St. Patrick's Day

As is our annual tradition, Anna went with Mom to work on St. Patrick's Day morning and then on to catch our town's awesome downtown parade.  We had lunch and then headed out into the overcast (but dry!) day.  You can see Anna enjoyed her hot dog.  We stuck out the first hour of the 2-hour long parade, (some years it has been up to 3 hours long!)  long enough to see the bagpipers, horses, fire trucks, numerous floats and classic cars, AND the Capital City Crushers, our girls' roller derby team.  We had a super time!

Dragon Bites

Tonight while doing our bedtime stories, Anna was playing the part of princess to my prince (I always have to be the prince -- AND she makes me talk in a deep voice.  She's very particular about that, so if I break character, she's all over me about it!)  Suddenly said she had an owie on her arm.  There was honest concern in my voice when I asked her what happened, until she told me, "Dragon bite."  I tried to kiss it to make it better, but apparently my magic isn't powerful enough.  "So, what does cure a dragon bite?" you ask.  Barbie band-aids.

Like a fish to water...Anna takes to the stage.

It's been a month since I last posted.  At this stage, Anna is so very active, and interactive, by the time she's in bed, I'm too exhausted to do much of anything.  Ironically, tonight I am posting because I have insomnia.  Seemed like something I could get done.

Anna has had a really busy month. We just finished her 8-week drama class at the local civic theatre. She loved it, so we will plan on enrolling her again sometime. Probably in the fall. The play was, "The Minstrels of Bremen." Anna was one of the narrators and had two lines, "By and by they met a cat," and, "The four friends crept up to the house window." She was brilliant, of course. I was concerned that she may see the audience and become bashful, but I soon knew I had nothing to fear. As the narrators crossed the stage during the opening scene, Anna leapt across the stage in her best ballerina form while the others simply walked. During the curtain call, she practiced her pirouette. This after just three ballet lessons, but I'll get to that later. Anna had a big cheering section in the audience, and we presented her with a couple of pink roses afterward. We were all incredibly proud of her. I figure anything we can do at this stage to make her comfortable speaking and being in front of people, the easier it may be for her as she grows up. The theatre did that for me, and I hope she will enjoy and benefit from it as well.

A few weeks ago we also enrolled Anna in ballet.  Right now it's just a "creative dance" class, and she's really, really, really enjoying it.  (See huge grin in photo to the right.) She'd been begging me to go to ballet for months, so the timing seemed right.  Her friend, Rebecca, who is 3 months older than Anna, also goes to the same conservatory.  Her first recital will be in June at the local Performing Arts Center.  They will have costumes and the whole shebang, which I know will put Anna over the moon.  We might even have to sedate her.  Just kidding.  Again, this is another activity I can really get behind.  She already loves to dance, and I think the coordination building, the grace and body awareness, the athleticism, all that is simply a good thing.  We try to keep her in just one activity at a time because we all need our down time and I honestly don't want to be one of those parents who over-schedules their kid in an attempt to live vicariously through them.  Believe me,  I've seen them in the parent waiting room at the ballet studio.  Yikes!  I think it's important to have a life and an identity separate from your child.  Anyway...  every day is an adventure and we're having a great time hanging out with this awesome, amazing and hilarious little girl.  You all should be so lucky (wink).