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!