She's baaaaacckk!!

From about Mid April to the first of October, Anabelle struggled. Braden being gone really (REALLY) threw her for a loop, then we moved, then we had a baby. It was a lot of change for such a little person (or a big person for that matter), and change is not her forte. It seemed that no matter what we tried, the behavior was still the same. We could not get her to change her attitude for the world. Truly, most days she was unbearable because she was so intensely defiant and whiny. It was wearing us all very thin.

And then one day a few weeks ago, she returned. The old, cheerful, hilarious, FUN, girl returned. I knew she was in there, just waiting for life to calm down maybe. Nothing happened that we could see- she just seemed to suddenly snap out of it overnight.

The last few weeks have been magnificent. I am so happy to have my old friend back. We have been spending lots of time making fall crafts, baking, and reading 'Pinkalicious' over and over and over and over and over.

Some recent things that have given me the giggles:

-Braden built a magazine rack for his National Geographic collection that goes next to the toilet. Nice. He put it in the guest bathroom for company to enjoy. (Do you go to other peoples house and sit on their toilet and read about the fall of Rome for an hour? If so, please comment here so that Braden will know that he is right and I am wrong. If we receive no such comments, we will assume the reverse is true). Anyway, the other day she asked me what I thought of the stand he made. I told her I liked it and asked her what she thought. She told me she liked it because now she can look at magazines while she poops. "Magazines are for pooping Mom. That's what they're for". And no joke, she never uses the bathroom without looking at one. It's great to walk by and see her sitting on the toilet intensely focused on a flock of African gazelles. And I guess it's paying off- in Hobby Lobby the other day she yells "Mom! National Geographic! Dad will love this! It's King Tut!" Sure enough, she had found a statue of King Tut.

-I was trying to turn the TV on for her. I was having some complications. Okay, so I don't know how to use the remote and after waiting about 5 minutes for me to figure it out she says, "Wow, Mom. Dad really is a lot better at this than you. You should watch more TV like he does". Bahahaha.

-"Mom, what's Maisey's name again? Maisey California?"

-Anabelle asked me to wipe her after she went poop. Once I was there, she suddenly decided that she didn't need me and would start wiping herself. Fabulous! Although she tells me that she knows how, I give her instructions: how many squares to use, how to fold them, when you can stop wiping, proper hand washing. She listens to all this and I can tell she is overwhelmed and turned off by all the steps I want her to do. She says, "I have a plan (her new favorite phrase)...how about I just go pee after, and the pee will just wash away all the poo crumbs?" She lifts up her pointer instructing me to wait a minute. She pees. She nods and smiles. Plan executed.

She also did her first primary program today and she was the only Sunbeam with a long part and the only one who memorized it. She was fabulous up there. I couldn't have been more proud of her beaming face and excited waves to me. I especially liked the thumbs up she gave me when she sat down and knew she nailed it.

Oh Anabelle, so happy to have you back. Sorry for all the changes this year that have made life rough on you. Few things bring as much joy as hearing your belly laugh, and I'm glad it's back in action.