Testing Boundaries

Do you remember that scene in Jurassic Park where the raptors are jumping up against the fence, testing it, to look for holes or weaknesses? That's Anna lately. Man, I sure do compare her to raptors an awful lot. Maybe the dinosaurs aren't actually extinct. They just morphed into toddlers.

She asks every morning for popsicles. Heck, she doesn't ask, she DEMANDS. And sometimes, it's just easier to give her a half of a popsicle so we can actually get out the door on time for once instead of waging the battle of the wills at 6:30 in the morning.

Our biggest boundary test lately though has been with teeth brushing at bedtime. Anna is a CHAMPION dawdler. And it's amazing how she is able to S L O W down when the words "tooth" an "brush" are mentioned. I'm surprised she doesn't move in reverse. She threw raging, screaming tantrums for almost a week before she figured out that every time she did, she got story time taken away at bedtime (this was always explained to her - she was given a choice: she could let me have a turn brushing her teeth and we could read stories, or she could put the toothbrush away and go straight to bed, and she had one minute to decide). There were a few nights with her screaming bloody murder in her bed, I sat crying on the other side of the door until she finally gave in and fell asleep. But as I said, after about a week, she now willingly offers me her toothbrush after I give her a turn to brush.

I'm posting a video below of the strangest boundary test I've witnessed yet. This was the day after Anna's birthday, she'd been running around barefoot for most of the day playing outside and swimming. We were driving home from my in-law's house and heard strange noises coming from the back seat. And the more we asked her to stop, the more ferociously she...well, take a look.