Four Years Old

Anna turned four at the beginning of this month. She is still my independent kid who wants to do everything her way. For example, yesterday she pulled out my quilt that I've been working on for five or ten years. I told her I wanted her to put it away because I didn't want it to get dirty. When she dilly-dallied, I went to pick it up and that brought on a scream of outrage and the declaration that she would give it to me if I would let go first. Then she added that she wanted to hop around it first. Whenever I tell her to give me something that she shouldn't have, she always responds that I have to let go first and then she'll give it to me. We have very similar personalities--we both want to be in control--so we butt heads often, but it is getting better as I'm figuring out how to talk to her so that she'll listen to me.

Her streak of independence and her natural curiosity probably are part of the reason why she loves to play with worms. In fact she loves playing in the dirt in our backyard and just being outside in general. With all this warm weather we've had this spring, she's been playing in my raised garden beds. She loves pulling out worms and the other day while I was digging out weeds, I pointed one out to her. She picked it up and started talking to it like it was a little baby, in a high pitched voice: "Hey there. Do you want to go back into your home?"

Last Thursday we went to PetSmart for a preschool field trip. I was impressed at Anna's willingness to touch the lizards and she even let them put a rat on her shoulder. He liked to nestle back behind her neck under her ponytail.

She has started to ask to say prayers on her own. Often they are full of lots of "thank thee"s. Tonight she said, "Thank thee that daddy can go visit people and serve. Thank thee that I can clean my room. Thank thee for Heather and Maren. Please help them. Please help Ryan on his mission." There was much more to her prayer, and I wish I could have turned on a tape recorder and caught it all because it's only an hour later and I can't remember most of it.

Recently she figured out how to pump on the swings, which is awesome for me because now I only have one child begging me to push her on the swings. Anna still likes a good push, but she can get herself going if I can't get outside at that moment. She's been taking gymnastics all year and she's finally starting to get the idea behind a cartwheel. Now she wants to do them all over the place. She really likes gymnastics, but since she was still talking about her dance class from last year, I decided to sign her up for dance again.

Anna is a great kid who wants to do what's right. Recently, I started planting in my garden and adding fertilizer. I told her I didn't want her playing in there anymore and she's been great about it. Her favorite primary song is still Follow the Prophet and her favorite food is probably cinnamon toast. She also loves to say, "You're really freaking me out, Mom." She's a great kid and we love her.

Family Photos

In the spring, Dan's mom, Sandy, sent the girls some dresses. Anna's came with a matching doll's dress. I decided to dress the girls in their dresses for our neighbor's baptism on June 4 and afterwards took some photos of the girls.

Evie didn't want to sit still for the photos. I'd sit her next to Anna and then try to snap a photo before she got up, without much success.

Then Anna got bored too, and it was all over.

It was easier to take a photo of both girls when Dad was holding on to them, and then a friend offered to take a picture of our entire family.

Snapshots in May 2011

Evie rocking some pigtails.

Before the tulips were all gone, we went back to the tulip festival one more time with my mom.

It was a warm day, so Grandma taught my kids how to splash in the fountain.

Anna's last practice before her dance recital.

Dinosaur Museum

Last year Dan took Anna to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point, and it scared her, especially the hallway that walks through what looks like space with the stars. With all the cool weather this past spring, and probably because we were tired of the aquarium, we decided to try out the dinosaur museum again. Now it's one of Anna's favorite spots, especially because of the two areas where she can play in the sand. I've included photos here from two separate trips.

April 22, 2011

I just love how cute Evie looks in the aprons they have for one of the sand areas.

Anna burying dinosaurs. Unfortunately for Evie, she's still a little too short to really be able to reach the sand and water to play in it.

Digging for dinosaurs

Working side by side

May 28, 2011

 Getting taller

 Love that apron!

Snapshots in April 2011

On April Fool's Day we went swimming with my friend Cami and her Janey, who is Anna's age. Mostly the girls wanted to stay in the kiddie pool far away from the giant bucket that dumps out water. Evie really liked the slide in the kiddie pool but needed a little help to actually get moving down it. I pulled out my camera just before we left. I guess I wanted to document the fact that we went swimming since it had been awhile for us since our last trip to the pool.

Evie playing with Anna's crown.

One day the girls dragged out Anna's little rocking chair and took turns pushing each other in it. Of course I was elated to see them sharing something rather than fighting over it.

Anna likes to climb in these storage bins and asks me to put the lid on. I told her I'd only do it for a few seconds--long enough to snap this photo. But before anyone calls DCFS, I won't put the lid on for her anymore. In fact, now when she asks, I just read her the warning on the lid itself.

One morning I came out from my room to discover that Anna had taken a purple piece of chalk and drawn all over our walls. Luckily for both of us, chalk wipes right off.

Showing off the bling she brought home from a birthday party.

We were so excited when the weather got warm enough to go to the park. Yay!

Easter presents from Grandpa and Sandy. Anna receive a Lamb Chop replica and Evie got a little Woodstock.

Yes, in case you are wondering, that is a diaper Anna put on her head. I don't know anymore than that.

My mom found this sucker that was covered with a plastic globe and little balls of candy. I think the idea was that the kid could dip her sucker in the candy balls and lick them off, but to my mom, it reminded her of a rattle. She thought it would also look like a rattle to Evie too and she could just play with it. But Evie immediately recognized it for what it was and demanded that we unwrap it so that she could get that sucker into her moth.

I still don't know why, but one day, my kids decided it would be fun to take all the books out of our bookshelf and dump them behind the kitchen table. I try to keep reminding myself that they are learning initiative when they do these sorts of things. I guess I just need to do a better job of teaching them to help me clean up these messes. And of course, I decided to take a picture to document this mess.