November

The energy I have available for updating this blog is inversely proportional to the mobility and terrible twoishness of Maija. But in an attempt to at least put up the occasional update, here are a few photos and some comments from Anja below.

The often attempted but rarely achieved sibling photo with both looking at the camera:

Halloween costumes (scrub jay and alligator)

And I love this painting that Anja made. I left her with her finger paints (full 8oz containers) for about ten minutes before I realized it had been quiet for a while.

Me: Anja, how is your painting coming?

Anja: Good. But I'm almost out of blue paint.

She told me that the blue part is a river, and that the painting is called "Perch Lake." But that she needed more blue. The best part is that she had no idea that this was not the normal way to paint a river. We have another 3D finger painting up on the wall already.

Kids love air cleaners:

Anja says funny stuff:

Anja: Maija tried to EAT me!

Me: No, she just kissed you.

Anja: Ahahahahahahah! (runs away)

Anja: Some kids have a mommy and a daddy and some kids have just a mommy or a daddy.

Me: That’s right. And some kids have two mommies or two daddies.

Anja: I wish I had two mommies AND two daddies!

Me: Oh, okay.

(then later, when I told Jay the story, Jay says, “I wish there were two of me too.”)

Anja: (after eating dinner) Well, you sure have a messy kid here.

Me: Are you talking about you?

Anja: Yeaaaaah…

Anja: Mommmyyyyy! We forgot to buy WOOD!

Me: Oh, what would we do with wood.

Anja: Build a play house. ReMEMber?!!!

Me: Oh yeah.

Anja: We just keep wasting and wasting and wasting.

Me: Wasting? What are we wasting?

Anja: All of these days!

Me: We are wasting all of these days without a play house?

Anja: Yeah!

Anja: Remember when we saw a bear when we were hiking?!!

Me: A bear? A real bear? I don’t remember that.

Anja: Me neither.

Anja: (holding two plastic frogs) Let’s play Simon Says with these guys. (gives me a frog) Simon Says be a birdie.

Me: Cheep cheep cheep. (my frog walks around)

Anja: Simon says be an egg. (waits 20 seconds, during which my frog doesn’t move) Are you being an egg?

Me: Yup.

Anja: Simon Says be a panda.

Me: (my frog stays in one spot) My frog is eating bamboo.

Anja: Why do pandas eat baboons?!!

Me: No, bamboo, not baboons.

Anja: Pandas eat baboons?!

Me: No, bamboo. It’s a kind of grass.

Anja: Oh.

Me: What’s this a picture of, Anja? (referring to a scribble of black with a tiny scribble of green)

Anja: That’s the monster. And I’m covered in Monster Block.

Me: What’s Monster Block?

Anja: It’s something you put on yourself that keeps the monster from dropping bombs on your face or your teeth.

Me: Kind of like sunblock?

Anja: Yeah.

Anja: I’m a little nervous.

Me: What are you nervous about?

Anja: I’m nervous about… my cup.

Me: What about your cup makes you nervous?

Anja: I don’t know why my cup makes me nervous.

Anja: Mommy, you have one kid and one baby. I wish we had two kids and two babies. That would be a lot of kids and babies!

Me: Maija, you’re a cheese monster today.

Anja: NO! Maija’s not a cheese monster!

Me: She’s not? Then what is she?

Anja: Just regular Maija.

Anja: (makes sign language symbol for I love you) Mommy, I love you.

Me: I love you too Anja.

Anja: Daddy, I love you.

Jay: I love you too.

Anja: Blue I love you. Blue says, “What does that mean?”

Me: Blue, you’re silly.

Anja: We sure have a silly dog!

Anja: (while playing with plastic animals) What kind of ice cream do you want?

Me: (via my plastic toy) Hmm, moose tracks. Moose tracks is my favorite.

Anja: We’re all out of moose tracks. We have duck tracks and pig tracks.

Me: I’ll have duck tracks.

Anja: I wish I had two mommies.

Me: That would be fun. And two daddies?

Anja: No, just one daddy.

Anja: Daddy, when I get bigger, then I will be able to marry you.

Jay: Aw, you can’t marry me, because I am already your daddy.

Anja: (looks at me) Then I want YOU to marry me.

Me: That would be nice, wouldn’t it? But you can’t marry me because I am already part of your family. You can’t marry someone who is in your family, you have to marry someone who isn’t in your family, and then they become your family too.

Anja: (thinks for a minute) Then I want Shanti to marry me! (the mom of the five year old boy next door)

Anja: (running around and around the kitchen and living room) I sure have a lot of energy! I sure have a LOOOOOOOOOTTTTT of energy! Hahahahahahaha

Anja: Sometimes tofu is really big. And it falls from the sky! And it lands with an earth-shaking boom!

Me: Anja, what was your favorite part of today? Remember when we saw the banana slug?

Anja: Uh, yeah, and it was eating POO POO! That was my favorite part. And when Maija fell down in the mud and I saw her MUDDY BUTT! Those were my favorite parts.