A Post For Anna

My little sweetie pie has such a multifaceted personality.  She is so animated and amusing; filled with spunk and entertaining always.  My wee actress loves acting out different emotions in the bathroom mirror.  She will watch her face and say, "I'm happy!" smiling big, and then instantly slap on a frown while saying, "Now I'm sad."  The next second it will be "I'm mad!" with a scowl or "I'm excited!" with her eyes and mouth big and wide.  She'll sometimes add in a "Now I'm proud," while sticking her chin in the air.  We call the faces she sometimes makes her Jim Carey faces- lately she's on a eye crossing kick too. She quickly remembers what gets a laugh and will repeat the scenario to get the same results.  She pretended to fall out of a child-sized rocking chair after "rocking so fast" 20+ times in a row after we all laughed about her over-the-top fall the first time.  Girl definitely has a flair for the dramatic, that's for sure.

Anna's never been much of a girly girl, but that may be more a result of us than her.  Our toys selection tends to be more gender neutral, and although we have dolls to play with and she sometimes does, she most often gravitates towards the trains and train track.  I would say she's more all about the trains than even Sam is.  For a long time, Percy was her favorite, but now it's becoming more and more often Thomas.  Lately though, the Cinderella dress in our dress-up box has been the thing to play with du jour.  She puts on that garage sale find daily and tromps around in her "glass slippers"- red sparkly Fancy Nancy shoes that were also a garage sale find from this summer.  I figured if she's pretending to be Cinderella every day, I better at least let her watch the movie so she knows who Cinderella is... and thus, that became her first Princess movie ever.  Now she usually calls me her Fairy Godmother (when I help her get dressed) or her Step-Sister, when she demands that I pretend to rip her dress.  Daddy is typically Grand Duke.  But she's still pretending to be Baby Jesus just as often.  She loves when I hold her and pretend to rock her as Baby Jesus.  She'll instruct me to refer to her as Cinderella or Baby Jesus, as in  "Say thank you to Baby Jesus." or "Ask Cinderella if she has to go to the bathroom."

While Sam sometimes tries to be obstinate by purposely doing things we tell him not to do, Anna misbehaves more by omission.  Her challenge is more often to not do the things we ask, like to not clean up, get ready for a meal, eat instead of just playing or even answer our questions.  If she has a problem with Sam, she's more likely to shriek or cry about it than act out physically.  She can be so cooperative with him and his demands though- I can count on her to often give him things he wants even if she wants it too.  Most of the time, Anna's definitely the one that is more go-with-the-flow.

Anna is so easily adaptable and flexible in all kinds of environments.  I attribute that to her more independent nature.  She's never really been shy and hardly ever shows uncomfortableness in new situations with new people or places.  Anna's handled the major changes with Daddy gone Monday-Friday with no visible affects.  Of course, she loves him and is super happy when he's home on the weekends, but it doesn't bother her to have him not here during the week like it does Sam.  She's also more able to handle changes in her daily routine on a day to day basis, like the absence of a nap.  That being said, I'm pretty sure she's going to be dropping the nap well before her brother.  Good thing 6 months later she's still never tried to get out of her big bed, so a rest time should be doable.

What I love best right now about my almost 3 year old little girl?  Watching her "read" books and seeing how much she adores pouring over the pages.  It amazes me how quickly she picks up the words and can repeat parts of so many of the books we have read together.  I have a huge collection of picture books, so we don't reread very frequently.  I bring home books from my classroom shelves like a public library and the scholastic book clubs, oh boy- they feed my compulsion of getting my hands on new children's books to read.  I would estimate that Sam and Anna's personal library alone grows by 20 books or so a month. When I bring new books home, Anna will clamor into my lap and listen to them all one after another.  Then when I take a break to get something done, I'll walk away and she'll already be repeating phrases from the books she only heard once or twice while "rereading" them to herself.  As a result, she has a ridiculous vocabulary for a not-quite three year old.  Example:  she told Sam he was being ridiculous the other day.  (Story the word was from : A Silly Snowy Day starring a ridiculous turtle.)  I can't even pinpoint a few of her favorite books right now, because she loves them all.  Books that I can't get 5 and 6 year old to pay attention through one sitting she loves and her comprehension of them rivals the kindergartners in my class. Eric Carle's Animals, Animals book held her attention until my husband had read to page 70.  Unreal.  I can't wait to start reading simple chapter books to her and Sam, although I have been trying to hold off until they are 3. 

3 years old? Only one month to go.  Wow.