Annie-ism

"Mom," Annie sighed, "I was trying to pull out one wipe, but instead I got a whole fleet of 'em!"

Fleet? Really? Interesting . . .
(I had to ask her again what she said, to verify I'd heard what I thought to, and she replied, "Yeah, fleet, Mom. Like a whole bunch of 'em.")

Oh, That's Where That Camera's Been!

So, we have two cameras. The 'nice' one we usually use, and a spare, in case tragedy ever strikes our preferred camera. Apparently, we haven't used the older camera since a few days after Christmas, and I only came across it again this week. There were some cute pictures of the girls on there from December 28th, playing around in their dress up clothes from their Grandma's that I felt were worth sharing . . .

Princess Belle showing off Daddy's Christmas stocking that Annie made this last year.

Grumpy Annie in a frilly petticoat . . .

Angst-y Ellie in her Princess Belle dress . . .

Video of the girls dancing in their dress up clothes . . .

At an Impasse

Does someone else want to come over and explain to my 22 month old that her favorite Winnie the Pooh hooded sweatshirt needs to be washed (desperately), so she can't wear it right now?

'Cause I'm pretty sure the ice cream covered thing needs a spin in the washing machine, and Ellie keeps arguing my logic with a fairly convincing counter-arguement, "No! Lala! Lala! Lala Pooh!" (Lala being "Ellie", of course.)

Who wants to take bets about whether or not Ellie's wearing an ice cream stained sweatshirt when we take Annie to dance this morning?

(She's clutching it to her like a security blanket and hasn't put it down ever since she heard the word "washed" . . . it's definitely a defiant "only from my cold, dead hands" stance that she's taken.)

(Edited to add: Dang, we never did get to find out how that bet would've shaken out -- Annie started puking at breakfast this morning, so no dance for her today. I do have the sweatshirt in the wash now (and feel just a tad bit victorious about that), but a compromise had to be struck, and Ellie's walked around in nothing but her bathrobe since 8AM this morning.)

Just Call Her Anna

Last night, while Annie was having some angry tirade after being put in bed, Greg and I found ourselves amused (and confused) by one particular part of her rant:
"Everyone calls me Annie! I HATE that! Nobody calls me Anna! I just want my name to be Anna, but everyone calls me Annie! I should be Anna!" She's never once in the past expressed any interest in being called anything other than Annie (although she knows and understands her 'full' name is Annalise), it was just one of those things she latched onto and vented about angrily to keep herself awake just a little bit longer. And, of course, Ellie piped up with the occasional "Yeah!" (Watch, tomorrow night Annie will start complaining about us calling Ellie by 'Ellie' and start insisting we call her Ella (like Annie often does) or her full name of Elliana.) Ah, the indignity of a shortened nickname! Or, I guess more accurately, of being put down at 8PM for bed.


Oh -- I have a quick side note/poll for y'all, since you've all proven yourselves very useful in the past with piping in when I ask for your very needed and respected opinions! (Which, by the way -- thanks for all the input on the whole circumcision thing -- we still haven't decided one way or another, but it meant so much to have so many people comment and email their own personal opinions and experiences. Thanks!)

So, anyway. We never used much sign language with Annie. I believe it can be a very useful tool in developing speech and communication skills, but for whatever reason, my mother's intuition with Annie blared like a siren not to use it with her (after I'd gone out and bought books and stuff!) For whatever reason, it wasn't right for Annie -- my personal opinion is she would've even been more stubborn about speaking if we'd given her another communication avenue. It was really her frustration that spurred on her speech explosion. With Ellie, I never really thought about it one way or another. Ellie's obviously created some of her own, but it was only recently that we taught her any 'actual signs'. (Duh, I'm kinda slow.) And within one day of using the sign 'more', she started saying it. Now, you have to understand -- we've been trying to get Ellie to say the word 'more' for a good 8 months now or so, to no avail. Then, within something like 18 hours of learning the sign, she was saying the word as she signed it. Dang, that's some powerful stuff! So, I've taught her a few more signs. She uses a couple, but I'm really looking to expand our repertoire. And despite my own two semesters of Sign in college, I find myself fairly useless teaching her anything beyond the alphabet. Which is obviously kinda pointless at this stage. So, to you experienced parents/caretakers/involved aunts/etc . . . what experience do you have with toddlers and signing? Have you found it useful? What did you use to teach your child/learn it yourself? Is 'Signing Time' really the best? Have you found any other series you like more/as much? (I have several 'Signing Time' videos on hold at the library, and they should be here soon.) Was there some things just worth owning, or did you check out the videos you used? Did you switch videos often, or watch the same ones over and over again? Etc, etc, etc? Y'all see what I'm getting at . . .
Thanks in advance for any input!

Reason for the Season

Annie and I were discussing all the fun plans for this upcoming Easter Weekend, when I asked her, "Annie, do you know why we celebrate Easter?"

Annie excitedly answered, "It's like Christmas, Mom. They're both SO, SO, SO important, because they're both very Jesus-ish."

Probably Not the Biggest Deal

But I have gone one whole month without M&Ms.

Coincidentally, I only gained 2.5 lbs at this last prenatal appointment, and not the 8-9 I gained the month before.

Flattery Will Get You Everywhere

Annie can be very affectionate and loving lately. I already mentioned her using such tactics to stall bedtime, but she'll also just randomly come up and tell me she loves me and ask for hugs and kisses. (Ellie will too, but I've been a bit wary lately, as last time she came up and threw her arms around my neck, she reached down and BIT my shoulder! I have an actual purple bruise there now! Ouch!)

Anyway, I was putting on makeup, Annie was watching adoringly, when she suddenly gushed, "I love you so much Mommy! Like ten times as tall as a grown up! That's how much I love you! No wait, thirty times! No, forty!" Then she smiled and walked out. Only to come running back in, "No ONE HUNDRED times as tall as a grown up! Or about ten times as tall as a giant."

Miss Ellie

Last night, I was telling Greg all about Ellie's Early Intervention Intake/Evaluation experience, and I was sharing one story with him that had him laughing so hard that I couldn't believe I'd forgotten to mention it to others I'd talked to throughout the day!

At one point in the evaluation, the therapist had gotten out three objects: a shoe, a ball and a cup. She then asked Ellie questions about the purposes of each item. "Which one do you throw?" caused Ellie to grab the ball with lightening speed and chuck in across the front room. Impressively. The therapist even whistled and said, "Good arm!"

But my favorite moment of the entire evaluation was a perfect example of Ellie's personality and humor that came shining through during this activity. "Which one do you put on your foot?" Ellie immediately reached for the shoe, but then froze the second before she picked it up. A mischevious grin spread across her face, and she leaned over and grabbed the cup instead, stuck it on her foot, then lifted her cup-covered-foot up into the air triumphantly and gave the therapist her best "how cute am I?" smile.

Then, just for fun -- here's a picture of what Ellie's wearing this morning.
Yet another thing that'll make her Dad smile:

Big sister Annie ready for dance class (well, except her hair isn't pulled back yet -- I've been avoiding the freakout and tears until the last possible moment) and Little Ute Ellie sitting together in their respective thrones. They drag these chairs all over the house to set up court.

"Cheese!"

And then here's just a photo from an outfit she picked out the other day:

Little Miss Non-Verbal 2

Ellie's been stubborn about talking.

I've mentioned her massively impressive non-verbal communication skills in the past, and trust me, I'm not exaggerating. The kid can get her point across better than most adults I know.

But, of course, this emphasis on the non-verbal communication is in direct proportion to the lack of verbal communication.

I think she doesn't recognize a need for additional verbal skills, since she happily communicates all she needs to without the aide of spoken language. In fact, for a toddler who speaks so little, she has a shockingly few tantrums or breakdowns about it. She seems quite content with her speech abilities. Which makes it difficult to make her talk more :-)

I've been concerned about her lack on interest in talking, but not overly so . . . but lately she's started 'dropping' words. Things she used to say, but just doesn't anymore. She's also gotten VERY lazy about her pronunciation of words she used to say. Dropping speech at her age is a huge indicator of problems like autism, but nobody who's ever been within a thousand feet of Ellie would suspect the kid has autism. But, it's had me a bit worried to watch her digress. It's, well, disconcerting. You don't expect your nearly two year old to make backwards progress in any area, and it ain't fun to watch either. (Plus, I've been stressing myself out thinking, "She has to talk before the new baby comes!" But, at the same time, that's misplaced fear, as she communicates just fine, and we're not really in dire trouble or anything just 'cause she doesn't use a lot of words yet.)

I've spent the last couple months debating how much this worries me. (As background, there were several people very worried about Annie's speech abilities, and she was also labeled a 'late talker' by most who knew her. And look at the kid now. To think we ever worried! So, with Ellie I've been much more relaxed about it -- until it just started to get to be too much, and the Mom/Worry genes kicked in and I started to stress.) At times, in all honesty, it's made me break out in tears. As much as I hate to compare and contrast kids, 'cause it does nobody any good, I would sometimes watch videos of Annie at a younger age using, easily, a dozen or so more words than Ellie ever has, and tears would start to flow. (Of course, Ellie can scale heights, jump and run in ways Annie couldn't have imagined at this age. All kids are different, I know that. On an intellectual level.)

So, we talked to a Speech Therapist at one of the schools my Mom works at, just to get her opinion about it. She said that it seems like maybe she's a bit stubborn (sounds familiar), and that especially since Annie took a bit longer to get talking (and look at her now), there probably wasn't anything to worry about, but that I could call the Early Childhood Intervention people in the Jordan School District and talk to them. So, I called them last week, talked to an intake person and got her an appointment.

So, today, the Speech Pathologist came out to our house and evaluated Ellie. They were immediately smitten with one another. :-) Ellie had the time of her life playing games and such with the therapist, and the lady could not stop gushing about how funny, personable and just off the charts intelligent Ellie is. They tested her in seven areas.

There's a breakdown of all the numbers and such, but it's a tad complicated in the translation, so basically:

Her gross motor skills were very impressive. (Poor short Ellie was dinged on this a little, 'cause she doesn't do stuff like walk down stairs -- darn her stubby little legs that can't span whole stairs!)
Fine motor skills were at the very top of the charts for her age (this was all threading beads and stuff . . . the things she likes to do when she 'helps' her big sister make necklaces and stuff.)
Cognitive (her attention/learning) was great, on the high end of the normal range for her age.
Her receptive language (what she understands/comprehends) was also at the very top of the charts her her age. The therapist commented that she understood everything she said, and her vocabulary of understood words was incredibly impressive.
Her self help skills (problem solving, meeting her needs, getting what she wants, taking care of herself) was completely off the charts (basically the therapist kept testing her until she reached the four year old range, and just stopped testing her then.)
Her social/emotional skills also off the charts (again, she just stopped doing the tests once she hit about a four year old testing range).

At this point, the therapist is telling me she can't believe how smart Miss Ellie is (she called her Miss Ellie the whole time, it was really endearing), how she just understands absolutely everything, the vocabulary she understands is huge, how impressed she was with how well Ellie follows multiple step commands, how she can match anything and sort and organize and stack and everything else at levels well above her 22 months. How quickly she was catching on and learning new things. I was starting to think she was gonna say something like, "Um, thanks for wasting my time bringing me all the way out to your neck of the woods! What made you think this child would possibly need our help?!

Then the kicker.

Her Expressive Language Usage. She scored a 1. I don't know if a 0 is a possibility on the scale or not, but I'm thinking 1 was about as low as it gets.

Yeah, she's way behind on where she should be for her age in verbal language.

She's very lazy in her vowel sounds, and uses only about half the vowel sounds she should. She used a lot of consonant sounds, but not as many as she should, and she is also lazy in how she pronounces many of them and combines even fewer. (Like if a word has two different consonants, she'll just use one of them -- which is why horse is just 'es', etc.) There could be something actually wrong that's making these sounds hard for her to make/process/hear/etc. Or, she could just be stubborn and lazy. She doesn't have a lot of drive to verbally communicate, because she's comfortable with what she's able to communicate now. So, at this point the therapist wasn't sure what's causing the problem. We'll go in now for extensive hearing and other physical tests at the actual doctor's office at the district, and go from there.

Because of her score in this one area though, she does, in fact, qualify for in-home services. So, starting next week (after the physical) we'll have someone coming in and working with her. We'll start off just focusing on her making new sounds (not words). The therapist was saying she's pretty sure when whatever it is that's holding back to speech is taken care of, that whole huge vocabulary should come spilling out and we can expect her to be talking pretty much in complete sentences . . . we just have to get the words out of her head first!

So, everything I thought was confirmed. My toddler is an off the charts brilliant little charmer who wraps adults around her little finger. (The therapist was unbelievably smitten with her -- she could not stop gushing about how smart and charming she was.) But, that something's wrong in this one area. Maybe even really wrong?

The therapist left, and on one hand I felt like I was on cloud nine. What I'd thought was true -- she's intelligent and understands us and communicates amazingly, but she's not talking the way she should. I'm not worrying unnecessarily about this issue, but at the same time, my kid is an exceptional little toddler (they all are though). On the other hand, seeing the black and white of a score like a '1' was a blow to the chest that knocked the wind out of me. I mean, I knew she wasn't talking like she should be . . . but to not even make it on the charts. To be verbally communicating on the level of, what, a 15 month old? I was left with questions like, "Is something really wrong with her? Can she not make these connections? Or is she just stubborn, slow or just not ready in this one area?" And most importantly, "Can I be OK with this?"

I've always been a firm believer that all children are gifted. Some count early, some are budding artists, some can do things physically with their bodies that others don't accomplish until much later. Some are into numbers, some have fantastic memories. Some are amazingly empathetic and kind, much more so than their peers. But all children, have something they not only excel at -- but something that makes them truly gifted. With Annie I checked those stupid 'developmental charts' monthly. With Ellie, I threw 'em out -- 'cause they don't matter. Ellie's a gifted child. Like they all are. I don't need to know exactly where she falls on some chart in each and every category. But watching my child not even make it on the chart for something as basic as speech, kinda shakes things up. Brings into question my whole view of childhood development. Can I practice what I preach? Can I easily make peace with such a significant developmental delay? Will it bug me? Will I be able to look past it and see all the amazingness and not get hung up on a 'below level' diagnosis?

Well, here we go. I'll have help. I'll have specialists giving me advice on how to encourage Ellie. Which is what I was wanting most of all when I started the intake process. But in the end, we'll still just mainly be waiting. For whatever it is to 'click' for her -- whether it's a physical, emotional, lazy or stubbornish issue -- but at least I'll have a highly trained team of professionals telling me how freaking adorable she is the whole time. :-)

Wish us luck! :-)

Bedtime Stalling Routine That Actually Works

I was changing the laundry, in the hall outside the girls' bedroom, when I hear a soft whisper, "Mommy, I love you."
I peeked my head in (Annie knows my Achilles heel), and whisper back, "I love you too Bananie, now go to sleep."
She smiles and continues, "I love you as much as my soft, soft puppy pillow is soft. That's how much I love you."
Dang, that kid is good.
I went in and gave her a hug and a kiss, despite it being 20 minutes past lights out.

Self Esteem Booster

This morning, as I was getting ready, Ellie was diving into my makeup box, sponging on imaginary lotion, brushing on imaginary cheek blush, and slathering on very real lip gloss. Greg was playing with her, trying to distract her from anything too messy, but was a bit too slow when she grabbed my foundation and squirted it all over her hands. "No Ellie," Greg exclaimed, "You don't need any foundation! You're cute just the way your are!"

"Yeah," Annie piped in, "Not like mommies! They get out of the tub and don't look cute and need makeup!"

Thanks a lot.

Morning Dose of Controversy

My initial reactions to finding out we were having girls the first two times around was elation, followed by a dose of relief that was along the lines of, "Phew, we don't have to decide on circumcision yet." Finding out this time around we were having a boy was surprising, followed by a bit of a lump in the throat of, "Eeep, no more putting it off -- we're gonna have to really decide what we think on the topic."
So, for the last month or more, that's what I've been doing. Thinking about, trying to decide, on circumcision. Dang, it ain't easy. I mean, it may be for some people, but it hasn't been for me. I'd always kinda thought I'd do the whole, "I'll let my husband decide, him being the only other male in our home," thing and then we'd discuss the decision, but pretty much just do what was important to him. Problem is, he's as torn on it as I am. I can list pros and cons in the same breath, and never swing more than a fraction on an inch either direction from the very real line of "I have no freaking idea." One minute the scale of the circumcision is tipped just barely to doing it, and then a minute later, it's back to 'better to just leave things as nature intended.' I can list a plethora of reasons for either side, some that make Greg laugh out loud at me when I'm forcing him to discuss this at 12:30 in the middle of the night with me.

I'm not trying stir anything up, but if you have an opinion, and wouldn't mind sharing . . . feel free. Be nice about it and all, as I really feel like this is an important decision for each set of parents to make, but you know, probably not the single most important decision one will make in parenting. And these things tend to get ugly fast sometimes. But I would love to read (feel free to send links) what influences your thoughts on the topic!

Just a few of my very own random thoughts:
• Pretty much nobody really claims a lot of medical necessity anymore. Are there some things circucision can prevent? Yeah, probably. Some. Are those problems running rampant, sterilizing a generation of uncircumcised males. No. No, they're not.
• Are there risks to the procedure itself? Again, not rampantly, but mistakes do happen.
• Cultural /cosmetic /'norm' reasons make me feel kinda shallow. But, who says shallow reasons don't count for something? Maybe not everything, but something?
• What are the real cleanliness issues? I think the pro-circ camp overinflates these, as I think the body's system is designed to work intact, obviously, so basic hygiene should cover things.
• Who's to say boys are proficient at basic hygiene?
• There's horror stories from both camps -- but what stock should be put in horror stories? I need to base my decision on the norms of both situations, not the exceptions.
• There's a whole bunch of issues that bounce around in my head dealing with stuff I'm not gonna write about on the internet. :-) These tend to be the ones that get Greg laughing at me.
• Oh, and I immediately tune out/stop reading when parallels are drawn to female genital mutilation . . . it just doesn't work for me. Too different. I respect that some people see the two things in the same light, but I don't, and when it comes up in an argument (like on a website), I find something else to read.

(Edited to ask: If you've made this decision before, was it an easy one? Are we the only freaks who're agonizing over it like this? Was it a no-brainer for you? Did you start out feeling passionately one way or another? Anyone change their mind during the pregnancy from what was originally a strong stance? I'm so curious about how people arrive at their decision on this, since it's become much more difficult than I'd imagined!)

Annie the Martyr

So, Annie & Ellie have been down in bed for awhile. Annie has not stopped whining for a good 35 minutes now. On one hand, it's obnoxious, 'cause she's keeping Ellie up (and trying to drag poor Ellie into her drama). On the other hand, Greg and I cannot stop laughing.

Her initial complaints:
"I don't like Mommy and Daddy anymore! Ellie, do you like Mommy & Daddy anymore? Oh, well, which one do you like better!"

She doesn't like her new bed:
"I didn't want a new bed 'til I was four!" "Yeah," Ellie agrees. "But Dad took away my bed. And I'm not three, and I'm not a half or a three-quarters. I'm not a number!" A minute later, "I wanted a new bed when I was three! But I was wrong!"

More angst about her bed, and how she plans to 'show us':
"I am not going to lay down in my bed and cuddle. I am going to sit straight up. With no blankets."

On us starving her: (Dinner was an hour ago, she ate fine.)
"Are you hungry Ellie?" "No," Ellie responds. "Well, I'm hungry too! They won't feed us!"

Rationalizing her earlier behavior:
"Ellie, Mom says I was mean to you this morning. Do you know why I'm mean to you?" "Yeah," Ellie responds. But Annie insists on explaining, "To make sure you don't take stuff. I'm mean to you to keep you from being mean to me!"

On why she couldn't sleep:
"Everything hurts!" "What hurts, Annie?" "Um, like my hair!"

The one that made me sad, and almost go in there and put a stop to things:
"Ellie, I don't want you in here ever again. I don't want you in my room."
Ellie shrugged it off though, and just started singing 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.'

And so on and so forth . . .

Greg just asked, "Whose idea was it for them to stay up this late?"
Ya know, daylight savings almost seems like a good idea, when they're 'sleeping in' in the mornings . . . but after two nights of kids up 'til 9PM or later, I'm starting to get bitter towards the whole concept . . .

Typical Sunday Night

My family gets together fairly regularly -- and many of these mini-reunions are at my Aunt Judy & Uncle Jerry's house. Tonight I just happened to have a camera with me, and I 'documented' a typical Sunday evening at my Aunt's house, mainly from Ellie's point of view. (Um, I apologize to most of you for the mass amounts of pictures here -- to my sisters on the other hand, you're welcome!)

There was dinner to start with, of course. (Homemade soups and some rolls. Mmmm.) We eat well at these things. But then inevitably, my whole family ends up down in the basement, the land of the big toys . . .

Like the pool table, a favorite of Ellie's (with Aunt Talina)

Air hockey. An excited Annie was teamed up here with Star to take on Uncle David.

Uncle Cody joined in . . .

Annie takes air hockey serious . . . a little too serious . . . :-)

And there's fooz ball . . .

Ellie back to pool . . .

Annie staring up at the pinball machine, wondering if that's the next game to try out . . .

Unfortunately, the pinball machine is not currently working . . . so she needed some consoling . . .

Annie pointing out where Mom keeps the baby (and M&Ms and such) . . .

Eventually we're summoned back upstairs by the tantalizing call of dessert. In tonight's case, homemade cinnamon rolls . . .

Grandpa trying to explain to Ellie the finer points of the game of basketball . . .

It's not a family thing unless it ends up around the table for cards eventually. Here's Ellie helping Star keep score . . .

Everyone up to the table to play . . .

My Mom 'helping' my Grandpa play . . . she was probably cheating and checking out the competition before she bid on this hand. Cheater. (Kidding Mom!)

Star successfully managing a good hand, Ellie's coloring, and keeping Annie stocked with easily-openable-pistachios.

Self portrait -- just to make sure I show up from time to time. (Out of 280 pictures, I did manage to show up about 6 times -- it's a record, I think.)

Ellie played peekaboo with the camera for several minutes on the staircase. She was being so cute and cheesy.

Then she found a toy sword. She marched all around the kitchen slaying stuff.

Take that, kitchen floor!

She eventually got changed into some pajamas (and lost the hair elastic -- causing Uncle Cody to call her a troll doll), and played some music for us on the piano.

Then, in a tired/wired state, she found she could easily manage the teeny-tiny step from the hall to the front room (and then again, the one on the other side of the room, from the front room to the dining room). This caused her to run full speed from one side of the room to another, bouncing up the steps, jumping (then stepping down) the steps, for a good 20 minutes.

Annie joined in, and they started to race back and forth across the room.

Ellie thought this was about the most fun ever. When Annie tried to leave to do something else, Ellie started to search the house high and low, calling, "Sisser! Sisser?" until she found her and dragged her back into the front room for more running.

Annie usually won these races.

Eventually, after many snacks, seconds on desserts, and a lot of running, we all finally made it out to the van to go home. We were all very tired (this was at least in part due to the fact that we'd actually all hung out with my family last night too, and played cards and ate junk until far too late.)

On the drive home tonight, Annie manifested this tiredness by being completely wound up and talking non-freaking-stop (Ellie crashed and fell asleep within minutes -- like many kids who'd just run nonstop for the last several hours would tend to do.) She was funny when she got into a whole 'math kick', where all she did was obsess over numbers for the last 15 minutes of our drive. One of Annie's one-sided conversations went like this:
"Hey Mom. Mom! What is 2+2? [Not pausing long enough for an answer]. Four. That's easy. What is 5+5? Ten. That's easy. Mom, what's 6+6? [Silent pause]. Um, that's not easy . . ." as she trails off to think about it for a minute.
She then let us know that there were 50 fingers in the car. If you count Isaac's. :-) (Grandma's been working on counting by 10's).
Fifty toes too, in case you're wondering.

Voice of Reason

Greg and I were drooling over some Nikon camera at Costco. It was so pretty, and amazing, and on sale.

Of course, it's not going to happen. The yearly bonus and tax return has already been earmarked for such projects as:
a.) the rest of our fence and
b.) a shed to put the lawn mower in.
But it's fun to dream.

Today, Greg and I were joking about buying the camera, talking about how we've always upgraded cameras right before the birth of each new baby, so it's practically a family tradition. I asked our three year old, "So Annie, do you think Mom & Dad should go out and spend $1300 on a new camera?"

She looked at me for a second and said, in a kinda sweet condescending voice, "Umm, do we need a new camera Mom?"

Good point.

~~~~

In other news Ellie's speech seems to be making some leaps forward, at the same time she continues to lazily regress.

The most amusing regression: She no longer calls my Mom "Amma." She's called her grandmothers "Amma" for a good 6-8 months now. But suddenly, just in the last two days, she's over it. Grandma can just be 'Na' like everyone and everything else. You see, Ellie uses the word 'Na' much like Smurfs used the word 'Smurf'; it can be a noun, verb, adjective, whatever. Pretty much anything she doesn't want to say (most everything) is just referred to as 'Na'. Cookies, the sun, trees, sidewalk, a glass of milk. At some point in the past, she's pronounced such aunt/uncle names as: David, Andrea, Talina, Star and Cody. But for the last month or two, they've all just been 'Na'. We joke about this, tease Aunt Star and Aunt Talina for being interchangeable Aunt Na's. But for her to go from saying "Amma" a good 10-20 times a day, to poor Grandma being relegated to just another 'Na' shows a new level of Ellie's speech laziness.

On the flip side, about this same time that she's decided to abandon one of her most commonly used words, she's all about using some new names. Annie's stuffed spider (which is a much cuter toy than it sounds like) is happily pronounced perfectly, "Lulu". Aunt Andrea's cat that Ellie saw for the first time in several months today was immediately identified by her name, "Gigi". Ellie's been throwing around these new words/names with reckless abandon. Maybe if Grandma would just change or name to something catchy . . .

Healthy Eating

Healthy: The warm, soft loaf of 100% whole wheat bread that I made yesterday from scratch. Even ground our own wheat.

Less healthy: Apparently, I've single-handedily gone through better than half a cube of butter in that same time period.

Oops.

(At least it's not M&Ms!)

Little Miss Non-Verbal

Ellie's never gonna talk, 'cause there's just no need for it. That kid can communicate just about anything in the world with her amazing range of non-verbal communication skills.

We were making cookies as a family tonight. The girls had happily added ingredients (3 chocolate chips for Ellie, one for the bowl) and 'helped' by repeatedly cranking the Kitchen Aid to its highest speed, while we doing stuff like adding flour.

Suddenly, Ellie starts moving her pointed finger in a tight, rapid circle, then pauses and sticks her finger in her mouth. Greg and I both just stare at her for a second, then ask, "You want to lick the beater?" "Yesh," she replies with a huge smile.

(She recently transitioned from answering 'yeah' to everything, to "Yesssh." She really emphasizes the s, but still throws on an 'h' sound most of the time. It's cute.)

Proud Accomplishment

I'm proud to declare that I have now gone over a week without a single M&M.

This is possibly a record for me this pregnancy.

I even passed up bags of Easter Almond M&Ms on sale 2/$4 at Walgreens today. Just sayin'.

(Edited to shamefully add: The same cannot be said for wedges of grocery-store-bakery chocolate cake with copious amounts of frosting and sprinkles. Which I am possibly eating right now.)

So, I took a nap today.

Which is kinda unheard of. But the planets or stars or whatever aligned, and Ellie was down for her afternoon siesta while Greg was working on something out in his garage, and Annie was watching a movie (and then my sister Talina came over and entertained Annie and let me sleep until Ellie's waking cries roused me from my rare midday slumber).

I had put on my headphones, turned on my 'Deepening Hypnosis' track from my Hypnobabies CDs, and somewhere between the 4th and 5th deep breath, I was out like a light.

These hypnosis tracks have had this fantastic side effect of knocking me out at night, within minutes of turning on my iPod. This has been great the last few weeks, as I now fall asleep in 5-10 minutes of lying down for bed, rather than the 45+ that was becoming commonplace during pregnancy. The downside has been that I'm supposed to be following along with the CDs, and in the two+ weeks I've been listening to them, I have yet to stay awake for an entire track. In fact, the beginning-learning-to-relax tracks, I have never made it more than 10 minutes into either of them. So, I may never actually learn any of what I'm supposed to, to prepare me for labor -- but heck if these things haven't been worth every cent just for getting me to sleep at night!

Because I've Been Rendered Braindead

Between just normal pregnancy, and pregnancy insomnia, and two kids who refuse to sleep, my only hope of posting anything on my blog anytime soon, is to resort to a 'Tag' email post :-)

1. What is your occupation right now? I tried to think of something clever and all, but again, braindead. So, Mom.

2. What color are your socks right now? I never wear socks unless I'm forced to, by shoes that are designed for physical fitness. And frankly, I don't really wear those that often. (Add to that you can do prenatal yoga barefoot, and it's like there's almost no need for socks!)

3. What are you listening to right now? Um, "Joyful Pregnancy Affirmations" from my Hypnobabies CDs. I'm lame like that.

4. What was the last thing that you ate? Spinach, yogurt & blueberry shake. With flax seed. It's better than it sounds.

5. Can you drive a stick shift? I can. I hate to. Especially Greg's truck. It's evil.

6. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Probably my Mom. I was calling to ask if the girls could come over last night and play so Greg and I could run errands and go and get ice cream. Annie kept shrieking in the background, "Yeah, I want to go to your parents house! Let's go to your parents house! Let's go to your parents!" Ellie was jumping up and down, yelling, "Ampa! Amma! Ampa!!" The nice thing about these ages is you can drop them off to play with grandparents and they're just excited to play, and don't scream like you're abandoning them forever.

7. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Lisa, my old neighbor.

8. How old are you today? Thirty.

9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? On TV, probably football. Basketball or hockey, in person. I've found no reasonable excuse to watch a baseball game unless my little brother is playing it.

10. What is your favorite drink? I like strawberry lemonade, on the rare occasion I drink anything besides water.

11. What color is your hair? It's actually very cute right now -- my friend Emily added light highlights to my normally monotone brown hair.

12. Favorite food? M&Ms, but only during this pregnancy. M&Ms of any kind. The best is to take several varieties and mix them together in a large container, maybe throw in some cashews, and snack away for weeks. Actual food that's good for me -- Greg's homemade pizza, chicken fajitas with a TON of onions & peppers. Comfort food -- Hawaiian Haystacks.

13. What is the last movie you watched? "Knowing." With Nicolas Cage. Meh.

14. Favorite day of the year? Christmas.

15. How do you vent anger? When pregnant, probably cry. Usually I just vent talking on the phone with my Mom, Greg, or one of my sisters.

16. What was your favorite toy as a child? I don't remember.

17. What is your favorite season? Fall, maybe.
18. Cherries or Blueberries ? Cherries just to snack on, blueberries made into everything -- smoothies, desserts, baked goods.

19. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back? Sure, why not. I prefer that to sending out emails and never hearing back from anyone, obviously. Then I'd just feel like a loser.

20. Living arrangements? A perfect little house, with a great yard in an amazing neighborhood.

21. When was the last time you cried? Um, I'm pregnant -- definitely in the last day or so.

22. What is on the floor of your closet? Shoes, wrapping paper and tissue paper supplies, piles of tanktops/shade shirts.

23. Who is the friend you have had the longest not related to you? Chrystal, that I stay in contact with via the wonder of the internet. Probably Jessi, since our sophomore year of High School, that I see in person fairly regularly.

24. What did you do last night? Went to Marble Slab Company for ice cream with Greg. I kinda felt gypped afterwards -- $6 for like one scoop of ice cream?!

25. What are you most afraid of? One of my children being hurt.
26. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburger? I don't eat hamburgers. I'm a chicken kinda gal.

27. Favorite dog breed? Mutts, they're the cutest. A hypoallergenic one if such a thing actually existed.

28. Favorite day of the week? Probably Saturday.
29. How many countries have you lived in? Just this one.

30. Diamonds or pearls? Pearls in a necklace, diamond in a ring, but cuter, more colorful and chunkier is how I normally prefer my jewelery.

31. What is your favorite flower? Lilies, maybe. I don't know.

32. Favorite craving? Almond M&Ms

33. How many times a week do you eat chocolate? Daily, duh. I'm worried the amniotic fluid in my womb is the flavor and consistency of cocoa.

34. Biggest pet peeve? Right now, one year olds that dump their yogurt on the floor THREE times in one meal. (It's happened twice this week.)

35. Least favorite celebrity? I don't know.

36. Favorite? Still don't know.

37. Biggest goal for the year? Have this baby, handle the transition to three children smoothly and gracefully, drop some
38. Biggest goal for the day? I've cleaned the kitchen, frontroom, basement, bedroom, two bathrooms, and the girl's room. I plan on just having fun and relaxing the rest of the day!

Edited to add: I have now been out of M&Ms at home for over a week. I really, really want to go to the store and buy some, but since whole bags disappear in days, I'm trying to avoid buying them for as long as possible. I'll probably last another few days.

Be Still My Heart

So, I was filling up the tub, and stripping down two messy little girls in preparation for night time baths and hair washing, when my husband walked into the bathroom and said, "Hey hon, why don't you go sit down? I'll take care of this . . . "

Sigh. I love this man.

Happy Birthday Andrea!

Happy Birthday Andrea!

Greg's youngest sister's birthday is today! She's one more reason we're so grateful to live so close by so much family! The girls love to play with their Aunt Andrea, and Annie's been excitedly singing "Happy Birthday" to her all morning!

Here's Annie her first Christmas Eve with Aunt Andrea . . . when people ask me where Annie gets her curly hair, Greg's and my little sisters are exhibits A and B! Annie also has Andrea's ears -- I'm talking exactly, she has the same little dimple on the back of her ear as her Aunt Andrea does.

Andrea with the girls in 2008.

Andrea and Ellie at the girls' birthday party last May. You can totally see the family resemblance, right?

One of my favorite pictures from Yellowstone -- Greg and Andrea walking down one of the pathways with teeny tiny Ellie.

Andrea being tickled by Connor and Annie in Logan on the way home from Yellowstone.

I told Annie I was going to be putting together a blog post about Aunt Andrea's birthday, and she insisted on helping. So, turning the time over to Annie:
I love you and I love you over at Grandma Ruth's house. And I love Grandma Ruth too. That's what. Mom, why is Andrea having another birthday if she had one before with us [we had a birthday lunch on Saturday since Andrea's going on vacation this week] AND going to Disneyland for her birthday? [We had to take a quick break here while I explained the difference between a birthday party and an actual birthday.]
I love Andrea, she is very nice, but Uncle James tickles me. I love that she has two birthdays. I like that she plays without tickling us as much as Uncle James does. She has a cat! I can write cat, Mom. It's "C". And then . . . um. What comes next Mom? Nevermind, can we watch Cinderella?

So, there were the random thoughts from Annie to her Aunt on her birthday!

Then, my favorite part of all this, was Ellie was sitting on my lap, saw the picture above and said, "Annra!" (Something she hasn't said before). And then mimed tickling herself and laughed and pointed at the picture again.

Daily Calisthenics with Grandpa

My parents stopped by last night to see the girls. The girls got a pretty good workout, playing hard with their grandparents. Grandma & Grandpa probably burned their fair share of calories too! There was running around chasing a laser pointer light, endless rounds of "Ring Around the Rosies" (my poor Mom was really starting to look dizzy), running from the Tickle Monster (i.e. Grandpa), walking on the ceiling, and my childhood favorite: being bench pressed by my Dad.

Here's my Dad benching Ellie. We did this ALL the time when I was a kid -- it was all about balance, and seeing how long you could keep from being wobbly, before Dad would suddenly vault you into the air and catch you on the way down. Ellie would have pretty decent balance, if it wasn't for the fact she tries to 'bounce' the whole time she's up there.

Annie helping to steady Ellie.

Go Annie! No hands!

Then Grandpa got tricky! Team lifts!

Ellie's bouncing was making it harder for Annie to stay up straight and for Grandpa to keep them steady.

Annie put on her sunglasses, and informed us that we all now looked like rock stars.

Here's video of the girls being lifted up together.


Annie then wanted to try lifting people too. She tried lifting Daddy to no avail. She did a bit better with Ellie!


Ellie, much like a Labrador, will happily chase around after a laser pointer light, for long stretches of time. She'll 'catch' it under her foot (whoever is operating the laser pointer quickly turns it off when she steps on the right spot on the floor), then when she slowly lifts her foot to check it, the light 'escapes' and runs away again. It's great exercise, and highly amusing for the rest of us. Is that bad? :-)
On Sunday night though, she found she could dive to the floor and 'catch' the light in her mouth. Then spit it out forcefully and it would appear again and take off and need to be chased again. This was cracking us up to no end. So, we tried to get some video of it when she was doing it again on Tuesday. This was the best video we got. It doesn't do the whole scene justice, but it was was something.

(We were also doing laser shows on the ceiling with all the lights off on Sunday night with multiple laser pointers. Annie exclaimed that it was the best night ever.)

Then Annie practiced walking on the ceiling.

Update Lite

So, I really don't have anything to update.

I'm sure the kids have said cute things, full of precocious antics and adorableness. But all I remember lately is that they're sleeping like crap. Waking up repeatedly during the night. Teething, illness, nightmares, and falling out of bed. And I wake up each time. (My amazing husband actually goes in and takes care of them, I just wake up -- and then stay awake. For like an hour or more.) I'm tired. I'm entering another phase of my on again off again pregnancy insomnia. And it's causing PTSD-ish flashes of, "Holy crap, I'm going to have a new baby and I'm going to be so tired, and what was I thinking, and I just want to fall back asleep 'cause it's 3AM, but I can't 'cause all I can think about is how I'm NEVER GOING TO SLEEP AGAIN." The other night Annie was screaming 'cause she'd fallen out of her bed in the middle of the night, Ellie was screaming because Annie's screaming woke her up and scared her, and the baby was kicking furiously in my stomach and for the first time I thought, "Oh my goodness, there's going to be three of them. And they have the potential to ALL wake up at the same time and there's only two of Greg and I." Eeep!

This is where you can all assure me my next will likely be a great sleeper who loves naps. Right?