Happy third birthday to my little (big!) girl today. You are bright, independent, kind, and loved by many. We are all so lucky to have you in our lives.
taken today at her preschool Halloween parade. She's an elephant (not wearing her trunk)Friday, October 29, 2010
Happy Birthday
taken today at her preschool Halloween parade. She's an elephant (not wearing her trunk)
Thursday, October 28, 2010
What Will She Be Like?
Knowing your kid today and looking back to her younger days, it is very easy to find the child of today in the baby of yesterday. But what's the challenge in that? Much more fun and interesting to take a swing at her future self and see how right you are in 10 years. My little girl is going to be 3 years old tomorrow, so now is as good a time as any to make my predictions.
Anya is unfazed by physical danger. She climbs fearlessly and endlessly. Yesterday I came into the bathroom and she was standing on back of the toilet braced against the window ledge reaching for a shelf to get down her hand stamps. She terrifies me a little every day. To her credit she still (thank God) has never fallen during one of her climbing escapades. Our photographer Judith called her a little mountain goat after her birthday shoot the other day. Very apropos.
She's good-natured. She wakes up in a good mood pretty much every day (not so much so for overly short naps). She always wants to play and run, and several times in a 3 hour period she'll get so excited she'll resort to jumping up and down in place and squealing.
She wants to do things for herself...and for you. She will generally refuse help on tasks she knows how to do (like putting on her shoes) and she'll generally refuse to listen to your requests for autonomy when there are eggs to be cracked in the kitchen or dogs to be fed up stairs.
She's empathetic. If you or one of the animals get's hurt she is very quick to soothe (although, thanks to a misguided attempt to calm her when she wasn't really hurt she thinks the right thing to say as I roll on the ground clutching my groin is "It's okay daddy!")
She is extremely willful. Still not sure if that is a prominent feature of her personality or if she's just being a 3 year-old. This may serve her very well in life, as she seems to be a loving friendly and kindhearted kid, but if she ever strays toward the dark side, the world best watch out.
She gets frustrated very easy. Once again not sure if this is just being 3, or if it is core to who she is. She has both extreme patience and short-fused frustration in her blood (not saying which side is which) so we'll have to see. I'm trying to teach her to simply ask for help when she needs it rather than getting upset. That works some times.
She is, as always, extremely talkative. But more than that, she shows an unusual ability for complex thought. Just tonight, we were driving by a neighbor's house to see if they had hung up a Halloween decoration we had left them on their door step. Anya said "Maybe someone we didn't know came by Monica and Brian's house and took the Halloween present we left them." And then there is my current favorite thing she said last week, "Ursala the Sea Witch steals my dreams and feeds them to a monster so that I don't have any dreams left," which is both a little terrifying and amazingly detailed thought for a not-quite three year old.
I also love it when she says things like, "I'm keeping my eyes out for airplane contrails".
If I were to guess on a path for her. It would have to do with words, ideas, and adventure. Me thinks something like what we call today a "Foreign Correspondent" a job which will likely seem quaint to her by the time she has its future equivalent in 24 years.
Anya is unfazed by physical danger. She climbs fearlessly and endlessly. Yesterday I came into the bathroom and she was standing on back of the toilet braced against the window ledge reaching for a shelf to get down her hand stamps. She terrifies me a little every day. To her credit she still (thank God) has never fallen during one of her climbing escapades. Our photographer Judith called her a little mountain goat after her birthday shoot the other day. Very apropos.
She's good-natured. She wakes up in a good mood pretty much every day (not so much so for overly short naps). She always wants to play and run, and several times in a 3 hour period she'll get so excited she'll resort to jumping up and down in place and squealing.
She wants to do things for herself...and for you. She will generally refuse help on tasks she knows how to do (like putting on her shoes) and she'll generally refuse to listen to your requests for autonomy when there are eggs to be cracked in the kitchen or dogs to be fed up stairs.
She's empathetic. If you or one of the animals get's hurt she is very quick to soothe (although, thanks to a misguided attempt to calm her when she wasn't really hurt she thinks the right thing to say as I roll on the ground clutching my groin is "It's okay daddy!")
She is extremely willful. Still not sure if that is a prominent feature of her personality or if she's just being a 3 year-old. This may serve her very well in life, as she seems to be a loving friendly and kindhearted kid, but if she ever strays toward the dark side, the world best watch out.
She gets frustrated very easy. Once again not sure if this is just being 3, or if it is core to who she is. She has both extreme patience and short-fused frustration in her blood (not saying which side is which) so we'll have to see. I'm trying to teach her to simply ask for help when she needs it rather than getting upset. That works some times.
She is, as always, extremely talkative. But more than that, she shows an unusual ability for complex thought. Just tonight, we were driving by a neighbor's house to see if they had hung up a Halloween decoration we had left them on their door step. Anya said "Maybe someone we didn't know came by Monica and Brian's house and took the Halloween present we left them." And then there is my current favorite thing she said last week, "Ursala the Sea Witch steals my dreams and feeds them to a monster so that I don't have any dreams left," which is both a little terrifying and amazingly detailed thought for a not-quite three year old.
I also love it when she says things like, "I'm keeping my eyes out for airplane contrails".
If I were to guess on a path for her. It would have to do with words, ideas, and adventure. Me thinks something like what we call today a "Foreign Correspondent" a job which will likely seem quaint to her by the time she has its future equivalent in 24 years.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Breaking Daddy's Heart
Until very recently Anya has been quite happy to have me put her to bed at night. I read her two stories and talk to her about three things of her choice. It's one of my favorite times of the day. About a week ago she started being adement that she wanted mom to put her down. Of course I've asked why. The first night she told me that it was because she didn't love me, which wasn't one of my happier daddy moments as I'm sure you can appreciate. But I asked her again yesterday and I got a better answer, and the one I'm choosing to accept. She told me that when mommy puts her down she dreams of candy canes, and when dad puts her down she has dreams of dinosaurs and gets scared.
kid quote of the morning
Anya's friend Eloise is over for a playdate this morning.
Eloise: "My mom and dad won't get me a fairy wand, even though I really, really want one. They keep on telling me no".
Anya: "Because you have too many things, Eloise"
Eloise: "My mom and dad won't get me a fairy wand, even though I really, really want one. They keep on telling me no".
Anya: "Because you have too many things, Eloise"
Friday, October 15, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
An unflinching look into the mind of a child
Amy went out last night, and this is what Anya and I do when she's away.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
complooter
I'm not sure whether to be proud or worried (or both) that our 2 year old likes to sneak upstairs to the computer. She opens up Internet Explorer, clicks Favorites, selects www.Starfall.com, turns up the volume, and then proceeds to navigate the website.
Starfall is a great website and all, but I suppose it's time to add some parental controls to the computer. Not something I expected to have to think about for awhile.
Starfall is a great website and all, but I suppose it's time to add some parental controls to the computer. Not something I expected to have to think about for awhile.
Monday, October 4, 2010
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