Moved In! ...sort of.

So, we've been in our new house for about a week now. We still have LOTS to do, but we are pretty much settled in. We still have a garage full of stuff. But lots of it will go in the storage building, which has yet to be purchased. We have lots of yard stuff and things that just go in a garage. We still live out of a few boxes and I need to get going on unpacking some other things that are laying around. Our new frige is in and making some good reverse osmosis water and ice. I don't really care one way or the other but Daddy sure has a preference. He loves it. Our new kitchen floor goes in on Friday and maybe some new appliances then as well...a new dishwasher for sure and probably a new stove and microwave. We still haven't picked the ones we want yet but we've narrowed it down at least. I still need to make a trip to Ikea and get a desk for our bedroom. The computer is sitting on a few boxes until then, and I'll also pick up some light fixtures for the kitchen, maybe dining room, and entry. I will also be hanging blinds in the kitchen, dining and living rooms. Fun... Hanging blinds is not high on the list, but the other ones are gross. I finally put up the Christmas tree on Sunday and Papa Joe and Daddy spent most of the day Saturday on some random repairs and upgrades on the house...e.i., some extra outlets here and there, a new potty for our bathroom (the old one was fine, Daddy didn't like the shape of it much), and they also put up Christmas lights on the house! It looks great!

Anna LOVES her room. I hear her, when she is supposed to be in bed, rummaging through her toys and her closet looking for things to drag out. The funny thing is at nap time she tells me, "Mommy, turn tha light off!" She has a big window with one of those half circle things above it. The light really comes in her room during the day. I tell her that I can't turn off the sun during the day. Her room at the other house was pretty dark during the day with all the foliage covering her windows. But out here in new house land, there are hardly any big trees. Sad, but I'll compromise since it's a new(er) house!

I'll post some pictures once I get the place looking like we really live here and aren't just spending the night. :)

Chef Anna.

Nana has a little kitchen that Anna just loves! She has been cooking us bacon, hot dogs, and warm milk. Yum. Oh, and calling Daddy and having hilarious conversations with him on the phone.

Moving day...

SO yesterday was the official "get the heck out of the house" day...the day before our scheduled closing. We had to have everything out Thursday night since the new owner of our house would be doing his "walk through" the next morning at 8:30. We have been been slowly moving into the new house over the past week and man, we had lots of crap. Although I knew that before we started packing.

Note to self: don't buy another house with three garages and a storm cellar if you're not planning on staying there forever.

We have the most amazing friends and family. Nana has been back and forth all week either tending to Anna or helping pack. Papaw pulled his flat bed trailer over and helped load yard and garage stuff and move it to the new house..then pulled it back today after closing. Papa Joe came to help with repairs to the roof as well as other random things. Grammy also pitched in by helping with Anna, packing and cleaning. Our freakin' awesome friends helped with tree trimming and roof repairs, and all of them came over last night to clean the entire house after getting everything out. They all were working as soon as they hit the door last night and had it completely clean (spotless!!) in about an hour and a half. That includes baseboards, blinds, ceiling fans, spots on the carpet, and the garages have virtually zero dust thanks to Matt's shop vac. Thanks SOO much guys for everything. Andrew and Cristin, aren't you sad you missed it? Ha! I was exhausted by the time the movers got done moving the furniture (@ about 7pm)and was SO grateful we have such great friends to help clean up. We would have been up all night.

We got to meet the buyer of our house at closing. He is a single guy, a colonel (apparently by his title on his checks), young, and is extremely excited about his first house. He looks like a guy that will take good care of it. We thought it was a law student and his wife that were actually going to live there, but it turns out that the wife of the law student is the single guy's sister. She helped him find the house. Get all that? Either way, as long as I think whoever is going to be there will take care of our cute little house, I'm good. And like it matters... But we're pretty attached as you can see.

Right now, we're officially homeless. On Monday we'll close on our new house and until then, we'll be staying with Nana and Papaw. So if you need me, my cell phone probably won't work.

Our last night.

It's the last bath in the bathtub-less bathroom... The last time we put Anna in her bed for the night in the only room she's ever known... The last time I'll only have to walk 6 steps to her room to give her cough medicine in the middle of the night...

We've been so busy packing, cleaning, and fixing things lately. I thought we'd never sell our cute little house, and we had begun plans to close in the attached garage (we had 2 more anyway) to make a master bedroom and another bathroom, as well as split the sunroom in half and make a big laundry room and mud room. With all those pricey estimates lingering in my head, we were off to Orlando and BAM! Two calls from a realtor telling us she was showing the house. Then another one letting us know she was showing it again to the same couple. I thought, "YES! Finally someone who appreciates the character of an older home...and it's quirks." Then when we got back from Orlando, we hear from our realtor that we'd have a contract coming in by the next day. I think my heart did sink a little. Daddy's did as well. So after a couple of counter offers we accepted what they proposed and off we went. Then came the feverish search for just the right house...and FAST. We looked at almost 30 houses in just a few days before finally settling on a great one. It's much larger than the old one and Anna's bathroom is almost 3 times the size of the ONE we have now. AND it has a bathtub...check that...TWO bathtubs. ...Well, not two in Anna's bathroom... The master bath has a garden tub. Words such as "master bath" and "garden tub" were enough for me.

Everything seemed to fall right into place for us after we wrote a contract for the new house (built in 1999, not 1956!). They accepted our offer right off the bat (which was ridiculous we thought, but wanted some wiggle room), and they are letting us do just about whatever we need to do as far as moving goes. The house is vacant so they let us move stuff in a week early. We have movers coming to get the furniture tomorrow and we don't even close on the house until Monday. We close on the old house on Friday so that makes us homeless for a weekend. We'll be staying at Nana's house. Anna won't have any problem with that.

Speaking of Anna and her problems lately. Her world has been turned upside down! Almost literally. We all are living out of suitcases since our clothes are in the new house, most of her toys are also at the new house, she wants to go potty at the new house all the time (she loves her new house), there have been many different people in and out of her domain in the last week that she's not too sure about, and now she has to adjust to sleeping in a strange place...but a COOL strange place. Her new room is super cute with a vaulted ceiling and HER OWN CLOSET! That's right friends, she didn't have a closet...OR and bathtub! It's a sad thing. The great thing about Anna Banana is that she doesn't care one bit. She's been in huge air-flow tubs and still comes back and loves her bubbles in her toddler tub that she hardly fits in. I guess that's just kids for ya.

Wish us luck at both closings and that we'll get ALL of our crap out of the old house in time. Yikes!

This girl's a pro.

I would consider Anna technically potty trained. She hasn't had an accident in days and goes to the potty by herself whenever she needs to go. I don't have to ask her anymore, she just either tells me and goes, or just goes on her own. She's been doing great and she even took a nap in panties yesterday and stayed dry. It's also pretty pointless to put a diaper on her ever anymore since she just pulls it off to go to the potty and finds panties to put on. She DOES NOT like to potty in a diaper. She even held it while we drove from the grocery store to Lowe's and then had to walk to the other end of the store to find the bathroom. Such a big girl. She has been either dry or almost dry in the mornings when she goes to the potty after she wakes up from the beginning so we'll be just putting her to bed at night in panties very soon. I woke up today not feeling the greatest ever, I got Anna her milk and told her if she needed to potty, she can take her diaper off and put it in the trash and then go. I laid down on the couch and dosed off for a little while. (You know, one of those half awake/half sleep naps where you can hear everything that goes on). When I (sort of) woke up, Anna had put her diaper in the trash, gone potty several times (I was in and out for about an hour and a half....I know, bad mom), and was about to go again all by herself.

We are pretty much good to go on the poop issues we had early on as well. She sometimes still thinks she needs to poop, then sit on the potty, nothing, then says she's done. She repeats this several times until she finally gets it all out. But lately she has realized that when she needs to go, she better go and get it done. YAY! We go see Daddy's family tomorrow which involves a 3 hour drive. I guess I'll just take her little potty with us and pull over when she tells us she needs to go. I'll let you know how it goes.

The Cepica Family

I needed a serious break from the potty business and this family so kindly asked if I'd do their family pictures for them. It was a quick session and we had some fun throwing the frisbee and chasing the geese. Well, the kids did. And these boys, Grant and Graham, are SUPER cute. Here are a couple of my favorites.

Boot Camp: Day Six & Seven

Day Six: Parent's Day Out. Hmm. Well, I thought this day would either go very smoothly or would be a disaster for Lindsey and Nicole, Anna's teachers. Lindsey, the fearless, told me to put her in panties if I wanted and that they'd be able to handle it. I had no doubt they'd handle things, although I doubted Anna's ability. So we went in panties. I gave instructions as best I could and off I went. Anna's stubbornness had once again kicked in the day before and she didn't poop at all. So I thought there may be poop issues for Lindsey and Nicole to deal with. I didn't feel good about that at all. But, nonetheless, warned them about that and they were fine with it. I came back that afternoon and learned that Anna had had two accidents and only pottied for them twice. Not horrible, but not great. I asked what kind of accidents and of course one was poopy. Yuck. Poop in panties?! I should have just told those girls to throw those panties away if that happened. But Lindsey, the fearless, kindly cleaned them and placed them in a bag for me. Anna also pooped again in her diaper during her nap. So, no poop progress that day... But I figured that there was just too much happening around to worry about going to the potty very consistently.

Day Seven went alright. We've just had horrible timing it seems with the sale of our house and trying to find another one to move into. We had to find one quickly since the closing date of our house is November 30th! Happy Thanksgiving to us! That comment was sort of sarcastic and sort of not. So between hauling Anna with us while we house shop and/or having her stay with Aunt Jenni, there's been a little inconsistency for her first week of boot camp. Aunt Jenni is a pro with her 4 other kids and Anna does great with her, I just feel like carting her around everywhere and sometimes having to put her in a diaper just in case has not been beneficial. So we'll keep going. We went to Old Navy, Chili's and the Mall yesterday. She told me a couple of times she needed to potty, I took her, and she went! And another time, I took her without her telling me and she went then as well. So there is light at the end of the tunnel. She's getting much better. It has just been a tiring and stressful week for all of us. I'm going to try a little MyraLax in some juice today. Nurse Jenni says that'll cure the poop issues right up! Temporarily.... ha!

Boot Camp: Day Four & Five

Yesterday went GREAT! Not one accident. Well, we won't count the very small amounts of wetness she had in her panties after yelling at me and running to the potty so I can help her get on her seat. She is really starting to realize when she needs to go and that she can hold it for a little longer. Today went alright. She was great all day even while I have to cart her around and kill time while our house was being inspected. She tried to go potty at Target and at the mall but no luck, but no accidents. She even fell asleep in the car in panties and didn't have an accident. I took her later on to look at houses...no accidents and I never took her to the potty. Although the problems have begun when she needs to poop. She hasn't quite mastered that one yet even though she did it several times when she was 18 months old or so. She will tell us every couple of minutes that she needs to poop, runs into the bathroom holding her bottom, sits and does nothing. I'm not sure if she's been holding it in all day and it begins to hurt her or what. But that's usually when she'll have the little bit of wetness in her draws. Who knows. Maybe I just need to give her a ton of fiber and help it out in that way. She also had a couple of (just wet) accidents tonight while playing a little too hard. I think it was also poop related. Poor thing will be carted around tomorrow too when we go look at more houses. I hope she does alright.

Boot Camp: Day Three

Ok, yesterday by about 11:00am I was ready to quit all this potty mess. Really. But after her nap, she did kind of alright. I decided that I had been putting way too much pressure on her and myself and letting everything get to me. I mean, she has never not been in a diaper her entire life! I forget that part. So this morning, Anna woke up with a pretty nice cough and runny nose so we decided to let Daddy stay at home with her while I went solo to church. A nice break for me as well. Daddy is MUCH more patient with her and she seems to respond well with him helping. He and Anna met me and some friends for lunch and he told me that Anna had done great all morning. Since then she has had NO accidents! That's what I said...NONE...all day! She went almost every time I or Daddy took her to potty and even told us a couple of times that she needed to go. Amazing?! I think so. I'm trying to not get my hopes up because who knows what tomorrow will bring. And I still don't need to put so much pressure on everyone. Deborah, the Boot Camp Queen, gave me some encouragement at church and reassured me that she really will get it soon, and probably sooner than I think. I just need to be consistent. So wish us luck for another good day!

Boot Camp: Day Two

I need a serious pep talk.

p.s.-Thanks for the advice Jenni. I need all the help I can get.

Boot Camp: Day One

Well, it has begun. Potty training boot camp that is. And this MUST be what hell is like. I suppose it could have been worse. Anna could have pottied in her panties and on the floor every time she needed to. But there were two times that she actually went in the potty. The rest of the times played out mostly like this:

Mommy: Anna, do you need to go potty?

Anna: Nope.

Mommy (a few minutes later): Anna, do you need to potty?

Anna: No.

(Mommy then turns her back for a second)

Anna: Mommy, I tee-teed! (in her panties and on the floor)

We went to Chic-Fil-A for a quick lunch...go it to-go of course. Anna was in panties and I wasn't ABOUT to have an accident inside the place. We came home and I got her out of the car. I asked her if she needed to potty, she said "yeah" so we came in quickly and as soon as we got into the back door, she let it go. She didn't make it. But at least she told me. So that was ok.

The only times I really caught her were just plain luck, I think. I put her down for a nap in a diaper just in case. She woke up with a dry diaper and I asked if she needed to go potty. She didn't really answer, but I put her on it anyway. She instantly went. Hallelujah! There is some hope! By then I was already frustrated and thought this boot camp thing would never work. But you know me...I'm not patient at all. I had to remind myself that it was only halfway into the first day almost every 5 minutes. The other time involved a little luck (I think) and hopefully a little experience...from the both of us. I settled her into bed after another accident just before putting her diaper on for the night. I smelled something not so pleasant from under the covers. She had not pooped all day and I know she sucked it all back in a couple of times when I caught her in a mid-squat, red face position. So when I smelled the unpleasant smell, I asked her if she was poopy. She said no, but then said, "Mommy, I'ana go potty." Another Hallelujah! But then I came back to earth and thought that this would be another 20 minute pep talk while she made faces at me while sitting on the potty...and never doing anything. I ripped her out of bed and shucked her pants and diaper. She sat and sat complaining, "Mommy, my tummy hurts!" Um, yeah...ya think? After a little while of sitting she FINALLY pooped. An almost adult sized poop folks! This thing made a mean splash! Ha! But Hallelujah! "Mommy, I feel better" she said. Um, yeah...ya think? So she's back in bed now. Day One complete. They say this could take up to 2 whole weeks for them to really get it and be consistent. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

I'm off to do an almost full load of laundry...all pee soaked panties, pants, shorts, and towels.

Arrrrgh!

Anna was a pirate for Halloween. I made it back from Orlando just in time to rest a little and get her dressed and over to Aunt Jenny's annual Halloween Trick or Treat party. We had lot so fun. Daddy was very disappointed that he missed Anna Trick or Treating on her own for the first time because his flight got in late. Last year she didn't really care about anything but the suckers. Of course, she wouldn't stand very still for me to get a cheesy posed picture, but these will have to do. She has a few smiles that are very fake and just funny. She did a great job walking up to each door, knocking, usually after they had the door open for her, almost walking into everyone's house as if she were invited inside, saying "trick or treat" and "thanks" when she got her candy, and running off yelling "CANDY!!" while she tried to keep up with all the other big kids. It was great! Halloween is awesome!

The last hoorah!

Daddy had a conference in Orlando and I went along for the ride. We left Anna with Nana and Grammy for 6 days. Sad, I know...the parents went to Disney World and left the kid at home. But we figured that she wouldn't remember much about it when she got older and we'd rather take her then and us know where to go and what to do. It was AWESOME! I was reluctant at first about going, but decided that this would sort of be the last time I'd get to go anywhere for a long time since we have another kiddo on the way. I would've regretted it if I had stayed here. So here's a short (as short as I can) run down of what all we did. Thursday, the long plane ride to Orlando. Airplanes were NOT made for pregnant chicks...not that we are the majority. Ha! Friday: Drove over to Cocoa Beach (not Koko, found out that was in Hawaii, I think). It was a gloomy day, as were most of the days we were there, but we didn't care. Then we went to Wal-Mart and bought all kinds of groceries so we didn't have to eat the super expensive resort/tourist food. Saturday: We drove up (about 2 hours) to Jacksonville for the Florida vs. Georgia football game. Super COOL! We didn't have tickets for the sold out game, drove up there not knowing if we'd get any, found a FREE parking spot right beside the $25 lot. There were $40 lots as well. Ridiculous. Walked the mile to the stadium, found a really nice couple who said "they'd get us some tickets" for the price we'd be willing to pay which wasn't much over face value. The couple turned out to be the cousin of the defensive coordinator for the Florida Gators. We got sweet seats! Watched the game along with 85,000 other screaming fans. It seriously was the loudest game I'd ever been to. These were REAL fans! Florida ended up not playing well and lost...but it was great anyway.

Ok, I'll do better about being short for the rest. Sunday, I rested while Daddy went to his classes. We then got tickets to the Magic Kingdom for "Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party." And it was AWESOME!! We got to trick or treat around the park. There were tons of people dressed up. We watch the Headless Horseman and his HUGE horse gallop down the "main street" in front of Cinderella's castle. Halloween was about to be bumped down on my favorite holidays list, but it's definitely back up to near the top now! I felt like a kid with my eyes wide open the entire time. We stayed until the park closed at midnight and didn't want to leave.

Monday and Tuesday Daddy has more classes so I got some more much needed rest in the resort. We went to Downtown Disney both nights to walk around, shop, and eat. This place is everything Disney and more. We got Anna a Mickey Mouse baby that comes with his own clothes and blanket. She loved it. We ate at the Wolfgang Puck restaurant (so good!), saw the Lego store with the huge Loch Ness Monster all made of Legos in the water and the tourists also made completely of Legos. They even had a big area with bins full of Legos for kids to build their own stuff...and even a little race track for them to race the cars they made. Daddy thought that was super cool.

We had a really great time!! We are already planning on bringing Anna and "number 2" (Daddy also calls him "Spike"...not sure why). We thought we'd wait until they are around 6 and 8 years old. That's a long time from now but we want them to get the FULL Disney experience, and remember it. And that's probably how long it will take us to save the money to go!! Ha!

Ultrasound.

Finally....after like 12 tries I got the thing to scan. So as you can see, it's a boy! It was funny because the woman stuck the ultrasound thing on my belly and I immediately saw the "boy parts", as she labeled them. She looked at me and asked again if I wanted to know what we were having. I said, "yes, and it looks like a boy to me!" She laughed and said that I was right. We were in the ultrasound room for like 30 minutes while she tried to get a good picture of his face. He kept hiding his face with his arms and moving around so we couldn't see him. He wasn't shy about showing us everything else though. Ha! The woman had me turn over a couple of times to see if she could get a better look, and I finally just had to go to the bathroom to see if that would help. It did for a short time and she was able to get a couple of face pics. She said that he was moving around a ton and was having a hard time keeping up with him. I still don't think he is as active as Anna at this time. But he's not a still baby by any means.

Heredity Sucks.

Yesterday a cold front came through in the afternoon and by that evening it was pretty cold and windy. Anna has has a few sniffles because of all the dust flying around and, as always, demanded on going outside after dinner. So we put some warm clothes on and her hat and she and Daddy went out to throw some acorns. She loves it for some reason. Of course, she then needed to run back and forth across the yard many times...in the cold, windy air. I new what was about to happen. Anytime Anna starts to run and play a little too hard she starts to cough. A little thing called Exercise Induced Asthma. I have it and struggled with it anytime I ran, played basketball games, etc. One who has it, knows what it's like and knows what it looks like. My dad also has asthma, worse than me, and not just exercise induced....as does one of my sisters. So I knew there was a good chance Anna may have it too. The cold weather last night of course did not help her breathing and just as soon as I saw that she was running around, I called her and Daddy inside. She immediately started coughing and coughed so much and hard enough that she threw up right as they got inside the house. Yep, that's what happens with this. So there you have it. A non-medical diagnosis. That's what she has. There's not much you can do, I don't think. Just make her slow down a little every now and then. Heredity sucks. (picture taken before she puked..)

Chocolate, Chai, and Cheetos.

So, when I was pregnant with Anna, I was all about eating anything healthy. This wasn't because I was a super health freak, it's just all I wanted. It made me feel better to eat fruit and veggies...it felt clean going down if you can understand that. Well, this time around has been a little different. I still want all the good stuff (meaning the healthy stuff), but I want other things too. Like Cheetos! Those are SO good. Daddy suggested that I get the Baked Cheetos since I was wanting them so much. Anna and I have eaten only 2 bags so far. In the last few months I guess...so that's not really that many. But sometimes I just want some Cheetos. Next thing that I don't think I had much at all of while pregnant with Anna was Chocolate (it must be capitalized). I need something Chocolate almost every day. I usually get it by cramming some semi-sweet Chocolate chips in each bite of a banana or something like that. So it's really not that bad of a snack. Antioxidants right?! Ha! And lastly, Chai lattes. I've had about 4 today. If you've never had a chai latte, go get one. It's freakin' good. I think of it only as a cool weather drink. I've never had egg nog, but I think it may be a lighter version in taste, without the eggy part. SOOO GOOOD... So there you go. My randomness for the day. If those of you who haven't seen me during this pregnancy, don't worry. I'm not as big as a house as you might have imagined with this blog post. I've gained about 5ish pounds so far and am more than half way done. But wish me luck that that 5ish pounds doesn't turn into 70 in lightning speed!

New game.

Anna has started a new game. She rounds up all the "pi-whoas" (pillows) off the couch and chairs a a few from the bedrooms and piles them all in front of the blue chairs in the living room. She then climbs on the blue chairs and counts to a random number...usually starting at 3. So when you hear, "3-4-5-6!!!" you know to either get out of the way or brace yourself for a crash. She jumps off the chair as high as she can and onto the pile of pillows. Sometimes a blanket makes a good cape. We'll let you know how much a 2 year old's broken arm costs soon. HA!

Rescue?

The box of washable (thank goodness!!) markers said "Creativity to the Rescue". We've got the "creativity" part down, now I'm still waiting on that "rescue".

Note to self: don't leave a 2 year old unattended for any length of time with markers.

Happy Cake!

Anna is TWO! We had a family birthday party on Saturday and she had a blast. It was so different than her first birthday since she could really enjoy lots of people singing to her, tearing into her "happy cake" and really liking it this time, blowing out the candles herself (without the planned practice session that I totally forgot to have with her), and opening her own presents! Here are some of the fun moments.

She must have come up with "happy cake" on her own. I thought Aunt Jenni taught it to her since that's where she gets lots of her cute words. But Jenni denies it and I know I've never said it. She calls anything resembling a cake or cupcake "happy cake". This is the reason for "happy cake" written on her personal cakes. I looked at those pictures today and thought I could've totally gotten more creative with decorating her cakes...but what's the use? She ripped that thing to shreds and ate most of it! I went to clean up her mess and looked for the missing chunks of cake on the floor and in her chair. She really ate most of it!

She also got some of the coolest gifts ever! Grammy and Papa Joe gave her some sweet new shoes (Nike shox-size 8! and some nice ones), some cute clothes and pjs, and some Wonder Pets DVDs. Nana took her Sunday clothes shopping and got her some super cute dresses since she has grown out of everything lately, and Nana and Papaw also gave her a mini Ikea chair for her to watch all those Wonder Pets episodes in. Aunt Jenni gave her some Aquadoodle accessories and some cute shirts for the fall and winter. Daddy and I gave her an Aquadoodle mat that mounts on the wall and a little travel color Aquadoodle. I wish I invinted that thing. I'd be a millionaire. And Krista came by later that day and gave her a super cute book titled "Fancy Nancy", a purple feather boa, and a magic wand. So she made a haul!

Can my girl read?!

I seriously doubt it. But today, we were going to the UPS store to deliver a bike thing for Daddy and we walked by the AT&T store. Anna said, "Look Mommy, A-T-T ball!" I was like, "WHAT?!" Did she just read that sign? There's no way. I went through all the possible ways she could have known that without really reading it... and the only way could be that she watches WAY too many commercials.

Unleashing her inner-spaz!

I'm SO bummed I couldn't get a picture of this... but here's the story (and it's probably much funnier if you were there). On Saturday afternoon I went out to get the mail and saw a card clipped onto our mailbox from our neighbors across the street. It was an invitation to a worship service that was going to be held in the front yard of our neighbors'. Interesting I thought since they had just had a kegger the night before at their house. HA! I shouldn't judge. There was also a little note inside the invite that said something like "out of respect for our neighbors...let us know if you have problems with the music." I suppose that meant the volume. So late in the afternoon Anna and I went out to "draw pichures" with sidewalk chalk and to watch the commotion like good neighbors. :) They set up their keyboard synthesizer thing and speakers and practiced their Tejano/English worship songs. When it finally began that night Anna had a BLAST! We just sat on the front porch and listened and danced. She was seriously gettin' down! Several times she was dancing so out of control that she fell over. I tried so hard to get the video camera and get her do it again, but of course the song was over by then and they were doing a slower song. But just picture a toddler doing the Elaine (from Seinfeld) dance. It was awesome. The scary thing was that her dancing is a direct interpretation of the way I dance, which I guess is pretty spastic!

Anna takes over.

This post is a little overdue since these pictures have been sitting in my camera for weeks now. I still thought they were blog-worthy.

Anna must change someone's diaper at least once a day. It may be Baby's diaper, seen above, (who remains almost naked to this day since we can't find her real diaper she came with...and she looks almost anatomically correct. hmm.), it could be Tad's diaper, Puppy is always fair game for a new diaper, and even her hard plastic puppy with the leash may get one once in a while. But her favorite part is putting the "med-cine" on their bottoms. She says "Baby's bottom hurts. I put med-cine." Ya think a kiddo that has this down needs to start potty training? I think so...

Sneezes are good.

I don't have a picture of this since it happened so quickly...and you probably wouldn't have wanted to see it anyway... This morning Anna got on a small sneezing rampage. She sneezed like 5 times saying "bless you" after each as she walked closer to me. On the last sneeze, she blew out this big wad of kleenex that she had apparently jammed up into her nostril. She had been blowing her nose while watching Wonder Pets a few minutes earlier. I had no idea that she had torn off a piece of kleenex and stuck it up there (or at least I think that's when it happened...maybe it had been up there for a while and she was trying to get it out). At least nature finally took care of it. It probably would have just sat up in there and rotted.

"What's Gonna Work...Teamwork"

Anna favorite, favorite TV show is Wonder Pets. She wants me to "push butts" and change it to Wonder Pets all the time. They only come on a couple of times in the morning and and now that they have switched around the line-ups on all the channels, it comes on at the same time Elmo's World comes on Sesame Street. So we have a choice to make every morning. She almost always chooses Wonder Pets. It must be the animal lover in her.

(I have a cute picture but the stupid thing wouldn't let me upload it. I think my camera surpasses my computer in many ways...)

"Mommy, it's messy."

Eventhough our house is on the market (for the rest of our lives), the house is still never clean. It may be clean for a couple of hours, but then Anna needs to drag out everything, laundry needs to be done, and dinner has to be cooked. So then, since we live in every square inch of this house, it's a disaster again. Yesterday, Anna was walking through the kitchen while I was doing some dishes (really, I was!). I heard her say, "Mommy, it's messy." I then heard the pantry door open and looked up to see her with the broom sweeping the floor! Now that's just sad if an almost 2 year old decides it's bad enough that she needs to help out. Hey, at least someone is pulling some weight around here! HA!

"Just open your purse..."

Alright, you don't have to tell me (again) how bad of a blogger I am. I have no excuses as usual...

But here's a funny story. Today we went to church. We were going to be adventurous and go to the first service and then visit a class when we'd usually be in the second service. So, as usual, we woke up just past when we needed to to make the first service and ended up being late to the second service. That's all beside the point of this story... So for some reason I got Anna ready before I got ready. She was dressed with her hair fixed and everything. She played around while Daddy played on the computer and I got ready. Daddy put Anna in the car and I put my makeup on on the way (another typical thing). We took Anna to her class to play and went into church. Afterwards, Daddy went to pick Anna up from her class and I followed after being stopped to chat. As Daddy and I met in the hallway full of people mingling and picking up kids, Daddy quietly asked me to open my purse. I looked at him like, "why?" He said "Just open your purse....I have a certain undergarment that needs to go into your purse without others seeing." I looked at him like he was crazy but opened my purse. He dropped a wadded up sports bra into my purse. Of course I had to ask where in the world that came from. He said that the woman teaching Anna's class found it on Anna while changing her diaper. !!??? WHAT?? Apparently she had slipped it on and pulled it up under her dress where we never saw it. Whenever there is laundry sitting around the house (always) she tends to play dress up with whatever she finds...and many times it's my undergarments....clean ones of course. Ha! So I know when Daddy picked Anna up and was also handed a bright teal colored sports bra he was totally embarrassed. I think it could have been MUCH worse, but it's still pretty hilarious. Anna never acted like anything was different. I just hope there weren't teal straps hanging out the bottom of her army green dress while we walked in this morning ...and we never had a clue. We'll be checking her for "extra clothing" next time we go anywhere. And maybe I'll put up the laundry more often!

First Report Card.

Here is Anna's first report card! As you can see, the first day of PDO was great. No crying when I dropped her off, she ate her lunch (well as much as usual) and played, and even took a real nap on her nap pad with puppy! ...a nap with other kids in the room?! I don't know how they did it! Thanks Lindsey and Randa!

Kamie

We did another experimental photo shoot with my friend Kamie on Sunday. Here is one that isn't too blurry. I was pretty shaky because I didn't eat in time...I was talking too much. So many of the shots were blurry and I didn't know it until afterwards. Another learning experience... I thought this one turned out alright.

PDO, Here we come!

I've been debating on whether or not to enroll Anna in the Parent's Day Out at our church for a while. Since I've been a little sick and not in the mood to play constantly or go outside in the heat, Anna has been a bit frustrated with me. Yesterday I realized that it was the day to register for PDO so I just picked up the phone and called to ask a few questions. And I SIGNED HER UP! But just for one day a week...Thursdays. The price is pretty ridiculous (I mean CHEAP)and it's from 8:45-2:45. So I just went for it. Daddy even suggested putting her in for both Tuesday and Thursday. I said I'd check on it, but Sandy, the woman in charge, acted like they only had openings for Thursday. After I signed her up, I started feeling guilty about it all and thought that I was just being a lazy mom. But then I smacked myself back into reality and thought, "She'll have a great time playing all day with other kids and just getting out of the house for almost an entire day!" Daddy also gave me another reason to not feel guilty. He said that I could work on my photography stuff or whatever and maybe feel like I have some time for it. One more plus with this PDO, Lindsey, Will's mom from past photo shoots, will he Anna's teacher! Since Anna has been going through some separation anxiety (hopefully very temporary), knowing Lindsey will help lots. I'll let you know how things work out this Thursday. I'm excited for her but hope she doesn't scream the whole time asking "Where's Daddy!! ...me!" She's been putting a random "me" at the end of sentences. Who knows?

All the girl wants...

IS A REAL STINKIN' BATHTUB! Isn't this just sad? (and kinda blurry)

"You OK Mommy?"

As I rested my face in my hands this morning while Anna and I sat and watched Elmo's World, Anna leaned over, put her hand on my shoulder and said, "you OK Mommy?". I told her that I was fine and that my tummy wasn't feeling well. So as I rushed to the bathroom and rested my elbows on the toilet seat. Anna ran after me and said, "Mommy, you alright?" She's so sympathetic.

Catch up.

So since we've had a crazy last couple of months, here are some slide shows of things I haven't posted. Sorry, I know it's not the best way of letting you know what's been happening, but it's all I got right now. A little summary for this slide show: We had some friends coming over from out of town and I put Anna down for a second nap after she only had a 15 minute nap earlier in the day. I got her up a little before our friends showed up and she decided that she hadn't slept for long enough. She just layed down in the floor and fell back asleep. This girl needs her sleep! Next, Anna loves her hair stuff and she wanted to wear all of her headbands at once. Daddy let her put them all on herself. Pretty good attempt I thought. Last group of pics is from Nana's house. She played with her markers lots and loved to color her face and hands as well. Good thing they were washable!

The next set of pics is from an area natural spring were we had a cousin's birthday party. Reagan's birthday location was a hit with Anna! It had lots of waterfalls, a fishing hole, and the spring fed right into a great pool with a very shallow end. I'm on my knees in these pictures. The water was 52 bloody degrees and Anna just loved it! She jumped in over and over and paddled around with Uncle Jon and the kids. She ate lots of watermelon, took a tour of the springs, and played in the creek. After the party everyone went back to Nana's house to play and eat some more. The rest of the pictures are from Nana's house again from when we were there a couple of weeks ago. It rained while we were there so Anna needed to splash in the water/mud puddles. She even kissed and held a frog! This slide show is long so click on the plus sign to speed it up.

March 10th

No luck with the ultrasound pictures... You really can't see anything exciting anyway besides that there is just ONE kiddo in there. YAY! One shrimp sized alien looking kiddo who was throwing some mean left hooks and karate kicks most of the time we watched. Different movements than when we had Anna's first (well, second) ultrasound. She just jumped around like a frog and turned flips. But they said everything looked fine and my dates were pretty much exact. Due date March 10th. A little over a week after my oldest sister is due! And Mom, you know it will be earlier than that so we'll shoot for your birthday! Ha! I'll see if I can work on the scanner soon. But really, you're not missing much.

I'll be there in a minute...

As of just now, Anna has been put in charge of her own nap time and bedtime. Ha! Just a few minutes ago, after having an argument over eating the rest of her lunch, I asked her if she was ready to go lay down with puppy. She said "yes". So I said, "Go get puppy and I'll be in there in a minute." I was trying to get the ultrasound pictures to scan on our dumb computer. She came back in with a blanket and puppy and asked "ready to go mommy?" I said, "Ok, be there in a minute." Well, things have been a bit too quiet for the last 15 minutes or so while I forgot about going into her room...I got to looking at photography stuff online...imagine that!? I went into her room. The lights were on and no Anna. I went to our room and looked on our bed, nope. I looked on the couch and there she was...passed out!

Strip!

Ok, Anna's newest trick is to strip all of her clothes off when she is in her room. I've either put her in her room because she is in trouble or she is trying to get some attention after waking up from a nap or in the morning. Occasionally, or at least since she was almost 18 months old, she would take her shirt off or her pants. Yesterday we put her in her room because of a huge fit she was throwing, she stopped crying and I went in to ask her if she was ready to be nice. She had taken her shirt off and her pants looked a little odd, but were on. I asked her if she was done crying, she said "yes", and then reached behind the door and pulled out her wet diaper. She had taken her shirt, pants, and diaper off, then put her pants back on, backwards. What in the world? So I guess we really need to get serious about potty training. She was interested a few months ago, but really hasn't been since then. I mean, she'll go in the bathroom, want all of her clothes off and want to sit on her potty, but she just sits on it for a couple of seconds and is "all gone...potty". So I just assumed that that wasn't quite enough interest on her part. Apparently it is. So I've just asked my friend, Deborah, who is the potty training queen, for a little education on her ways. She doesn't use pull-ups, which I don't really want to use for several reasons. But who knows, it may resort to that. Hopefully we can do it the way Deborah does it.

Sorry y'all.

Thanks for all the comments on the last post. Lots has happened since I wrote last, and sorry it has been a while. Well, not that much has happened. We've put our house on the market so the urgency of a clean house at all times is upon us. Not one of my fortes. And since I haven't been feeling so great, Anna and I decided that it would be best to pack up some stuff and head to Nana and Papaw's house for a few days. That way I don't have to worry about cleaning everything all the time. And most of you know how I feel about dishes. So we left Daddy with some instructions on how to leave the house when he goes to work and headed on out to the farm. I know the house is immaculate since Daddy isn't there a lot and I'll bet he's taking advantage of his extra time by riding his bike. So I don't think he misses us too much. Although he has sounded a bit concerned when I told him I didn't know when we were coming home. :)

As far as I know, we've had no showings yet at the house. Not such a good sign since that means we'll be working on a price drop soon. I hope someone out there thinks they just can't live without our house soon. Anyone interested?! Ha!

Big Sista!?!

Yep, that's what I said. Anna will be a big sista in march. I was going to have her wear her "big sister" t-shirt I made her and take a good picture, but it has taken me forever to even post this that I just gave up on that idea. I'm about 7ish weeks along and am feeling fairly well. I haven't had much sickness...just a few moments here and there and only one full day of feeling cruddy. I just HATE the empty, "I MUST EAT something" feeling that is there all the time. And when no food is very appealing, it gets annoying. So hopefully everything goes well from here on out. I'll go for my first ultrasound on August 15th. Let's just pray there isn't more that one in there!

Finally...

At last! Anna's big girl bed. She LOVES it. She sleeps in it all night and even later in the mornings. I had finally mastered the art of keeping her in her room and in her crib since she had mastered climbing out. Daddy had a chance to go to Grammy's house to get the sweet antique bed and Nana bought the awesome mattress and bedding. We are SO spoiled. And Anna thinks she is such a grown up in her big bed. She loves to jump in and curl up under all the covers and lay on her "pi-whoa" (pillow). The funniest thing that we've found is that she actually does get out after we put her to bed, but it's not to try to escape. In the morning we find many random things that she collected the night before to sleep with. You may can see a hairbrush, several books, a couple of extra blankets, the bag of goodies our "Italian" friends sent us, and two babies. Weird child.

Those Cool "Italians!"

We have SUCH cool friends. Our friends who currently live in Italy (but will soon be moving back to the States) sent us a surprise! They know how much of a bike freak Daddy is and how we would've killed to have gone to the Giro d'Italia race this year. They just happened to be in the area where the time trials for the race were taking place. They were going to see Romeo and Juliet at an arena there. So they stuck around in the rain and got some awesome souvenirs for us! They got Anna this pink t-shirt and some other "preddy neckaces" or over-your-head key chains. ...whatever those are called. They took pictures and also sent some more Italian coffee and goodies! I tried to take the pink t-shirt off of Anna and she wouldn't let me. Thanks guys!

Hair and Makeup.

Anna got a couple of my makeup brushes while I wasn't looking. I was in the bathroom getting ready, so I'm not sure how I didn't see her get them. She snatched them and went to the living room where she gave herself a full makeover. Maybe she can get a part in Mary Poppins as a chimney sweep? She wanted to make some funny faces for the camera.

I lost count...

Ok, so, this "getting out of the crib" thing is getting ridiculous. As you know, Anna has been waking me up in the morning after climbing out of her crib. These mornings have been MUCH earlier than "normal" mornings when she didn't get out. When she stayed in her crib, I think she would wake up when Daddy was getting ready for work, then realize no one was going to come get her so she may as well go back to sleep. So now that she can get out whenever she wants, she comes and get me at between 7:00 and 7:30am. Not so much fun for me. But I'm getting used to it. Night before last at 3:39am Anna came running into our room. She ran over to Daddy's side of the bed, climbed up and snuggled under the covers. I thought, "NOPE! We're NOT starting that!" I'd rather suffer a little now and stop that (sleeping in OUR bed) from ever being a habit than take the easy way out. So I got up, pulled Anna out of the covers, and put her back in her bed. You can guess what happened after that...I lost count of how many times she jumped out of bed. She would hit the ground and be at her door before I got back to our bedroom. And some of you know that it's only like 4 steps from her door to ours. I'd threaten her and follow through with my threats, but nothing seemed to phase her. Each time I'd tell her to stay in her bed, she'd reply, "K" and grab puppy and cover up. But would go into hysterics when I left the room. So finally (as Jenni suggested) I sat down in the middle of the floor and waited until she went to sleep. She just didn't want me to leave her. Weird coming from the child that MUST be left alone when she sleep (to benefit both of our sanity). After Anna went to sleep, I crept out of the room. She woke up one more time, but stayed in her crib (I think). She was there in the morning at least... I'm sure we'll have more of these episodes, especially when we get the "real" bed. Wish me luck that no one gets hurt.

The Fourth.

Anna had a good time at the parade. The parade is always pretty underwhelming to all the adults (well, me at least), but my sister put it best, "It's not for us..." I always wondered what was SO exciting about those mediocre floats with unknown people waving at everyone, the firetrucks and ambulances blaring their sirens just as they get right beside us, the the half melted candy thrown onto the street after the horses pooped there and the street sweeper trucks smeared it around... ahh...parades. Anna was mesmerized. There were so many things going by to keep track of.

After the parade we went home to eat some lunch and take a nap. Next stop was to a family's house to cook out and have some fun. Of course Anna needed to get some serious air on their trampoline. This girl is a champ on the tramp! Ha! We didn't get any fireworks this year. We just went to a local show that had some good "pops" as Anna called them. She really was a little scared when the neighbors started popping about a trillion black cats in a row, but warmed up to them quickly when she saw how cool they could be! ...the big ones I mean.

A real sentence!

Last night we were out in the backyard (a.k.a the wildlife refuge). We (I) started blowing Anna some bubbles to chase and the wind immediately caught them and blew them over the arbor. Anna said, "Oh! Where you going bubbles?!" That was a for real, grown up sentence! No choppy randomly put together words, no "happened?!" as she would normally say, no prompting with me asking where they were going. Nice one kiddo.

She also, out of nowhere, has been saying "umm" a lot. I'll ask her a question and she'll get this kind of blank look on her face and say, "Umm.." then (usually) answer the question. I don't know where she got it since Daddy and I hardly ever say it. At least I don't think we do.

Anna's Wildlife Refuge

This morning when we went outside to load the car, I heard something knocking and rustling on the door of the cellar. I thought, "Ah, another stupid cat..." Then I looked around Anna's wagon and car to find a big ol' turtle! Where in the world?!!.... Well, we do live close to a park with a small lake. I suppose it could have made the long trek down the alley (about a block) and across a semi-busy street to our back yard. But how in the world did it get in? ...and wander all the way up to the back porch on onto the storm cellar door? Who knows? What is that in turtle distance anyway? I had a pet turtle when I was younger, but my pet was MUCH smaller than this one and I think it may have been the same kind. Harmless, I thought. It's shell was about a foot across (longways) and it looked a little ticked off after seeing me and Anna. Anna tried to touch it's shell and it "ran" a few feet away. It was actually pretty fast! And that REALLY freaked Anna out. It made lots of noise as it scurried across the cellar door with it's claws and shell banging around. Anna ran a few feet away as well yelling at the turtle and at me ...something about "OH, MOMMY! TURTLE COMIN'!! WHERE'S PUPPY?!?!" There were a few more "words" in between all of that as well. Those were the ones I made out at the time. So I told Anna that the turtle was scared and that we needed to take him back home. We loaded up the turtle into Anna's wagon and took him back to the lake at the park. We got lots of attention from other kiddos and parents while we freed the turtle. We even got some much needed help from some boys that were really interested. Anna kept a safe distance away while the turtle went back home. When we went back home she couldn't figure out why we left the turtle at the park. She kept looking at the empty wagon saying, "Oohh turtle?!" All of her dramatic sentences always begin with "Ohh!" We may as well just declare our back yard a wildlife refuge.

Wake up call.

This morning Anna came and got ME out of bed. While we were out of town, she had been climbing out of the pack-n-play out at Nana's and Jenni's houses. She attempted to climb out of her crib a couple of times (that I know of) at around 14 or 15 months old where I caught her straddling the top rail. I "informed" her that that was not a good thing to do and she hadn't done it since....again, that I know of. So this morning, I woke up to some talking and giggling that sounded oddly close to our bedroom. I got up and looked out the door and saw Anna's door open. She then zoomed through the hall and said, "Mommy!" excitedly. I never heard a body hit the floor or anything. I figured it would be a traumatic event when she finally figured out how to climb out. But she's a pro-climber. I called Daddy to tell him and he described it best..."We taught her well at the park." That girl will climb up and down anything at that place. And it's no sissy park. There are many times that I am reaching as high as I can to spot her on things she is climbing on. She's a nut and I guess decided that the crib would be cake to get out of. So much for holding out of the big girl bed as long as possible. We're going straight to a twin bed.

Popcicles are the BEST!

"Paw-cicles" after our daily trip to the park.

Handmade Waterpark!

It's actually pretty pathetic. I've been wanting to put Anna's slide into her pool for a while and was waiting until I knew she was REALLY wanting to swim for a while until doing it. So yesterday, when it was SUPER hot outside, we did just that. We made a "wader-side" (water slide). I strategically placed the hose at the top of the slide and set it to mist. It looks pretty professional I think! Ha! Don't tell anyone I had water running because of our ridiculous water restrictions...ha! Kiss my butt city counsel. Anyway, Anna had a blast. She almost flew off the side of the slide once and giggled the entire time.

Carnival!

Anna's weekend was filled with playing with cousins, eating junk food, and riding carnival rides. Well, I think she just rode the carousel. She really wanted to ride the little roller coaster but she was too short. I think the age/height limit was like for a 4 year old. So REALLY wanted to go. Here are some pictures of her fun with Daddy this weekend.

24 Hour Road Trip

This is a little late... We took a mandatory trip to Ikea this weekend. Jenni needed some shelves for her kiddos rooms that don't exist anywhere but at Ikea. Where else?! I wasn't going to go since I would have to take Anna with me. Daddy had a busy weekend and Anna had been at Grammy's house from Wednesday thru Friday. So I was kind of ready for a weekend without any stuff to do. But when you throw that magic word (Ikea) into a conversation, you've got my attention. Jenni convinced me to go with her and Nana right after finishing the garage sale on Saturday. We hopped in the car, got there just in time to chat a little, went to bed, got up, booked it to Ikea, and left for home right after we were done shopping. All that in a little less than 24 hours. And YES, I took Anna. She wasn't really on her best behavior after being spoiled at Grammy's house a few days before, so we had a few showdowns. We did learn that 4 hours is her max in the car. This picture demonstrates how far we'll go to keep that girl happy in the car. A sucker and a sticky big bird did the trick for a little while. Then we broke out the pen and paper. She'd rather use her leg to write on.

Toys everywhere!

We had a garage sale this weekend at our house. Well, Aunt Jenni and family did. They cleaned out all (ALL) of their kids toys and sold most of them on Saturday. We have had a few garage sales at our house that I have not participated in. We just live in a sort of central location with moderate traffic so we are in an ideal place for one. It's totally fine with me that I don't have to price a million little things. I just have to show up. :) And since it was a toy only sale Anna had a blast! It really helped that all the cousins were there to play with her. She fought Logan with a Light Saber (is that right?, not a Star Wars fan), rode on the big bike with the help of Ryan, and jumped around in the mountain of stuffed animals with Catherine. Sorry for the weird placement of the pictures on this one. I had the settings all wrong when I uploaded the pics.

It's a BIRD... It's a PLANE...

No it's just me..wearing a "Supermom" t-shirt. Megan's mom saw it at Academy and ONLY thought of me of course. HA! I think my sister who has FOUR kids while in nursing school needs one much more than me. But you have to admit it's cool! Thanks for sending it y'all!

Tomatoes anyone?

My tomato plants have been fooled into thinking that we live somewhere in the northeast... or at least somewhere that gets some rain on a regular basis. We have had almost 3 weeks of either a small shower, heavy rain, and/or humidity every day. So instead of me training my tomatoes to tolerate the dry heat and little water, they have been thriving in what they think is a rain forest. I have had to go out once a day and poke new branches back into the tomato cage because they have grown about 2 inches...in a day?! One of them is almost 4 feet tall, and that's measuring from the ground folks. These babies aren't in pots. Ridiculous I think. They all already have a few green fist size tomatoes on them (except the heirloom cherries of course). I hope they don't start to pop if we get more rain. Oh, and the weeds are growing great out there as well. They got a little taste of reality the last couple of days since it has been hot, dry and windy. Ahh, home sweet home.

Sorry y'all. This is the only picture I've taken since the last post. This is Anna in her "Elmo tent?" with her lantern. Most things she says sound like she's forming a question....that's the reason for the random question mark. And I'm not sure why her onesie is unbuttoned... Nana-send us some pictures!

"Go wimming?!"

After two "big pool" attempts and much frustration...ok, not that much, we went to Wal-Mart and got a plastic "wimming" pool. When I say "frustration" I just mean that Anna must be attached to me at all times or she is running and jumping into the deep end. We went to a friend's house who has a pool, I put her in her new super cool floaty. She liked it for a little bit but then wanted out. She refused to stay on the steps where she could touch. I was either having to throw her around, splashing into the water, or she was headed for the deep. So for days when we don't go to the big pools, we got this one. She loved it and plays for at least an hour at a time. YAY!