Special Papa blog
As enamored as the Papa in Texas is with his granddaughter when she smiles, he especially loves those photos which feature her grumpier side. Since Anneke has inherited generous portions of both the Daddy's stubbornness and the Mommy's lack of patience, such pictures are not hard to come by. Often enough, they result from an interplay with Anneke's doting brother: for instance, while Anneke will grudgingly put up with her parents' quite unreasonable obsession with cleaning her face, she is clearly unwilling to grant her brother the same privilege... 
More often than not, though, Anneke's grumpy faces have something to do with food. For instance, unsweetened yoghurt will never become her favorite (a position which the Daddy wholeheartedly endorses). In this case, however, Anneke was so proud of her newly developed eating abilities that she simply couldn't resist the temptation to bring the spoon to her mouth again and again - and seemed quite taken aback that despite her many attempts, the yoghurt simply refused to get any sweeter:
Spinach, on the other hand, is one of Anneke's great favorites. It is also, however, slightly tricky to eat and will spread everywhere. The hands. The face. The eyes. The chair. Not to mention the hair... 
If left to her own devices, Anneke would probably live entirely on bananas - she has been known to eat up to four bananas in a single day, to the effect that her daycare actually had to increase their weekly banana allotment because they would run out of bananas around mid-week if Anneke was there. However, bananas also provide her with one of the major challenges of her life. Because try as she may, Anneke has yet to succeed in stuffing the entire thing into her mouth all at once...
Luckily, most of the time Anneke's grumpiness is short-lived and she'll go back to being her normal happy little self in no time at all. And while the Mommy and Daddy are generally quite happy to cater towards the Papa's preferences, the non-grumpy Anneke wins the day on this side of the world every day and twice on Sunday...
More often than not, though, Anneke's grumpy faces have something to do with food. For instance, unsweetened yoghurt will never become her favorite (a position which the Daddy wholeheartedly endorses). In this case, however, Anneke was so proud of her newly developed eating abilities that she simply couldn't resist the temptation to bring the spoon to her mouth again and again - and seemed quite taken aback that despite her many attempts, the yoghurt simply refused to get any sweeter:
Spinach, on the other hand, is one of Anneke's great favorites. It is also, however, slightly tricky to eat and will spread everywhere. The hands. The face. The eyes. The chair. Not to mention the hair... 
If left to her own devices, Anneke would probably live entirely on bananas - she has been known to eat up to four bananas in a single day, to the effect that her daycare actually had to increase their weekly banana allotment because they would run out of bananas around mid-week if Anneke was there. However, bananas also provide her with one of the major challenges of her life. Because try as she may, Anneke has yet to succeed in stuffing the entire thing into her mouth all at once...
Luckily, most of the time Anneke's grumpiness is short-lived and she'll go back to being her normal happy little self in no time at all. And while the Mommy and Daddy are generally quite happy to cater towards the Papa's preferences, the non-grumpy Anneke wins the day on this side of the world every day and twice on Sunday...
posted by JHenry at 10:16 PM
