Stickers

Anna loves stickers. I used to keep them up high and save them for bribery! Now I put them in a container on her table in her room although she still asks for permission before going in. I've tried to explain to her that the toys in her room are hers and she can play with them whenever she wants (within reason, of course!). She tends to ask permission (in her own way) to remove toys from the lower shelves of her bookshelf. We're working on it!

This morning she wanted a balloon sticker for her hand. I reminded her that she can go get the stickers herself. She did and then came back to me in my room where I was still getting ready for work. She has a hard time peeling the stickers still so I tend to help but this morning I decided I need to 'force' her to do it to impress upon her that I know she can do it if she tries a little harder. As soon as I impressed upon her that I was busy, she went to work. Within 30 seconds she was placing the balloon on her arm! It's so nice to see how proud of herself she is!

Hello

Uncle Jimmy and Nay Nay gave Anna her very own phone (white with pink polka dots, no less). She loves it. Mostly she says 'hello' into it, but since it's a real phone, we've actually called Mimi on it a few times. It doesn't have a speaker phone on it though so Dave sits near her with the cordless so he can talk as well. Anna is so used to phones looking like the cordless ones that she still just thinks of her phone as a toy and she leans into Dave's phone in order to continue talking to Mimi. It's pretty funny watching her holding the black phone up to ear as she jabbers away!

'Feh'

I changed the sheets on Anna's bed the other day and in the process moved her guard rail a little bit too much to the center of the bed making the space where she can climb narrower. She noticed it and asked me why it was like this. I explained that I moved it by accident while changing her sheets and had to fix it (which involves picking up the mattress so I wasn't anxious to do it!).

Last night when she climbed into bed, she kept saying 'feh, feh'. I told her I was sorry but I couldn't understand what she was saying. She then motioned to the rail and I knew immediately what she was getting at. The fact that she pursued it again told me this was important to her so I obliged her. I was shocked that she even noticed it but happy that she was able to convey her wishes without much struggle!

This Morning

Anna decided to come down to breakfast in her white boa and only her white boa! She didn't want to get dressed yet so I decided it wasn't worth the argument. So Anna ate her breakfast in her boa and nothing else. Not sure how she wasn't a bit chilly but she wasn't complaining!

Sippy Sippy

Anna can't say thirsty so instead she says sippy sippy when she's thirsty or pink cup (since that's the color of her cup!). Everything is color related - she calls her light weight jacket, blue and her rain coat yellow. She must see a rainbow when she goes to sleep at night. Well, it does make sense as she's clearly very left brained (the so-called creative hemisphere of the brain).

Now! & Why?

Anna has been doing really well verbally. Her progress with vocabulary, articulation and sentence structure has been steadily progressing all summer. It's so nice to be able to have more of a converstaion wit her rather than having to ask her yes or no questions in order to understand her needs.

With her progress comes some bossiness and lots of questions! I'm happy to answer the questions (why this? why that?) but the repetition is a little grating. Last night before we sat down for her bedtime story, I told her enough talking! I said, it's getting late; let's have some quiet time now and listen to the story! I'm sure all of the speech therapists Anna has had over the last two years rolled their eyes in protest!

Also, everything is 'now'. Read the book, now. Eat the dinner, now. Mommy, come here, now. At first, I thought it was funny. Not so much anymore. Suffice it to say, we're now working on 'please'.

Fancy Anna

Dave was away for a couple of weeks and when he returned, he brought home a blue beaded necklace and bracelet for Anna. She loved them and wore them for three days straight. She wanted to sleep with them, but we didn't think that was such a great idea!

Last week I found some 'fun fur' (yarn) in my yarn bin and was about to give it away but then thought it might make a great fancy scarf for Anna. I started to make a thin scarf so it would be long and Anna could wrap it around her neck like a boa. As soon as she saw it, she wanted to put it on. Of course, it was only a few inches so I told her she could have it after it was finished. Luckily I had enough yarn to make it about 3 feet (a guess). She loved it and even wore it (with her pearls, blue bonnet and bracelet) to Maggie's on Saturday. Very funny!

We were on vacation in Pennsylvania over Labor Day weekend and stopped at an Amish gift store on the way home. I found a blue bonnet with yellow flowers on it and immediatley put it on Anna. She loved it and wore it the whole way home. It made for a great picture. Check it out above. She wanted to wear it to bed, but again, not a great idea! But she put it on first thing the next morning and has worn it several times since. It's adorable - it gave me a great Halloween idea although I'm still thinking butterfly!

So Anna definitely likes dress up which definitely thrills this crafty mommy!

Time

Where has the time gone? The summer is behind us and Anna is back in school. She loves it. Her teacher Miss Eileen sent a post card home a couple of weeks before school started and Anna liked it so much, she put it in in her bed. I was so glad to see how excited she was about returning to school and very grateful that she has the same teachers/aids this year.

A lot has happened since the end of June. Anna is potty trained although we're still having issues. Number 2 is still a problem especially when we're out and about. Luckily she tends to have to go more regularly in the evening when we're home, but. . . it's definitely ruined a few afternoons of summer excursions. Oh, well, perhaps more on that later, but for now, let's focus on the positive.

Anna has transitioned to a big girl bed - really her crib with the front railing replaced with a guard so she can get in and out by herself. She loves it! The first morning that she woke up her in her bed, I heard her jabbering and singing so I went in to get her. She was already up and admiring herself in the mirror. She startled me as I wasn't expecting her to be out of bed the very first morning. She's only done this one other time. I think more so because she's a lounger and loves to relax in bed for a little while before facing the day. Anna is not quite the morning person which is very lucky for Dave and me!

So what I thought was going to be a bit of a transition turned out to be nothing but a fun thing for a 'big girl'. Yay! I can't believe I waited this long but frankly I don't regret it as I'm not sure what the difference is other than I no longer have to lift her over the crib railing - that is a good thing but not a huge change nevertheless.

What else. . .well, perhaps I'll save that for another entry.