Got Mail?

One of our favorite daily activities is getting the mail. When asked if she wants to get the mail Anna will ask for her shoes and socks if they are not already on and then she heads for the door. She quickly makes her way down the driveway reaching for my hand when we get to a step. Some days we even get to see the mailman himself. This thrills Anna as we read about the mailman in one of her books. She will say over and over again, "mail." Most days Anna receives more mail (all our junk mail and envelopes) than both Kevin and me. We make our way up the driveway and then she asks for her mail. Anna is very protective of her mail and does not like others to handle. She spends often up to a half hour sorting her mail, reading it and then when we make our way inside she sorts a little more and bit by bit the mail makes its way into the trash. Anna in the past week or so discovered the true function of our kitchen trashcan. She will throw away almost any piece of paper into the trash, nothing else, just paper. She crumbles it up and tosses it. It first began when I took some paper off some straws I had given to her to play with and I threw the paper into our kitchen trashcan. A few minutes later she was making her way to the kitchen trashcan and as I looked in it to see what she had tossed I saw some of the paper I had missed on the straws. When she heads to the trash, often she will say one of her favorite phrases, "got it." Another one of her favorite phrases is when she drops something she will point to it and say, "get it." Often this happens when she drops food when she is eating. She will repeat it over and over again until we, "get it."