Anna in June

Like most three-year-olds, Anna has entered the "all by myself" phase, although what she usually tells me is, "I want to do it." This usually means lots of tears when I do something that Anna wanted to do, like close a door, click a buckle shut, or turn off the water. Then I have to re-open the door, undo the buckle, or turn the water back on so that Anna can do it. But Anna's new independence also means that she has become my little buddy and my helper. I feel like this is an age that I'm better at because we can do activities together.

A few days ago, when my Martha Stewart Living Magazine came in the mail, Anna started asking if we could make the fireworks cookies on the front of the magazine. It took me several days, but I finally got around to making the dough for the cookies and yesterday we tried it out. Anna wanted to help with it all: sprinkling the flour, rolling out the dough, cutting out the cookies, putting them on the cookie sheet, frosting them, licking the frosting off the cookies.

On a side note, Anna loves dough, whether it's bread dough or cookie dough, but I told her once that we don't eat cookie dough because it has raw eggs in it and they can make us sick. So now whenever I make something in the mixer she'll ask, "Does this have eggs in it?" but what she really wants to know is if she can stick her finger in and eat a chunk.

She really likes to take care of Evie and make sure that Evie doesn't have things she shouldn't have or that she doesn't go places she shouldn't, like out the garage door. This means a lot of frustration for Evie as Anna drags her across the house or rips things out of her hands. I admit that I get pretty tired of all the crying and sometimes I accuse Anna of hurting Evie when really, Anna was only trying to help. Anna also likes to protect Evie from bigger kids who, ironically, often do the same things to Evie that Anna does, like take away her toys or push or hit Evie. I often hear Anna saying, "Noooo, we don't hit. Okay, buddy?"

These days Anna is a big fan of the Disney princesses and she loves to turn on Disney CDs, dress up in her Cinderella dress, and dance to the music. We're going to Disneyland soon, so I've been checking out Disney movies from the library so that she'll actually know who Peter Pan and Dumbo are. I think Dumbo has been her favorite movie so far. Anna also LOVES the park and being outside. She is always asking me if we can go to the park with the swings or if we can go swimming. Our neighborhood pool is open, but I need it to be in the nineties before I want to go swimming, so I've been trying to keep her busy with the park. She usually likes to start off with the swings and she'll say, "I want to go high to the sky, Mom." Then after a few pushes she'll say, "too much." I haven't quite figured out where that magic middle is.

So here are some other cute things Anna says often:
"Is that going to DI?" I keep a Deseret Industries (thrift store) pile in my basement and she often likes to bring things up from the basement and ask me if it's going to DI. A month ago, I also made the mistake of saying, in front of Anna, that I wanted to sort through her toys and take some of them to DI. Several times that morning she told me, "You aren't taking any of my toys to DI!"

"Sils" is her new nickname for Evie. It's a short version of Silly Evie.

On Memorial Day we went to the cemetery in Brigham City to put flowers on my grandmother's grave. Since then Anna has been a bit fixated on cemeteries. As we were waiting at a stoplight next to the Sandy cemetary Anna asked, "Is that where you go when you're killed?" She's also asked me if my grandma died in the cemetery.

"I'm still working on it." That's her response when we talk about pooping on the potty. If only I could get her to poop on the potty then I think we could make progress with potty training, but she won't do it and I have no idea how to get her to. I've tried to ease the pressure by telling her that I know she's working on it and I'll put her in a diaper if she needs to go poop, but so far that hasn't worked. Whenever we try panties, we usually end up with an accident and then I put her in a diaper because I don't want to mess with it and I start to think that she'll never be potty trained. Sigh.

"Snoot Snacks" I've probably mentioned this before, but I absolutely love that this is how she says fruit snacks.

Just recently she's starting using "I don't know how" as a way to avoid or protest or get attention. Today she wanted me to carry her, but when I told her she needed to walk because I couldn't carry her and push the stroller she said, "But I don't know how to walk."

Anna is at the age where I can ask her to go get things for me and she'll gladly do it. She wants to help and to please. She loves reading books and I have a hard time turning her down when she asks me to read her a story. She might be a little rough with Evie but it's only because she's so enthusiastic in her affection of Evie. Sometimes I get a little overwhelmed with all the "whys" but for the most part, I love hearing her thoughts and getting a peak into how her little brain is working and learning.