One day, Annalie decided to engage in a little clothing-optional plastic-container construction. Doesn’t she own blocks? you ask. Why yes! Yes she does own blocks. But on this particular day she went into the kitchen and dragged half the contents of our container drawer into the living room, where she built a magnificent tower.

Note that when I took this photo, Annalie was wearing nothing but underpants. I didn’t want to post it like that, so the talented SAJ kindly used her mad illustrator skillz to draw a leotard on top. Thanks, Brenda!

She soon tired of life as a clothing-optional architect-slash-builder, and went upstairs to change. She came downstairs wearing a pink dance leotard and a purple and pink corduroy skirt.

Then she produced a fancy white ponytail holder. “Mama, will you do my hair in a bun like a real ballerina?” Okey-dokey.

“Mama, what can I wear for ballet shoes?” I suggested her new silver ballet flats which Gramaw bought for her to wear on Easter, which met with her approval. Then she tried to use her toy grocery cart as a barre and of course it rolled away. When I asked her to not use the grocery cart as a barre, she got a little upset.

“But Mama, what am I going to use to hang on to while I dance?” I immediately thought of my four-year-old self hiding behind the row of moms in the one ballet class I attended at Florence Community Center, watching as the teacher helped the other little girls position their arms and feet, using my mom’s folding chair as a barre. So I told Annalie I thought one of her red chairs would work.

“Oh yes! That’s a good idea, Mama. But I will need three of them.” She carted three chairs over to the middle of the room, and proceeded to do some ballet-like dancing, interspersed with deep curtsies while my mom and I applauded.

After a few minutes she got bored with the dancing and wandered off to the kitchen to find a juice box. She came right back into the living room with the juice in one hand and yanking the ponytail holder out with the other. She paused by her table to wrestle with the straw and watch me get my camera out so I could take a picture of her container tower. Then she dashed over to knock everything down, giggling with glee.

That’s my girl, keeping us on our toes and making the world a messier place.