Anja - 2011 Wrap-up

It's amazing to me how much Anja has changed this past year. I guess it's not so much that she's changed as much as it is that she's grown up. She is still a hysterical young lady ("Do you have a baby in your belly? Because your tummy is sticking out!" - said to Dan) who dumbfounds me with her intelligence and speech abilities. According to most "your child should be doing ___" websites, in the 3.5-4 yr range, she should be starting to form more complicated sentences of up to 6 words. I don't think Anja knows that sentences can be that short. She talks constantly and only occasionally comes up for air. But it's always entertaining! She loves to role play with her dolls (and does so in the most adorable little voice), as well as with other kids and grown-ups.

Her fascination with holidays is a new development. Luckily for us, she understands that the holiday only lasts a day (or two for Christmas). So, despite the fact that she'll talk about the holiday for days, weeks, and months to come, she doesn't think that every day should suddenly be Halloween or Christmas. She does like to talk constantly about what the next holiday will be like. For example, she's already told us several of her ideas for Halloween 2012 costumes, including, but not limited to Hello Kitty and a "baby Virginia." Also of importance is that anything she sees that she wants, she has determined she'll ask for from Santa next Christmas.

During a regular week, Anja goes to swim lessons on Monday (loves Miss Paulette, whom we'll be sad to see leave after the start of the new year),

dance on Wednesday (with Miss Gwen; probably her favorite of the 2 classes), and preschool on Friday mornings. Right before Christmas, her dance class had a little performance. They did a "dance" to the Sugar Plum Fairies Suite from the Nutcracker and otherwise did the rest of their normal class routine. The room was pretty packed with parents, grandparents, and siblings, all eager to watch the group of 3 year olds give a flawless, well choreographed and rehearsed performance. Or at least giggle and place bets on the number of girls dancing to the beat of their own drum. Anja was one of those girls. In fact, Anja decided her performance would be helping the teacher. So instead of laying on the ground and waiting for the teacher to awaken her with the magic wand, Anja went around trying to wake up the other girls. It was pretty hysterical.

Anja's version of "Pique, pique, back to the middle"

After the show, Nana and Boppa and I took Anja to Baker's Square for dinner and pie. The girl loves her some pie! While we were there, Boppa thanked her for letting him come to her dance class. She immediately interjected, "Dance show, Boppa! Not dance class! Silly Boppa!" She may not be much for attention to detail in the class/show, but she certainly is when it comes to how people reference it!

Here are some of the things that Anja currently enjoys doing:
- singing (usually along with some musical toy of Ian's; naked whenever possible)

- jumping rope (ie: jumping from the top of the 2 stairs into the living room while holding said rope)
- playing music (our piano, Ian's toy piano, Ian's toy drum, her harmonica, flute, or maracas) This also usually occurs in band form, so someone else must be involved. Also, she loves to sing while playing, especially if a guitar is involved somehow. Frequently, the song is "I totally rock" (from "Bubble Guppies". Sigh).

- painting

- taking baths with Ian (won't take a bath without him; must be a shower if she's on her own)

- swimming (with or without her kitty hat and pink goggles)

- art projects (at daycare and preschool mostly)
- doing her "homework" (using a dry erase marker in a wipe off workbook to practice her letters and "dot the dots" - ie: connect the dots)
- drawing (crayons, colored pencils, markers, pretend markers, Magna Doodle)

- going shopping (Target and Fleet Farm are her favorites, but she does like Ace's popcorn)
- going to the Swiper Ride Store (MOA); she's finally gotten over her fear of the rides, just in time for Disney World!
- going to the zoo, where she recently met Diego!

- playing with her dollies and kitty
- helping with Ian and trying to make him laugh (which she's really good at!)

We are very lucky to have a sweet, loving, funny, intelligent, caring, talkative, inquisitive, and talented little girl!

Halloween

Better late than never.

This year, despite encouragement to go as Dora so Ian could be Boots, Anja was adamant about going as Snow White. Easy enough. It's amazing how many versions of the same costume Amazon has for sale. I wanted to be ambitious and follow through on my mom's idea for Ian to go as a dwarf, but that didn't happen. We were going to put a little flip chart on the front of his stroller and change it depending upon his mood: Happy, Sleepy, Grumpy, Sneezy, Bashful, or Doopy. I was going to go as Doc. But, well, I was just too lazy to figure out how to get crafty. In the end, he was asleep by the time I took Anja out for trick or treating anyway, so I'm glad I didn't invest much time into that. We did get him into a costume, however. He did go as a monkey. Not a particularly happy one, but a monkey costume was used for an entire 20 minutes. At 7 months old, he wore the same costume Anja *walked* around in when she 14 months old. Incredible. Now look at how it fit him.

Anja was an incredible trooper when we went out. I figured, last year we hit up 5 houses, so we'd double it this year. Nope. We went with the other cul de sac kids and their dads, so she stuck it out longer. In fact, the only reason we came home after walking approximately 1 mile's worth of houses was because of the rule I had to make up on the fly: Once you can't carry your own bucket, it's time to go home. And that's exactly what happened. She scored enough candy (and one random can of pop which she promptly gave to me) to fill her pumpkin bucket. I've been thankful ever since.

So here they are at Grandma and Grandpa's house, pre-loot. Dan's cousin, Bryant, gave her the apple to complete her costume. She apparently never saw the full movie. She just started eating it.

And here we are, after Anja enjoyed a sucker, the fruits of her labor. Can you guess what color the sucker was?

I've been informed on several occasions that next year she will be going as Hello Kitty. I've also been informed that next year I will be a witch. I better start working on my costume now.

Halloween

For Halloween this year, since I really dislike the "holiday," we decided to forgo tradition and dressed Anja up as a little German girl. Yup, we put our blond haired babe in a Dirndl. Specifically this one that we bought in München.

We knew she'd grow out of it quickly, so despite sounding like something that an odd parent would do to their child (which it still may be), it really was a financially responsible (and freakin' adorable) decision. Don't believe me? Check out these pictures...

We practiced on Saturday at Nana's house, where her older cousins could show her the ropes.

She caught on all too quickly and immediately went back to the other side of the glass door we used, closed it behind her, giggled, and knocked until she had emptied the candy bowl.

On Halloween night, we hit up a few houses (around 5) and she got down a few of the important phrases like "Treat" and "Happy 'ween!". Then we stopped at Grandma and Grandpa's house. After she successfully received candy at the door, we hung out inside for 20 minutes or so. Every time the bell rang, she ran over to Grandpas and asked for more "Candy treats." Smart little lady.

She was very proud of all of her candy and has been asking to do it again since then. Luckily for me, we've got another year until then.