Anna Grows

The home improvements continue at Anna's new house. This past week was a big one with the installation of a gas stove (Mom and Dad were VERY happy to say goodbye to the electric range). Saturday was suppose to be the day to paint the family room. After a late start and a couple of trips to the paint store, Mom and Dad realized that the color was too light. Unfortunately they figured this out at 4:45 PM and the paint store closed at 5:00 PM and remained closed on Sunday. Dad made the most of it and painted a lot of trim and doors. Anna was VERY excited to put on her paint clothes, and given a paint brush and a spot on the wall to paint. In fact, she chattered practically non-stop for 2 hours about the painting ("Daddy - look at me, I have yellow paint; Mamma, do you have yellow paint? I have yellow paint. Daddy has yellow paint. I'm painting yellow," etc...). Mom finally took Anna to the playground to air her out and give everyone a break. Dad finished the touch-up wor

Anna celebrated Valentine's Day with a party at Ms. Be's, complete with lots of sugary treats. She even sported a special heart dress, courtesy of Grandma. Anna helped Mom make heart-shaped cookies, a contributing factor to the sugar at the party. In addition, she made Valentines for Dad as well as the other kids at Ms. Be's. On Valentine's Day, she did a little shopping with Dad. Dad purchased some beautful roses for Mom and a lovely pink carnation for Anna. Unfortunately the long stem of the carnation broke off after Anna used it as a sword at the store. Hopefully Anna will develop a further appreciation of flowers later as something more than a potential weapon. On Sunday, Mom and Dad were able to celebrate Valentine's Day with a movie and dinner out thanks to a generous offer to babysitt for Little Anna from Anna's Washington Grandparents, Anna and Charley. When Mom & Dad returned, they found three exhausted people. Apparently Little Anna treated Anna &a

There are many different ways to define inclusion, especially when it involves a two-year old. Mom defines inclusion as incorporating Anna into whatever activity Mom is doing. As a result, Anna is well on her way to developing her cleaning skills and particularly enjoys baking. The next step will be developing her budgeting skills; however that will likely need to wait until her math skills move beyond counting to 20. Dad's definition of inclusion is a bit different -- perhaps because Anna determined that it is more appropriate for her to incorporate Dad into whatever she is doing rather than the other way around. Last week, Dad needed to finish some work and Anna wanted to cook him dinner. The compromise: Dad set up his laptop on Anna's table and proceeded to finish work while Anna was "cooking." What are Dad's for? Of course then there are activities that the entire family is included in, like the visit to the Washington Auto show this past weekend. Mom and Dad