I don't want to forget...

...these days. They seem to be going so fast - time just keeps going, no matter how badly I try to slow it down. I don't want to forget:

• the time I was watering plants on the deck, and Anya asked to help. I told her that was fine, and that it was OK to get the patio furniture wet. She was so excited! She told me at the Detski Dom she was not allowed to get anything outside wet. She spent the next hour drenching everything on the deck.

• Wildlife is such a big deal to Anya. We take for granted seeing animals outside - well, at least we do. At our house, I get annoyed when I see a raccoon on the deck, or a possum on our front steps. Not Anya...she gets very excited. She spends hours a day looking for groundhogs. She stands in the window with binoculars looking...just looking.

• What is real punishment? We've tried to find the thing that tips her into really considering her actions and words before she gets in trouble. Thankfully we have found what works - food. If she is bad, she isn't allowed to have candy, gum or popcorn. Funny how that one piece of gum a day can have so much power!

• I never want to forget how kind Anya's heart is. If someone is hurting, she gets sad. When someone she loves leaves, she says her heart hurts. She looks for ways to share, to connect with people.

• She tries so hard at everything. Her nature is to please people (just like all of us!), and she tries SO HARD. Some days she tells me that "today, it was hard to be a good girl! Everything she does with all of her energy and might.

• She is so talkative! She loves to tell stores. Every day she tells me a story about the Detski Dom. But what I love is when she is making up a story. The other day it was a story about Daddy - and how he stole her dreams because he woke her up, and then he was dancing like a monkey with girls hair.

• I giggle every time Marty and I are talking and she NEEDS to say something. She will raise her hand and jump around to get our attention. When we're done speaking I will ask her what she wants, and generally by then she has forgotten...
  
  

• I don't want to forget how she prays and what she prays for...

• She loves to surprise people. My birthday is this weekend. this morning she was very excited to tell me that she and Daddy....oops! She covers her mouth and said "never mind, it is a surprise!".