Anissa was thrilled a few days ago to get a package of surprises in the mail from Aunty Tammala, Uncle Lee and her cousins. In their letter, she was told to ask her mommy to get some portraits done of her so they could have a recent photo of her to put on their wall. I've been meaning to take some nice shots of her myself and get them blown up, so it was the extra push I needed. The trouble is, Anissa's idea these days of a nice pose is what she calls her "one-eye smile". I take shot after shot after shot, asking her to show me her beautiful smile, and this is what I get.


Tammala, we may have to resort to some major Photoshop touch-ups to get you that portrait for the wall.

A conversation with Anissa, in our bed, much too early in the morning:

Anissa: Morning, Mama.
Me: No, Anissa, it's not morning yet. It's still time to sleep.
Anissa: I wuv you, Mama.
Me: I love you too, Anissa. Very much. But let's sleep, OK?
Anissa: OK.

- Brief silence (except for the sound of Mehdi snoring).

Anissa: Mama, what we doing after breakfast? With Papa?
Me: We'll ask Papa when it's time to wake up. Go back to sleep, my love.

- Brief silence.

Anissa: What's a matter, Mama?
Me: Oh, nothing, sweetheart. I'm just tired. It's very early.
Anissa: What's a matter, Mama?
Me: (Sigh) Nothing, really. Let's just sleep a little more, then we'll have breakfast.

- Silence. Heavy breathing. My hopes go up.

Anissa: What's wrong, Mama?
Me: (Laughing) Oh, honey, nothing's wrong. I'm just tired. It's so early. Why are you awake, anyway?
Anissa: I'm awake cuz I'm not tired. Why're you awake?
Me: I'm awake because you're talking to me.
Anissa: Oh.

- Brief silence.

Anissa: Mama, what we doing today? Something fun?
Me: (Sigh) How about we get up and make some pancakes?
Anissa: Yay! I wuv pacnakes!

All I could do was laugh. If I could have reached the phone, I would have dialed 9-1-1, or at least tried to reach Mehdi at work, but I was out of luck.

It began innocently enough with an afternoon of home fun. Anissa and I read new library books, had a tea party, made a collage with leaves we collected outside, talked to Natasha and Lala on the phone, did finger-painting, played hide and seek. I was running out of energy, so I took out Anissa's tent and connected it to her expandable tunnel. I thought I could buy myself some time to write a few emails, but not long after she was begging me to follow her through the tent and into the tunnel. I took the bait.

I made it through the tent OK - though not comfortably - but once I had my body halfway into the very narrow tunnel, I saw that Anissa had lined the inside of it with some cushions. This made for an even tighter fit than usual, but it was too late to go backwards. Anissa was just behind me inside the tent now, waiting for me to go through so she could have another go. How hard can it be, I thought. I'm not that wide around the middle, am I? Famous last words! I grunted and squirmed and twisted, but the further I went in the tunnel, the more stuck I became. "Help!" I told Anissa. "I'm stuck! Pull me out!"

I thought she would go around and tug at my arms through the other end of the tunnel. But, being a two-year-old with her own plans, she tried another tactic: she climbed into the tunnel and wedged herself, flat on her stomach, onto my back. Thank God the tunnel is designed with tiny ventilation holes, because it was more than just a little claustrophobic in there.

Now we were both stuck. I tried clawing at the carpet with my fingertips to move forward, but we weren't budging. I tried rolling, but I didn't want to crush Anissa (who kept saying, "I help you, Mama! I help you, Mama!"). I was squished between pillows and a squirming toddler in a Dora tunnel. I did what I had to do to survive: I laughed my head off. And so did Anissa.

"We're stuck, we're stuck!" we chanted between snorts and giggles. But no one came to our aid. Eventually, the humour of having that thirty pounds on my back wore off, and I had to do some serious acrobatics to get us out of there. I would love to see a playback of how I did it, because I'm not even sure myself. There was some rolling and twisting and several attempts at standing up, and slowly but surely we made our way to freedom.

A lesson was learned today: keep the phone nearby. You never know what can happen.

True happiness, I discovered this weekend, goes something like this:

On a weekend getaway with your husband and daughter in the mountains, arriving at the hotel after a scenic drive on a winding road through the colorful autumn forest and going for a swim in the pool, then taking a family bubble bath in your hotel room jacuzzi. A delicious dinner in a cozy restaurant complete with wine, cheesecake and an unusually well-behaved daughter, followed by a viewing of the Muppet movie while cuddled up in a King size bed.

Am I the luckiest woman on earth, or what?

It's really, really hard to have sympathy for your crying drama-queen daughter when she's checking herself out at all angles in a full-length mirror while she cries. It's even harder when she's crying because she wants to be swung around in the air inside of a pillowcase.

Someday, when Anissa is a teenager and too busy talking on the phone with her friends to give me the time of day, I know I'm going to want to remember this:

Every night, when Mehdi puts Anissa to bed, she tells him over and over, "I wuv Mama. I wuv Mama so so much. I wuv you, too, Papa. But I wuv Mama so so much!"

As I sat in the living room reading tonight, I could hear her interrupting her bedtime story to tell him this again and again, and it took all my willpower not to tear up the stairs and smother her with kisses.

It was a rainy, miserable weekend here in New Hampshire. On Saturday, we attempted a drive up to Portland, Maine but just after crossing the state line, the downpour was so heavy we abandoned our plans for...OUTLET SHOPPING! Kittery, a city famous for such rainy-day sports, was conveniently located just off the interstate, so we window-shopped for a few hours. Actually, I browsed while Mehdi supervised Anissa engaging in her new hobby: puddle jumping. When I came out of Crate and Barrel, I found a very soaked little girl squealing in delight in the parking lot.



On Sunday, we were fortunate enough to have company all the way from Montreal when Karen, Mike, Zach and Chloe spent the night. When they first arrived, Anissa had the strangest reaction. Even though she had been excited about their visit all week, when she actually saw them in the flesh, in our living room, she turned suddenly serious and clung to me. Her expression was of total confusion, and I could just imagine her thought process - What the - ??? How the - ??? But, these are Montreal people...what are they doing here, in our new house, far far away? It only took her a few minutes, though, for her to get over it and then she was happily playing with the buddies she's known since she was 4 months old.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a good shot of the three of them together. During this one, Chloe was off peeing in a porta-potty. Apparently this is a bigger thrill for a toddler than for an adult!




Random moment:
Yesterday, after cuddling on the couch and reading a huge stack of books, it was time for a snack of yogurt. When my girl had difficulty scraping the last bits from the bottom of the container, this is how she asked for assistance:

'"Help me, help me," said Anissa.'

I nearly died laughing.

Quelle artiste!

You wouldn't believe the pile of scrap paper that is accumulating on Anissa's little table. She keeps asking for more and more sheets, and sits down many times a day to create masterpiece after masterpiece. And if she finds any of her creations in the recycling box- heaven forbid! - she puts them right back on her table. She's enjoyed drawing since she could first grasp a crayon, but there has been a major development recently: her art is actually starting to resemble something. It all began a few weeks ago when she discovered she can draw "peoples" - and she's drawn hundreds since.

Anissa has been such a charmer lately. She tends to be one of those kids who doesn't warm up to strangers quickly, shooting dirty looks at people who try to make friendly chit-chat. This past while, though, her social side is emerging. She asks every kid she meets - and sometimes adult - "what's yer name?" and keeps telling them over and over that her name is Anissa (whether or not they asked), and doesn't stop until they acknowledge her in some way. If they're willing to listen, she tells them random facts about herself, like she has blue eyes or a new house and a new Jeep. Today we finally made it back to the Children's Museum in Portsmouth, and she socialized to her heart's content. I was amazed at her new-found confidence. She even took command over the Post Office and ordered the mail carriers (a few kids much older than her) around. Thankfully, they were willing to play along.

And yesterday, she put on her own little show here in downtown Dover. I needed to go to the grocery store for some tomatoes and was having a hard time convincing her to put on her shoes and go outside to get in the stroller. It's about a five minute walk for me, but at her speed it can take a half hour (especially since she needs to stop at every bench along Central Ave and test it out, and pick every rock and every dandelion, leaf, etc.). So I made a suggestion that I knew would get her to move more quickly: I asked her if she would like to push her baby in the doll stroller. Within seconds, she was putting on her shoes.

Boy, did she strut! She was so proud to be out pushing her baby, like a real grown-up Mommy. She smiled and greeted everyone we passed - and they were all grinning too. I could see people in cars pointing and smiling at the sight of this little Momma. She picked out and paid for the tomatoes, and they fit nicely in the basket of her stroller. It was still a pretty long trip there and back, but worth every second.

Happy Apple Day

Yesterday was the big day here in Dover: it was Apple Harvest Day. Main street was closed to traffic, and everyone and their dog must have come from miles and miles around because this unusually quiet little city was actually crowded! Anissa, Mehdi and I headed out of the house in the morning without a clue what to expect. Bobbing for apples? Vats of apple cider? Some kind of apple mascot, maybe?

Turns out Apple Harvest Day doesn't have a thing to do with the forbidden red fruit. Apparently, the apple orchards are even so busy harvesting at this time of the year they can't make an appearance to promote their products. What was Apple Harvest Day, then? A giant sidewalk sale with a small midway, some outdoor entertainment and...well, that's it. Not that I'm complaining. Anissa had a blast. First, she got picked up by a real, live fireman to sit in the driver's seat of a fire truck! The grin in the photo says it all:



After cutting some rug to a live children's entertainer, we headed for the midway where Anissa discovered a big big big slide. It was one of those huge inflatable numbers, and Anissa was beyond excited to get on it. Just before Mehdi was about to send Anissa up the giant staircase, he overheard that it was only for kids age 3+. He didn't have the heart to tear her away, so he decided to take advantage of the fact that she looks older than 2 and send her up. She managed to get up that big staircase on her own, but let's just say she caused quite the traffic jam. See the impatient girl at the bottom of the line, looking up to see who's taking so long? See that little red hat at the top of the line? That's our girl!

The slide down was faster than any teeny slide at the playground, and Anissa even flipped over and rolled at the bottom, but she loved it. We managed to entice her away from the slide by taking her on a ride on the kiddy train, then she was a cowboy "just like Pepere" and went on a pony ride.

Next was the petting zoo. And while trying to sneak out to head home (Mehdi and I were exhausted), she spotted the big slide and cried to get back on. We tried explaining to her that she was too young, but then we spotted a boy about her age going up the stairs hand-in-hand with with his mother. Thus I was sucked into taking off my shoes and beginning the first of what turned into FOUR trips up and down the giant slide. Anissa only wanted my help up the stairs - once we got to the top, she insisted I slide down on my own. She watched and howled with laughter as I whizzed down to the bottom, then came down on her own. After four trips - and feeling more and more foolish - I convinced Mehdi it was his turn to accompany our little daredevil. Two more trips, with Anissa of course insisting he go down on his own as she watched the show from above, and we had to pry her away.

Mehdi and I now realize why she was laughing so hard when each of us slid down: she probably knew how dumb we looked, grown adults going down with no child in sight. I would have laughed too (and I did, when it was Mehdi's turn!).

Sounds like a busy day? Well, the fun wasn't over. It was unusually warm and sunny for October, so we jumped in the car and headed off to the ocean. Anissa had a snooze, Mehdi and I enjoyed a coffee with an ocean view, then we stopped in at a beautiful ocean-side state park. We had fun exploring the trails peppered with old broken fences, railway tracks, stone walls and other hidden treasures. Anissa particulary liked the stone benches, where she did a fish pose for us:



I can't wait to see what next weekend brings!