Baby Clothes

I must have mentioned to Anneke at some point that I had once made some baby clothes for one of her babies.

Now she wants me to make more clothes for all of her many, many babies. She says "you can do it in the night-time when I am sleeping!" I kind of wonder if she doesn't realize that I sleep too. . .

Then she got out a huge mound of babies and gave me specific instructions: "This baby already has two clothes, so she only needs one more. This baby has only one clo, though."

Beauty and the Beast

Anneke went to watch my cousin Julia's performance of Beauty and the Beast with Rockford High School. She is now completely obsessed. She has been listening to the music that my mom loaded on a little MP3 player for her.

A few moments:

"Hey! The beast did just what Beauty did! That's such good manners!"'

"AHHH SKIP THIS PART! THIS IS SO SCARY!!"

We only watched about 25% of the movie

Bedtime. . .

"Mommy, sank you for getting me dis milk and honey, but I have a pwoblem."
"What is your problem?"
"Well, every time I take a sip, my eyes open up and then I don't go to sleep."
"Well why don't you try putting your milk and honey down and go to sleep."
"Oh yes! I will twy dat!"

I guess it worked. . .

More Dreams

Ani has been having bad dreams lately -- just when she's drifting off to sleep.

Here are a couple:

"So, it was your birthday? and you were sitting in front of your cake? and you were sitting on one of those roller-chairs, with the wheels on the bottom? and you were going to blow out your candles, AND THE CHAIR ROLLED AND YOU FELL RIGHT INTO THE FIRE ON YOUR CAKE!!!!!"

"So, deah were these two little boys, and one of them was Jonah, and they were out in a little boat on the water. And then, ANOTHER boat, came and went right over the two little boys (and one of them was Jonah), and the two little boys, went RIGHT UNDER THE WATER! AND NO ONE CAME TO HELP THEM! NO ONE!"

She is usually comforted by the thought of puppies.

Ani's Dream

In another phone conversation I recently had with Anneke, she told me of this terrible dream that she had where she and I were at the coffee shop by  her house. All of a sudden, two guys tried to catch her! I was shocked and asked if I ran to save her. She said that I couldn't, however, because I was at the other side of the coffee shop buying a bagel! 

Does that mean something? I wish I could have saved her...

Ani on the phone

Now that I live far away from my family, my form of communication with Ani is snail mail with pictures, skype, and phone. I was talking to her the other day on the phone and said, "I'm glad you didn't forget about me, Ani" and without missing a beat she said "clea, I would nevah fo-get about you". 

that warmed my little heart.

Jonah's First Words

He's been saying "Mama" and "Dada" for a while now, but in the last couple of weeks, he has said "Mo" for more, I assume, "Nana" and just today: "Pop" which sounds a lot like Bop. He's almost 20 months.

Jonah's Signs

so far, in no particular order. . .

Anneke
kitty
Nana
Pop
Claire
Ruth
Uncle B.
Kathy
Rae
Sam
dog
music
food
drink
please
nurse
thank you
i love you
more
elephant
fish
tree
flower
banana
apple
car
book
library
sleep
bird

Sleepovers

Anneke went to her aunt Claire's house for a sleepover last weekend. She had a great time, of course, but told Claire that this time she was going to sleep all by herself. She said "if you peek at me when I am asleep; go sleep somewhere else."

She always goes to sleep listening to music. She told Claire, "sometimes I sing along to the music, but my daddy doesn't want me to do that. But then I sneak-sing when he is gone!"

She's going to Ruth's house this weekend, we'll see how she does!

Bathtime Logic

The other day Anneke and Jonah were in the tub together and it was time to wash hair. I wanted Anneke to go first to help show Jonah how painless it is as he's still not a big fan of the procedure.  When Anneke nominated Jonah to go first, I joked about how whoever says that someone else should go first, should themselves be the one to go first. She paused for a minute. The wheels were clearly turning. Then she said, "Jonah says that I should go first." Awesome! No dice, but awesome. 

On the subject of tubs, Jonah loves the game of having me hide behind the curtains. First the clear, plastic one, then the cloth outer curtain. He goes bonkers, poking my face through the plastic one and trying to shove things into my inaccessible mouth. Then being just utterly amazed that I appear again from behind the cloth curtain .... for the tenth time in a row. 

Ballet

We just started Anneke in another session of ballet at the Y. She loves it so much. She asked me this morning on the way to school if she could please please go to ballet today.

She also told me that she "secretly did a dance that wasn't a ballet dance when the teacher wasn't looking!" She can't help herself. Jonah charges around and watches and waves and signs "Anneke" while she has her class.

More Signing!

Jonah did the sign for music to a theme song from NPR this morning! He kind of stuck his little finger out when he did it.

He likes NPR, but Ani says she doesn't like Diane Rehm because she's "too naughty." Weirdo.