Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mom's birthday! Happy Birthday Mom (when you read this sometime in the next week or two, when you can't sleep so you catch up on my blog, "Hi Mom!")

Growing up, my Mom and I, um, butted heads. To put it lightly. My Dad would tell me it was because I was so much like her. Then I would be really mad at my Dad for awhile.

And you know, it turns out, I really am a heck of a lot like her. And I like it.

I see her in myself more and more all the time. Similar personalities, and we have a lot of the same good and bad habits. Our reactions, pet peeves, values and morals pretty much fall in line perfectly. We're kinda peas in a pod, but don't say that out loud, even at 30 I am still just learning to come to terms with this. :-)

My Mom is an amazing Mom, funny, generous, giving. She's beloved by neighbors and friends and admired by those who meet her. She has a gift with children. A straight up gift. They love her. She is particularly gifted when it comes to her work with mentally and physically challenged kids, which comes from a lifetime of caring for and loving her baby brother, my Uncle Karl, who was born with cerebral palsy.

As always promised by everyone, as I've become a Mother myself, we've grown even closer. When you have a first baby who is screaming nonstop, and people are asking you why you just don't feed her, why you can't get her to sleep, why you don't take her to the doctor for this (when you've gone three times to no avail that month alone), why you can't figure out what is wrong, nothing in this world means more than someone who understands and can sympathize. Without any judgment, just admiration that you're doing a very hard thing, and you're doing it really well. Who has been there and it understands. Even better if they're your own Mom, and her horrifically colicky baby was you, and she can tell you all about your own insane nap schedule and months of colicky screaming and somehow make it all sound livable. And survivable.

It's been amazing to me just how much her views and attitudes towards motherhood have shaped my own. My Mom is just pretty chill about motherhood. Not that it can't be hard. Even one of the toughest things you ever do. But no need to stress about it, get all worked up, or live in past 'failures'. Just do your best and remember that as part of your inherent womanhood, you were literally made to be able to do this. Not just give birth, but to parent, nurture, love and raise children.

And she's the most amazing Grandma. My kids adore her. It seems like anytime any one comments, "Wow, I can't believe she already knows that, she's so young," about Annie, I inevitably have to answer, "Oh, her Grandma taught her that."

Circle of Life

Annie loves to sing.

As much as she loves singing, she loves to make up her own songs and lyrics (often based loosely on more familiar music) even more.

Today at Church the Young Women were singing in Sacrament Meeting. Annie was mesmerized, and was soon singing along (in a, "la la la laaaaaaa" kinda way a three year old sings along when they've never actually heard the song before.) But, when they finished, she wasn't quite done yet. She started singing, (fairly quietly, which was good) beginning with a song she learned in Nursery, but then taking it all in a slightly different direction.

"Jesus once was a little child . . . . but then He grew up and got bigger. Then He learned to drive."

But what got the most reaction (in a milk-shooting-out-of-your-nose-had-you-been-drinking-any kind of way) was when she surprised us by reprising the song at a family party in the evening.

"Jesus was little, then He got bigger . . . Then He was dead."

None of us really remember what she said after that, 'cause we were still stuck back on the last verse. You probably had to be there, but her own three year old take on her song left all of us in the room laughing.

~~

We'd been celebrating my Mom's birthday, with most of my family and all three of my grandparents on my side. After the family party Annie was cuddling with Aunt Star on the couch. Suddenly she looked around and said sadly, "It is such a mess in here." She was right, there were coloring books, crayons, toys, a magna doodle, blocks and more, all over the frontroom floor.
"Why is it such a mess?" Star asked.
Annie nodded her head sadly and said, "'Cause all the Grandparents were over."
Yeah, those old people. Always trashin' the joint.
Star laughed and I asked Annie who usually made the messes at our house. Star made a comment about the answers being right there or something, I can't remember how she phrased it, but a minute later Annie 'fessed up and said, "Annie and Ellie are the answers." But, it sounded like 'dancers', and Star asked who was the back up dancer. Annie thought this was hilarious, and started talking about being backup dancers, "Annie dances and Ellie dances, and Annie backs up in to Mom and Ellie backs up into Dad!"

~~

Last random Annie story from the night:
For the first time today, I noticed Annie mangling of the word sandwiches.
"Swamiches."
It's adorable, and kind of hilarious to listen to her say it. My Mom and Star had been asking her all about her lunch, basically to draw out the word 'swamiches' as often as possible from her. But when Star repeated it, mimicing the mispronuciation, Annie looked at her disapprovingly, and said sternly, "No, don't say it wrong. It's SWAM-MITCH-ES."

~~

I always feel like I don't have enough about Ellie on here, since she isn't verbal. But man, that kid has some big personality in such a little body. She is adorable, and a ham, and so communicative and expressive. You almost always know exactly what Ellie wants or needs. And if it takes you more than a second to figure it out, she will angrily keep making her non-verbal-communication-driven point until you're smart enough to catch up already. Today she was a little dancer. At Church, every time she would catch anyone looking at her (or find someone who's attention she wanted to capture), she'd flash this big, beautiful smile, then start to turn around in circles, spinning like a tiny, wobbly ballerina. Stopping every turn or two to make sure her audience was watching and enthralled. During Sunday School though, her attention-grabbing antics were getting noisier, as she was getting closer and closer to nap time, so Greg ran her over to my parents house for a nap (since they're just a few blocks away, they have a crib in their house, and Church for them doesn't start until an hour after ours ends . . . I cannot believe we haven't thought of this solution before!) Anyway, Ellie was dropped off at my parents house, where she cried and cried and cried until Grandpa had had enough and went and 'rescued' her from her crib. Apparently, all this time she'd been calling loudly for Mom or Annie. (Not Dad, probably because he's the one who'd just abandoned her . . . she didn't ask for him again until after her nap when all was forgiven). The cool thing was that she was asking for Annie by saying her name very, very clearly over and over again. I'm kinda bummed I missed it, since I've only ever heard her call her sister "Nana" or "Anna", but now I'm hoping for a fully recognizable rendition of her sisters' name on a regular basis any day now.
Ellie is a lot more of a 'no fear' kinda kid than her big sister was at this age. Her Uncle David has confirmed this of late, as he chases Ellie all around the house, while crawling after her and growling. She runs away, squealing and giggling the whole time. She laughs and laughs when she's finally 'captured', or is equally amused if she makes it to Mommy first, and climbs up on my lap and kinda gloats a little about her temporary safety. Annie was much older before this kind of game was any kind of fun to her, and even now, she has a low threshold for it, and hates be captured.
She just lives with 'gusto'. She hears Greg's truck pull up after work, and she books it for the back door, arms thrown out wide open, rushing into his arms with squeals and delight. She will defiantely stick up for herself if her big sister is throwing her weight around too much, complete with angry growls or yells. She loves being read to, but absolutely insists on turning the pages all by herself. She drags me to the front door several times a day, insisting on being immediately taken outside to play in the grass (or walk up and down the sidewalks, her favorite activity). She happily answers a ton of questions (like who wants to eat? or who wants a bath?) with a sing songy, "Ellie does!" OK, so nobody but me recognizes the phrase, but it's the same consistent thing each time I ask her a question. She happily answers "Yeah" or "Yep" anytime she agrees with you, and will shake her head violently back and forth if she adamently doesn't want to do something. And try and scold her, and she dissolves into a puddle of tears and needs a lot of hugs and comfort to recover.
She loves animals. Will stop dead in her tracks at the slightest sound of a dog or bird, and respond in kind to the animal noise. She often notices a far off dog barking that I hadn't even noticed. She does the world's most adorable elephant noise, completely with raising her arm like it's a trunk. Her favorite stuffed animal is a green dinosaur, who she's named "Rar." When I come in to get in the morning, she's standing there patiently waiting for me, then as soon as she sees me she dives back down onto the mattress and gathers up all her blankets and her Rar, then shoves him in my direction while aiming a loud "Roooooar" at me, then she dissolves into laughter at her own antics. Often falling back down on her mattress as a result of her giggles.
She endlessly amuses me, and she is constantly cuddling and kissing me (or forcefully demanding I kiss her dolls for her), and I am looking so forward to our one-on-one time together when Annie's at preschool and dance classes, starting this week (yay!)

~~

Last note: I was officially made a member of our ward's Relief Society Presidency today, as Second Counselor. I'm really pretty excited, as I love to be really involved in all the actitivies and stuff and it's seriously one of the best ways to get to know all the women in the ward. But, I'm also a little nervous, as it'll be more time-and-responsibility-intensive than my last calling as Compassionate Service Leader.
Wish me luck!

Busy Saturday

Annie spent the morning at the zoo with her Uncle Cody (who borrowed her as an adorable blonde haired prop for a date with his new girlfriend.) She had fun, telling me all about the baby animals she saw. Uncle Cody even amazed me by getting a couple pictures from the zoo. Only like 5 pictures, but that is basically five more than if I'd sent Greg to the zoo with a camera and my daughter, so I was very impressed by the 18 year old male's photography skills and follow through.



While Annie was gone, Greg had the unenviable task of putting in a new fence, then mowing the lawn. He didn't have the funnest Saturday, but man, was he productive! I got the grocery shopping, laundry, dishes and mopping done, so I wasn't exactly a slacker either, but it kinda paled in comparison.
During Ellie's nap, and Greg's yard work, I ran out to the store, but got sidetracked by a yard sale. And I have to tell you, I've never been much of a yard-saler (I'm making up words I think, but I don't know of another word for it), but I'm starting to think I'm missing out! I found boxes and boxes of cute little girl clothes, in brands that are typically too spendy for my blood, most barely used . . . and at 50 cents to a dollar an outfit, I left with a whole armful of new clothes for my girls. Check out Ellie in her new pink polka dot dress:

Best dollar I've spent in a long time!

Plus, how adorable is she on her Fred. (That is the odd name her Winnie the Pooh ride on toy has . . . it was a code name my sisters and I came up for when they'd bought it for Annie, and wanted it to be a surprise for Greg at least (since I already knew about it, and Annie wasn't even a year old yet), so we called it 'Fred' for a month or two until Annie actually unwrapped it. The name stuck.)


After Annie rode bikes with our cute little neighbor girls for awhile, (and Ellie rode on Fred) the girls and I, along with Uncle David and Aunt Talina, went up and walked around Tracy Aviary for until it closed, then we came home and ate dinner. It had been a long day by the time the girls finally fell asleep . . . but the girls had a lot of fun, and a lot got done . . . so it was a pretty good weekend.

Will the Guilty Party Please Stand Up?

So, I walked into the bathroom to find blue crayon colored everywhere. The floor, the toilet seat, the step stool, the potty chair in the corner. My first reaction was, "Annie!! What happened in here?!" When it suddenly hit me . . . I now have two possible suspects. Ellie, at 15 months old, is now quite capable of this kind of destruction, and really even more likely to cause it. So, suddenly the blame shifts and I bring little Ellie in and show her the floor and explain we don't color the floor, and have her sit down with a wet washcloth and 'help' me clean up the mess. Annie thinks this sounds like a ton of fun, so she comes in and helps too. I sat there, scrubbing, all the while thinking back to Annie at this age, coloring on the wall for the first time (09/11/07), right around this same age. I realized we are entering a whole new phase of Ellie's development and I marveled at how quickly they grow up. And, as we were nearly finished, I suddenly realized that (being a dork and all) I was missing the opportunity to document this 'milestone' of Ellie's, and I ran to get the camera (cursing the fact I'd already wiped clean the crayon 'masterpiece'.) As I took a few pictures, I told Annie all about how when she was this age she colored on the wall and had to clean it up. To which she kind of responded along the lines of, "Like how now that I'm three, when I colored on the floor I get to clean up now?" What huh? The truth unravels and I uncover that Annie was in fact the one who colored all over the floor, toilet, et cetera. My reaction went from mild annoyance for the mess mixed with awe at my growing children, to being pretty darn pissed, and angry at Annie for her very uncharacteristic destructive behavior, as well as her letting me blame Ellie for the mess. I mean, seriously, she's three years old! Coloring on the floor!? That's ridiculous. So, she got a time out. And I tried apologizing to Ellie for blaming her, but a.) she didn't really understand the situation anyway, and b.) she'd had a blast cleaning the floor with her Mom and sister, so she'd never ever realized she was in trouble.

So much for Ellie's first 'cleaning up after drawing all over stuff' photo shoot.
This didn't turn out to be the milestone I thought it was for Ellie; not her first crayons on unacceptable surfaces milestone. But I think it was the first time I can remember where Annie purposefully let her little sister take the blame for something that she herself did . . . so, that's kind of a milestone of its own.

Here's the first time Annie colored (and then cleaned) the walls, in September 2007, at 16 months old.

And then, while I was typing this, Annie just smeared two whole handfuls of lotion in Ellie's hair.
Anyone want a cute, blonde three year old for the day?

On the flip side, Ellie's been continuously just melting my heart today (except, possibly, when I thought she'd colored all over the bathroom). When cuddling with me this morning, she was clutching her stuffed dinosaur tightly, and just grinning happily. Then, she suddenly decided I needed to kiss her dinosaur, and she proceeded to have me kiss her stuffed animal about 47 times . . . growing happier and happier each time. After five or six times of me kissing the doll, she'd just giggle and clutch it to herself and hug it tightly. Then about 10 seconds later she'd decided it needed more Mommy kisses, and we'd start the whole thing over again. It was adorable to watch her so happy about all this affection. She can be so sweet and cuddly. And, as gross as it is, I love when she dives for me with her drooly mouth wide open, wanting kisses. My other favorite thing she does a lot now, and has been doing all morning, is when she sees me, smiles, then takes off running to Annie's room, only to return 30 seconds later with a book (or as many books as she can carry), and then she runs to me, turns around, and backs into my lap (walking backwards until she literally hits my leg and just topples into my lap), then she turns and grins at me, and lifts up the book and turns to the first page. I had been worried she wouldn't share the same love of books as Annie had at this age, because truthfully we haven't read as much with her as we did with our first . . . but she adores books, and wants me to read to her several times a day.

Shiny Toes

This is exactly how I imagine things with Annie when she's a teenager. Her and I, painting each others nails, maybe braiding hair or something . . . you know, the typical angst- and drama-free mother/teenage daughter relationship. But just on the slim chance it doesn't work out exactly like that, I'm gonna enjoy afternoons like these while I still can:

These are all pictures of Annie painting my fingernails, after I'd done hers. Hers are bright white . . . I decided I'd prefer clear when she did mine. :-) She actually did a remarkably thorough job though, and it might have worked just fine to have had her throw on a coat of pink or something for me!

I like this picture, 'cause it's Annie being all, "Yeah, hey Mom, I see your camera, but I'm trying to ignore you and get on with my work . . . but I'll go ahead and give you a sweet little patronizing smile anyway."

Annie blowing on my fingers for me.

Showing off her own painted finger nails.

When we were done, Annie sat there for a minute examining her handiwork, when she finally smiled and declared it good with a triumphant, "You know Mom, your toes are very shiny."

Postponed: ABC Primetime Special

My sister in law, Liz, posted this today:

The ABC: Primetime special on Janet's murder has been postponed so that ABC can air a special remembering the life of Sen. Edward Kennedy.

As soon as I find out the new date, I'll post it.

In the meantime, may Senator Kennedy rest in peace. He did some amazing things in his life and I'm grateful for his service to our country.

One Year Already?

I had the random thought this morning, "I think I've been doing this whole blog thing for about a year now."
A quick search confirmed that I have in fact been blogging for exactly one year, today.

It all began with this short post about a 27 month old Annie's antics:

So, I finally bit the bullet and created a blog. Which has left me wondering for many days, how does one begin a blog? Introduce myself, my kids, my family? Everyone who's gonna read it already knows us. Then, I had this exchange with Annie yesterday:
"Mom, I'm poopy! Change my diaper!"
"Oh, you have a poopy diaper?"
Annie, reaching her hand around, shoving her hand down the back of her diaper, then looking at me, says, "Yep, it's poopy. I checked."
That about sums it up . . . I'm raising a monkey.

Annie - August 26th, 2008 & 2009
One year of bedhead going strong . . . Ellie
One year of near baldness . . .

One full year later, and my blog post topic, before I'd even remembered the year anniversary thing, was also about potty habits. I lead an exciting and wildly varied life:

Potty training is going well. My one complaint would be my daughter's enormous bladder size and amazing bladder control. She uses the potty right before bed, then at 10AM, a good 15 hours later, I'm begging her to please go use the potty since I'm sure her bladder is going to explode any second. She just seems to have no need to use the potty in the morning. And it wigs me out more than it should. (My mother brain starts worrying about infections, and of course, her bladder bursting . . . 'cause ya hear about that happening all the time, right?)

So, sometimes my excessive worries get the best of me, resulting in less than stellar parenting, like first thing this morning . . .

"Hey Annie, if you go use the potty right now, I'll give you five mini M&Ms." Yep, bribery . . . to do what comes completely natural, and she's completely capable of doing unprompted. Good Mom.
"Hmmmm," she thinks, "Six M&Ms. No, wait, seven."
"Six."
"Nope, I decided on seven."
"OK, seven mini M&Ms . . ."
She thinks about this for a second, then says, "OK," and starts to walk away. When she suddenly stops dead in her tracks and turns and looks at me. "But not until after my spinning." Then she proceeds to spin in circles until she falls down. Then she walks into the bathroom and shuts the door.

~~

Annie's standing next to me asking, "What's today? Is it Tuesday? Sunday? Saturday? Friunday?" She's recently become quite obsessed with the day of the week.
"You mean Friday?"
"Yeah, that one?"
"Nope, it's Wednesday Annie."
"Oh, I didn't even realize it was that one! Can Lily play on Wednesdays? Does she have places to go on Wednesdays? Some people go to WalMart on Wednesdays you know . . . " I assured her we would go over and see if Lily can play on Wednesdays, and I didn't imagine they'd be at WalMart all day even if they did go.

Darn You, Bob Marley!

You know what's the worst? When you're trying to discipline your naughty 3 year old child, sticking them in time out because they kept spitting out their rice during dinner, and when you go in to check on them at the 'half way point', you find them happily bobbing their head and singing: "Don't worry, 'bout a thing. Every little thing's gonna be all right. Don't worry, about a thing, 'cause every little thing is gonna be all right! Rise up this morning, smiling with the sun . . . "
Stupid infectiously happy Bob Marley music. I'm trying to punish and dissuade here!


Here's Annie reading her Cinderella book today. If for the first 18 seconds you can't understand a single word, that's 'cause Annie has suddenly (just today) started speaking in her a language of her own making. It's kinda odd. (About the 0:18 mark she suddenly starts talking about the godmother and the coach and horses and stuff though. In actual English.)

(There's more videos of Annie talking about the book, along the lines of, "Then her stepsister tried on her slipper, but it didn't fit her." The best part is when she quickly wets her finger in her mouth before dramatically turning a page . . . it's really cute, but in the middle of a 1:45 second clip, and I'm too lazy to open iMovie and do some editing).

And just a reminder to not piss off Ellie:

Arachnophobia

So, I was outside cleaning off my front porch when I looked out at the beautiful spider web I've been watching develop right along side my front steps. It's a large, amazing spiderweb, that I haven't worried about much, as I figured friendly spiders make short work of pesky bugs and such in my garden. That was, of course, until this time, when the architect and occupant of the web was just sitting there, dead center, about the size of a frog I once owned. I threw the kids inside the house and called Greg to come kill it. And to bring the camera.

I got a couple pictures, but being kinda camera illiterate, I was having a hard time getting it to focus on the actual spider, and not the pretty vines in the background. I did get a couple shots of it (only of its underbelly), but nothing of it moving with it's legs out, when it was the size of a small dog. (Greg claims I'm exaggerating.) Instead, I just have a few shots of it curled into that terrifying ball of killer spider. (Only Greg saw the top side of it. It apparently had quite the pair of fangs.)

Icky, right?

So, we did the humane thing. Which is Greg getting out the shop vac, sucking it up, then smashing it flat with a large rubber mallet. I thought about going and burying it's remains in an unhallowed Indian burial ground or something, to assure it would never rise again. Or would that make it rise, as an evil zombie spider of enormous size? Crap, I should research these things. Either way, I never wanted to see it again, so Greg did the easy thing and just scraped it off into the trash.

Does anyone recognize that kind of spider? I saw red flashes when it scurried, I'm assuming as nature's way of telling me this spider is poisonous and/or of the devil, but Greg seemed unfazed. Let me know if it is in fact some form of deadly arachnid, so I can point out to Greg that my freak-out was not an overreaction, but a reasonable reaction to a near death situation for me and my children. And so I know if I should get my yard sprayed.
If it's a harmless, yet still unreasonably large spider, don't tell Greg.

Unrelated flashback: I remember my Dad taking Star, Talina and I to see "Arachnophobia" at the dollar theater. According to Google, that was in 1990, so that'd make me 11, Star 9 and Talina like 6 or something. All I remember is Star and I screaming a lot and hiding our heads, with possible whimpering, all the while my Dad kept telling Talina, "It's all just pretend, it's not real," to which the tiny kid would nonchalantly reply, "I know Dad," and continue chowing down on Nerds candies.

Edited to add: Annie just walked up and said, "Mom, how did the huge spider get on your blog?!" Another Annie blog reference -- Today as I was getting the girls into the car after a shopping trip, I handed Ellie the toy lap top and Annie a book. Annie said, "Hey, Ellie has the computer! Maybe a picture of me reading this book will show up on her blog." I just stood there, looking kinda dumbstruck for a good 5 or 6 seconds, marveling at the difference in childhood vocab and conversational topics in this kid's generation vs. my own.

Edited again to add: According to a friend on facebook, it was a cat-faced spider. I've included a picture of what it looks like with it's legs open and from the top (where its ridiculously large bulbous growth thingy apparently resembles a cat's face), just to show you how truly ugly it was. I now feel a little bad that, as I found out online, "despite their large size and bizarre appearance, cat-face spiders are harmless to humans." All it was trying to do was eat my garden's bugs (and possibly Ellie, I'm still not 100% convinced it was so benign). And I went and killed it. (Or, more accurately, made my husband kill it. But I'm probably still culpable . . . since I planned and ordered the hit, that makes me at least an accomplice, right?) If Greg asks though, my reaction was completely reasonable, as this spider was most likely the most dangerous animal alive, and I didn't overreact at all. Now that we're all on the same page . . .

Sisterly Love

Annie was kinda on one this morning. She complained about Ellie making noise, Ellie looking at her, Ellie talking to her, Ellie touching her toys and Ellie thinking about touching her toys. At one point, while they were both playing by my bed, an annoyed Annie let out a deep sigh and said, "Mom, will you pick me up onto your bed so I don't have to look at Ellie's face anymore."

Sigh.

Since breakfast and bath time she's warmed up to her little sister though, actually trying to track her down and make her play now. Oh, how the tables have turned. I just watched this exchange:
"Ellie! Come back, I need to listen to your heartbeat," Annie calls as she chases an escaping Ellie from my bathroom, through my bedroom and down the hall, all while Annie wields her Cookie Monster stethoscope, "Ellie, wait! I'm practically a doctor!"

Typically Ellie wants to do anything Annie is doing, follow her big sister around, and act just like Annie. She sings when Annie sings, dances when Annie dances. Giggles and squeals with delight anytime Annie yells at her (in a "she's paying attention to me!" kinda way). She loves all things Annie. (She's often found dragging a pair of Annie's underwear around with her . . . I'm not quite sure why, but usually there's at least a time or two a day that I find Ellie clutching underwear and some random toy that belongs to Annie.) Today she spent some time pushing around Annie's brand new preschool backpack. It's bigger than she is, but she wants to do anything her big sister does:



Oh, and unrelated, but a bit of an Ellie milestone . . . 15 month old Ellie's wearing size 3 sandals now! Well, it's mainly 'cause we lost one of her size 2's, and I refuse to spend $13 on new sandals when summer's coming to an end, and we have a whole box of size 3's that almost fit (or will fit sometime sooner or later). I also stopped putting her in size 2 sneakers, even though they plenty long enough, her wide little feet were rubbing her big toe uncomfortably. So, I need to find some 2.5s or a 2 wide, 'cause the size 3 sneakers look like clown shoes on her. But she grew out of two pair of shoes in one week. She's actually growing! We also put away most of her 3-6 month pants (because they're floods, not 'cause they don't fit . . . in fact, a couple pairs of her 6-9 month pants still fall off when she walks.) My baby girl is getting so big.


Also, unrelated . . . Annie was playing last week with a little boy from down the street. She cracked me up when she had been trying to get his attention several times and finally said, "I swear you don't know how to listen, I have told you the same thing like five times!" It's universal people, the men vs. women 'you don't listen to me' thing starts really, really young.

Singing in the Rain

It was almost bedtime, but we agreed on one last walk for the day.

But, by the time we all had shoes on, and the girls were in pajamas, we were surprised to find it was raining outside.

So, change of plans. We went out on the front porch to enjoy the cooler weather and watch the rain. But, that didn't last long. The girls escaped to the grass, and spent the next half hour, squealing, giggling, dancing, singing and enjoying every last second of the wet weather.

When the rain would pick up, Annie would run back up to the shelter of the front porch. Ellie on the otherhand would have only left the rain if removed by force. Her pajamas were soaking wet when we came in and had to be changed before bed again. It was all worth it though.











(When we announced it was time to come in, Annie started whining, and moaned, "Ohhhh, but I practically wanted to stay outside!" She's using the word 'practically' an awful lot lately. With varying degrees of success).

Horned Beasts

Annie was having fun with her hair this morning. We had the front part pulled up into two little piggy tails, and she was holding them up in the air and exclaiming she was a Mountain Goat with horns, then she'd just swing one up dramatically and she was suddenly a trumpeting Elephant. For awhile she was an antlered moose, then it was back to one, as she pulled a single piggy tail as straight as she could off her head and exclaimed, "Look at me, I'm a unicorn!

"Mom, I know why they're called unicorns!" she happily exclaimed. "'Cause 'unas'," she begins to explain authoritatively, "have corns."

For a brief second there, I really actually thought my three year old was going to tell me that the prefix 'uni' meant 'one' . . . but this was even better. Greg and I have been telling each other that "Unas have corns" all day now.

Flashback Friday

Came across one of my favorite Christmas pictures from when I was a kid, and figured now was as good a time as any to institute a 'Flashback Friday' post (although, honestly, I don't think it'll be an 'every week' kinda thing. Just randomly when I find an old picture I like).

This is Star and I on Christmas morning. We look beyond excited. We looked crazed, really. I loved it.


This picture makes me think of a few things:

1. I can't quite decide which of us looks crazier. I think it might be Star though, just barely.

2. How amazingly wonderful, magical and fun my parents always made Christmas. It was the perfect holiday, stuffed full of traditions and family togetherness. Even now, we all get together on Christmas Eve, and methodically sort and organize the presents in exactly the same way we did as kids. We prep the stockings, organize our particular 'corner' of the basement family room, and eagerly pick out our 'Christmas Eve gift' we get to open that night. (That is if Mom didn't get us pajamas that match, 'cause if those are in the mix, than our Christmas Eve present is already labeled and ready for us to open . . . and I think my last pair of pajamas that matched my sister's were a gift I received in my mid-20s, these aren't just traditions from my childhood, they're still alive and well! I think Dad and Cody got matching pajamas to open sometime in the last few years.) We all get together on Christmas morning at like 6-7:00AM. We've pushed it back to 7 now that my kids are so young, but before they were born, we would all drive from our respective houses early, or just sleep over at Mom & Dad's, so that we were ready to go at 6:00AM. I still have a hard time sleeping on Christmas Eve, and am usually up by 5AM anyway. But when we were kids, or at least still all under the same roof, we would wake up, find ways to sneakily wake up our younger siblings, get the whole family together, descend the stairs in order of age (something we still do), find our stockings filled to the brim with all manner of candy and jewelry and socks and toothpaste and deodorant and shampoo and underwear (as little kids it was more toys obviously, but as we reached our teenage years it was practical stuff mixed with junk food. It's always been one of our favorite parts of Christmas morning, exploring the bounty of the stocking), happily show off our 'Santa gifts' to one another(which are unwrapped, and just sitting next to or underneath our stockings in our own 'corner'), spend awhile swapping Christmas candy or flavors of toothpaste and eating Kraft Cheese and Crackers (a must in any stocking), then going through the tradition of the opening of the presents. Which involved all sitting in a circle (next to or in front of our 'corner' of presents), and then opening presents one at a time, youngest to oldest. It's a slow process, as someone opens a present, shows it off, everyone gushes, that person goes and hugs whoever gave the present, sometimes pictures are taken, then it's the next person's turn. Repeat. Like 100 times. We played for awhile, then we organized and set up our bounty, all just in time for our grandparents to come over at like 6:00-7:00 IN THE MORNING to come see what we got. Yeah, we did this all ridiculously early. And even now, there's a few of us who'd be doing it at 4AM if we could talk the others into it (lazy people who want more than 3 hours of sleep!) Except now, it's me that won't let anyone wake up my kids before 6:00-7:00 anyway, so I'm the stick in the mud. Anyway, after my Dad's parents coming over (when I was younger, now Grandma comes over later), we would head over to my Mom's parents house for breakfast with the rest of her family at 9AM or so. Now the family actually meets at my Mom's house, and it's been pushed back to 10AM, which always bums me out, 'cause we leave there to go to Greg's family's house around 10:30 or so -- since they don't wake up and open presents until 11AM! Which worked out really, really well for our little family, but it still is just shocking to me :-) How can people know it's Christmas morning, and not get up before the sun!? It's like they're adults now and want to get a good night's sleep in. Weird. :-)

2. I wish I could get a Smurf Big Wheels for my own kids! It rocks! I found this one, that I would love to get, but apparently, Greg thinks it is unreasonable to spend $75 on one. :-)

2 ~ 9 ~ 86

Ellie had her 15 month appointment.

My little chunk was up to 18lbs. 5 oz (with a diaper on), keeping her right around the same 2-3% range in weight.

She's grown almost a whole inch since her one year check up, to 28.75 inches or the 9th percentile.

And her head kept on track in the mid-80 range, at 86%. Our doctor laughed and said, "Well, she's still teeny tiny, really short, and has a gigantic head." That about sums up my babies.

The doctor is hoping she hits 20 lbs sometime around 18 months, but really isn't worried either way, since "she's healthy, active, smart and stubborn, just like I like them." Ellie showed off her communication skills by angerly batting away whatever medical instrument came her way, with an accompanied growl or snarl towards the doctor. "She sure lets you know when she doesn't like something, doesn't she?" Yes doctor, yes she does.

I love our doctor 'cause she seems to be completely smitten with my children. She gushes over their wit, charm, beauty and sheer amazingness in a way that'll forever endear her to me. Annie charmed her with her cute stories, like how she likes to cross the ravine to go to Grandma's house (the doctor was thrilled by her use and pronunciation of 'ra-been', thought it was the cutest thing ever, the whole time I'm thinking, "Crap, is she gonna think I'm a bad Mom for letting my kids play in a ravine? Isn't that like a drowning hazard? I suck.")

On top of the 40 minutes she spent with me discussing all of my questions about both of my girls, she also laid down some seriously cool advice on getting rid of fruit flies (which have been a particular problem in our kitchen lately). That's my kind of doctor. Tell me what to watch for with flu symptoms, reassure me that it's OK my one year old won't take milk, and treat me to some home-remedy bug killing solutions. Sweet.

Ellie freaked out when she got her shots. For about 15 seconds, 'til the nurse asked, "Can she have a sucker?" To which Ellie immediately stopped screaming and sobbed out the words, "Yeah! Yeah!"

She also randomly threw in comments to Annie about what a good job her Mommy was doing.
Cool, I get my ego stroked, and my kid vaccinated, all for the bargain price of a $15 co-pay.

Going to a good doctor who takes her time with us, and fawns over my children like a long lost Aunt, makes the never ending doctor's visits seem totally worthwhile.

Plus, I now have proof that Shrimpy McBaby is over 18 lbs. And that makes me happy.

(Just for comparison sake, the 15 month appointment was when Annie finally hit the 20 lb mark. But at least part of that was the fact we went on a cruise the week before her appointment, and she put on nearly TWO POUNDS (or TEN PERCENT of her body weight) in that week. It's true, everyone gains weight on a cruise. Especially one year olds who had never had white bread before, and are now chowing down on multiple croissants in the ship's dining room each day.)

Annoyed Toddler Armed with Big Words

While the girls were eating breakfast, I ran upstairs to change the wash. I was only gone two or three minutes, but when I got back, I found Annie visibly upset and standing in this odd protective stance in front of Ellie's highchair.
"Mom," she said, fighting back tears, "I was so frust-er-rate-ted while you were gone!"
"Oh sweetie, what happened?" (Thinking, "Crap, what'd Ellie do to piss her off this time?")
"There were bugs, and they were trying to get Ellie and her food, and I kept trying to make them go away, and they practically weren't listening."
(We were having fruit fly issues due to an overly ripe cantaloupe hiding behind the cookie jar on the counter from earlier than morning. Annie found it incredibly upsetting. I had to try and convince her about a million times that they weren't going to hurt her or Ellie, they were just annoying.)


Oh, and a side note. I wish I had video to add to the adorableness of the cousins pictures from the last post, but I'll just have to paint you a mental picture. The last day Connor was here, we went and visited the family at Grandm's house. The kids played outside, with watering cans and sidewalk chalk, and were having a great time. Then, Annie decided it was time to dance. And she made poor Connor ball room dance with her all around the front lawn while she sang Disney Princess songs. He looked so confused, like "What are we doing?!" I was shocked at her level of dance skills though (something she didn't inherit from me or her Dad), as she led Connor (a reluctant two year old male who had no idea what they were doing, how's that for leading skills?), twirling around the yard, including fancy spins and twirls on her part. I fully expected her to 'dip' herself any second. I still don't know where she learned to ballroom dance, but it was adorable. Although, I'm sure Connor is glad it's not something he'll have to experience again for awhile.

Yellowstone in (Other People's) Pictures (and Further Proof that Annie Hates Sleep)

First, because I left this out of the initial post about the vacation:

Annie does not like to sleep.

I know, shocker.

But get this; we drove for HOURS, in the late afternoon and evening, (from 2PM to 8PM) to get to our first campground on the first day, and Annie managed to avoid sleeping the whole time. Then, the next two days we spent hours in the car, driving around Yellowstone, from one thing to another, sometimes for well over a half hour between stops. Annie never fell asleep, not once. What kind of freakish toddler super power must she possess to avoid sleeping that long, in a moving vehicle, after a crappy night sleep in a cold tent, after exhausting herself running around and climbing stairs and stuff?! It's superhuman, that's what it is.

The drive home, after hours and hours and hours in the car, she was just about asleep, when she suddenly shot up and informed us she had to use the bathroom right that second. Yeah, it was a fake out. But, she was now fully awake again. Several hours later, she finally, for the first time of the entire vacation, crashed and slept for a whole 22 minutes before we reached Logan.

To recap: tired three year old, spending half her time in moving vehicles for DAYS on end, takes one 22 minute nap. Seriously, that ain't right.

Anyway, the actual point of this post:
One of the perks of the big group 'family vacation', is getting the CD that has other people's photos saved on it! It's like our vacation was documented from four different perspectives! (Although, not dramatically different, as there are a lot of pictures that look exactly like mine . . . but there are some priceless ones that are completely different than anything else I shot.) Plus, there are a couple family members with camera setups that cost like 5-10 times what our point and shoot did, so their pictures tend to be a lot better.

Grandpa KC's Camera
My cute little family in front of some falls.Seriously people, these kids are just freakishly adorable. And the holding hands just makes it that much cuter . . . and better blackmail fodder later on, when they're older.

They've always been this cute together though, follow this link and scroll down a little to see them being equally sweet and priceless last summer.

Annie's hair started out in three french braids for the trip . . . the hairs that escaped just kinda make her look like she stuck her finger in a light socket. :-)

Connor standing by a very cool uprooted tree of some sort.

Chris and Nathan . . . who has a look like he's smelling that famous sulfur smell, but we were actually very far from any geothermic features . . . so it must just be that 'second day camping' scent we were all putting off.

Andrea, Ellie and me, followed by Connor, Liz, Chris and Nathan.

Ellie and me, followed by Greg and a pouty Annie on a walkway. Note: it was late morning at this point, but we have still not managed to talk Annie into changing out of her monkey pajama pants.

The family standing at the Continental Divide. Chris was really excited about getting to experience this.

Nathan and Chris at the lake.

Annie playing with rocks.

Annie at the lake

Nathan. Eating rocks, of course. There was a lot of pulling rocks out of one year olds' mouths on this trip.

The girls -- me, Andrea, Liz, Ruth and Ellie. (Annie was off playing with rocks with Connor.)

James, Liz, Chris, me, Greg and Andrea (with Ellie as the cheese who stands alone.)

Annie and Connor playing on the grass in Logan.

Aunt Liz's Camera
Connor and Liz

Annie in her Winnie the Pooh hoodie she refused to take off, even when it'd heated up to well above 70 and the sun was out, and I finally peeled it off her, despite her screaming protests, as I did not want to add heatstroke issues to our vacation.

Nathan happily perched up on his pack, with Chris doing all the heavy lifting.

Annie and Connor enjoying Yellowstone Lake

Dang, this kid has a cute smile!

Aunt Andrea getting even more shots of these kids running around, getting their feet wet, while wearing their awesome Junior Ranger vests. (I can't wait to see what's on her camera! It's the only one I don't have access to yet!*)

Annie, Aunt Andrea and Connor back at the campsite . . . the kids happily snacking on trail mix & string cheese. Dietary staples of the trip.

Grandma Ruth's Camera
Here's the whole gang (minus Ruth, who's obviously taking the picture), upon spotting our first deer.
Greg, Ellie, me, Annie, Liz, Nathan, Connor, James, Chris, Andrea & KC
This picture probably wins the prize for having the most family members in it.

OK, Annie and Connor are the two cutest little blonde cousins in the whole wide world. At least, in my opinion.

Greg packing an Ellie.

Uncle James & Aunt Andrea down by the lower falls . . . only a select few made it on this 350+ stairs kinda hike. Liz and I were chasing kids around by the bathroom, and the rest of the men were lost trying to find the right parking lot to pick us all up in.

Nathan, with about the messiest face possible, with his Daddy.Ellie sportin' the latest in keep-yourself-toasty-warm-even-in-35-degree-weather pajamas.Connor with a bowl on his head.

Ellie enjoying a Costco breakfast muffin that is roughly the size of her own head, while in her snugly warm snowsuit/pajamas getup.The kids in their awesome Junior Ranger vests.

*I would have Aunt Andrea's photos, as she's very good about passing them on to me . . . but she's on some Caribbean cruise right now, and has more important things to be doing than burning me CDs.