--Annika is going to be the sister! We finally told her what she'd pretty much already guessed -- we're going to have a "real baby" (as distinguished from her many pretend babies) about a month after she turns four. She was super, super excited, and talks about it every day. She told her teachers that "My mommy has a baby in her tummy," and often discusses what big kids such as herself can do vs. what babies can do. She's been wanting to have a baby brother or sister for about two years now -- she even wants him or her to share her room! We said maybe someday, but probably not at first, since babies wake up a lot in the night and she needs her sleep. :-)
--Parent/Teacher conference: As ridiculous as that seems for a three-year-old, we went to our first parent/teacher conference this month. Her head teacher, Ms. Priti, told us Annika is excelling in all the academic things and motor skills and such, and that she's very social, has lots of friends and is well-liked, but the thing she needs to work on is complying with certain orders -- specifically, she sometimes gets really angry when they try to make everyone stop whatever they're working on and move to the next thing. No surprise there ... we have heard the baroque threats ourselves ("If you say that ONE MORE TIME, I won't invite you to my party!/I'll shoot fire at you!/I'll put you in time out for the whole day!" etc.) and seen the kicking angry tantrums for same. I sorta hoped maybe she was only doing that crap at home, but noooo. So we're going to have to work on that. Anyway, the summer session is like fun camp, with no academics, but after the break in September, she'll move to Pre-K ("Mr. Alex's class," as she knows it). I know I say this a lot, but: time flies!
--Local wildlife: We have a TON of birds around here -- she can imitate the sound of the many pairs of mourning-doves and knows what they look like, and she loves to watch the hummingbirds, bluebirds and so on. The most fun is the pair (family?) of woodpeckers in the tree outside the other bedroom in the front of the house -- brilliant red heads peeking out of the hole in the top of the sawed-off branch, the Woody the Woodpecker chirping (they really do sound like that! who knew?). But Saturday morning was the best -- there was a huge white owl in that tree! It was sitting there, doing its owl thing, as the woodpeckers hopped around. We all got a good look at it before it flew off -- none of us had ever seen an owl out in the wild! We're hoping its home is nearby and we'll see it again soon.
--Words matter: Two notable developments: She says the "th" sound consistently now ("that," not "dat"), and she wants us to call her preschool/daycare "school," not "babyschool." Because she's not a baby. She "lives in Ms. Priti's class," which is not for babies. And if we slip and use the old term, she corrects firmly, "No. I want you to call it school now, not babyschool anymore."
--Swimming! Finally in the latter half of June, the weather got warm enough to heat the pool to a temperature that wouldn't instantly give us all hypothermia, and with the aid of the floaty swimsuit, Annika was all set. She was a little tentative at first -- but in no time, she was jumping from the steps, treading water, and working on using arms and legs to get where she wanted to go. The improvement was noticeable with every time she got in the pool (or "pooel," as she pronounces it). She's getting so much more confident -- she'll even put her face in the water to blow bubbles, and dunk her head when she jumps -- and her stamina, swimming end to end and back again, is amazing. She likes to play sharks ("We're sharks! We're going to EAT YOU!") and just mess around in there -- won't be too long before she doesn't need the floaty suit anymore. ;-)
--Visitors from Texas: Mamalah came at the very end of May and part of June (see previous month-by-month), and a few days after she left, Aunt Lesley came for a week! Most nights, we were able to have dinner all together at the dining room table, and Annika had a fabulous time palling around with her Auntie. We were all sorry to see her go & hope she'll come to visit another time soon.
--Story time from when we were kids: I'm not sure how this got started, but we've been getting requests to tell stories from when the adults were kids. It's kind of hilarious how many of ours and Mamalah's aren't safe for telling, on account of they ended in violence or someone getting in trouble -- heh. But Annika loves to hear them, and will bring up details at appropriate moments in conversation. She especially likes to hear the ones that involve siblings, and she'll sometimes reflect on what she would do as the big sister in this or that situation.
