Anya-isms

Oh Ms. A you do make us laugh...

In the Shower
The other day A was preparing to take a bath.  She had some toys in the shower so she went into the shower to gather some of her things and transfer them into the bath.  She was in the shower for about half a second when I heard an absolutely terrifying, blood curdling scream.  I ran to the shower, scared of what I would see.  I was certain there would be blood...could she have cut herself with a razor?  Heart racing I put my head into the shower.  Ms. A was standing in the corner making herself as small as she could, hands crossed, shoulders shrugged.  "What's wrong?" I nearly demanded.  "I scared," came her small reply.  "What is scary?"  And then she pointed down, and with a trembling voice, "Bud, bud."  A tiny bug was crawling across the floor of the shower.

Ms. A is very frightened of insects.  Surprising because her brothers always have some sort of bug in a jar, and as much as I dislike bugs I make every effort not to make a big deal out of them.  So my response to her dramatic fear, "Oh, this is a nice guy," and I scooped him into a cup.  Ms. A liked this, "Hi Bud(g)!" came her happy response.  "Hi, hi, hi!" she announced, happily tossing her head from side to side.  Then she proceeded to kiss in his direction, big "mwaa" sounds, and "Hi Bud(g)!"  So the bug got to take a bath next to Ms. A.  He waited beside the tub and Ms. A cheerily checked on him from time to time.

At Costco
On Sunday the boys had soccer games in Grants Pass.  On our way we stopped at Costco to do our shopping for the center.  This shopping is no small feat, we fill the trailer.  I had faxed in most of my order ahead of time, so Johan was busy loading that, but the boys, Ms. A, K, and I had to gather the odds and ends.  By the time we made it through the store these odds and ends amounted to two full flat bed carts, and one full regular cart.

I know better than to allow Ms. A into a store without being strapped into the cart.  However my judgement lapsed on this particular day and as we entered the store and she proudly positioned herself on K's flatbed cart I smiled, mentally noted how cute I thought she was and we proceeded into the store.  We were a train, C in the lead with a flatbed, me in the middle walking with Ms. K strapped onto me in the Ergo Baby, and K with his flatbed and Ms. A perched triumphantly on it.  As I showed my Costco card, I looked back at K, and Ms. A had decided that she could't possibly ride on K's cart.  Before I could do anything (I'm a little slower with an infant strapped onto me), she dove from K's moving cart, shouting "Caden, Caden."  Kobe didn't have time to stop before he realized what was happening and nearly ran her over.  Ms. A had decided it was horrifying to ride on K's cart and absolutely had to be on C's cart.  Our incident caused a bit of a traffic jam at the Costco entrance.  But we moved on.  I had my chance to move Ms. A into a cart with a strap, but I naively thought we could continue.

We made our way up and down the aisles and things were going well.  Ms. A continued to cart hop, but we were making progress.  Just over our half-way point through the store we encountered the big instore slide and swing display.  Ms. A wanted to play.  "Wheeee, wheeee, wheee, Anya, Whee!"  She announced while patting her chest.  Slide = whee for Anya.  We talked about how the slide was just for display, and we moved on.  Up and down the aisles we progressed.  Ms. A was becoming less and less cooperative and the initial novelty of riding the flatbed was really wearing off for her.  But we were almost done.  Just two aisles to go.  We were now nearing the front of the store.  A long way from the "whee" at the back of the store.  We had gained a third cart by this time, and I was now negotiating a full flat bed, with Ms. K strapped to me, while maintaining an interesting enough banter with Ms. A so that she would stay on the cart.  I had given her a pen and some paper at some point so she was busy coloring as we chatted our way through the store. As I made what I thought would be my final turn, and carefully merged my cart into the Costco traffic, Ms. A caught sight of the "whee" from the corner of her eye.

She leapt from the cart.  I couldn't stop instantly, I had to maneuver my cart to the side and out of the way.  "Whee, Anya, Whee!" Ms. A was shouting as she ran toward the slide.  I called to the boys, "Stay with the carts!"  Ms. A was running all out, the traffic had parted and like a seasoned football player she was dodging helpful shoppers who were attempting to halt her advance.  Their efforts proved futile, and Ms. A proved far more determined and as it turns out, surprisingly agile...  I ran after her with Ms. K strapped to me, but Ms. A didn't slow down until she reached the "whee."  It was as though she was seeing it for the first time, as though clouds had parted and golden rays of sun were pouring down on her as she gazed up, "Wheeeeeeeeeee, Anya, wheeeeeee."  Again I explained that is was just a display and that we would go on a whee at the soccer game.  This appeased her but as we turned back toward our carts, Ms. A spotted something else....   "OOOOOOOOOOOWow!"  "Anya, car, Anya, car, Anya!"  There was a small red car for sale.  It had a handle for the mom to push almost like a wagon and the child could ride in the car with a steering wheel.  Anya was enamored.  She had to have that car.  But alas it just wasn't her day.  "No, Anya I am sorry."  I picked her up and as we walked back to our carts, Ms. A gazed with longing back at the whee and the car.