We went to the Vista Moonlight Theatre again this year with K. & M. Again, it was a great show and a great evening. We enjoyed a picnic dinner before watching My One and Only. M.’s mom watched C. and Anna so that the four of us could have a couples’ night out.

We find ourselves saying this a lot lately. Anna has been learning all sorts of things from the other kids at daycare which are not exactly objectionable, but do have us raising our eyebrows. Personally, I find it amusing, but I’m starting to think our kid is going to be the bad influence in her peer groups outside of day care.

Some things we didn’t expect to hear Anna say, but did anyway:

• “I’m going to spank your butt and throw you in the trashcan!” This is a very humorous statement for Anna, she practically falls down laughing after saying it.
• “C’mon everybody, let’s shake our tails!” This happened while we were all dancing in the family room to some of her music. The then later said “let’s wag our tails,” so she may have misspoken the first time.
• “I hate you.” Probably the most disturbing, but the way she uses it, to express displeasure with another’s actions, I don’t think she really means hate when she says it. Now that I think about it, most people (including Jen and I) probably overuse it.

Where did she learn it? The answer is almost always S, one of the four-year-olds at M’s.

Ok, this is yet another test of adding blog entries from my phone. It’s not the fastest means of entering data, but it does allow me to jot stuff down so that I don’t forget to enter stuff later. Ok, I think this is the longest content-free post I’ve entered on the phone.

The rules of Father’s Day:

1. Be nice to Dad.

Well, I guess that’s the only rule, or at least that’s what I told Anna. The consequences of not following rule number one are that other holiday rules might be broken as a result, such as the rule of having a party for one’s birthday. She straightened right up.

Today, I got breakfast in bed, where “breakfast” is defined as two eggs, and “bed” is defined as the kitchen table. Nothing wrong with that I suppose. Jen and Anna occupied each other for the morning while I washed my car, mowed the lawn, and trimmed the hedges–all things of my choosing. It’s nice to be able to do a task without interruption, and I don’t get to do it very often. Also, I received some handmade crafts from my lovely daughter.

After nap we went to the Padres game, which wasn’t really much of a game, but it was a nice outing. We went with four other families, all with three-year-olds, and it was astounding how well they behaved. Not much fussing out of that crowd. If five three-year-olds can watch a baseball game without whining, any adult who can’t do the same should be… drinking, I guess.

Finally, we went out for dinner to the posh McCormick & Schmick seafood restaurant. C. ordered the child-size fish & chips, and received a platter with enough fries to choke a horse. I can only imagine that the adult portion would be enough to choke an animal large enough to eat the horse. By contrast, I ordered a Crab, Avocado, and Mango Salad (sounds good, right?), at a cost of fourteen dollars and eighty-five cents, which consisted strictly of Crab, Avocado, and Mango chunks not large enough to choke anything. Salad… they keep using that word, but I don’t think it means what they think it means.

As I write this, Jen and Anna are again occupying each other for the nightly power struggle that is bedtime. And me, I’m trying to recall if there’s some lumber in the garage that will allow me to make some sort of shelf that would allow watching of the DVD player while sitting in the tub. Happy Father’s Day.

Here’s something that doesn’t happen every day.

This morning, at 6:30am (lights out), Anna knocks politely at the door. Jennifer and I wake up, and I let her in the room. Anna excitedly runs over and jumps up on the bed for cuddles. After a couple minutes, Anna pipes up and says, “I’m going to go get dressed!” She runs to her room and fetches her clothes. She then proceeds to:

1. Go potty.
2. Get dressed.
3. Wash her hands.
4. Put her socks on.
5. Brush her teeth.
6. Brush her hair.

At 6:45am, Anna is ready to go, and Jen and I are still lying in bed. Good thing too, because after watching that little spectacle, one or both of us might have passed out. Now what did we feed her for dinner last night?

Wow, Anna slept three nights in a row, even with the late start last night. She had a night terror around 10:00, which seems to happen just about every time she goes to bed late, but she never got out of bed and she stayed until lights out, then politely knocked at the door. Rock on!

Anna slept until 7:15am today. It has been a really really really long time since she has actually slept over and above what we’re trying to condition her to. Still woke up crying, and she wasn’t any more cooperative than normal, but it was a nice change. She earned a gumball, and enjoyed it greatly, displaying it proudly at various levels of chewedness.

Tonight as I was putting her down for bed, she really outdid herself in her stalling tactics. We talked about tomorrow (she’s going to the pediatrician), today (as usual), and her Happy Fings. As I was trying to rush through her Happy Fings, she stopped me and said slowly, “Calm… down… you’re… too… fast.” The kid is good.