ACTION is today’s 7 Days theme. Here I am loading the dishwasher so fast I’m a blur. Even though it’s a prosaic task and doesn’t make for a terribly exciting photo, I really like this shot. It’s a little piece of my daily life.

I had another option for today’s self-portrait but it was of me doing a cartwheel with my back to the camera. I decided against using it even though it was a fun idea. For one thing, it wasn’t that great of a photo; for another thing, I wouldn’t put it past Sarah (also known as that chick in England) to use it in the end-of-week mosaic just because it was of my butt. She’s devilish like that.

Photo by Annalie, age 4

I told Annalie about the day’s theme, explaining that she should be doing something in her self-portrait. She immediately decided she wanted to dance with Baby Annie on the deck. This is another self-timer photo. I was the tripod, but she looked through the viewfinder, lined up the shot, and pressed the button.

Annalie is dancing in her brand-new dress, a gift that arrived in the mail yesterday from the lovely Bex. She put it on the moment we got it, wore it to bed last night, and kept it on for much of the morning. She told Troy, “I only wore it for a couple of hours before bed last night, so I guess it’s okay for me to wear it today too!” Fair enough.

Along with the dress (bought on clearance at Target when Bex still worked there) the care package included sparkly star stickers, a little teddy bear, a Halloween duckie, bracelets for me and Annalie, and a pack of her favorite pens which are now one of my favorite pens too.

Annalie insisted on dictating a thank-you email right away. I swear this is exactly what she said to me.

Dear Bex,

The End.

Today as we were sitting at the table eating leftover chili for lunch, Annalie announced that she needed me to get my camera. “I want you to take a movie of me singing a song for Daddy to let him know I love him and miss him. Then you can put it on a DVD and mail it to him!” I suggested I could just upload it to the internet instead and then he could watch it tonight, instead of having to wait a week for a DVD to arrive in the mail. She decided that was acceptable.

Annalie’s song-letter for Daddy from bethany actually on Vimeo.

P.S. In case you’re wondering, we did make it to the awesome waterpark yesterday! Photos are here.

Annalie walked into the kitchen this afternoon with one of her babydolls in a little basket carrier and said, “Did you know that Cassie & Christa are visiting their grandparents? And Miss Bekah is out of town, and Jason has to go to work and be there for…for ONE HUNDRED days! So Miss Bekah asked me to watch Jack for her, and here he is!” She held up the babydoll. “She left him with me, because she knows I’ll take good care of him. And she left his diapers, and his baby food, and his toys, and his blankets, and all that kind of stuff.”

I asked her why she needed baby food, since Jack was two years old and ate regular food all the time, and she looked at me like I was an idiot and said, “Mom, I’m not really baby-sitting Jack. I’m just pretending.”