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.