And A Little Bit More About Annie

Of course a visit from my mom wouldn’t be complete without unsolicited advice well-meaning suggestions. She was watching Annie chat in German with Claudia, the wonderful woman who has taken care of the hotel housekeeping for years, and suggested that I track the events in Annie’s life. ?? I feel like this blog is basically a idolatrous shrine to Annie, but I guess at least one reader feels that it is time to record some more of the events in my young daughter’s life. So here goes.

First of all, she had a riotous time with Nana and Grandpa Drew during their European visit. Annie would make her way down one flight of stairs and hang out in her grandparents’ room, well, pretty much constantly. They were her first words in the morning: “Are Nana and Grandpa sleeping?” Well, honey, as it is 6:30 in the morning, I’m pretty sure they are.

Going off to Paris was easy knowing that Annie was so happy to have some alone time with them. Although the language thing did throw my mom occasionally, they figured it out. Usually Annie can translate on request, but sometimes she only knows the word in German. But she didn’t starve, run around naked (outside) or, so the report goes, even really cry (hmmmph!), so they must have worked it out.

Here are some of the photos (You get a sense of the crazy weather in Innsbruck over this 3-week period. One week it was snowing, and the next week it was 20°C. Life in the mountains):

One thing that I’m very happy about is that Annie is so independent. (O.K., sometimes when I am in a hurry it makes me mental, but still…) She wants to feed herself, pour her milk, get dressed, have a bath, etc. etc. by herself. I can lay out her clothes on the bed and probably 80% of the time it all goes on, facing the right way, without much help. On that theme, she also stands up for herself, which I’m quite positive I never did. Her cousin Lili, also an only child, likes to direct the action and can be quite specific. Annie often goes along with the fun, as she idolizes Lili, but then if she really doesn’t want to do something, she is very adamant and does not back down. You go girl!

Annie does certainly love her cousin and sister Rebecca. I could go on and on about the fun times they have together, but I think this picture sums up Annie’s adoration for these two older girls in her life.

The other thing that cracks me, and also gives me hope of Annie’s ability to make her way in the world, is how she approaches new activities. It happened with skating this winter and then, this weekend, on the trampoline. We went to Nutterer See (a nearby lake), which will be a great place to swim once it gets a bit warmer. But they also have a good playground with a trampoline. This was Annie’s first time on a trampoline and her reaction was so interesting to observe. At first she was scared, crying, whining, and flopping off to the side to stop the bouncing. But she kept trying it, even while crying and obviously totally frightened. She would look at me beseechingly, but when I offered to help she rejected my hand. By the end of the half hour she was giggling while bouncing around and getting irritated when Lili took too long on her turn (bouncing together was too much, but that will come I’m sure.) I’m glad Annie doesn’t give up on new things, but it is also pretty clear that my little girl is going to be a total drama queen about life’s events. Oh well…it’s not like we haven’t seen that one before.

And to finish off, a couple of my current favourite photos of Annie. The first one suggests that maybe she will be a dog lover, like her sister and unlike her mother and father. And I just love the one of her running, as it captures how she is most of the time these days: happy and in motion.