Yesterday as we were driving to the mall, Kris and I got into a discussion about Annika and school. I know she's only 2 but it's good to have these talks early I think. What started it all was when I told Kris that Annika will be in preschool for three years. See, we'd like to start her in preschool next fall. She will technically not be eligible to go since she will still be 2 as of September 1st. I'm hoping I can find a place that will accept her since her September 7th birthday is so close to the cut off date. Of course this means I need to actually research what preschools (public like through ECFE and private as in a church) are available in our area. We both think she's ready for preschool. And in her ECFE classes there is already a parent/child separation time so she is used to being left alone in a classroom environment with a teacher and other kids. Anyway, although I'd like her to start preschool next fall, I don't want her to start kindergarten until she is 5, like all the other kids will. Yes, she will turn 6 very quickly after the start of the school year but personally, I'd like her to be one of the older kids in her class rather than one of the younger. Kris, I think, would like to send her to kindergarten when she's 4 and about to turn 5. I don't know if that's even possible in our public school system but that's not what this story is about anyway. When Kris was making his argument about sending her early, he brought up how smart she is. (Side note: It always makes me smile when Kris talks about how smart Annika is. I think he thinks she's the smartest little girl in all the land. While I, too, think she's a sharp little girl, I don't know that she's brilliant or anything. She's either on track developmentally or ahead but she's not ahead by leaps and bounds, I don't think.) While I agree that Annika is a smart little girl, my counterpoint was that preschool is about more than just being smart, it's also about social interaction skills and such. He wants her to learn how to read and not "waste" three years learning how to fingerpaint and use scissors. Then he said "How many 2 years olds do you know that already know their phonics?" "Phonics?" I asked. Yep, it turns out Annika is already learning phonics. He started quizzing her; what does a say, what does b say, what does c say, etc. I told him she just had the sequence memorized. So he skipped ahead to m, what does m say. Each time Annika told him the correct answer back. We both attribute this to playing with her LeapFrog Friends Learning Bus. It teaches phonics with a jazzy little tune and since Annika loves music so much, she enjoys playing with this toy. Anyway, I told him maybe we should let the preschool teachers and the kindergarten screeners tell us what their opinions are of Annika and if they think she would be ready for kindergarten at 4 (almost 5) or 5 (almost 6). Kris agreed to this and then told Annika "Don't worry honey, I'll teach you how to read when you're 3." Hee!

Tonight while Annika and I were reading "One Fish, Two Fish" by Dr. Seuss, we got to one of the last pages. On this page was a cow, a little girl and a little boy. Annika asked "What's this?" while pointing at the cow. So I repeated it back to her, "What's this?" And she squealed out "a cow!" The she pointed out the girl and boy. I asked Annika if she was a girl or a boy and she replied "I'm a boy!" I told her she wasn't, that she was a girl and that baby brother was a boy. Nope, she insisted that I was Mommy, she was Nika, the little girl in the book was a little girl and that she was a boy. So I told her that Mommy was a girl, Annika was a girl and Daddy was a boy. No, no, no - you could just see it in her eyes and hear it in her voice. She insisted, while pointing to her chest, "I'm a boy!" So we called Daddy at work. I wanted him to hear her insisting this. It was just too cute and I was laughing too hard which only made Annika more insistent. By the end of their phone conversation, Annika said one time that she was a girl and then it was back to being a boy for her. Silly monkey!

A few months ago Annika got new fall pajamas. The wrists on the sleeves are rather tiny and her fingers would always get caught when she pushed her arm through. So I started teasing her to "get her pinky out of there!" She giggled so we repeated the new tradition each night. While putting her pajama shirt on, we would both exclaim "Get your pinky out of there!" Annika now attributes having her hand stuck (or her foot or a zipper or anything really that's stuck) with this phrase. If we're putting on her coat and she's trying to get her hand through the sleeve she yells out "Get your pinky out of there!" If we're putting on her shoes, she'll yell it. If I'm putting on socks, she'll yell it. Any time that anything is stuck, she yells it. It's pretty funny.