My Liesl

Yesterday Anna decided to be Liesl, from Sound of Music lore.  This is not all that out of the ordinary.  Sometimes she's Gretl, pretending to fall asleep and making me carry her around like at the end of "So Long, Farewell."  Sometime's Jimmy's "Captain."  Sometimes we (Jimmy excluded) run around the hill outside our apartment pretending to be Maria on top of a mountain.  My love of Sound of Music must be genetic, or at the very least contagious! 

She wore one of my shirts and told me it was her "Liesl dress."  As she helped me make zucchini muffins, she made a family out of all the measuring spoons and told me she and Rolf were playing house (with my house-shaped recipe box).  She kept saying things like, "Look, Rolf, everything's ready and just perfect!" and "Come on, spoon, your sister needs you in the house."  It was hard to stay focused on baking when I was fascinated by her story taking shape with my cooking utensils.

Then, while I was making dinner, Liesl read me her Toy Story book.  She thought it was hilarious to switch all the characters' names to confuse me, and I snapped this cute smile in the midst of her joking:

 

The reality of life with Anna right now is that we're wading through some violent tantrums and sleep troubles (probably similar to most parents of toddlers, but, of course, it feels awful when it's happening to you!), and sweet, imaginative afternoons like this really do make all the work worth it.  She's a handful sometimes, but definitely on her way to being a strong, smart young lady!

Birthday Princess Show

 Yesterday, when I picked Anna up from school, her teacher said she had a story for me.  She said, "You won't believe what Anna did."

Oh, Lord, I thought.  Those aren't necessarily the words a mother of a tantrum-throwing toddler wants to hear.

 

Apparently, my creative, spunky, [bossy] two-and-a-half-year-old convinced ALL TWELVE of her classmates, mostly boys,

 

to join her in planning, then throwing,

 

a "Birthday Princess Show."

 

For the good part of an hour, her teacher said, Anna had the kids marching around the classroom gathering items for the "show," getting all her friends excited about it and joining in.  It made me laugh to think about how similar Anna and I are at times (which usually leads to problems of will, but that's another story all together).  My parents tell numerous stories about me as a child leading others into games and shows and dramatic activities, being able to wrangle the most unwilling and unlikely participants into the web of my imagination.  How fun to watch Anna grow into a miniature leader, a kid who includes everyone in the fun.  I pray she never loses the ability to reach out to and include people and that her contagious personality always draws people to her!

Florida

My parents generously treated the entire family to a week-long vacation in Destin, Florida the first week of April.  We had a great time playing on the beach and enjoying our beautiful vacation home.

To say Anna loved the ocean would be an understatement ...

We had lots of great family meals:

 Anna helped Grandpa make pancakes for breakfast one morning:

She and Uncle Evan took care of decorating Easter eggs:

We enjoyed some delicious pub fare:

And, of course, more beach time.  Even if her limbs and lips were purple with cold, Anna wanted nothing of leaving the ocean until she was exhausted.

This one is my favorite family picture from the trip!

Here's our smiley girl on her last beach day:

Cuddling with Grandma:

Thanks, Mom and Dad, for a wonderful trip!