In a previous post, I noticed a little sign of Anna growing up - she
stopped putting two feet on each step as she climbed stairs. She's now
all but stopped having to have her kitty and blankets with her wherever
she goes. She does keep them in her bed, though, and sleeps with them
every night, along with her pink snowman slippers. Today in church she
actually sang with her VBS class in front of everybody. Before, she'd
cling to her teacher, but this time she asked us to sit up front so we
could see her, so we did. And I think it helped her confidence, because
once she saw us, she got a big smile on her face and sang out. And
she'd smile big throughout the other songs when she'd glance over and
see us still there, watching. She can also count to at least 5, maybe
10, thanks to her friend Dora the Explorer. She knows some other
Spanish words as well, though "perrito" comes out as "burrito."
Cara is now walking down the steps standing up, but still using two
feet per step. She is very, very independent, but still loves to copy
whatever her sister does or says. She likes to sit on the kitchen
counter and watch Beth do whatever. She is still a big mess at the
table - yesterday we had spaghetti and that Texas Toast garlic bread
with cheese. She ate the spaghetti with her hands, and after licking
the cheese on the garlic bread, she peeled it off bit by bit to eat just
the cheese, then somehow ate a hole in the middle of the bread, and was
trying to put the bread on her arm like a bracelet.
In other kind of sad growing up news, I may need to start limiting
how much the girls, at least Anna, can jump on my belly. The girls like
to hold my hands while they leap up and pounce on my belly. Anna's
getting big enough now, though, that it's starting to hurt!
Both girls are very scared of thunder - Cara probably only because
Anna screams whenever she thinks she hears a little thunder. When a
tiny roll of thunder came during naptime and Anna freaked out, I tried
to calm her down by saying it was just the sky burping a little, and she
just needs to say, "Excuse you, sky!" That seemed to work, a little,
we'll see. But now whenever she gets scared by thunder, she says, "I'm
scared of the burping!"
Last night at 3:15 a.m., Anna came and woke me up. "Daddy, I lost a
slipper! I need to find it!" So I got up to help her find her single
lost slipper in her dark room. Once we found it, all was ok. She put it
on (she was wearing the other one already) and went back to sleep. Titi
Edna, these are (still) the pink snowman slippers that you gave to Anna
in Orlando last fall. She loves those slippers and still wears them to
bed (i.e., sleeps with them on) every single night. They're getting a
little worn from so much use. Titi Toni, you asked what Anna would like
for her birthday - I think she would love another pair of silky, shiny,
fluffy slippers. I could be wrong, and she might insist on the pink
snowman slippers till they literally fall apart!
My mom recently sent me this picture of her first time "rapelling,"
if you can call it that. I had to laugh, because it reminded me of my
first time rapelling at summer camp. I hate what I call "low heights,"
meaning I'm just fine riding on or piloting an aircraft, but if I'm
standing on a cliff where one misstep will obviously cause a painful
fall, I freeze up.
Anyway, I was absolutely terrified, but they made all of us do it. I
was frozen up, maybe a quarter way down this 100 foot cliff, when my
whole harness thing started to slip off. I started yelling, "Oh crap!
Get me down! Get me down NOW!!!" Everyone started laughing, but I
didn't see the humor in being 75 feet in the air with my safety
equipment tenuously wrapped around my ankles instead of my groin, where
it was supposed to be. I guess I got my skills from mom.
Anna just has bad luck when it comes to the driveway. When we
pulled into our villa in Orlando last fall for our family reunion, she
was quite horrified when she saw this dead lizard right outside her van door.
Today, when they were getting into the van, Anna discovered yet
another life claimed by the driveway, again right next to her door.
This time, it was the decapitated carcass of a bird. Not only was it
headless, but it also looked like something ripped its chest open and
took the insides, in the style of Temple of Doom or The Thing.
Probably the only thing I could do to make it more scary for her
would be to tell her that a thunderstorm did that to the bird, but Beth
didn't think that would be a good idea.
Yesterday (the 6th) we had a party for Anna's 4th birthday. She was
very confused because on the 5th (her actual birthday), we wished her a
happy birthday, and she thought she was having a party that day. After
work I had done a big run to the grocery store for Beth to get both
general groceries and things for the party. When I brought the stuff
home, I had to run back out to get more things for the party so
everything would be ready (a new propane tank, for one). So I wasn't
actually home much on her actual birthday. Poor Anna - I don't know what
she thought was happening, but she said, "This is the best birthday
party EVER!" to Beth, when there was no actual party, no presents yet,
and daddy wasn't even home. I think she was confused when she went to
bed.
Yesterday made up for it, at least, when she had her actual party,
which she'd been looking forward to for months. It was really a simple
cookout with several friends from Beth's MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers)
group and friends from Anna's preschool. The guys, of course, met for
the first time. But we had balloons, cupcakes, and a bunch of toys in
the backyard to play with. I have to count in my head how many girls
were there… I don't even know, maybe around 15 little girls? Counting
the boys is easy - there was only one! Anna's friend Alex, who's
deathly afraid of our black-and-white cats and asked me repeatedly to
"put them away," even though we were outside and the cats were nowhere
to be seen. I forget what the game was, but at one point all the girls
were chasing Alex around the yard.
Anna was too excited to eat her hot dog & baked beans, so she
told us that she "didn't like it" and "wanted to play." We let her,
since it was her birthday after all. She didn't have a problem eating 2
or 3 cupcakes later, though. All the kids had a really fun time
playing in the sprinkler when we turned it on. At first Anna didn't
want to get wet, so she stood far back and held her hands out to feel
the water droplets. But one of the other dads somehow convinced her it
was fun, then picked her up and held her over the sprinkler and got her
all wet - after which Anna repeatedly went back to him to do it again
and again. After the sprinkler, there were bubbles for everyone to play
with.
Below is a short collage of some pictures and video clips from Anna's party (or click here for a high-quality version, ~25MB). All the pictures and raw video clips will be in the photo gallery, under Day-to-Day, 2008 Summer, Annas 4th Birthday.
It was a fun time, and all the kids had a ball, I think. It was a
little warm, but our backyard is shaded in the evening, so it wasn't too
bad. It was good we had it yesterday because we have an excessive heat
watch for the rest of the weekend, with heat indeces near 110 degrees.
The only casualty was after everyone left, when Cara let one of Anna's
11 balloons float off into the sky. When Anna saw it, she screamed in
horror then cried for her one lost balloon. It didn't matter there were
10 others.
