Dreaming in verse

When Anna woke up this morning (next to me in bed) she started singing "I am a Child of God."
this is the song she has basically blocked us from singing at home. She will sing it in nursery but we are on no account to sing it at home.
So I get excited when she sings it of her own accord.

Fresh Market

The store formerly-known-as-"Albertson's" that is by our house has a fairly odd layout.

One time I went in and couldn't find any canned fruit. I looked down every aisle twice and did not find my desired can of pineapple.

Today I went in looking for body wash. Did not exist. They had their aisle of shampoo/conditioner, but no body wash on that aisle or the adjacent. So confusing.

I'm half intrigued, wanting to go more just to figure it out or have more bizarre disappointments

but the other half of me is beyond frustrated and never wants to go in there again.

Mischief

Note: This story is not particularly entertaining if you are at all aware of these small individuals called toddlers/preschoolers. In fact, I would say for most it's pretty run-of-the-mill stuff. But in Anna's case, she's never been one for mischief, never sneaking off to make messes or getting into things, so this was unusual for me.

Naptime is not a fun time at our house. In fact, it's turning out to not be a time at all. Anna fell asleep in the car at two, woke up when we got home, and I put her in her crib. Pretty standard naptime procedure. Including the endless screaming-turned-convincing-sweet-voice. She is constantly winning this fight when she turns on her convincing sweet-voice. I wasn't going to let that happen today, so I left her in there, eventually she got quiet but she would talk enough that I knew she wasn't asleep.

At four I went up to check on her. This is what I found.

See the pile of paper on the left side of the picture? That used to be a bag that held all her potty presents. Unfortunately she remembered them, opened them all, played with them, then threw them out of the crib along with her blankets. She was at this time asking me to open some of the presents that were in packages. I refused, took a picture, cleaned it all up and re-hid the toys, much to her chagrin.

I almost laughed, almost cried, almost turned around and walked out of the room again. Ultimately I called Ben and took a picture. I guess that was the right thing to do.

Vikings vs Saints

Anna and Ben are sitting together on the floor in the basement, their eyes glued to the TV which is showing the first NFL game of the season. Ben has worked hard in the off season teaching Anna how to tackle and what a football is. She's pretty pumped to be watching the guys tackle and fall down.

Overall, it's just adorable.

Kitty Face

So, Anna is almost done potty training ("done" being a relative term). I would say we are at about 60%. We haven't had a wet accident all week despite a few obstacles. I am very proud of her. We are still working on the second half of it all.

We went to a big neighborhood party the other day and they offered face painting. Anna and I decided she wanted a kitty face. She was so cute and meowed all the way home. She even told Ben that he needed a kitty face too.

A few days later, in an effort to keep her on the toilet and motivate her I told her I would do a kitty face with some ugly eyeliner I had (good reason to keep bad makeup).

After we finished on her face and she still had not completed her task, she asked for some more kitty faces on her knees.

In the end, she got a hold of the eyeliner and finished drawing "kitties" on her legs, feet and stomach. She did not end up earning any of this.

This morning was a different story. She did it! I am still so proud, and optimistic for the future. So she got her kitty face, she also got to open a present. My sweet neighbor brought over a bunch of wrapped presents that she gets to open each time she is successful. She totally loves her "Maggic Wong"

p.s. we spent the morning watching half of Sleeping Beauty and all of Cinderella in order to learn how magic wands are used. They are not for "fighting mommy's face."