Blanket Fun

Lately Anna has been really into playing with blankets and making forts and sitting under them with us.  The funny thing is she doesn't call it a fort, she calls it a cage.  I have no idea why.  I told Stan she will be walking around talking about sitting in a cage and people will start to wonder about what goes on in our house! 

I asked her to smile and this was the result!

And again with the cheesy smile

Hey, where did she go?

Crawling through her "cage".

Reading to Daddy

Noah wanted in on the action.  He LOVES to be under blankets.

Stan then put the blanket over the table for a fort.

Anna wanted her Daddy to come in with her.

He tried but didn't quite fit from that angle..LOL!

Hey, what's goin' on under here?

Strike a Pose

The other day Annalise wanted this headband and hair bow in her hair (we went for a bike ride later in the day and actually had to convince her to take it off to put her helmet on)! She then added the strand of shiny beads and wanted me to take her picture.  Notice though that it was a huge game because she was just running around like a mad woman but saying "Picture, Mommy!" and "Cheese!".  Not sure what it was all about but when I looked through the pictures when we were done I got a few good laughs!

This was when I knew Anna was done. 

She was once again "camera annoyed" and would not look at it!

The Moon is Broken!

Annalise and I were outside the other evening and we were able to see the moon starting to come out.  Anna saw the moon and said, "Look! It's the moon!"  She then stopped and stared at it for a few seconds clearly thinking about something when she said is a very concerned voice, "Mommy, the moon is broken!"  Whatever the phase is of the moon right now, I don't know, but it is not full and not crescent (yes, I know I am a science teacher but I am a biology teacher, LOL).  Annalise thought that since it looked a little different that it was broken!  She keeps me laughing!

"Well These Are Weird"

When I had Annalise at the playground yesterday, the steps leading up the slide were weirdly shaped in my opinion.  I said out loud "well, these are weird" and Annalise kept repeating it the entire time we were there.  It was kinda funny to see people look at her as she went down the slide exclaiming how weird it was and then stated how weird the see-saws were and how weird the jungle gym was, etc., etc.,  Oh, my little parrot!

Clyde Peeling's Reptileland

Today since Stan went to Watkin's Glen with some friends for the weekend for the races, I decided to take a Personal Day at work and have a full "girls weekend" with Anna.  Even though much of the time is "girls only time" for us, we do see Stan at some point during the day even if just for a little while so I guess this weekend is a little different because we don't see him at all.  I was trying to think of something different to do but I just asked Anna what she wanted to do and she said "see animals, go shopping, eat grilled cheese, pizza and ice cream".  Hmmmmmm, see animals???  At first I had to think of where we could go to do that.  Eventually I thought of Clyde Peeling's Reptileland so I mentioned it to her.  Anna then said that she wanted to see "horses and elephants" but I told her that we wouldn't be able to go anywhere to do that but that we could look at other animals, including alligators (which she loves).  That was all she needed to hear and she was in.  So today around naptime (I was hoping she would sleep in the car) we left for our little trip.  We went to Repileland, shopping (where I might add Annalise was so jazzed up to look at clothes and shoes, LOVE THIS GIRL), went to the big playground since it was nearby and then went out to dinner.  While at Reptileland my camara ran out of batteries AGAIN so I didn't get any pictures of her touching a HUGE snake and an alligator.  They do a show at certain times of the and we were there are the right time to see it.  There was all of about 7 people (including us) there so the guy was able to let all the kids touch the stuff.  I was surprised that Annalise walked right up without any hesitation.  She was not fearful of the animals at all!

Anna was thrilled when we arrived =)

I hated to wake her =(

Awake and ready, yet looking a little confused.

First stop: Emus

Second stop: the indoor display of amphibians and reptiles.

I though this lizard was cool.  The entire bottom of it was suctiony.

Anna loved the tank of tree frogs!  She is getting really good at her colors (also something she used to hide from me along with singing and coloring).  Now she shouts them out whenever and wherever!

Looking at the treefrogs

Since it was a weekday the place was pretty much empty so I left her get out of the stoller to practice staying with me.  People laugh at me when I call it practicing...but it IS practicing.  We practice staying together and we also practice not touching things (well here I let her touch stuff but other places).  She did AWESOME!

Anna also pushed the stroller for awhile.

Checking out this big turtle.  There were quite a few tanks of different kinds of turtles and she kept going back and forth saying "Hi turtles!".

I think turtles are cool.

"Hi, turtles!"

For some reason I find these turtles really gross.  I never saw or heard of them before.  They are called Snake-Head Turtles.  I think they are creepy!

Of course Anna's fav.  We also went home with 2 different alligators from the gift shop that she selected out of everything there.  One of them has glow in the dark eyes.  In Anna's words, "It's pretty cool".

Learning the differences between Crocodiles and Alligators

The Anaconda

Anna kept saying "Ooooooooooooooo, big snake, Mommy. Biiiiiiiiiiiiiig snake."

Yikes!

On the way out of the indoor exhibits, we passed the Emus again.  Annalise wanted food to feed them.  I got her some and....

...she dropped it on the ground OUTSIDE the pen.  The Emu didn't seem to mind =)

They also had a nice (but small) Butterfly House.

Annalise liked watching the butterflies fly everywhere.

And this was the last picture before my camara died =(

Daddy's Ear Muffs

Anna has found that she really likes to ride the tractor now that she has discovered "Daddy's ear muffs".  Before she would only ride a few laps around the house and then she would say "all done" and "too loud" but now she will ride and ride.  Stan is happy to be able to take her for rides and even got the tractor out the other night to do so even though he was done mowing.

Music To My Ears

Well, she finally did it.  Annalise not only is singing songs without me needing to beg and plead but she also has decided that she will color WITH me again too.  For some reason Anna decided a few months ago (probably around 18 months) that she was not going to sing in front of people (or at least me).  So, if you ever wanted her to sing you had to catch her in the act.  For some reason this was somewhat painful for me because I knew that she knew quite a few songs from about 18 months on.  I would hear her singing them over her monitor.  She would sing them for other people at times.  She would MOUTH THE WORDS (the most painful) when I would sing them.  But whenever I would ask her to sing them she would give me a sly little smile and say "No, Mommy sing 'em".  So I continued to sing solo.  For months.  Not pretty for anyone involved.  Well, for some reason this past weekend she has been a singin' fool.  She has been singing the ABC's (which I think the last time she sang it out loud, in front of me, completely to the end was about when she was 18 months), Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Happy Birthday to You (which I haven't been able to get out of her since Lily Smith's birthday), Ring Around the Rosie and others.  When she sings them she still gives me her little sly smile though.
Another thing that Anna loved to do around 18 months or so was color.  Somehow over the summer she decided that I needed to practice my coloring.  So, frequently she would ask to color and I would get everything out.  Anna would then say "No, Mommy color" with the same little smile and then would proceed to tell me where to color, what to make and what colors to use.  If I prompted her enough, she would color too but most of all she just liked to tell me what to do.  Well, again, for whatever reason she has been a coloring fool this weekend.  She has changed her phrase to "Mommy color too" and she still proceeds to tell me which crayon to use, what to draw, etc., etc., but it is nice to have my little picture makin' singin' girl back.  Hopefully she won't revisit her previous phase!

Hard at work

Apparently coloring makes you want to do stretches.

The girl stretched until she fell over.

Yes, my daughter can fall over when she is standing completely still on a flat surface.  Being that she is not yet 2, I am hoping this is something she grows out of =).  I have her signed up to start a little gymnastics class next month....could be interesting to say the least.

Hair Clippers

I am not sure why Anna calls hair clips, hair clippers.  Maybe because of nail clippers?????  Anyway, I was quickly getting ready to run some errands and Stan was occupying Anna for me since she is usually glued to my side.  When I came out of the bathroom Annalise had all of the hair clippers she could find in her hair.  Apparently she had asked Stan to put them in for her.  I wish I would've gotten a picture of that!

Head full of clips

Look at all my clippers!

All done!

Not a Good Idea!

I very quickly regretted showing Annalise this whistle the other day.  It mysteriously disappeared over night!