Tactful Toddler ?

This past Sunday, we actually made it to church early!! So, instead of sitting in the back of the cultural hall, we actually got a pew in the chapel! We were visiting with an older couple, the Samuelsons, in which we found that Brother Samuelson along with a half dozen or more individuals work at BYU-I as teachers!

As sacrament meeting began, and everyone began singing the opening hymn, we discovered that Brother Samuelson can sing quite enthusiastically! (but he was quite good) I noticed earlier that he had hearing aids, thus he was singing enthusiastically loud! I didn't mind and neither did Russ, but poor Anna was quite put-out! Immediately she noticed the sound breaching her comfort zone and as I discreetly watched her, she proceeded to try and alleviate her annoyance by trying various methods and ways of covering her ears! When that wasn't working, she combined the cover-the-ears method with the evil-eye-I'll glare at you with utter annoyance-look!

Well, if Brother Samuelson noticed, he payed no heed to this three-year old and her silly antics! That must have frustrated Anna more, so she looked at me, with both hands tightly covering her ears, and said with barely kindled anger, "Mom...I NOT yike dat....too Youd!"

Somehow the situation became completely hilarious to me and as I tried hard to subdue my increasing giggles it only got more difficult as I watched my very tactful toddler deal with such injustice! Soon, Russ noticed our situation and he couldn't help but start laughing as well! In a matter of minutes Russ and I could not look at each other or at Anna for fear that we would have to leave the chapel to keep some sort of reverence! Throughout the whole song Anna continued to voice her frustrations...very tactfully let me remind you....and never have we been so relieved to have a hymn end!

Other moments with our tactful toddler:

I was walking with Anna at the BYU-I campus and a student walked past us. I don't know what goes on in Anna's head, but she felt as though he was committing a huge offense. With her face all screwed up in anger she proclaimed, "HEY! Dat NOT bery nice!" and then she stops and puts her hands on her hips, points at the student and says,"Dey NOT posed do dat!"

Once while playing at the park, a little girl Anna's age spied Anna and began to follow her, perhaps hoping she would gain a playmate! If you don't know Anna, well, she doesn't take well to strangers and oft times prefers to play alone! As Anna noticed this girl trying to play with her, she tried to evade her wanna-be friend. When it didn't work, she came running to me annoyed and mad and said,
"Mom! Dat dirl not yeave me ayone!"
"Well, why don't you play with her?"
"NO! I NOT yike dat!" stomping her foot
"Anna, she just wants to be your friend!"
"Dat dirl bein mean mom!"
"No she's not! She was nice and said hi to you. You should say hi back"
"Uggghhhhhh" as if saying hi is too hard a task.
After our conversation, though, Anna did decide that maybe the little girl wasn't that bad after all and she ended up playing on the slides with her!

One evening we were at WalMart and someone walked by with tattoos all over their arms. Anna saw, gasped, pointed her finger and said to me,"Mom! Dat person dot marter (marker) all oder him arms! He not posed do dat!"