On Day 6 of 7 Days, I asked Annalie to go outside on the deck and play with Elliora for a bit while I cleaned up the kitchen. She didn’t really want to, but she did it anyway, wrapping up in her blanket and grouching her way out there. Despite her reluctance, I thanked her politely. (I’d gotten my way, after all, which makes it easier to be polite!)

I saw her pick up a piece of sidewalk chalk and brightly suggested I could give her some sentences to write for handwriting practice. “How about, ‘My mom is awesome’? Or maybe ‘I love my mom! She’s the best ever!’”

Annalie gave me a dirty look and said, “How do you spell ‘stupid’? I laughed, said she could figure that one out on her own, and went back to cleaning the kitchen.

A few minutes later, Annalie called out, “Mom, can you please come and see what I drew?” I went out on the deck to see her sitting next to this drawing, fighting a grin.

She drew me scolding her, and herself imagining blowing a raspberry at me. See the little tongue in the thought bubble? I cracked up and told her that was very smart, because blowing raspberries in her head is much less likely to get her into trouble than doing it in someone’s face. She laughed, all hostility gone.

I love that Annalie can pour her anger or frustration into creating something–a drawing, a dance, a puppet show–and the negative feelings seem to evaporate in the process, leaving only the art.

Then, even though I had another idea planned for that day’s photo, I took a picture of the drawing and all our feet for my 7 Days self-portrait. How could I not?

These two. They’re such stinkers sometimes, but they make life so very fun.

B: Oh, nothing. The usual.

T: You do remember that I don’t have to go to work tomorrow, right?

B: What!? I didn’t know that!

T: Yeah, I texted you about that, on Wednesday, I think.

B: *searches texts on phone, does not find any mention of Friday*

T: Give me your phone. *searches, finds text that mentioned day off Friday got cut off*

B: Didn’t you wonder why I didn’t reply to that part?

T: I thought maybe you didn’t want to believe it was true!

B: I guess this explains why you’re still up at 1am, reading Harry Potter.

What is your name?

Annalie.

How old are you?

Seven and a half years old.

Where do you live?

Washington, D.C.

Do you have any pets?

Yes. They are two cats. One’s Katy, and one’s Lily.

Who do you like to play with?

My little sister.

What’s your favorite cereal?

Uh…Lucky Charms. I also like Reese’s Puffs.

What’s your favorite vegetable?

I don’t really know. No, wait—it’s corn. That’s my favorite vegetable.

You know corn is actually a grain.

Oh. Heh. Whoops.

Do you have a favorite vegetable?

I especially like broccoli cheese soup. I know what fruit is my favorite, though. It is an APPLE.

I’d say you probably eat at least one apple every day, don’t you?

Uh-huh. Maybe more!

What’s your favorite drink?

My favorite drink is…fruit punch. Because it’s combined with a few fruits and berries. It’s really good. But I also like root beer. I actually have quite a few favorite drinks, like apple juice, Diet Rite, Sierra Mist, ginger ale.

What’s your favorite snack?

I have to say my favorite snack is perhaps maybe apples and peanut butter. No, just apples. I also really like Lunchables! I guess I have quite a few snacks I like.

What’s your favorite toy?

My Little Ponies.

What’s your favorite book?

Right now, my favorite books are the Gladiators book and the Underwear book.

What’s your favorite TV Show?

Pokemon.

What’s your favorite movie?

Have I ever seen Mr. Popper’s Penguins?

No, we read the book.

Oh yeah. My favorite movie is…I like that movie about Pompeii we watched on Netflix. Also, Dolphin Tale.

What’s your favorite game?

Animal Adoption. It’s a game where you can play with two people or more. You see, each person takes a turn being the person who’s going to adopt an animal. And the other person pretends to be a dog or cat or something. And you adopt them! Each person has to get a turn being a pet and the person. Usually I play this game with Bug.

What’s your favorite restaurant?

Wheatfields, because I love their cheese fondue, a doodle-a-doo!

What’s your favorite holiday?

Valentine’s Day, because you can make crafts and you get to make cookies, and it’s just fun.

What’s your favorite animal?

Cheetah and whale shark. I also like certain species of turtles, and dolphins.

If you could change your name, what name would you choose?

Grace. It’s majestic and beautiful.

What do you love about each person in our family?

I love Katy because she is very strong-willed and she can take Elliora grabbing at her. I like Lily because she’s very calm and like a queen.

I love Elliora because she’s so cute and she’s FEARLESS, not afraid of anything.

I love Mama because she can make me blankets and other stuff, and I love to bake with her and her cooking’s really good. I love Dad because he does stuff a lot with me and he plays video games with me and he’s silly and makes me laugh. That’s it.

I love that I am very good at dancing and my sense of humor.

Where would you like to go on vacation this year?

Hawaii.

Guess what. We ARE going to Hawaii this summer, to meet up with Lauren.

Yay!

What are some of your wishes for this year?

I wanna learn how to swim and dive better.

Thanks for the interview, Annalie!

Uh-huh. Bye!

Annalie’s happy self-portrait, age 7

Inspiration for this interview originally came from New Year’s Interview for Kids at Blissfully Domestic (via The Crafty Crow).

I did this interview in 2009, 2010, and 2011 too.

Note: I interviewed Annalie for this post back in February or March, wrote it up and added photos and everything, and then…got stalled. What stalled me? I needed to take one photo of a self-portrait drawing Annalie did that was hanging in my kitchen. That is my life right now: I’m going in a million directions all the time and couldn’t even manage to take a photo—of something I see every day—for months. Sheesh.

What is your name?

Annalie.

How old are you?

Six.

Where do you live?

Washington, D.C. Well, actually we live in [Town], [State].

Do you have any pets?

Yes.

Wanna tell me about them?

Yes. I have two pet cats. Their names are Katy and Lily, and they’re very sweet. They’re both girls, and Katy really likes to spend time with me; Lily, not so much. But Lily really likes it when I scratch her belly!

Who do you like to play with?

I like to play with Bug, and Suki and Amber, and I like to play with Gabby and Annie. Sometimes I like to play with Mackenzie. She isn’t as rough as some kids. Also Christa and Cassie and Jack and Morgan and Dylan. And Daddy! I like to play with Daddy, and Elliora.

What’s your favorite cereal?

Hmmm…Lucky Charms!

What’s your favorite vegetable?

I like carrots because they’re good plain and with ranch, and also good cooked. I also like peas; they taste good plain and cooked. This is an odd thing to tell people, but I also like peas sometimes in ranch dressing. It’s good, you should try it!

What’s your favorite drink?

I like…lemonade, and I like root beer, and sometimes chocolate milk. Oh, and I like Kool-Aid! Ah, the sweet taste of Kool-Aid.

What’s your favorite flavor of Kool-Aid?

Fruit punch. For the record, I really like the kind you drop in the little tablet and you see it fizz up and evolve into the whole drink!

What’s your favorite snack?

Strawberry cream cheese roll-up, and crackers and cheese. I like simple kinds of crackers, like Club Crackers or Ritz, and cheddar cheese.

What’s your favorite toy?

I like a lot of toys, that’s hard!

Well, I just remembered I need to put the cookie dough in the fridge. Hang on a sec.

That’s good, I can think about it for a minute then.

Okay, did you think of a favorite toy?

I did think of a type of toy I really like, but it’s not really a specific toy. I like toys you can play with in pools like goggles and flippers. I especially like goggles because you can put them on and see underwater!

What’s your favorite TV Show?

Wild Kratts. And I like Johnny Test, Pokemon, Spongebob, Fairly Oddparents, Chuck, and Dragonball Z-Kai. Did you write all those down?

What’s your favorite movie?

I like Tangled, and I also like Space Chimps.

What’s your favorite game?

Angry Birds. And I also like, um…the game I almost always play with Daddy, the car-racing game. It’s one where you can drive anywhere, like off-road and up the mountains, and you can do leaps. Sometimes you can feel it in the game controller when you jump off things! It’s kind of funny.

What’s your favorite book?

The Boxcar Children. It starts out a bit sad, but then it ends really happy. And one of the girls’ names is Violet, which is my sister Elliora’s middle name!

What’s your favorite restaurant?

Ooh, I like a lot of restaurants. That one in Omaha we go to a lot, what’s it called?

Wheatfields, the one with the fountains?

No, the one we go to with Uncle Ben a lot, where sometimes we can get balloon animals?

Oh, Spaghetti Works?

Yeah, Spaghetti Works! And I like Wheatfields too. They have fondue, and the big paintings, and the fountain! I love that place. Maybe we could go there for my actual birthday dinner, since we’ll be in Omaha?

Sure, we can do that.

(We did!)

Can we get cheese fondue?

Yes we can.

I love that! I cannot get enough of that.

What’s your favorite holiday?

My favorite holiday iiiiiizzz…Easter, Valentine’s Day, and Christmas. Because on Christmas you sometimes get to go sledding, and you get Advent calendars, and you get to open presents right away in the morning, even in your pajamas! And on Valentine’s Day, sometimes you get Valentines and gifts, and you can make cookies. And on Easter you get to go Easter-egg hunting. Sometimes on Easter my mommy gets me and Dad special baskets, and she’ll probably get a little basket for Elliora this year too.

What’s your favorite animal?

Horses. I like horses.

If you could change your name, what name would you choose?

I would choose…[thinking]…Crystal! It’s a pretty name, isn’t it?

What do you love about each person in our family?

I love that Elliora is a cute baby, and I’m glad that Katy and Lily are nice and gentle and they love me. And I’m glad that Daddy is a funny guy and he almost always tickles me, it’s so fun. And I’m glad that Mommy’s cooking is delicious, and she is really good at making me birthday cakes. They taste the best when they’re made by my mom—not just any old mom, MY mom.

Aw, thanks. I’m happy you like my cakes.

And remember that one time you made those mini pumpkin cheesecakes? Those were soooo good.

Thanks!

And I’m glad that Aurora is one year old and she’s cute and adorable and can walk now! I’m glad she’s my cousin. I can’t wait till the next time I get to see her!

What do you love most about yourself?

Well, that’s hard.

Why, because you like so many things about yourself?

No, because if I say things I like about myself, it’s sort of like I’m saying, “I’m pretty and you’re not!”

You mean like bragging?

Yeah. I just don’t think it would be very polite, would it?

Well, there’s a difference between bragging and just saying things you’re good at.

I guess so.

So is there anything you think you’re good at or that you like about yourself that you can say without bragging?

I think I’m good at making pancakes. I’m a good cook, when I have help from you. And I’m good at coloring, and I’m also good at playing Angry Birds.

Where would you like to go on vacation this year?

Hawaii.

Well, we’re not gonna make it to Hawaii this year. But I think we are going to visit Erin and Rocco in Oregon, how does that sound?

Good!

What are some of your wishes for this year?

This year I wanna have a Zoobles treehouse. And I wish I could see Niagara Falls! That would be the funnest thing in the entire world. And I want to lose more teeth! Another one is loose, I think.

Thanks for the interview, Annalie!

You’re welcome, Mama.

Annalie’s self-portrait, age 6y8m

Inspiration for this interview originally came from New Year’s Interview for Kids at Blissfully Domestic (via The Crafty Crow).

I did this interview in 2009 and 2010 too, though I published them in a much more timely manner both those times.

This afternoon I was nursing Elliora when Annalie asked me if I would play Candy Land with her, the special big-kid version where you pick two cards per turn and decide which one you’re going to use. (The rules mention that it helps kids hone their decision-making skills; we like it because it makes the game go faster.) I said I’d be happy to do that, if she would put her laundry away for me first.

“Eh, never mind,” Annalie replied. “I don’t want to play Candy Land then.”

“You still need to put your laundry away,” I told her.

Now, this is where it all could have gone south very quickly. Annalie crossed her arms and told me she wasn’t gonna put her laundry away, and I couldn’t make her do it anyway. She used that half-whiny, half-haughty tone of voice that reeeeally gets under my skin and causes me to lose a little bit of my cool.

But today, I was magically inspired. I looked at the yellow plastic laundry basket sitting on the floor half-full of folded clothes and said, “Uh-oh, the Laundry Basket Train is leaving the living room! Toot toooooot! All aboard! Next stop, Annalie’s Room Station!”

Annalie went from petulant to gleeful in half a second. She grabbed her bear Mint and plopped her in the basket, laughing and shouting, “All aboard!” and making train noises as she pushed the basket down the hall. I called out that there was an obstruction on the track as I moved a box out of her way. When she reached her room, Annalie made the appropriate train-slowing-down-and-braking noises, and I helped her put her laundry away.

The train returned to the living room and we played a game or three of Candy Land while I pondered the Laundry Basket Train and told myself that I could probably make my life a lot easier if I would just remember how much more cheerful and enthusiastic Annalie is about ANYTHING if it’s made into a game.

That doesn’t always come naturally to me. I am more of the just-do-it-and-then-it’s-done persuasion. Okay, okay…really I tend to use the procrastinate-the-unpleasant-tasks-till-the-very-last-minute method, but I want to be the just-do-it type. And I often am, much more than I am the hey-let’s-make-a-game-out-of-this type. But I can learn to make things playful if it means less whining from Annalie, less losing my cool, and an easier, funner life in general.

Tonight after we got back from our evening out (Annalie went to her gymnastics school’s parents’ night out while Troy, Elliora and I went to see The Adjustment Bureau), Annalie’s little table and chairs were still sitting in the middle of the living room where she’d been playing restaurant earlier in the day. I asked her to please move them back to the wall. She started to get mad, but I quickly said, “Oh no, the table-and-chair monster is coming to get them, aaaahhh! Quick, let’s get them over here where they can hide!”

Yeah, I know. Totally lame, but I was tired and it was the best I could come up with on short notice. I half-expected Annalie to roll her eyes and stomp off to her room, but she grinned and quickly helped us carry the table and chairs back where they belonged. Like magic.

Make it playful.

Before I could answer, Annalie replied, “No thanks, I’m good.”

Annalie thought the cat might like to chase some bubbles, so at some point she picked up the bubble wand and blew a stream of bubbles in the cat’s direction. It startled the cat, who jumped and then wandered off to the other side of the yard.

Annalie said, “Huh. I thought all cats liked to chase bubbles!”

I replied that clearly that was not the case, since this cat didn’t want to.

Annalie said, “I think maybe she lives with a family that has a child who was OBSESSED with bubbles. And that child has blown bubbles in her cute little face so many times that it was like torture.”

We tried not to laugh, but couldn’t help it. As we cracked up, Annalie—dignity intact—said, “What? It could happen!”

My mom shook her head and said, “Annalie, you have so many stories in that head of yours!”

By the time I went down, Annalie was already chattering away on the phone. I waved at Annalie through the glass door of the booth, she smiled and gave me a thumbs-up sign, and I went back upstairs.

Several hours later, our land line rang. When I glanced at the number on the caller ID I noticed that the prefix was 402, which is Omaha’s area code. I thought that was funny, but didn’t otherwise recognize the caller, who was calling from our 703 area code.

I answered the phone, and the woman on the other end gave me her name, then said someone from our number had called her and she was wondering why, since she didn’t recognize our number. I had the fleeting though that it was odd for her to have called me back, in that case. Out loud, I replied that I didn’t think anyone had called her. I asked her to repeat her name, and confirmed that I didn’t know her.

Slightly confused, I asked what the person on the message had said. She explained there had been no message, just a number on her caller ID.

Then the 402 prefix of her number on my caller ID flashed into my mind, and I realized what must have happened. I apologized and said that when my daughter was calling her grandma earlier that day, she must have dialed the wrong number.

After I hung up, I asked Annalie if she’d dialed a wrong number earlier before she called Gramaw. She said, “Well, I was dialing the right number, but the first time I dialed it, it started ringing before I was done dialing the number!”

I checked our caller ID again. My mom’s number is 402-XYZ-ABCD. This woman’s number was 703-402-XYZA. Because Vonage doesn’t require you to dial a 1- before a long-distance call, it must have read a pause in Annalie’s dialing to mean it was a local call.

I told Annalie, from now on when she calls Gramaw, dial a 1- before the area code.

.

I was sitting on the couch nursing Elliora one morning recently when Annalie called to me from the kitchen, “Mom, can I bring you a Pop-Tart?”

“That’s really nice of you to ask, Annalie,” I replied. “Yes, please.”

“Do you want cherry or cinnamon?”

“Cinnamon.”

“Do you want it toasted? I know you like them better toasted, and Daddy showed me how to use the toaster.”

“I like them cold, too, you don’t have to toast mine if you don’t want to.” Annalie reassured me she didn’t mind, and she was toasting hers anyway, so it’d be no trouble. “Okay, if you’re sure, then I’d like mine toasted. You know to put the dial on 2, right?”

“Yes, I know! Daddy showed me how.” I could hear her in the kitchen, getting the box from the cupboard, plugging the toaster in, pressing the lever down, talking to herself as she puttered around. “Where are you guys?…Oh, there you are, haha! Hmm, why won’t this work…oh, I hafta plug it in, duh…”

I heard the toaster pop up a minute later. Shortly after that, Annalie walked into the living room smiling broadly, with my toasted cinnamon Pop-Tart arranged on a napkin (so I could hold the hot Pop-Tart without burning my fingers) on a yellow plate (because yellow is my favorite color).

Eight thank-you notes.

Less than two hours.

For comparison, it took three weeks for Annalie to write her birthday thank-you notes last May. What was the difference this time? Incentive.

I came up with a plan to offer Annalie a reward for getting her thank-you notes done: a trip to Build-A-Bear. And the quicker she got them done, the bigger her reward would be. Of course, she would have to write the thank-you notes no matter what, but the reward might motivate her to write them with a minimum of complaining and stalling.

I ran this plan by Troy, and he thought it was a good idea. So I drew up a couple of sticker charts and explained the plan to Annalie. If she got all her thank-you notes written by Friday, she’d get a Build-A-Bear. If she could get them done more quickly than that, she could earn an outfit, maybe some shoes, an accessory or two.

“What if I get all my thank-you notes done today? Do I get to go to Build-A-Bear today?” I said we could probably arrange that, but she didn’t have to get them done that fast. She could still get the biggest reward if she got them done by Monday.

Annalie nodded. “Yeah, but will you take me today if I get them done?” I said if she could manage to get all her thank-you notes done in one day, we could certainly go to Build-A-Bear tonight.

I thought there was no way on earth she’d get them all done today, considering how long it’s taken her to get them done in the past, and the drama we had just yesterday over her writing one measly sentence during school.

Annalie was so worried about getting to Build-A-Bear tonight she nearly made herself sick, even though she was working her little heart out and had plenty of time to finish. My mom and I kept telling her we were so amazed at what a great job she was doing, and reassuring her that we could go right after dinner.

Two hours. Eight thank you notes. Fourteen dollars of her own money to buy her new bear some extras. One extremely proud and happy girl.