Angelface and Sassypants

I'm sure that every parent under the sun finds this phenomenon to be true: Each of my children was blessed with not one...but TWO distinctly different personalities! Annalise has two nicknames around our house. She's commonly known as "My Little Angelface" because she's so darn sweet. She's generally willing to help when I need it and she's very happy playing on her own. Her favorite activities involve making a mess with paper, toys, or cooking supplies. She's very artistic and does not like to be hampered by the tedium of keeping things clean. She likes to play Mommy and all of her dolls play happily with her. Those poor Barbies have taken many trips to the bottom of the bathtub and many dollies have been "put to sleep" under/behind her mattress. I have two favorite words of hers right now: "Bretfast" (Breakfast) and "Babing Suit" (Bathing Suit). She snuggles me any time I want her to and she is always ready to play a game with me when the mood strikes. She enjoyed the last snow storm with me by sitting at the window and examining snowflakes to see if we could find two that looked alike. She's very patient and very determined when she has an idea in her head. And she loves clothes. Any new clothes.

Sometimes she decides to put on her "Sassy Pants" and then the game changes a bit. When she's feeling this way, her favorite phrases are "I most certainly will NOT" and "you NEVER let me do ANYTHING!". Another of my favorites is "You're so MEAN!". I am always a little bit nervous when this child shows up because I know that her favorite activity is to start trouble with her brother (a favorite tactic is walking by and hitting him...but doing it ever so slyly that he knows it happened but can't actually come up with proof). This child usually has her arms crossed over her little tummy and is sporting a very stubborn stance punctuated by her cocked hip. Polly calls this child "Sassy Lou" and poor little "Sassy Lou" got to eat soap the other night. (This was one of the hardest things I've had to do in a while as she stared at me, tears streaming down her face, BEGGING me not to burn her tongue!). Sassy Lou has been experimenting with different words recently and she's had several warnings so when she called her brother "Stupid" I had to do it. I gave her the choice between hot sauce and soap. She chose pink "Hello Kitty" soap and I put the tiniest little drop on my finger. She said I was trying to kill her. John was laughing quietly about 5 feet away as he watched the drama unfold. He says that if it had been him, he would have gone for the bar of soap and she would have been chewing on it for a while. I'm a softie and I try to hide that fact from her because she is most certainly not!

Usually there's a good mix between the two. She's a very determined and logical girl who will debate absolutely anything she can debate. She's a bit like her Daddy that way. She likes to have a little bit of control over things so she's happy when she has a choice. If she's not happy with one of the choices, she'll debate to get a set of options that please her. Unlike Justin, who will let an argument go if there is something better to do, she'll fight to the end and it takes an act of God to get her to buckle.

My Little Angelface is awake and sitting next to me now. We're watching "Max and Ruby" with Justin and this is always a funny experience. Annalise loves Ruby and Justin hates the show because Ruby is so bossy. Annalise just said to me, "I like Ruby...she's bossy" and Justin answered from the other end of the couch (where he reading a book so quietly that I didn't realize he was even paying attention), "Oh GREAT!"