Oh no! My Baby's Growing Up!

Last night, Anna Claire announced, "I don't have paci anymore. I don't need it."

Then this afternoon at nap, "I don't hear Seahorse sing. Be quiet, Seahorse."  ("Seahorse" is Anna Claire's musical Fisher Price Seahorse that glows and plays a rotation of 10 lullabies. She's had him and I have played him for her since she was just a few weeks old.)

I should be jumping for joy over these milestones, and BELIEVE ME, I am extremely grateful for it. How awesome that it is HER CHOICE to give up her pacifier? Really??

But my mind and heart immediately thought, "NO! I'm not ready yet! You're still my baby!" I just lay beside her in tears and watched her fall asleep beside me in my bed.

How 'bout?

Anna Claire is becoming much better at asking for what she wants, and doing it in a charming way that makes you want to get it for her. This may be a good thing and a bad thing in time. Right now, it's just plain cute.

She had been saying, in a demanding tone, "I want cheese!"  "I want pie-cull! (popsicle)"

Now it's, "How 'bout...cheese? How 'bout...'merican cheese?!" "How 'bout...pie-cull (popsicle)? Wed pie-cull (red popsicle)? Pwease?" she will say please out loud and do the sign language for it. I love the Red Barn for teaching her signs!

Where's the camera when I need it?

Yesterday, we were at Beary Bear, rewarding Anna Claire for earning another 20 stickers on her potty chart. She counted to twenty. She may have counted to twenty numerous times at daycare, but I've never heard her. I had the video camera in hand, but I wasn't fast enough. Man.

Then tonight at dinner: I've heard her sing snippets of Itsy Bitsy spider before...a line here...a line there. Tonight she sang every word correctly and with expression. It was so stinkin' cute. Once again, couldn't find the video camera.

Later still, she sings, "Taxi, Taxi, ridin in the backseat. Roll the window up. Roll the window down." No camera. I'm 0 for 3.

The cutest part of all three of these, and the saddest, is that she did it all in a whisper. Anna Claire has lost her voice and has been running a fever, at times as high as 103. The doctor told us upper-respiratory infection yesterday, but Larry and I are not ruling out the virus similar to hand foot and mouth that has been going around. She's been putting her hands in her mouth like she's in pain and carries a high temp. None of the other symptoms though.

If she's not any better by midday tomorrow, we'll go back to the doc and keep her home Tuesday. In the meantime, thank you God for a three-day-weekend to give her more time to get past this.

No cwabs.

Some of you may remember I posted several months ago that AC was having a recurring dream about a crab. It continues, and apparently the "cwab" has friends, "Mommy one! Daddy one! Paw Paw one! Kick you! Cwab kick you. No. No cwab. Dweam."

I did explain to Anna Claire that it was physically impossible for a crab to kick her, that it might pinch her or crawl on her, but not kick.

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. :)

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.

A Year in the Life