On Sunday Annie went to the 3rd birthday of her friend, Ryan, at this awesome indoor play center that has two slides, a bounce house, a giant jungle gym/clubhouse… it’s basically heaven for kids. Ryan had his 2nd birthday party there last year, but everyone had such a great time that his parents decided to throw it there again. I was stoked about this because it gave me the unique opportunity to see Annie interacting with the same kids, in the same environment, exactly one year apart. It was very cool to witness – not only because it showed me how much she’s developed in a year, but also because she did the funniest thing I’ve ever seen her do.

Here’s Annie a year ago:

jumping

And here’s Annie on Sunday:

photo.JPG

So, yeah, you could say she’s done a little growing up, but it wasn’t just physically. Whereas last year she went down the slide once and then was over it/traumatized by it, this year she couldn’t get enough. She isn’t such a big girl that she’d go down it alone, though, so I had to somehow wiggle my six-foot-three, two hundred pound body up to the slide at the top of the jungle gym/clubhouse. Once there I took out my iPhone so I could take a video of us on the way down as Heather did last year:

Annie’s expression is so funny that Heather and I watch this video at least once a week. We’re probably responsible for about six thousand of its 6,614 views. Annie was too cool to be that scared in my video, but she’s still pretty cute:

Now for the funniest thing Annie’s ever done. It happened on what must have been our fifteenth trip up to the slide when – about halfway up the jungle gym/clubhouse – we came across a little girl who asked if she could go down the slide with us because she was too afraid to go down alone. I told her she could, then asked what her name was.

“I’m Jasmine,” she said, then looked to Annie and asked, “What’s your name?”

Annie thought a second, then got a mischievous look in her eye.

“My name is… Aurora.”

Annie then looked at me and I swear she raised her eyebrows like Groucho Marx.

“Hi Aurora,” Jasmine said.

Annie grinned and let out a Beavis and Butthead-esque, “Heh heh heh.”

The three of us went down the slide together about five or six more times, and Jasmine called Annie “Aurora” the whole time to her never ending delight.

Eventually, the little girl left with her mom and shouted over her shoulder, “Bye Aurora!” When she was out of earshot Annie looked up at me – very pleased with herself – and said, “Dada, I told her my name is Aurora!”

I’m in trouble with this kid, I think.

Can’t wait to see which Disney princess she’ll be at Ryan’s fourth birthday party.