Funny Scene at the Play Ground

Anya Laika and I were just at the play ground where she made an insta-friend and began playing while the mother and I chatted.
There was a play counter and a big bowl, and they were filling the bowl with wood chips and then moving the chips to a large pile which was deemed a "cake".
Suddenly the mom said, "Ooops there go the clothes!"
As you probably know if you're reading this blog, Anya has a penchant for nudity, and sure enough, it was her removing layer after layer until she's just wearing pants. (By the way, it's about 50 degrees out today).
I walked up and asked why she was taking off all her clothes and this is what she said:
"We're making a cake, a magic cake. We're making a cake for YOU daddy, and we're making it, and that's why I have to take off my clothes."
"Oh really? Whose rules are those?"
"Me's!"
I just thought it was cute.

Stuff My Kid Can Do

As of today Anya is 2 years 9 months and 3 weeks old.
Just a quick update of the things she can do at this age so she'll know and we'll remember. Also, a little parental bragging ;)

At the Little Gym, she once did a back flip on the rings by herself (which surprised her, and freaked out her mom and other parents). She can also do flips on the bar by herself regularly -- only on a really low bar that's close to the ground. But still. She can flip! Pretty cool.

She can count up to about 12 objects. Like the actual amount of things, not just reciting the numbers. That's very recent, in the last 2 weeks or so.

She can carry a tune...albeit not well, but when she hums a song I can recognize it.
She can also sing in unison. Last night, for example, she and I read/sang Marsupial Sue (one of her favorite books) and she sang right along with me. It used to be that she would stop singing when I started.

Every day I have longer and longer conversations with her about more and more interesting things. She can explain herself when I don't understand her, which is great. Yesterday she asked me about Tome.
"Who's Tome?" I asked.
"He's the little boy who lives on my steps," She replied. So I'm thinking she has an invisible friend.
"You have a little boy who lives on your steps?" I smile.
Anya smooshes up her face and says, "He's the boy who was on the steps and someone swiped him and now he's gone."
"Ah, the GNOME! Yeah someone took him, honey. And no, it wasn't grandma and grandpa" (She thinks they took him because they came over right after he was stolen, and I mentioned when Laika barked that I hoped it was someone returning the gnome)

She can do the entire alphabet. She knows both her capital and lower-case letters by sight. She also knows the basic sounds that 80% or so of the letters make. This means she can read. With a lot of help from me she has read the words: "Ten", "Zoo", and--last night--"Anya Lodwig" (and, with mom, "fox", "six", and a few others).
I don't want to oversell her reading abilities, the conversations go something like this:
Dad: "What letter is that?"
Anya: "A"
Dad: "What sound does that make?"
Anya: "Ah"
Dad: "Great!"
Dad: "What letter is that?"
Anya: "N"
Dad: "What sound does that make?"
Anya: "Nnn"
Dad: "Great!"
Dad: "So this is?.."
Anya: "Ah..nnn"...
Rinse repeat until a word is sounded out. But I don't tell her the letters, or the sounds, or the words. She slowly puts it together. It's pretty wonderful.
But she has to be in the mood (which is rare), or she doesn't look or try and just makes word up:
"What does this say?"
"Tameeko...Tableeko...etc."

Anya Performs The Elephant Song From Jungle Book

Anya plays on the trampoline

We have some neighbors who generously (and probably dangerously from legal perspective) allow Anya to play on their trampoline whenever she wants.
This is a video of her about in June I would think.

kid qotd

As Anya snuck out of her room after being tucked into bed...

dad: What are you doing?
Anya: I'm going to sleep in YOUR room
dad: Uh, well, I want to sleep in my bed.
Anya: you're not sleeping in your bed. I'll sleep in your bed. You go sleep on the couch.