Friday, February 03, 2006

Shank you, Mommy


lean on me
Originally uploaded by toyfoto.
There are days when I think Annabel is already plotting her revenge. Every meltdown caused by us taking something away from her or putting her in "time-out" for some toddler infraction is going to come back and bite us.
It won't be long until she will have outgrown the prison of her crib and will be free to roam about society (in this case, the barn).
We had a little taste of this in Minnesota when we handed over Annabel's playpen to her one-year-old cousin Elliott after his sleep deprived parents forgot to take theirs out of the trunk of their car at the airport.
Oh well. With a futon mattress on the floor and some bedding we turned Ama Linda's elegant curtain-doored closet into a boo-bear abode. She fell out of "bed" each night at least once, and by the end of our stay she had managed to wake up in the middle of the night in the pitch black room and toddle over to the edge of the bed and yell "WAKED UP."
The definition of STARTLE should be that very scene presented to a parent for the first time.
But I digress, as usual.
Another first that I couldn't wait to tell the Internet (but obviously did wait) was that yesterday I bought the most expensive set of finger paints on earth -- Crayola's Color Wonder - at $9 for a package of paper and a tray of paints had me pacing the store pondering the purchase. Since they claim not to stain clothes, hands, walls or furniture, I threw caution and some hard-earned cash to the wind.
While not perfect (they are oily and don't dry) they were s BIG hit, and as such, instrumental in illiciting another first.
After we painted for about 45 minutes on the sun porch, Annabel came over to me and kissed my cheek and said "shank you, mommy."
I stopped my complaining about the cost right then ... it was worth every penny.

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