Wednesday, August 31, 2011

My Little Songwriter

Anna Claire has started making up her own words to songs. Today she changed the words of "Where is Thumkin" to "Where is T-Bone? Where is T-Bone? Here I am!" then two more verses: "Where is Elmo?" and "Where is Teddy Bear?" These are the stuffed animals she sleeps with at night. FYI: T-Bone is Clifford the Big Red Dog's friend in case you were unaware. :)

Sunday, August 28, 2011

What Anna Claire is up to today...

Today Anna Claire is really asserting herself through her fashion. She insisted on wearing her Crocs and sunglasses to church. I prefer a happy child over a color-coordinated one, so I went with it.

She has also invented a new game today (we've already played it twice). She plays the recorder, I play the tambourine and twirl a ribbon, and Daddy gets a birthday party blowout and twirls a ribbon. We march from room to room. Then we do the usual...turn off the lights and get our flashlight and glow in the dark yo-yo.

Later on, we played grocery store. She has a shopping cart and toy food, but it never occurred to me to give her grocery bags. So she came up with her own. I just got a pair of new Puma sneakers, and Anna Claire has claimed the plastic bags that each shoe was wrapped in as her grocery bags. She announced this as soon as she saw them come out of the box, "Aw Cwaire have grocery bag too!" She carries them everywhere. They are currently holding 2 potatoes, a pizza slice and corn on the cob.

Oh, and the wasp. There is a pesky wasp who will not leave us alone at the water table. Anna Claire is so good about moving away when he lights to get a drink. She does yell at him, "Go away fwy. Go away fwy!" She is calling all bugs flies or ants these days.

Speaking of bugs and ants, she saw a bug in the bathroom and hollered, "Ant! Ant!" so I started looking around on the floor. Then, knowing better, I looked up, and there was the "flying ant",  a gnat.

Think that's funny? Tonight at bath, Anna Claire said, "Aw Cwaire make jam."
I said, " What kind of jam?"
"Toe jam," she said with a big smile on her face as she continued to stir.

Love her.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Monday, August 22, 2011

Caillou

Anna Claire loves Caillou (pronounced KI-Yoo) so much. And it all began with one library book five months ago.

Back in the spring, Anna Claire was paying several to her doctor to treat ear infections, and I was looking for any book I could get my hands on to help ease her anxiety about going to the doctor. I picked up several, one of which was a Caillou book, The Doctor. It quickly became a favorite and made going to the doctor a fun thing. It also timed out with her getting her doctor kit and helped her learn each tool's name and what it is for.

From there, I tried to find a Caillou book that supported her current phase. Caillou is every kid:  he enjoys hide and seek, likes to watch birds, wears band-aids like badges of honor, and wants to try new things even though he finds them scary.

We found a 6-pack Caillou book kit for Anna Claire's birthday that's perfect for car rides, although not a day goes by that we don't read a Caillou book at storytime or potty time.

There's also an animated series based on the books that we've found that comes on at noon that we can catch on weekends right before nap if she's not too pooped (so not very often!)

Solution: abundance of Caillou cartoons online! It's become a routine to watch a little 10 minute episode right before bedtime. Like clockwork, at about 7:15 Anna Claire will come find me if I'm not already in the room and holler, "Caillou! Caillou! Watch Caillou!"

I love him too. Each episode gets me excited about things she hasn't yet done because he's a bit older: riding a bike or airplane, visiting a hospital (hopefully as a visitor, not a patient), going trick or treating (Anna Claire's favorite Caillou episode), cooking, skating, visiting a fire station.

Here's a link to her favorite Halloween episode. "Get candy! Aw Cwaire have some too!"



Saturday, August 20, 2011

Fun Saturdays

May we always have fun Saturdays! I LIVE for them. It's always about quality family time, with no stress, no rushing, and no work allowed.

Today we took Anna Claire to "Donut Shop", AKA Shipley's. One of the ladies who works there commented about seeing us at Walmart a couple weeks ago. She thought it was funny that Anna Claire started crying, "Donut! I want donut! I want donut!" upon seeing her. I thought it was funny too, the first five minutes.

After Donut Shop was the Downtown Market. We love farmers markets and try to either go to ours or the Nashville one once a week. I'm afraid I've developed a fresh corn addition and so had the kiddo, so we will be sad when it is out of season. Wonder how well it freezes?? More about corn later in this blog...

Next we walked to the Riverwalk. Pushed her in the stroller over Riverside Dr. She loved going across the "bridge" over all of the traffic and seeing the river. We let her run across once we got there. After a donut and banana popsicle, she definitely had energy to burn!

We were pretty hot and tired at that point. Decided to head home for lunch. Larry made us a picnic lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches, pickles, Honeycrisp apples that we picked up this morning at the farmers market and Rice Krispie Treats that I made for us last night (Anna Claire calls them Rice Christmas Trees - ha!). We ate on her new picnic table which I barely fit on, but it worked. She had asked if we could go on a picnic last night, so it was all her idea.

She's napping now, but we plan on taking her to Boyd's Pumpkin Patch once she wakes up to get some fresh corn since no one had any that looked good Downtown this morning. Gotta have my corn! Oh, and Boyd's sells it $3 a dozen!

Thursday, August 18, 2011

A Year in the Life Project

I was inspired by a blog I found on Pinterest...a Mommy committed to taking a photo a day of her family and posting on her blog. I have decided to do the same. I'm calling it, "A Year in the Life" and am committed to capturing a special moment of Anna Claire's life on film everyday. So far so good! Two days done. 


If you want to follow, click the link on the left of this page and then, click Slideshow.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

What Anna Claire wants us to say...

Anna Claire is going through an adorable phase where she tells you what she wants you to say TO HER:

"Good morning Anna Claire. Did you have a good nap?"

"What's matter, Anna Claire? Tell Mommy 'bout it."

"Whatcha doin' Anna Claire?"

"Thanks for trying, Anna Claire."

"Good choice."

"Bye Anna Claire."

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Getting in touch with our emotions!

Anna Claire is great about using her words now to express how she's feeling. You couldn't be more clear about how you feel than our big girl...
 When mad: "I'm mad. Throw it!" (she means she wants to throw whatever it is that's making her mad, or if mad at me, whatever is in her hand AT me.)
When excited: "Exc-ited!"
When sad: "Sad. Cwyin'."
After being sad: "Want be happy. Better now. Ok!"
When having fun: "Pun!"
When proud of herself for accomplishing a goal: "Yay! Did it! Candy! Beary Bear!" (She learned this from potty-training. We do take her to Beary Bear once she's earned 20 stickers on her potty chart and give her candy each time she goes potty, however, it has carried over to ANY time she is proud)
And my favorite is when impatient: Today in the car AC said, "Go home!" I said, "I'm tryin' honey. There's a slow car in front of Mommy." Anna Claire said, matter-of-factly, "Bump it."

Monday, August 8, 2011

Funny girl

I am starting to keep a little spiral notebook with me at all times so I can write down the funny things Anna Claire says, which are MANY. She keeps us rolling all the time.

When I get around to blogging, I can't think of one single solitary funny remark. My memory stinks! But I'm a great notetaker, so I'm very hopeful about the direction this blog will soon take. Stay tuned. :)