6 Month Comparisons

Just a few pictures of Annie & Ellie around the 6 month mark . . .

Ahhhh, the Good Ol' Days . . .

Our little Annie was known for being a, um, difficult baby. Colic. It sucked. A lot.


Ellie's was less colicky than Annie, but not by leaps and bounds like my Mom promised my next kid would be. But, we've all survived. Thus far. But Ellie has been freaking out during the last several hours in the evening, which makes the evening really long and awful. Then she wakes up every two hours all night long (since the move), which makes night time even longer and more awful (and not all that restful).
But, I'm able to look back, realize if we survived the early months of Annie, we can survive anything.

Little Competitor

Annie yelling to her Uncle Cody during a heated game of air hockey on Thanksgiving . . . "Can you handle this?!"
Remember, this kid is two and a half . . . where does a two year old even pick up that phrase and know how to use it in an appropriate context? Probably Uncle Cody, actually.

Thankful

I'm thankful for a lot of things, experiences, people, blessings, et cetera in my life.

But here are my top three:

The first several pictures are from today, Thanksgiving, with the girls in their matching sweaters (do you know how hard it is to find coordinating things in size 3 months and 3T?!)

The rest of these pictures were taken last night with the girls playing with their Dad's hat.

A ton to be grateful for. Happy Thanksgiving!

Physically Fit

I'm helping a friend apply for jobs online, when I suddenly notice Annie marching around the family room, lugging a small dumb bell around, chanting, "EX! ER! CISE!!  EX! ER! CISSSSE!"  

Now she's sat down, taken off her socks, and is talking to her toes, saying, "I'm gonna eat you!  I'm gonna eat you!" Sometime my world is amusingly odd.

Picture Collage

Annie, our little Ute, Ellie enjoying dinner with Grandma & Grandpa after eating (then throwing up) her very first bowl of rice cereal, Annie feeding Ellie cereal the next morning, Annie and her curly hair.
That about sums it up.

Proper Names

My favorite thing that Annie says right now is when she calls her Dad by his name. "Gregory!" she'll holler; or use when she's talking about him. She was doing it even before we moved into his parents house (for the next four weeks), but it's picked up since we're spending more time around his parents two of the few people in the world who don't just call him "Greg." Cracks me up. In that same vein, my Mom and I took Annie shopping the other day and as we were walking through the racks of clothing Annie lost site of me. "Hilary!" she called out, "Where'd Hilary go?" she asked my Mom. Then she saw me, "Oh, there's Hilary." I told her she should feel free to call me Mom. The old lady walking down the aisle passed us chuckled.

Ellie was doing something earlier today and Annie was commenting on how funny it was (funny as in odd, not amusing, she uses the word 'funny' a lot to mean a lot of different things). I mentioned that Annie used to do the same thing when she was Ellie's age. Annie stopped, turned and looked at me for a second, then said, "No, I was perfect when I was a baby." Um, yeah, don't know who's been telling her that!

Food Fight

So, we gave Ellie her first tastes of solid foods tonight at dinner.  Rice cereal.  Looks about as appetizing as it tastes, I'm sure.  Ellie ate like a pro, taking several small spoonfuls like she'd done this a million times before (she had far less food on her face than Annie, and possibly Greg, did.)  The pictures were pretty boring, as she was eating so neatly and politely for her first time.  

That is, until she projectile vomited all food and milk that had entered her body in the last several hours all over her pajamas and my sweater.  Good times.  

Phase One Complete

So, we are out of our house.  I think we worked so hard, all day, to get everything done that I never had the chance to really take in the emptiness of our home.  Which is probably good.  I probably would've cried.  We hand over the keys tomorrow, and we are done.  We were only there two years, but it felt like we'd lived there forever, and it was hard to leave.

We are now hanging out in Greg's parents' basement for the next four weeks, then we move into our new place the weekend before Christmas.  It's weird living out of boxes, and not knowing where stuff is, and thinking, "Crap, I really wish I'd grabbed my breast pump before it got packed away in the storage pod."  But in a month or so, everything will have settled and we'll be in our new home.

Greg's parents have a room with a twin size bed for Annie.  This is Annie's first time sleeping outside of a crib, and the freedom and mobility was a little too apparent when she came into our room and bed several times last night.  "I didn't sleep very well," she told my Mom today, "so I went in with Mommy lots."  Ellie was in the bed quite a few times too, being sick and fussy and all.  Worst was when it overlapped and there were two kiddos in bed with us.  For the first time in my life I'm thinking, "Why don't we have a king sized bed!?"

Shrimpy McShrimp

So, Ellie's always seemed a little small to me, with the whole being super tiny and all. Especially since every other baby we have her around seems to be 90th percentile or better for their age, making her all the smaller looking. But I've always figured that Annie was teeny tiny too for awhile, so it wasn't that odd.
At six months old Annie was 15 lbs. 4 oz.
Today we had Ellie's six month checkup and she was 13 lbs. 9 oz.
I had no idea Ellie was THAT much smaller than Annie was at this age (plus, I think Ellie's taller and thinner. She's like 20th percentile in height and 2nd percentile in weight. Annie was always similiar in height and weight, like within five percentage points.)
Great, now I'm freaked out about my teeny tiny (although perfectly healthy) baby. We're gonna start stuffing her full of rice cereal and see how that goes . . .
(Of course, her head is still 75th percentile. Seriously can't figure out why my babies don't look like
balloons on toothpicks.)

Annie and I were trying to entertain ourselves while waiting for the doctor at Ellie's appointment. We were playing an i-spy kinda game where I give Annie a letter and the sound it makes and we find something in the room that starts with it. We were all playing in the mirror, so I figured I'd give her an easy one and said "Annie, find something that starts with an M, mmmmm, M." She looked at me, then around the room, then lit up and shouted, "The computer, it has a mouse! MMMMM, mouse!" I was very impressed, I hadn't even noticed that one, and I was the game's officiator!

The other day my sister Star was having a conversation with Annie about family. Who was Mommy's Mommy? Daddy's sister? Et cetera. (My family is mildly obsessed with small children understanding family structure, I don't know why.) Anyway, Annie cracked us both up when Star asked her who her Daddy was and Annie proudly exclaimed, "Gregory!" (I almost never call him by his full name, so she must've heard her Grandma Ruth say it, but it was just so cute how she pronounced it and how proud she was that she knew the answer.) She also proudly exclaimed that her and Ellie were sisters, and had the same Mommy.

You're Welcome

Today in the bathtub Annie was happily playing with the twelve-gazillion toys that reside in our bathroom, when she told me, "Look Mommy, the shovel floats!" I didn't understand what she said, plus I was confused by there being no shovel in sight. After having her repeat it a few times I finally understood what she was saying, but noticed the shovel at the bottom of the tub. "The shovel isn't floating Baby, it's on the bottom of the tub, it sank." We then looked at all the different toys, whether they were floating or if the sank, and what happened if we filled them with water. After our little water science lab, I went back to washing Ellie's hair.

After a few seconds of playing happily, Annie suddenly stopped what she was doing and said, "Thanks for teaching me that Mommy," then went back to playing. Any wonder I adore this kid so much?

Prizes for Me, Maybe for You!

OK, remember a little while back when I won a $50 gift certificate on one of the Seriously, So Blessed giveaways? Well, I redeemed it today, for the cutest, softest looking blankets in the whole wide world. I've wanted one of these, but they've always seemed too spendy. Fifty bucks towards my purchase of two though, and I could justify it! Check 'em out here! I may or may not share them with the girls!

And, just an FYI, but Seriously, So Blessed is doing another giveaway today. Leave a comment and you're entered!

Don't Turn Your Back for a Second

While in my room with Ellie, I suddenly noticed some 'clanging' sounds from the kitchen. I had to finish up the diaper change I was currently battling, but as soon as possible I hurried into the kitchen to find Annie 'packing' all of our utensils in a giant cardboard box. Standing on a chair she'd dragged over to the utensil drawer which is usually out of her reach and chucking butter knives into the waiting box below. She looked up at me with a huge grin of self satisfaction and said, "Look Mom, I packing too! I didn't touch the sharp knives though!" Good, then I have a lot less to explain to my husband when he comes home from work!

I guess I need to keep a better eye on her during the packing . . . I found miles of packing tape strewn from box to box to box in the frontroom, and later I came in to find her perched on top of a pile of four large boxes in her room.

Or maybe I should just turn all the packing over to her, and we'll see how it all turns out!

Up to My Eyeballs in Cardboard

We have piles of boxes in each and every room of our house. Packed boxes, empty boxes, collapsed boxes not yet taped together. Annie follows me around the house with a roll of packing tape, pulling off more and more into a big tape ball while singing, "I helping Mom tape boxes!"

Last night I protested anymore packing, cuddled up with my hubby after we got the kids to bed, grabbed a bowl of eggnog ice cream (it's OK, I prefer peppermint if we're going 'Holiday Edition' flavors, but Greg's not a peppermint ice cream kinda person), and watched "Chuck" and part of "Heroes" (which, frankly, I'm less and less likely to keep watching it with every episode . . . not quite sure why I'm still watching it actually, except that it's DVRed, and it beats watching "Guiding Light" or something while I fold laundry during the day.) Of course, now I'm nearing panic-attack mode thinking, "Crap! I didn't get anything done last night! Now must redouble my efforts and pack all day, while dealing with a whiny two year old (who is understandably whiny, since she has a sinus infection and an awful cold) and an only-Mommy-holding-me-while-walking-will-do six month old who has the same stupid cold her older sister has and has therefore given up napping). If only I could teach Annie to tape up boxes for me!"

Believe it or not, we're outta here on Saturday! That's unbelievably soon.

Stellar Grasp of the English Language

Asking Annie if I can use some of her lip gloss, I get a a very two-year old answer. "No."
"Why no?" I ask.
Annie pauses, then answers, "Why not no?"


Today at Church we got into discussions about our moving next week with pretty much each and every person we talked to. There was much lamenting about our ward losing us. (I mean, who can blame them, we are pretty amazing and irreplaceable!) During one such conversation though, Annie politely interjected, "Yes, we are moving to a new house. We are very happy about it."


After Church Annie was playing with Aunt Talina. Annie was showing Talina shapes and asking her what they were and what color they were. Talina, who is very dumb, kept getting them very wrong. I mean seriously, you think a 23-year old woman with her Master's in a science field would know that the four sided thing is a square. Annie showed Talina the red circle, asking, "This is a circle, what color is this?" "Blue!" "No, Red." Poor, dumb Talina. Annie always has to come up with the right answer on her own. Annie then asked, "What letter does circle start with?" Talina, remember she's dumb, answered, "C, like Cody." Annie looked at her like the idiot she is and said, "No. S!" Duh, Talina. What'd they teach you at BYU!? (There is no convincing Annie that it starts with a "C", I mean seriously, C is for Cody . . . ka-ka-Cody. Not a "sss" sound. English sucks.)

I'm Getting Old

You know what blows me away . . . that a kid who's primary class I taught is all grown up and releasing music:
http://www.myspace.com/jeremytylermusic

That's some serious talent, right? I'm pretty sure I inspired his bright young mind with my insightful lessons or something.

Out of the Mouth of a Tired Babe

Stuff hollered, sobbed or shrieked from Annie's bed tonight:
"I don't like sleep. I REALLY don't!"
"I want my Mommy!"
"Let me out, I'll be HAPPY!"
"I non't need a blanket! Yes, I do!"

Happiness is a Sleeping Baby

An unswaddled sleeping baby even!


Ellie had a play date with our friend Jovanny. He is four days younger than Ellie (and about twice her size.) I took about a dozen pictures of these two. Ellie would smile in one, while Jovanny frowned, then the very next picture it was the opposite. Again and again and again.



This is the ONLY one I got with two smiling babies.




I just really liked this picture of Annie and I from the other day. I wonder where she gets those chipmunk cheeks from? :-)



Of course, even before I finished this post my sleeping baby was awake again, and wanting to be fed. Ah, how I wish Ellie would learn the benefit of an hour long nap (heck, even a half hour!)

Bedtime Routine

During Annie's prayers tonight, "And thank you for Ellie, I love her SO MUCH! And I do love Dad too." (In a 'yeah, I guess, if you insist, I do kinda love him' way. She left me out completely though, so I guess I can't tease Greg too much about it.) "And thank you we got to go for chicken nuggets and to Wal-Mart, and we get to have a new house that has toys and a basement toy."

Then, we put her to bed. She was no longer in a praying kinda mood. She spent a little while screaming at us, angrily. (Like a really angry little chipmunk who's sucked down helium then just lit into someone who really pissed it off. It amuses me. Is that bad?) Then a little while of sobbing and calling out, "Where are my Mommy and my Daddy?" (Over and over again. It almost makes me feel sad. It's pretty effective. Much more so than her shrieking at me like some kind of andry woodland creature.) And now she's just sitting there in the dark, reading to her dolls from a Winnie the Pooh book she requested after her crying long enough (and waking up Ellie with said screaming) warranted a visit from Dad who was all, "What do you want Annie?" He's nicer than me. I just yell from my room, "You're in bed Annie, you're gonna be there 'til tomorrow! Good night!"

My approach backfired on us last night though. She screamed for, I don't know, 40 minutes or so, while Greg and I were downstairs packing. Everytime Greg was Mr. Nice Guy, asking me, "Should I go check on her, see what she wants?" my response was on the opposite end of the spectrum, "No, she can just fall asleep!" (I'm the sleep Nazi, making both of my poor children scream for long periods of time until they conk out from exhaustion. This was by no means my first choice. This came after months and months of being Miss Push Over who never got to sleep and almost lost her mind and would hold and rock and cuddle and shush and do all manner of crazy 'anything to get this kid to sleep' kinda things that still took over an hour to work. Then she suddenly decided that even though the crying-it-out thing was a load of crap and didn't work, since her kids never did give up the screaming and just learn to sleep, it worked just as well as anything 'nicer', and at least this way she could get laundry done and dishes started while they shrieked from their cribs for an hour.) Of course, last night, Greg finally 'caved' and went to check on Annie. Who, of course, had a poopy diaper and at this point a very sore butt. Bad Mom. We need to work out some kind of 'code word' with the kid, so I know when she actually needs me to come check on her.

Interest-ing

We should be locking in on our mortgage rate today . . . 5.875%! I'm so psyched about this, since in the month or so we've been doing this whole thing, interest has gone as high as like 6.675%, and goes up and down, up and down. At least this crazy roller coaster market is on our side the day we're ready to lock in rates! This seems to be falling into place more and more everyday!

Overheard

On the way to Costco, from the backseat, singing, "The cheese takes a wife, the cheese takes a wife, high ho the derrio, the cheese takes a wife!"

~~~~~

On the way out of Costco I asked Greg to hand Annie to me out of the cart, since I was at a bad angle to lift her. She commented, "Mommy can't lift Annie, I too big." "Yes I can Annie, I'm a strong Mommy, look, I'm carrying you right now." "No Daddy's a strong Mommy, not you."

Under Contract

So, we're officially under contract on both selling and buying a home. That happened ridiculously fast. Our entire realtor's office is shocked that we sold as quick as we did in this market (the offer came in about three weeks after we put the house up). And surprisingly we found a house we really like that was just a regular ol' for sale house, not bank owned, not a short sale, just someone selling their house 'cause they want to move, not because they're losing it. (Which means far fewer kicked in walls or broken windows. Actually, the house is immaculate, it's the very first one that I saw that I didn't feel the immediate need to recarpet or repaint; this one we can actually just move right into without our skin crawling with other people's cooties.) And, because the market there is FLOODED with these short sale properties, and this family wanted to move before Christmas, the house was priced to sale, and we got pretty much the same exact deal we would've on one of the short sales without the 45-90 day hassle. So, we're pretty excited. It wasn't our first choice (our first choice cruelly disappeared off the market one day, as the sellers renegotiated their interest rate with their bank and they got to stay (good for them)), but it's a great house, a 2001 with four bedrooms and three baths, in a cute circle within walking distance of three parks (including one splash park), in a really great neighborhood with super friendly neighbors (including a three year old girl who lives right next door.) I LOVE the master bedroom, being that it's about twice the size of our current one, with a walk in closet that, in a pinch, could serve as another bedroom, and a huge master bath all to our very ownselves. I'm pretty psyched about the 'all of this is our very own space' stuff. Cute basement playroom, including an 'under-the-stairs-hide-out' area that Annie thinks is the coolest thing she's ever seen. And it's on .24 acres, which Greg loves, 'cause everytime he looks at that backyard all he can see is his garage being extended back into a large woodshop. Anyway, we're really excited . . . now we just kind of wait and see while all of this continues to fall into place and we find out where we'll be living over Christmas!

Learning a Lesson

A few months ago I became very angry with a friend. Even to the point of wondering "Is this friendship even worth it anymore?" I was quick to judge that because of past interactions, that this latest encounter had to be all drama, no substance, and I felt like I was done dealing with it.

I thankfully didn't sever all ties, (I did write a long, rambly letter I never mailed though, thank goodness), we just didn't talk for several weeks. Then we picked things up where we left off. Our first few interactions were superficial, then slowly we warmed back into our friendship. Then the bomb dropped. My friend's life was falling apart. She was hurting in ways I couldn't even comprehend, even in a worse case scenario kind of way. And I hadn't been there for her. I assumed the worst, I acted accordingly, and I let her down when she needed me most. I, at least, have the chance to be there for her now. No more presumptions. No more blame. Just being there. Like she always needed. It was a painful lesson that I hope I never need to relearn, because someone I care about could be left hurting in the wings while I'm refusing to swallow my pride.

Crazy Dancin'

Since videos of Annie seem to be awfully popular & highly requested (far more than my opinions about anything!) . . . here she is showing off her dancing skills to the tune of, well, Aunt Star's cell phone ring. When you have music in your soul, you can dance to anything!

Talking on the Phone is Hilarious!

In case you can't tell, we've been really into videos lately. They're like the new still pictures or something. :-) We have been taking more and more video with our regular camera, so we haven't been waiting for an entire tape to fill up on our video camera before viewing it. Annie was overly tired and laughing hysterically with her Daddy while playing with his cell phone. I had the camera right there, so we caught this video of her.
(Notice her use of 'she'. Annie rarely uses the word 'her' correctly, and tends to ere on the side of 'she', thus the "call she back." Also, really wish I would've shut my closet doors before filming this!)

Two Year Old Women of the World Unite!

Annie was playing, yet again, unsupervised on the computer in my room while I was downstairs doing laundry. When I came back upstairs, here's the screen that was up on my computer:


Um, OK. Not sure what to make of that. :-)

I'm obviously assuming she opened up google via a bookmark or something, and then typed an 'f' and it auto-populated the word feminism. At least I HOPE that's what happened. The alternative is too scary. :-)

Go Shopping

Yesterday, Annie was proudly telling my friend Rachel that we were going to get a new house.
"Annie," I asked, "where are we going to get a new house?" She'd been talking a lot lately about our new house being closer to Doh-doo's house. (Apparently he lives in the south part of the valley.)
"Um," she says as she cocks her head and thinks, "I think we can buy one at K-Mart."

Lunar Skates?

Yesterday Annie was on the phone with my Mom, and was telling her all about the "nooner shakes" or was it "lunar skates?" Whatever it was, my Mom and I were at a complete loss as to what she was saying. And, per usual, when there's something I don't understand, Annie uses it ALL day long, starting at me expectantly, like, "It's SO obvious Mom!"
Later though, while making sugar cookies, Annie looked at me with complete focus and deep intent, like she was willing me to understand this one phrase, and repeated it, "Unar Sates!"
I then flashed back to playing with her Fifty States puzzle earlier, right before her conversation with Grandma. United States!!!! But of course! What dummy thought she was saying "nooner shakes?!" It's so obvious.

Who's Smarter? Annie, Of Course.

It was about bedtime, and I was getting Annie changed and read to, when she suddenly asked, "Where's Daddy?"
"Oh, Daddy went over to work with Grandpa at his house, remember?"
"Oh yeah, in his garage. Daddy help Papa, huh? Does Papa not know how to do something?"
Greg and my Mom thought this was hilarious. Much to Greg's delight, this is not the first time our child has insinuated that her father is far more intelligent than her Grandpa. I, personally, would have both of them on speed dial if I was on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire."

After that I grabbed the phone to tell my Mom about our exchange. The phone started to beep as soon as I picked it up though, telling me it was (once again) nearly dead. I hung up the phone and Annie looked at me, "You not calling someone?" I told her, "I was going to call Grandma, but the battery is dying." Annie gets her incredibly sad face on and says, "Oh, poor phone dying. Mom talks on the phone too much. This is why we have to buy so many batteries."

Singing in the Bathroom

Here's Annie, while sitting on the potty, singing her little heart out. I'd like to point out ahead of time, that her enthusiastic arm movements are all completely her own, unprompted.

Shoe Stealing Snow

"Mommy!" Annie screams from across the yard. We're outside shoveling walks (well, I'm shoveling, she's making snow balls and eating them) while Ellie's down for a nap. "Mommy!"
"What is it baby?"
"My shoes! My shoes! The deep, deep snow took off my shoes for me!" she yelled as my now wearing-only-socks two year old came running through the snow towards me. I swooped her up and carried her inside, where she repeatedly told me, "The deep, deep snow took my shoes!"
She found rinsing her feet off in the luke warm water in the sink to be about the most amusing thing ever though, which is good, 'cause it got her mind and tears off of the mean deep, deep snow.

Happy After Voting Day

I have to admit, Obama was not my first choice for President. Of course, neither was McCain. I wasn't overly excited about either candidate's politics.

But, I am pretty excited to have witnessed history. To have watched an (extremely long, drawn out) election that included a woman, an African American, a senior citizen and even a Mormon all going for the same position. Heck, and an actor from one of my favorite legal dramas! How's that for equal opportunity!

I am also excited to have an obviously intelligent, charismatic, engaging leader moving into the White House. In my ideal world our President would be a bright, educated individual (check), who is a good representative of our country to the rest of the world, and who would be willing to listen to those he/she surrounds themselves with (and not just a bunch of flunkies that are there to stroke the President's ego, but people who are well informed in their areas of expertise and are willing to stand up to the President, backed up with science or numbers and general good sense.) We'll see how Obama does according to my rigorous standards.

That all said, how stupid is this lame-duck period. Two months of a one useless President on his way out, and a powerless President not quite in. Am I the only one who thinks that two months may be a little long for this whole switchover period. I mean, with professional movers even in a house that big, you could TOTALLY get the Bush family out in a week or so. Especially since they've known for FOUR years this is coming. I mean, we just got an offer on our house yesterday, and if we accept it, we have like three weeks 'til the end of sale!

Anyway, back to our new President. He is living proof that there are no limits except those we place on ourselves. And that feels pretty darn good. God Bless America!

As Way of Announcement

"We got an offer on our house," Annie exclaimed after listening into a phone conversation I was having. "Yay! An offer! We have an offer on our house! We have lots of offers!" (Not true, we have one.) Then, turning to me suddenly, "Mom, what's an offer?"

Little Miss Self-Reliant

So, I was out of the room for awhile. Annie was playing on the computer by herself. When I came back later on in the day to check my email, iMovie was open, and there was about 5 minutes of video Annie had made, all on her own. I'm talking the kid opened iMovie, turned on the iSight camera, and recorded herself. I'm sure much of it was accidental, but DANG! That kid's better at the computer than any of her great-grandparents, and she's probably closing in on the grandparents too!
(She says "I know. Stand up for the camera," toward the beginning, and "I draw a picture," towards the end. I missed most of the rest of it though, so don't feel bad if you don't understand it. I like the denial of the obvious in the middle though, "I not dancing. I not!")

Little Too Computer Savvy

"Mommy, I am 'posed to use the mouse! I need to email you about the blog, 'cause I don't have any other blogs right now on pbskids.com."
Um, OK.

Annie also has been telling us a lot more about her imaginary friend Doh-doo, and his best friend, Iah (Eeee-ahh). Apparently they both live in houses far, far away. Iah lives in a house with an Iah car, and Doh-doo lives in a house with a Doh-doo car. And Annie has set aside some of our Halloween candy in her Elmo basket because she is "waiting for the other kids who live far, far away to get to our house." I'm apparently not allowed to touch or try to put away said basket until these long traveling wisemen of Halloween make it to our home.

And Annie during her bath today was playing with her different toys, and giving them all names, when I noticed she'd named her washcloth Jesus. Funniest, mildly sacreligious, one-sided conversation I've heard her have in awhile.

Brief Conversation with Annie

"I heard a lawn mower outside Mommy," Annie tells me last night as she's sitting next to me watching me get some of my graphics work done.
"Yeah, a lawn mower?" (I'm a great conversationalist while I'm working, let me tell you.)
"Yeah, outside. Far, far away. I heard a lawn mower," then as she gets this bemused look on her face and shakes her head like you would at an amusing child's antics, she adds, "Isn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?"
Think we're hitting those nursery rhyme songs often enough?

"A" is for Afro

Annie, proudly showing off her letter "A", and her super fly hair.

Pajama time! The girls playing this morning in Annie's room.

No tears! Actual time on her tummy, without wigging out. It was a good morning indeed!

You lookin' at me?

What color are these eyes gonna end up!? It's a source of endless debate in our house!

Ellie is getting so close to being able to sit up well. She's balancing herself for several seconds now.

Then she tips over.

Music in Her Soul

This has been Annie's very favorite song for as long as she's known it. She loves it, and every time Ellie starts crying Annie breaks into this song. I wouldn't think of it as an overly soothing kinda song, but Annie seems to think it fits every situation.

Overheard

Annie chatting with my Mom on the phone: "Yeah, Mommy really wants Ellie to fall asleep." It's so true.

Motherhood

My sister-in-law Liz, the amazing blogger she is, has started yet another probing discussion. This one is about motherhood, and it got me thinking. And since my blog hasn't really been much more than pictures and videos lately, I thought I should probably flex my writing muscles and actually write something I feel strongly about.

I feel that, personally, I was meant to be a mother (and a wife for that matter). There's other things, other purposes I'm here for on this earth, but none quite compare to being a Mom. It's not all of what or who I am, but it's by far the most important part to me right now. It's not always easy, but I really do think that God gives us the particular challenges, kids, or challenging kids, that we can handle, possibly even handle better than anyone else could have.

Some of you know my sister Lacy. I'd say I'm glad I wasn't the one responsible for raising her, but since I often mistakenly call Annie by Lacy's name because of their many similarities, I figure I shouldn't say anything that karma will use against me later. Lacy (who I love), due to her freakish intelligence and therefore sometimes obstinate bratty behavior as a kid, couldn't have been easy to raise. I know there were times she was my parents greatest challenge. You try raising a two year old who'd often end up a mile or more away on her bike, just going out to meet new people. Or a child who would often correct her first grade teacher's spelling mistakes. Or who spent most of kindergarten in the Principle's office because she was just so bored with school. Or who had one teacher who told my Mom that her youngest daughter had, "diarrhea of the mouth." Or the elementary school teacher who told her that Lacy wouldn't survive middle school, 'cause surely someone would finally have enough and kill her. :-) I don't think my Mom much enjoyed parent-teacher conferences when Lacy was in school. But my parents were apparently born to raise this child. Few people could've handled the stress, I'm sure. And even fewer could have handled it in a way that let her grow into her personality without squashing it and killing her spirit. I really feel few parents would've been the parents she needed, even when for them it was one of their biggest challenges. It was their parenting that allowed her to grow up into who she is. For better or worse. :-) Just kidding, Lace.

For me, I look at the first nightmarish 6 months of Annie's life and sometimes wonder how we even survived the colic that was my first experience with motherhood. It was so tough. I cried more than I ever had. I felt inadequate, useless, unloved (weren't babies supposed to want their Moms for more than being breastfed, wasn't I supposed to take my crying baby from someone's arms and she'd instantly settle down just because I was the Mom, wasn't she supposed to nuzzle up and fall asleep on my chest, and not have to scream for hours merely to fall asleep for 20 minutes? What had I done wrong? Why couldn't I get this right? Wasn't I supposed to 'teach' her how to settle herself down, how to sleep? How had I gone so wrong? How did I mess this up so bad that my child never stopped screaming and I constantly had people asking me why I didn't do something about it? Did they think I liked to listen to her cry? Why did it feel like I had people from all sides questioning my ability to be this child's mother? Hardest was when I questioned it.) But we survived. Not always gracefully, but the fact we all made it alive and unharmed to her first birthday is the greatest assurance to me that I was not only meant to be a Mom, but her Mom.

I think motherhood is stressful, but I guess I believe women are made to be able to do it. I think we trip ourselves up a lot more than if we just let go and trusted that God made us to be mothers. I have a friend who is smart, compassionate and capable, and she CONSTANTLY questions her ability to mother. It's sad, because she's such a good Mom, but she gets so hung up on the stuff that doesn't go right that she gets demoralized and thinks she's a failure. And the more she sinks into that, the more stressful all things 'motherhood' become for her. I think we make it tougher than it is. I don't know how not to do that, I just think we do. I think we are created to be mothers though, and all of us have that potential within us, merely by virtue of being a woman. At least, I think that's what I believe. I'm still thinking about this one . . .

"The true strength of any nation, society or family lies in those qualities of character that have been acquired for the most part by children taught in the quiet, simple everyday manner of mothers."

–Gordon B. Hinckley

Score!

Can't say I never win anything!
TAMN just announced her winners on seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com . . . and I won the $50 gift certificate to www.babysteals.com! Cool, I can always spend more money on baby stuff . . . especially if it's free monies that don't affect the budget at all!
And hey, good catch Talina, I wouldn't have probably even noticed had you not told me I'd won! Thanks!

Sunday Night Pictures

Greg's sister, Andrea, who has a camera I'd covet greatly, you know, if coveting was allowed and all, took a bunch of pictures of the girls this Sunday before dinner. These are a few of my favorites.

Sweet, angelic Annie.

My girls. Such a good big sister. And such a completely interested in the lights in the other room and not the least bit interested in all the people trying to get her attention to the camera little sister.

He he he . . . I just liked the look on Annie's face on this one. I renamed the file like five times. Was this 'Grumpy Annie?' 'Tired Annie?' 'Moody Annie?' 'Out of It Annie?' 'Mildly Annoyed Annie?' 'My Eyebrows Look Bushy Annie?' I still don't know what to call it, but it remains a favorite.

Yay! We got Ellie's attention and she smiled. And Annie was looking at the camera, and looking sweet. It's like the holy grail of kids photography.

Annie appearing far more interested in something else, but cute nonetheless.

I took these next two. I have lots to learn about Andrea's camera, but it being so super cool and all, still did excellent in my untrained hands. If Andrea wants to lend me her camera for several months, I promise to practice and practice until I'm nearly as good as she is.

Here's Aunt Andrea and Annie. I love this picture of the two of them. You can't tell in this picture, but Andrea's hair is super, amazingly curly. Annie's looks almost straight in comparison. She's a major part of our answer to the "Where did Annie get her curls?" question we get all the time.

I loved this one. Annie looks like she's slowly losing her mind. She was actually perfectly happy and smiling for these pictures (like above), but something she did in posing for this picture just turned out great.

Bedtime Stories

Annie's favorite book is called "Pizza Pat". We've read it so much now that on a good day she has it memorized word for word. Here she was about a week ago reading it to Greg (and Ellie and I, who are off camera for most of the video, but Ellie does make a couple appearances). She was a little thrown off by having the camera there, but you can tell just how often she's been read this book by the video. My favorite part though is at the end, as she counts the mice in the story.

It's Official

Annie has an imaginary friend. Doh-doo. She first started mentioning him awhile ago, but he's becoming a more frequently referenced person in our household. On Halloween she refused to go to bed before Doh-doo came to our house trick or treating. We finally compromised, and Daddy promised to stay up and wait for Doh-doo to come to our house and pick up his granola bar, if she'd go change into her pajamas.
She also talks to him on the phone a lot. Tells him about her day, what she's doing, sings him songs. The other day she was taking a bath and mentioned Doh-doo.
"Where does Doh-doo live?" I asked.
"Um, far, far away. In a house," she responded.
This took me by surprise, since past conversations led me to believe he lurked in our house or something. "How does he get to our house then?"
"He drives a car."
"Wow, a car?"
"Yeah, a blue boy car."
"He can drive a car? How old is he?" I asked
"Um, like, five years old. Yeah, five."
Greg's response when I reported this conversation to him: "Oh great, an older boy."