween, as Anika Noni Rose said about starring as the voice in The Frog Princess. Not a girl who's a side dish, but a girl who's the big draw.
And I'd really, really like it not to be a princess.
My understanding is that after the summer blockbusters of 2010 and 2011 -- Toy Story 3 and Newt -- you're planning The Bear And The Bow, a Christmastime fairy tale rather than a summer adventure. And your first one about a girl -- way to go!
But why, oh why, does it have to be about a princess? Again?
Et tu, Pixar?
I have nothing against princesses. I have nothing against movies with princesses. But don't the Disney princesses pretty much have us covered? If we had to wait for your thirteenth movie for you to make one with a girl at the center, couldn't you have chosen something -- something -- for her to be that could compete with plucky robots and adventurous space toys?
Or more to the point, why couldn't your first female central character be as specifically drawn as the women and girls (and girl robots, etc.) you're already writing as secondary characters? Ratatouille has a chef! WALL-E has Eve! The Incredibles has superheroes!
And Up...oh, Up has Ellie, who I could have watched forever. Seen only in flashbacks to the main story, Ellie is warm and hilarious, ambitious and fearless, and then gone for most of the movie. She provides the engine for the story, in many ways, but it's an old man and a little boy who actually get to hit the gas.
I don't like to make movies political, especially kids' movies, if I can help it. Sometimes a princess is just a princess and should be taken as such.
At the same time, little Russell, in Up, is Asian-American, right? And that's not a big plot point; presumably, he just is because there's no particular reason he shouldn't be. You don't need him to be, but you don't need him not to be, either. It's not politics; it's just seeing the whole big world.
Well, the whole big world has a lot of little girls in it, too. And not all of them are princesses -- and the ones who are princesses have plenty of movies to watch.
And even many of them who do aspire to be princesses are mixing their princess tendencies with all manner of other delicious things. Their tiaras fall off when they skin their knees running at top speed; they get fingerpaint on their pink dresses; they chip their front teeth chasing each other in plastic high-heeled shoes.
There's nothing wrong with the movies you're making; I'm sure your princess movie will be my favorite one ever. I'm just saying, keep them in mind, those girls in Band-Aids, because they want to see themselves on screen doing death-defying stunts, too. You're making some of my favorite movies in the whole world right now.
Please, please make one about a girl who isn't a princess.
(I think you ladies will appreciate this letter as much as I do. It's written to Pixar from Linda Holmes and it reads as follows:
(You can also click here to read it from the NPR blog)
Dear Pixar,
This is not an angry letter. It is especially not an angry letter about Up, which I adored. I could have sat in the theater and watched it two more times in a row. I cried, but I also laughed so hard in places that it wore me out.
So I'm not complaining; I'm asking. I'm asking because I think so highly of you.
Please make a movie about a girl who is not a princess.
I'm counting on you, after the jump...
Of the ten movies you've released so far, ten of them have central characters who are boys or men, or who are anthropomorphized animals or robots or bugs who are voiced by and imagined as boys or men. These movies feature women and girls to varying degrees -- The Incredibles, in particular -- but the story is never "a girl and the things that happen to her," the way it's "a boy and what happens to him."
I want so much for girls to have a movie like Up that is about someone they can dress up as for Halloween, as Anika Noni Rose said about starring as the voice in The Frog Princess. Not a girl who's a side dish, but a girl who's the big draw.
And I'd really, really like it not to be a princess.
My understanding is that after the summer blockbusters of 2010 and 2011 -- Toy Story 3 and Newt -- you're planning The Bear And The Bow, a Christmastime fairy tale rather than a summer adventure. And your first one about a girl -- way to go!
But why, oh why, does it have to be about a princess? Again?
Et tu, Pixar?
I have nothing against princesses. I have nothing against movies with princesses. But don't the Disney princesses pretty much have us covered? If we had to wait for your thirteenth movie for you to make one with a girl at the center, couldn't you have chosen something -- something -- for her to be that could compete with plucky robots and adventurous space toys?
Or more to the point, why couldn't your first female central character be as specifically drawn as the women and girls (and girl robots, etc.) you're already writing as secondary characters? Ratatouille has a chef! WALL-E has Eve! The Incredibles has superheroes!
And Up...oh, Up has Ellie, who I could have watched forever. Seen only in flashbacks to the main story, Ellie is warm and hilarious, ambitious and fearless, and then gone for most of the movie. She provides the engine for the story, in many ways, but it's an old man and a little boy who actually get to hit the gas.
I don't like to make movies political, especially kids' movies, if I can help it. Sometimes a princess is just a princess and should be taken as such.
At the same time, little Russell, in Up, is Asian-American, right? And that's not a big plot point; presumably, he just is because there's no particular reason he shouldn't be. You don't need him to be, but you don't need him not to be, either. It's not politics; it's just seeing the whole big world.
Well, the whole big world has a lot of little girls in it, too. And not all of them are princesses -- and the ones who are princesses have plenty of movies to watch.
And even many of them who do aspire to be princesses are mixing their princess tendencies with all manner of other delicious things. Their tiaras fall off when they skin their knees running at top speed; they get fingerpaint on their pink dresses; they chip their front teeth chasing each other in plastic high-heeled shoes.
There's nothing wrong with the movies you're making; I'm sure your princess movie will be my favorite one ever. I'm just saying, keep them in mind, those girls in Band-Aids, because they want to see themselves on screen doing death-defying stunts, too. You're making some of my favorite movies in the whole world right now.
Please, please make one about a girl who isn't a princess.
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