Probably uses a 'mote

I was showing Anne lightening tonight.

She said, "Sky! More lightening please!"

To which I replied, "Annie, God is the One who makes the lightening, you should ask Him."

She responded, "Will you ask Him with me?"

So we sat there together praying, "God, may we have more lightening please? Amen."

"How can God make the lightening, He doesn't have a thing for it, He probably has a 'mote" (Remote)

I didn't say anything.

She continued, "No, He doesn't use a 'mote, He uses His Heart."

Several minutes later...

"I just saw some more lightening!
I guess He's selling more."

I like boys

"I like boys, did you know that?"

no.

"Yeah, they're cute.
Like babies."

A bearded baby

Last night Anne and Tim were discussing who has beards and why. Anne said "Only boys have beards, right?" Then after a little pause, "Maybe our baby will come with a beard!"

Introducing Anne's "Girl"

Anne has a girl. We might have referred to her previously but I know we've never really explained who she is. She has had her for about a year. Sadly, her girl has no name but she leads a very exciting life. Whenever we are talking about something that Anne might want to do in the future or anything scary or exciting Anne launches into a story about when her girl did that. Her girl can be 3 or 33, she participates in activities for girls of all ages. Everything Anne has done, will do, can't do, might do... her girl has done. Anne isn't the least bit shy about her girl either; it doesn't matter who we're talking with, if she thinks of her girl she'll start talking about her.

When we ask Anne what her girl's name is she usually says she doesn't remember. She sometimes will try to call her to ask but whenever she's doing that her girl isn't available. Once she even tried calling her girl's grandma but she didn't remember her name either.

Anne celebrated her girl's birthday yesterday and then again today. Yesterday she just sang her "Happy Birthday" over and over again, "Happy birthday dear My Girl..." today she has been singing to her and she is making her a water cake. I asked her a little while ago how her girl was liking her birthday party and she said her girl isn't here yet so it's not time for the party. I guess this is all just excited preparation. We frequently wait for her girl to join us but Anne always gives an explanation as to what is holding her up (school, work, wedding, etc.).

Dinner prayer

Anne is very sincere when she prays and she spends a few seconds thinking before each thing she prays for. At bedtime she will make more requests, at meals everything is usually "thank you". Here is a recent suppertime prayer.

"Thank you for this food. Thank you for time to eat. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for Grandpa's ouchie on his eye getting better. Thank you for Daddy has a good haircut and that it doesn't hurt. Thank you for him and that he has good hair. Amen."

Betrayed!

Anne has had a rash on her bottom for the past few days. Last night while I was putting ointment on her she said, "My bottom is just hurting me so much! I don't know why, 'cause I've had it a long time!" As though she can't imagine why her bottom would betray her after 3 good years.

A big day

Last night was Anne's first night at AWANA. I can't believe she is big enough to be a Cubbie! We spent all day yesterday talking about it; me trying to psyche myself up for it and Anne excitedly trying to understand what she was going to be doing. She was so excited she could hardly fall asleep at nap time, she kept calling me in and asking me questions about it. I tried to teach her the Cubbie Bear motto, "Jesus loves me", but she couldn't ever get the "me" no matter how I tried to explain it. I said, "Jesus loves me," she said, "Jesus loves you." If I said "Jesus loves YOU, so say 'ME'" She said, "Jesus loves us." We went around and around and I finally gave up. When we were on our way home from AWANA, Tim and I were talking to her about her evening. She was completely worn out so it was a funny conversation. We asked her if she had fun, she said "yes!" We asked her if she wanted to go back next week, she replied in a sad little voice, "no." But, she continued to talk about it like she was planning to go again. Then she said, "Am I still a Tubbie?" To which we replied, "Yes, you're still a Cubbie." Then very quietly, "Am I still Annie?" Poor girl. We explained, "You go to AWANA and your little group is called Cubbies so we say you're a cubbie..." Ha! I don't know if she thought Cubbies was such a big deal that it was going to change every aspect of her life- including her name- or what exactly caused the identity confusion.

Yesterday was also her first day of school. I set the timer for 15 minutes thinking that was all I'd get out of her but we were in the middle of things when it went off so I set it for another 15. She lasted about 13 more minutes before staring into space and ignoring everything I was saying. Guess we'll try to make it 20 minutes today. She learned how to circle things, draw a line from one item to another, and we worked on her name and some numbers. She is very excited to be "doing stool" finally.

Pigs

"Please do a story on my piggies" Anne said this morning. It took me a second but then I realized what she was asking so I did "This little piggy" for her. Then she tried. "This little piggy went to market... to market to buy a fat hog, this little piggy stayed home, um, jiggedy jog?" Grandma just taught her "To Market" last weekend, now I guess she knows what the little piggy was going to market for!

Last night she was putting an animal puzzle together and she asked me where the pink cow went.

Futons and croutons

Last night Anne was lying in bed while I was looking around the house for her Bible. She kept hollering ideas from bed for where it might be found. "Look upstairs and look on the bookcase, then look under the sofa and under the crouton."

If you read Tim's "Salad Days" post you know, she's a little confused.

Happy Birthday

Here's Anne's birthday song for Lydia.
(compiled from several songs: happy birthday, ring around the rosy, and give me that old time religion)

( sung by a three year old)
happy birthday
ring around the rosy
ring around the birthday
ring around the birthday
ring around the birthday
it's good enough for me

I will not ask

Lydia told me tonight, "Anne did a great job today."

Every night I get a "report" about how well behaved Anne was, and when she's especially good, we get her a treat somewhere.

Lydia and I just decided that we were going to let her have $10 to spend tonight at Walmart on either a new baby dolly, or something for her babies.

So we were talking by spelling...

"So do you want to g - o?"
"I was thinking about a b - a - b - y"
"W - a - l - m - a - r - t?"

When we were done, I told Lydia, "I want this to be a surprise"

Anne replies (in a small voice), "Ok, I will not ask about the surprise, what is it?"

"I'm not asking, what is it?"

What a snootertoot!

Daddy

As Tim was leaving for work this morning, Anne was waving to him; he was waving back.

She turned to me, and said,
"He's a nice daddy isn't he?"
"A little scary though."

The magic disappearing banana

Anne "ate" supper tonight at Nana's house, and I suspect that it wasn't as much as it should have been, even though I showed up and helped her eat a last few bites, it obviously wasn't enough.

She just ate an entire banana in under 90 seconds. Lydia and I were sitting here talking, and Lydia kept helping her peel the peel down a little farther, and then I realized it was gone.

I asked, "Did she just eat that banana in under 90 seconds?"
to which Lydia replied, "Uh, Yeah!"

I think the implication of her statement was that I, Dad, did not feed my girl enough tonight (Lydia was working)

I might resemble that.

Happy Birthday to my Baby!!!

Anne is playing in her bedroom very nicely right now, and I just heard her sing, at almost the top of her singing voice, "Happy Birthday to my baby! Happy Birthday to my baby! Happy Birthday to my baby!"

"Goodbye"

"Hi"

What a silly little thing.

Looks like...

Anne and I were getting ready to leave a minute ago. I said, "Now, I just have to see what my hair looks like" and I went into the bathroom. Anne said in the same tone, "Now, I just have to see what my hair looks like" and she went in to look in the bedroom mirror. A second later I hear, "Mhmm, looks like my hair."

Annie Oakley

Today Annie had her first horse ride, her first moon-walk, and her first cotton-candy.
She loved the horse (more on that in a minute), she bounced perfectly around in the moon-walk, but she hated her cotton candy.

I even tried to poke some in her mouth when it was wide open as she tried to say something. She just spat it out.

We tried to tell her that it was just sugar. But it was to no avail.

She eventually thought she might like it, and wanted to take some with us when we left. She never ate it, and when she decided she'd like to try it, it was just a hard lump on the stick - it had melted into a hard ball.

The horse she rode on was named Annie. There they were, Annie on Annie. The horse's full name is actually Annie Okeley (read about the real one here)

Anne looked very sober, way up there on a great big horse. Several times she started to slide off, but the horse lady took good care of her. I could hear her asking the horse lady what her name was, but Anne couldn't remember what it was on our way home tonight.

All in all it was a full, fun day, and a great day for riding a horse for the very first time.

RallyPoly

I just took Anne outside because she wanted to find a "Rally Poly" (RolyPoly) to put in her sandwich baggie.

Anne:
Rally Poly, Rally Poly where are you?
Rally Poly, come 'ere I have a baggie for you!

(Crouching down to look under the "ban" (van) )
Rally Poly, (muttering under her breath)
Maybe there's one under here... Nope.

It's a SECRET Rally Poly, I have to look over here...


Hey Dad! Close your eyes so you can't see my SECRET Rally Poly.

She looks for a while, goes around the ban, then as she's coming around the corner towards me,
"Dad, keep your eyes closed, I'm looking for Rally Polies."

She never did find her Rally Poly, secret or otherwise.

We're going to look tonight after I get home from work.

Three years old

Well, Anne is three now and she had three birthday parties to celebrate. We didn't do it intentionally but that's just what ended up happening. One with Nana and fam, one with all her friends (at the zoo), and one with Grandma and fam. She had a birthweek, not a birthday. All last week I could tell when she was about to ask for something that she knew might be a stretch because she would begin with, "Is today my birthday party day?" Hmm, guess she picked up on our leniency.
I assembled a bed frame and brought her bed up off the floor. She was concerned that it was going to be too big so I told her that three year olds get big girl beds. She is very excited about it. Now whenever we are meeting somebody new, the questions are: "What's your name?" "Do you have a girl?" "Does she sleep in a big girl bed?" "Do YOU sleep in a big girl bed?" Interesting questions to ask a complete stranger in Walmart. There have been worse ones though, trust me!

Salad Days

Anne just asked Lydia for "futons" on her salad.

Blame it on the bug!

Tim went to get his iced latte out of the fridge tonight. When he pulled it out, he noticed the lid was cracked. He asked me, "Did this get dropped today?" I said, "No". He then asked Anne if she "did this". She said, shrugging her shoulders, "No. I didn't do it. I don't know, maybe the bug did it. " She voluntarily denied it a few more times while we were laughing to ourselves. Then, after a few seconds pause, she said, "Maybe I sorta did it. Maybe I helped the bug a little."