Christmas

Well we've made it past the first Christmas were Anya knew what a reindeer was and clearly understood there was something unnatural about sitting on an enormous hirsute stranger's lap and asking for stuff.

Our family, friends and neighbors were absolutely wonderful and generous with Anya. With the exception of Amy being sick and the absence of Amy's half of the family, it really was a great Christmas.

I learned:

• 90% of "The Night Before Christmas" has no meaning to a contemporary American English speaking 2 and 1/6th year old. It's pretty much "blah blah reindeer blah"
• One should always give a child the boring gifts first, or they won't make it past the doll house.
• Even 2 1/6th year-olds love handing out the gifts.
• Christmas ornaments that are simply smaller versions of your child's toys should be put out of the child's reach.
• I really like playing cars with my kid. It feels great to say, "Vroom, Vroom! Reeek. Vroom Vroom," again.
• Anya consistently pronounces "Marsupial" "Sarmupial".
• Having a sick mom/wife for 5 of the 12 days of Christmas pretty much stinks for all involved.
• That being said even after 5 days of being the sole provider, I still enjoyed hanging out with Anya. She pretty much charms the heck out of me all the time.
• If dad is the only one hanging out with and disciplining the kid, MOM suddenly looks like the good/fun one.

I hope everyone else had as good a Christmas as we did.

meeting Santa

Lynn (Grandma Lodwig), Anya, and I ventured downtown yesterday afternoon to ride the carousel, and pot around Westlake Center. On the spur of the moment, we went to Macy's to see if Anya could get her first visit with Santa. Surprisingly, there was no one in line so we were in luck. Anya, however, was not in the mood to sit in some weird, bearded old man's lap. She refused to get out of the stroller, saying "I don't want to see Santa!". Mean mom (me) made her get out anyway, assuming she'd change her mind about the whole thing. No such luck. She clung to me for dear life. And if Santa reached out to her she yelped as if she was burned and buried her head in my shoulder. He did finally manage to get her to talk a tiny bit. When he asked what she wanted for Christmas, she responded "a crow." Obviously what every child wants for Christmas, right?

So I sat her in my lap and Santa snuck around to get in the picture. I tried to move out of the way for the shot, but she panicked if I moved an inch. So below is my expert cropping of the picture, so my face isn't in it. I would have considered leaving my head in there, but the picture is pretty bad. Like really bad. To where Chris joked, "aww, it was charity day and they let the homeless people take pictures with Santa, too." Dude, had I known or thought about getting a picture with Santa, I would have spruced up at least a little. And Anya too. Oh well. It's here for the record. Anya got to meet Santa and get her picture taken with him. 2009.



I've probably scarred her for life. Lynn and I asked her later if she met Santa, and if he was nice, etc. She said "no, he was not nice. I didn't like him". Maybe if a crow ends up under the tree Christmas morning, she'll change her mind.

--


She did have fun the rest of the time - riding the carousel on the "pink and purple up and down horse", and the escalators at Pacific Place were a hit.

The Names of Things

Anya has very interesting way of naming her stuffed animals and dolls. She changes the names fairly often, but the names themselves are a bit curious in that NONE of them are names we ever say, all of them are real names, and we don't know anyone with theses names.
Here are some:

Doll --> Alex
Giraffe --> Kip
Different Doll --> Alec (yes different I asked)

Amy, Grandma help me out here, what were some others?

Kid Quote of the Day

[After breaking her first Christmas ornament]

"I ruined Christmas."

(No mom and dad were not mad at her).

Kid qoute of the day

(Hitting her bed with a stick)
"I'm hitting it with a stick because it's sticky. I'm tapping it because it's tappy."

Best Friend

Laika, our long suffering, ever hang-dog dog.

She's not behind me is she?

The things I have to endure...

Anya Helps with a Pie

Man, this took me forever to get created and uploaded. Some wonky stuff with the computer. So you relatives had better enjoy it!

Anya is at one with her spirit animal.

From late October, when Dondon and Grangie were visiting. She wanted to show them her Halloween costume.

More fun with speach

Dad needs to watch what he says:
[Anya to Morgana the cat in my lap]
Morgana don't step on dad's nuts.

First surreal story:
[Driving past the little Gym]
Anya: That's the little gym. I have friends at the Little Gym. My friends are gonna leeeeave.

Dad: Where are they gonna go?

Anya: Go ride up-and-down horses!

Dad: Where are they going to go ride the up-and-down horses?

Anya: At the carousel. At the zooooo. They're my carousel friends at the zooooo.

Everyone is sad:
Anya is only aware of one emotional state it seems. Sad.
This coupled with her very rudementry understanding of causality makes for some interesting conversations.

Anya, why did you put the blaket on the cat?
Because the cat is sad.

Anya, why did you throw your food on the ground?
Because it's sad.

Anya why is the bird flying away?
Because it's sad.

You get the picture...

More fun with speach

Anya keeps getting wordier and is starting the stage of saying weird and funny things. Here are my favorite examples of late.
After a trip to the dog park where we saw both seagulls and eagles (and possibly a beagle) we returned home. A few hours later I found her in her room with an aphabet book in her lap trying other letters on for size: "a-gull", "c-gull", "d-gull", "e-gull"...
the other day she was up set and had her hand in her mouth.
Are you molars coming in?
No my molars aren't comming in, I have ducks in my mouth
what are the ducks in your mouth doing?
Quacking.