Our Sweet Annie

She's beautiful. She's redheaded. She gets noticed because she's cute. But lately, she has been really communicating with strangers in stores. She's very excited about Halloween, and I bet everyone in the valley now knows that Annie is "freeee years old" and that she's "gonna be a Doctor for Halloween."

She also loves to sing about what's going on in her life. We've been in the aisles of Target and Annie has been singing "I'm going to be put in Time Out and Mommy will swat my bottom if I am bad," or "I like cookies," or my personal favorite, "I don't talk about Mommy's boobies," all set to song. She's always very happy when she's singing, and when she starts talking about inappropriate things, people seem to always be very gracious instead of judgmental. Maybe they don't understand what she's saying yet!

Because of preschool she has also learned the entire Pledge of Allegiance and, in the middle of any random activity, will put her hand on her heart and recite the entire thing, with very few mistakes. I still need to get out the video camera and record this for eternity.

She also loves to count - with a little help she can count to 100. She'll say 29, 20-ten, 20-eleven, if we don't correct her and tell her that 30 comes after 29. It makes me wish there was a song for counting!

Her favorite toys are usually the ones that I have found in the dollar section at Target. Little musical instruments or trains that only need a push to go the entire length of the carpet. She also still loves to dress up and be with her preschool friends.

She is still VERY tall for her age and people always think she should be in school. She had another growth spurt recently and went up three sizes in shoes and another size in clothes. It's getting hard to buy shirts because the ones that fit her around are never long enough. Her length is in her torso - which also means she's clumsier than her friends. She hasn't figured out her center of gravity yet.

Ahh . . . the life of a 3-year-old.