November update

What's life like for Anneke these days, and what is she up to?

Well, first the good:

She's very excited about the baby. She pats my stomach and says, "oh, baby, I love you," and we talk a lot about what we'll do with the baby when he comes. I anticipate a wee bit more ambivalence when he finally does come, but it's so fun to share this time with her.

Her imagination has gone through a growth spurt! Every moment is a new opportunity for pretend play: today she had a fork and a wooden spoon, and she told me she was playing violin. She crawls around the house pretending to be a kitty. She sings a lot, and often makes up songs, or puts new words to a familiar melody. Sometimes she goes off on verbal riffs which make no sense (to us) and remind me of scat singing or, if you're a total dork, of The Hybrid.

She just got her first haircut today! It took all of five minutes, and was a spur-of-the moment offer when I brought her in with me to my stylist to get a bang trim. I was so proud of Anneke--she sat very still through the whole thing. Actually, all morning she was a trouper coming along on errands, and she went a good 2-3 hours with no accidents. I gave her a big hug and kiss for being such a big girl when we got home.

She's still so sweet and snuggly, which I wouldn't expect to have suddenly changed, but these days I'm soaking it in more while I still have a lap and only one child to care for.

Then, there's the Bad:

Fears: as what I believe is just a corollary to her growing imagination, she gets scared much more easily. There was the battle of the Fluff, where for about two weeks she was terrified of...lint. The other day I innocently and excitedly said, "look, Anneke, there's a spider on the floor!" and she FREAKED out.

I really don't think these fears are "bad," but it's something to work through and sometimes hard for me to know when to just ride it out and when to push her a bit to get past it. I'm probably over-reacting since I work with kids with anxiety disorders--I need to remember these are most likely just part of her development, and the last thing I need to do is add to the drama by getting worked up over it myself.

and the Ugly:

Hand-foot-mouth disease! enough said. Plus, I caught a cold that bore too close a resemblance to the galloping consumption, and poor Dave came down with a stomach bug. All par for the course, but definitely ugly!