Stay home with Grandmomma

This morning Mommy needed to get out and check with Santa Claus on some things she wanted him to bring Annabelle for Christmas. She and Granddaddy left Annabelle and me home to "pay". Many, many hours later Mommy called and said they needed to come by the house and get her car (they had gone in our car to begin with) and asked if we would like to go back with them when they went out again. I told her we would see. So I asked Annabelle if she wanted to go with Mommy and Granddaddy when they came back and she said, "No, stay here and play with Grandmommy". So, I called her Mommy and told her we wouldn't be going so they wouldn't interupt our play when they returned for her car.

They decided not to come back for her car and then discovered that something they had purchased would not fit in my car so she would still have to come back here.
Now, this was a good while later, so I decided I would fix Annabelle a bite to eat before we left with Mommy. (Granddaddy was standing guard over the over-sized, already purchased item at the store.)

Annabelle decided she wanted to be a little independent today and took her time getting into the high chair. After waiting and giving her a chance to get it out of her system, I knew we didn't have a lot of time left, so I started counting...One, two, and before I could get the rest of it out, she completed it for me...free! At that point I picked her up and placed her into the high chair. She was totally unprepared for that move and in shock for a minute, then she wanted to "do it myself". I informed her she had waited too long and Grandmomma needed her help. She finally settled down and she was fed a little before Mommy got there.

Just as an addition to where she is in her life skills...her way of counting now is is: one...two...free...fourfivesix. I love her counting. She amazes me with the things she comes out with now. Each day she changes and adds so much more to her vocabulary that we had no idea she even knew. We just look at each other and say, "Where did that come from?" She knows a "Schurch" AKA as a Church when she passes one and she knows it has a "stipple" AKA as a steeple on top.

She helps Granddaddy drive by telling him, "Go, Grandaddy!" when the light is green and occasionally I think she sees the wrong light and tells him to go when it's really red, but most of the time she tells him right. Then it's "Stop, Granddaddy!" for most red lights. Her Mommy asks her, "Who's driving, Annabelle?" She doesn't let that bother her one bit, though.

She's been doing these things for a while, but I'm just now getting them recorded since I've been so slack on blogging lately.

Also, when you ask her what her name is, she says "DannabelleGraceGraceKing" in her sweetest little voice. That's an awfully long name for such a tiny little girl.

Back to the original thoughts...we did go back with Mommy and then came back to eat left-overs here after all. Granddaddy lost out on his eating out meal. After left-overs we all headed out for Mommy and Grandmommy to check on some things with the hopes that Annabelle would fall asleep in the carseat so we could kill two birds with one stone. She didn't until after we had gotten out of the car and left her with Granddaddy, then he said it was a very short nap. She pleaded to go home. She was one tired little girl by the time we got back to Grandmomma and Granddaddy's house. We fed her her dinner and then they went home to find Daddy.

And she had spent good times with Grandmomma while Mommy and Daddy were out shopping for half the day. I guess she knew what it would be like if she chose to go with Mommy. She would never get back home in time to play with Grandmomma.

She apparently didn't want to leave Grandmomma's house. I guess things are boring around place. Mommy hadn't gotten up the road very far when she called me to listen on the cell phone all the racket in the back of the car. She was really screaming. One would have thought she was being beaten. She didn't want to go home! Now, I know that sounds like she doesn't have a good Mommy or Daddy, but she really does. I have to say it does make me happy for her to be happy when she comes...enough so that she doesn't want to leave. Don't feel bad about it, Mommy, she really does love you and if she needed you both of you would be first in her life and not us. It's just another step in her independence and you don't want her there with you forever, trust me on that. No matter how much you love her. Someday she has to go. These are still her baby steps.