Portrait of Annabel

It's been a while since I've written about Annabel and all the things she's up to these days. So here's a portrait of our little girl lately:

She gets excited about everything. She hears an airplane or school bus or garbage truck and she freezes with her mouth open and eyes wide. "Mommy, there's a garbage truck," she whispers. Then she takes off running all over the house shouting, "A garbage truck, Xander, a garbage truck!"

Here are the kids in their new cozy corner. Both have beanbags now, and I got tired of having them flung all over the house. Hence, the "cozy corner."

Annabel loves to draw and write. She can't actually write letters yet, but she'll make little vertical lines all over a page and say, "I'm writing my name. I'm writing A's. For Annabel!" Here she was busy writing a shopping list for me.

Though she still has a shy streak, once she's warmed up to somebody she is wonderfully free with her hugs and kisses. I love it! She's such a lovey little girl. What's even better is that Alexander sees her give all these hugs and kisses and he wants in on the action also, even though he used to be rather stingy about it.

Annabel loves yogurt and raisins and oatmeal (at breakfast she often has a bigger bowl than I do). Strawberries are a big favorite. Plus peas and any kind of beans. Oh, and sausage. This girl can put away a large sausage easily. Two if we let her.

What portrait would be complete without a few choice sayings? She has such a distinct lilting way of talking. She pronounces every letter, but her inflection is all over the place, like a song.

"I wuv you so much." 

Melts my heart every time.

Looking up and pointing at Michiel's nose: "Papa, you have a spider in your nose."

She's had a few incidents of biting, usually when her brother has just taken something from her and she feels no other recourse but to use her teeth. I think she's mostly past that phase, but every once in a while she pretends to do it again with a little naughty grin on her face.

So, the other day, when she said to me, "I want to eat you up, Mommy," and came at me with an open mouth, I wasn't exactly sure how far the play would go.

After that she started saying it all the time. "I'm going to eat you for breakfast." And with the emphasis she puts on 'eat' and 'breakfast,' she might just.