Anneke Jones

At my daycare there is a rock hill that you can climb if you don’t want to take the boring old path from the door to the parking lot. I choose the rock hill on most days. Today Mom and I were walking over the hill and I went to check out my special spot. It is an almost perfectly round hole in a flat slab section of the rock hill. It is deep enough to make a little pool of water – kind of the size of a golf hole. I like checking it every day to see if it is empty or full, frozen or thawed.

Well today right beside my special hole, I saw a thin, brown piece of plastic. I picked it up and brought it over to Mom, wondering what it was. She thought it was a stick at first, but then saw it was plastic. She kind of looked at it funny and said she wasn’t sure.

I examined it closely the rest of the way to the car. I turned it around and around. When Mom was lifting me into my car seat I said, “Mom, it has a hole in one end.” She said, “Oh really?” in a nonchalant way. I looked some more. “I think it’s a gun,” I said in a hushed voice. “Really?” said Mom again. “How do you know what a gun looks like? Have you seen a real gun or a toy gun?”
“Well, it has this hole in one end, and it has a piece here that would be able to move.”
“Yes, I think you are right Anneke, it is a gun.” Mom admitted.
“Girls don’t like guns. Only boys like guns” I said.
“No?” said Mom (now apparently feeling inner conflict between being a feminist and a pacifist). “I am sure there are some girls who like playing with guns. And Daddy and Grampa don’t like guns.”
I carried on musing about the gun and who it might belong to. I listed some kids [boys] in my class who “play with guns ALL THE TIME.” Perhaps this belonged to one of them.
“Why don’t we like guns, Anneke?” Mom asked from the front seat.
“Because they kill people. And killing is not good.”

We listened to Raffi for a while.

“Daddy’s not going to like this.” I eventually said.
“Well, we probably shouldn’t play with that gun in our house. But if you want to show it to him when he gets home, you can” Mom offered.
“Mom, I have a plan. I will show this to Daddy when he gets home tonight and then when we come to daycare tomorrow I will throw it back where I found it. Then the person it belongs to can find it there again. Is that a good plan, Mom?”
“That’s a great plan Anneke.”
“Mom there is a piece on the end here that is broken.”
“Well, maybe the gun is broken and someone threw it away on the rock hill because they didn’t want it anymore,” Mom replied.
“That wouldn’t be good because when you throw things down without picking them up that is litter,” I replied somewhat indignantly.
After another pause…”Mom, we should fix this and then when I put it back tomorrow it won’t be broken so the person will want it again. We should fix this, Mom.”
“I am not sure if we can fix a plastic gun, Anneke. We’ll have to see.”

And then we were home and I kinda forgot about the gun. Daddy gets home from his trip tonight so we will see if I remember to tell him about it in the morning.

Sometimes little pieces of paper turn up in my house and on them is a phrase or a comment of mine. I found this one recently.

“Put your hand up if you want pecka double ice cream….
It has salt and pepper and spices on top – not mixed in. And it has hot sauce. Dad?”

What fun! This might be my new favourite game!

On Friday parents were invited to my daycare in the afternoon. We had been practicing a play that was to take place outside in Point Pleasant Park. Everyone in my class had bear ears on and my teachers and the kids led the parents on a bear hunt all around the park. I told Mom that she better get ready to run because she was going to get her exercise! I was right! We had those parents running along after us as we pretended to climb mountains, fly helicopters, swim rivers, and tiptoe through forests. My favourite was when we had to drive the train on the bear hunt. We all formed a line behind my teacher – even all the parents – and we were a big long choo choo train! It was also funny being helicopters because you need gas. The way we play, you put your arms up to be the helicopter blades and then my teacher comes by and pokes you under the armpit to give you gas! The parent’s didn’t expect it, but she came and gave them gas too! Ha Ha! The kids made certain that all the parents got enough gas.

Once we had tired the parents out crossing all of our obstacles we got to the (pretend) bear cave. My teacher went in first to check it out. She called us in after her…we crept forward and then all of a sudden she pulled a bear out from under her coat and scared us all! Ha Ha Ha! We really tricked the parents. What a great joke!

The play ended at Quarry Pond where we often play. We all gathered to have a bear snack of blueberries and strawberries. The parents mingled and the kids played. Mom watched me …loosely… as I played with my friends. At one point we went out onto a flat rock ledge that extended out into the pond. We were hunched down for a bit, then the other kids got up and left and I got up to. I am not really sure what happened next. A parent later said that I stood up with my back to the pond and as I steadied myself, I stepped back a little…and then I was falling backward off the ledge and fully into the pond.

Just like they say, it seemed to go slowly for Mom…she was about 15 feet away, half of that being pond. She can’t remember if she saw me fall in…she thinks maybe not…but she has a clear picture of me coming to the surface of the water. There I was arms out, on my back, floating with my head closest to the rock. I had on my winter boots, my lined wind pants, my winter coat and my hat. My coat seemed puffed all around me.

Mom saw this in an instant and in the next she was charging through the water in her long winter coat and her leather high heeled boots with her purse still slung cross-ways over her body.

Mom lifted me onto the rock and other parents came up behind me. My hat and face were covered with mud so that you could hardly recognize me. Mom was still in the water past her knees. She wiped the mud off my face and told me it was ok – she was talking more than me. I told her, without tears or whining, that I was scared. It was scary. Mom said she knew it was, it was ok now.

Then she pulled herself out of the water and one of the teachers from the daycare came and offered her big coat. I was drenched from head to foot and it was only about 6 degrees. A Daddy ran off to his car to get some of his daughter’s extra clothes. Mom took off my coat and wrapped me in the teacher’s coat. We chatted…I was taking it all in stride. “That was a pretty strange way to end the bear hunt!” “I was scared when that happened.”

The dry clothes came and Mom and my teacher stripped me down and replaced the wet with dry, one piece at a time to keep me warm. Even my underwear was soaked. Mom said, “Anneke you are bare naked in the park in winter!” I thought that was pretty funny and repeated it several times.

My boots were still wet, but we had to leave them on to keep my feet covered. My teacher lifted me on her back and Mom covered me with the coat. Mom was too wet to carry me and also didn’t want to carry me the 3-4 blocks back to day care with her boots on. She carried the bundle of wet clothes. We left the other kids at the pond and high-tailed it to daycare. We discussed the episode on the way back. Mom wondered aloud what this meant for going too near the edge of the water. We decided that was sometimes risky. Mom told me that I did a great back starfish though. “It’s a good thing I had swimming lessons!” Yes, the grown-ups agreed. Some people had mentioned that it looked like my coat was a little buoyant – maybe it was the air trapped in it…”It’s a good thing I had that coat on!” Yes, the grown-ups agreed. Mom said anytime I ever fall in the water I should just do a back starfish, just like I did. Mom and her teaching moments. I told her that I didn’t try to do anything, I just floated right up.

Mom didn’t have our car because she walked from work. The plan was that she and I would get my stuff from my daycare after the play and then walk back to SMU campus to where Merrick’s classroom is (about 10 minutes walking). Dad would pick us up there later. That plan was not out the window. We got back to daycare and I put on my indoor shoes. Mom called Dad and informed him that I just fell into Quarry Pond and could he come and get us now. Dad was surprised.

I was a little bit of a celebrity as Mom and I waited. Everyone was talking to us about what happened. I didn’t seem too phased. As the other parents and kids arrived back at daycare, the parents told me how brave and calm I was. I didn’t even panic, they said. Nope. I was brave. One of my teachers asked me if I had my eyes open. Yup I told her. What did I see in Quarry Pond? “Not much, it was dirty and muddy in there.” Well they could tell that, the top half of my head was covered in it! My teacher washed my face with a warm cloth. “I’ll need to have a bath now for sure!” I told Mom. She told me that tonight we could have a special girls only bath. And we did…we even had bubbles. What a treat.

Last week Mom was driving me and Merrick home from swimming lessons. We drive past a number of restaurants – two McDonald’s. I think I have been to McDonald’s 3 times in my life. So to me it is special.

“Mom, can we go to McDonald’s for dinner?”
“No.”
“Dad let me go there once.”
“Anneke, Dad took you there for special. We don’t go to McDonald’s otherwise.”
after a pause…”Can we go there on Christmas morning?”

Here’s just a little example of what Dad and I get up to in our free time.

Most of the time I am a really great big sister. I have started reading to Merrick and he actually will sit down and listen to me now!

This past weekend Mom and Dad were wondering where Merrick and I were. They have quickly learned to become suspicious when we are too quiet. They crept into their room and peeped over the bed.

I kind of free-styled the rhymes in the second book, but I think it still sounded ok and Merrick didn’t seem to mind.

Then this morning Merrick and I both woke up at 6:30am. That is half an hour earlier than usual so Mom and Dad were very resistant to waking. Mom crawled out of bed and grabbed some books from Merrick’s room and plunked them on the middle of the bed where Merrick and I were sitting. Then she rolled back over. So I read Merrick some books – Brown Bear and some others. I know most of the words of the board books by heart. Merrick even came and sat on my lap and I put my arms around him and held the book in front. It was a little tricky, but I did it. I made sure to ask, “Merrick, can you see okay?” He said he could.

I liked it when the “campers” moved to Victoria Park because then I could look at their tents on the drive home from daycare. But the other day they all had to leave. Mom and Dad heard about it on the radio and wanted to see what was going on so they started watching videos on the computer.

Some of the videos were very strange. There were lots of men in orange rain coats who Mom and Dad told me were the police. There was shouting and some people were being pulled by the police on the ground. I asked a lot of questions and took it all in stride. The police were told by the people who are in charge of the city to take the campers and the tents away. Some people think that they shouldn’t be camping there. Mom and Dad don’t like what happened and they don’t like what the police were doing. Sometimes people do things that we don’t like, even the police and the people who make the rules for the city.

I was very interested in the videos and I wanted to watch them again and again. Sometimes I still ask to watch them, but we haven’t watched them again.

The next day we went to Grand Parade to support the campers. There were lots and lots of police there with lots of police vehicles. There were also a lot of people talking and chanting. We joined in for awhile and then we looked at the wreaths on the cenotaph. Mom and Dad told me what that was all about. Then we left to see some of the people all dressed up for HalCon the Halifax Comic Book festival. And then we went to the walk-in clinic for an hour or so because Merrick had a sore ear. It was a very interesting day. But we got to eat subs from the sub shop!

My loot. And some antics by Merrick.

Dad and I went to Word on the Street in Halifax a month or so ago. We picked up a great book that has abridged, but still quite long stories of the Secret Garden, Black Beauty, Heidi, Around the World in 80 Days and The Canterville Ghost among others. Dad thought that the Canterville Ghost might be too scary for me, but it immediately became my favourite. The ghost is really quite a pitiful creature that is teased by the children who live in the house.

So when it came time to pick my costume for Halloween I had no doubt that I would be the Canterville Ghost. Gramma was going to be visiting for Halloween and when I told her my plan we decided that Mommy and Merrick would be ghosts too so that we would all be a ghost family. Dad was away in San Francisco.

Gramma and I worked very hard together to get the costumes in order – we even drew on the white fabric with chalk to make it dirty looking. And Gramma and I made special trick or treat bags out of Halloween fabric. We kind of messed it up the first time so I used the ripper to fix it.

Gramma and I found some second hand boots and a floppy black hat to complete my outfit and then Mommy found spiders and spiderwebs! Before he left Daddy took Merrick and I to a Halloween store and found some fake chains just like the Canterville Ghost!

We had to carve our pumpkin too. I really don’t like putting my hand in the goop, but I did it once to humour Gramma. But I did try cutting the pumpkin – I did one eye all by myself!

After the trick or treating Gramma showed me how to make spooky faces with a special Halloween flashlight that our neighbour gave to us. She made a special loot bag for me and Merrick and it had all sorts of cool things in it!