So as you can imagine, with a baby in the house we have to find multiple ways to keep Annabelle entertained. I continue to be amazed at how she is turning into a little real person. She knows so many words and talks in sentences and phrases. We can almost have an actual conversation with her, granted it is a very one-sided and frustrating conversation that one might have with a criminally insane person...but a conversation nonetheless.
I suppose that when I say Annabelle is turning into a little person, a more accurate statement would be that she is turning into a little dictator. Christmas is just days away and I have yet to be able to impress upon Annabelle that if she is naughty Santa won't come. She is certain he is coming and she is certain he is coming every, single, night. I have learned that two year olds do not have a firm grasp on how the spacetime continuum operates. I have also learned that when you raise your child to play outdoors every single day for hours until she is filthy and broken, winter in Wisconsin is a painfully long stretch of time.
So in addition to competing with a new baby in the house, Annabelle has a touch of cabin fever and it has manifested in her personality, causing her to behave like Attila the Hun, which is what I have been calling her (not to her face) for the last couple of weeks. Although I think Attila may have just been a tyrant and not officially a dictator. And in that scenario would that make Bryan, Georgia, and I Eastern Europe? I'm not sure, history is not where I excel. Neither is math. Oh...and science. And I think we all agreed that brevity wasn't either, so I'm not sure exactly where my talents lie.
Perhaps you may think I am being unkind or am over-exaggerating this personality flaw, but let me provide you some highlights of life with Attila the Hun.
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| NO DANCE, MAMA! |
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| Annabelle prefers elevated seating so that she may supervise the house |
I don't know why I'm complaining, Milton and Bernie receive the brunt of Annabelle's leadership.
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| do not disobey The Dictator |
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| cruelty at its most primitive |
to our stairs and order them to go up the stairs and STAY or LAY DOWN. Milton can handle this sort of guidance but Bernie is a nervous wreck. He has been clinically depressed since we brought Milton to the far. Annabelle corrals the dogs upstairs and then opens the gate to give them a taste of freedom and then slams it in their hopeful faces. Its is a cruel form of torture. Even now I had to pause from writing to go intervene on a situation on the stairs where Annabelle was at the top of the stairs shouting at Milton to "COME UP HERE!" and when he did not, a Category 5 meltdown occurred. And while I was trying to figure out how to fix the situation both dogs went into the kitchen and ate Annabelle's "cerealraisin" in her snack bowl on the kitchen chair. So as soon as the tears were dry from Milton not obeying her direct commands, they began to flow again when she realized her dogs ate her snack. Maybe she shouldn't leave her snack bowl on the floor or where the doggies can get them like mama said. Just a thought.
I try to engage Annabelle in activities such as reading, counting, flashcards, puzzles and anything else I can think of that we can do together. I don't know why I try to engage her in educational activities, she learns all she needs to know on the farm. Some of Annabelle's first phrases were "dog hair everywhere" and "woodstove chores." I can only imagine what the rest of the world thinks of our parenting. We have to check her coat pockets before she goes into daycare because she smuggles nuts, screws, and bolts in. I also don't know why I worry about my ability to educate her because my games and activities are never her first choice. I have to compete with Daddy's games, and I have learned being the mom kind of blows. Happy fun dad is always the one she goes to for entertainment. I'm the jerk who washes her face and brushes her hair so she doesn't look like an orphan. So when given the choice between playing with Mama or playing with Daddy, the winner will always be Daddy.
The two current running favorite Daddy games are "Wallenda" and "Christmas Pokey Eye."
Wallenda is pretty self explanatory, right? Named after the famed Flying Wallendas, it is a death-defying act of balance. Bryan lies on the floor and Annabelle steps carefully onto his outstretched arm and hand, and he yells "Balance!" and then she yells "Balance!" and then she balances precariously on his hand. Then he instructs her to let go of his other hand she is using for support, and then she waves to me before crashing to the ground. To be honest I was pretty surprised at how good she is at this stunt. She is able to balance, but she prefers the crashing to the ground portion of the game. Actually she doesn't crash to the ground, she crashes into Bryan's skull and ribcage. Bryan is most likely going to not only have brain damage from this game, but is also going to require rotator cuff surgery in the near future as well. It is here I should offer a tip to parents of toddlers. I was very afraid Annabelle would break ornaments on our tree or worse yet, pull it down. I was prepared to have Bryan rig up some sort of system to tie the tree to the ceiling (wasn't that good of me to put in all that work thinking of ways for Bryan to do work). But we found an easy way to prevent this, we purchased the pokiest tree known to Earth. We have a Blue Spruce and it is like barbed wire and therefore is almost impossible to touch. As a result of this Annabelle does not touch it and gets very upset when anyone else touches it or grazes against it. It is very pokey.
Thus the invention of "Pokey Eye." In this game Daddy lies on his back and hoists Annabelle above his head superman style and pretends to fly her face-first into the Christmas Tree. This causes her to squeal and recoil and scream "Pokey Eye!" Lather. Rinse. Repeat. This makes her laugh very hard. I think it is not dissimilar to a super fast roller coaster that is fun but also terrifying at the same time. The whole time you're laughing and screaming, but deep down you're wondering if your harness is going to come loose, sending your body flying through the sky like a rag doll.
At press time I was just corrected, and apparently I did not know the correct name of the game. It is not "Pokey Eye," it is "Poke YA." As in "look out, the tree's going to poke ya." Either way, it's a fantastic way to entertain a toddler. What better way to spend quality time with your daughter than pretending to hurl her, eyeball-first, into the pokey Christmas tree? Really, if you were her, which would you choose: Flashcards or Christmas Poke Ya aka Christmas Pokey Eye?
Our activities and parenting choices may be questionable, but I am lucky to have a husband who will engage in this unsafe behavior so I can wash the dishes, feed the baby, or maybe even sit down and compose a blog post. And Annabelle may be a bossy little dictator, but I would rather raise her to be confident in her voice than afraid to speak out. I would prefer it if she wouldn't speak out so passionately to me and me alone about my dancing, but we will fine-tune this attribute later in life....hopefully.
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| Merry Christmas from Annabelle's Chickens |
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