Taddle-Tale.

(Is that how you spell that?) 

Anna has become quite the taddle-tale.  Although she's not telling on others, she tells on herself.  Lately she's been very lazy with going to the potty.  I've tried everything to get her to just GET UP and walk to the bathroom without going a little in her panties.  She usually sits or plays until she just can't hold it any more, then realizes that a little made it's way out and then she goes to the bathroom.  Nothing has worked as far as punishments or rewards for not doing it.  I've started spanking her (it's a pretty pathetically light handed whack on the bottom if you ask me, but it's the act of a spanking that is so hurtful to her).  So here's where the taddling comes in.  She realizes that she's gone a little in her panties, runs to the potty and finishes, then comes to me and says, "Mommy, you CAN'T spank me."  Of course, I ask her if she's tee-teed in her panties.  She says, "No." Then I ask if she's lying.  She says, "Yes."  After I check to see if it happened again, we proceed with the punishment.

Speedlite fun.

There's not much that is interesting happening in this shot.  (Besides the fact that it's almost 10pm, Anna's STILL not in bed, and I had to tell her 26 times to stop bouncing off of everything to let me test my speedlite on her.  How dare she be so selfish!  HA!)  It's just the fact that I read one of my favorite photography blogs tonight and figured out some things about my sweet speedlite.  I have had NO idea how to work the thing since the manual is in some other language.  It's in English, but they are using photography words I've never heard before to tell me how to use it.  It's been frustrating.  Me Ra Koh's website/blog is SO good about speaking to people like they don't know anything, but not making them feel stupid about photography.  I HEART her blog.  Yep, I just wrote that...  Anyway.  I think this has led me to put in another spot on my blog that includes my favorite photog sites...just in case anyone out there cares.  ...probably not.  Ha!

Out of the blue.

Anna: "Mommy, you're my friend."

Me: (thinking to myself) "That's what I THOUGHT, sister!"

"Where we goin?"

I've started noticing myself telling Anna where we "might" go the next day when I tuck her in at night.  I think it may be because I think it may help her be more excited about going to sleep so the next day comes quicker.  So now when I tell Anna good night after reading her books she asks, "Where we goin?"  I feel like I need to make plans for the next day before I go into her room at night to read to her.  It is funny that she knows that we WILL be going somewhere since I feel like a prisoner in my home recently if I don't get out.  We burn lots of unnecessary gas.  $$$$$ Ugh.  Tonight I just told her to think of a fun place to go and tell me in the morning.  I said that I'd think about whatever place she thought of and we might go.  I'm thinking that it will be a tie for first between Nana's house and Jenni's house.  What do ya bet? 

Another conversation.

While we spent a few hours this morning/afternoon in the sandbox, Anna was giving me the plans for the day, as she normally does.  Here they are...

Anna: "Mommy.  After I play in da sandbox, I go to Jenni's house.  Then I go to Nana's house...by myself"

Me: "Really?  How are you gonna get there?"

Anna: "I take my car."

Me: "Hm.  Your car?"

Anna: "Yeah, but first we have to take da car to clean it.  It's dirty.  We take it to dat car wash."

Me: "Then what?"

Anna: "Then we go to get some gas.  Daddy come home with some money?"

Me: "No, Daddy isn't coming home with any money."

Anna: "OH! I go get some money."

Me: "You know where some money is?"

Anna: "Yeah.  We go get it.  Then we take the car to car wash then go to Jenni's house and Nana's house...by myself."

I'll let you know where she finds that money.

 

"I need a sandbox."

Anna has been saying "I need a trampoline, a swimming pool, and a sandbox."  Yesterday we came through with one of those things, a sandbox.  Well, Nana did, as usual.  :)  Thanks Nana!  We supplied the sand and toys.  Anna has NO backyard to play in.  There is a backyard, it's just not kid friendly yet.  We've been pondering the trampoline, and we'll go to Aunt Jenni's sweet swimming pool this summer to swim with the cousins.  We don't have THAT much backyard for all those things.  Daddy has been trying to teach Anna that she doesn't "NEED" any of those things.  She of course doesn't understand because she "NEEDS" everything.  Grey supervised the playtime yesterday.

Conversation...

We were sitting down at the table for dinner last night and...

Anna: "Daddy, you're my friend."

Daddy: "Really?  Thanks!"

Me: "Anna, am I your friend too?"

Anna: "No, you're not my friend.  Just Daddy."

Commando.

So...  lately Anna has been stripping down to nothing when she takes a nap.  Then when she wakes up, she gets herself dressed again.  Many times her clothes are on completely backwards or inside out.  That's how I know she's getting naked in bed.  Sometimes I know because I go and check on her to make sure she's really "trying" to go to sleep while her movie is on.  She's all covered up an I notice a bare shoulder poking out of the top of the sheets.  I ask her, "Why are you naked."  She just says something like, "I didn't want to wear my clothes."  Fair enough.   So my two year old daughter likes to sleep in the nude.  Nice.  This afternoon, same ol' thing.  She came into the living room after her nap with her shirt on inside out.  I thought, "At least she put her clothes back on..."  We went to Pei Wei to eat, then to the park to play.  Of course, she needed to potty while we were at the park and the restroom was on the other side of the park.  Daddy and Anna ran the almost half a mile to get there.  Once they got back, her dad looked at me with this funny look and said, "Anna's going commando."  I asked him, "Where did you put her panties?", thinking she had maybe not made it to the potty in time.  He said, "No, she didn't have any on at all!"  So we had been out for a while with a child with no underwear whatsoever.  You obviously couldn't tell...or at least I couldn't.  I put it all together.  She had gotten naked in bed, and didn't put her panties back on.  Next time, I'll check to make sure she has them.

Chop Sticks.

That is, the kind you eat with.  We got a semi-new Pei Wei in town and we go as much as we can.  Which isn't all that often.  Since we don't really have a kitchen sink right now and no way to do many dishes (dang.), we decided it would be a good time to go for some spring rolls.  I gave Anna some chop sticks to play with so she wouldn't be bouncing off the chairs and tables as she normally does.  She drummed with them a little, stuck them up her nose, etc., which she's done before.  We got our food and got Anna's ready for her including a choice of a fork or spoon.  She went for the chop sticks instead.  I'm not sure where she saw or learned how to use these things, but she picked them up, held them correctly, and picked up several bites with them!  What?!  I looked at her dad and was like, "What?...Where in the world did she learn that?!"  He didn't know either.  She kept going...  sometimes stabbing at the food with them, sometimes the sticks would get too far apart (you know when they do that to all of us amateurs), and other times she'd really pick bites up with them.  She was better at it than I am, which really isn't saying a lot.   

Tummy time.

Such a stupid phrase, but that's what it is.

A new episode...

Maybe I've finally figured this kid out.  I think I forgot how much they want to sleep when they are this little.  We've done better the last couple of days and I even took a NAP yesterday.  I had time to do it today too but dusted instead.  Bad choice on my part.  Ha!  I added a picture on the "it's a rerun..." post.  Grey still looks like that from about 6pm until he finally goes down for the night.  But at least it's not all day!

Vogue.

On Sunday we had an 80s themed/Going Away Party for the several couples that will be moving soon.  This is my friend Erin who will love me forever for posting this picture of her on the internet.  HA!  Your welcome Erin!  Photo taken by Teri Cepica.

It's a rerun...

...of Grey's Anatomy today.  Staring: Mr. McScreamy.

--this is for all of you who didn't get it.

Hint, Hint...

Anna and I were laying in her room watching "My Nermaid" (Little Mermaid) and she asked, "Mommy, can I lay down right here?" (on my legs).  I told her she could.  She then rubbed her face around on my legs, popped up and said, "Mommy, your legs hurt."  I asked, "My legs hurt or your legs hurt?"  She said, "No, your legs.  They pokey.  They scratching my face."  I guess I need to shave next time I'm in the shower.

Trampoline.

No we don't have one...YET! This girl seriously needs one, and fast! She has been jumping off of anything she can since she was able to. She loves Aunt Jenni's trampoline (especially when her cousins are on it with her) and has been jumping on it since just after she learned to walk. So maybe when our "economic stimulus" check comes in we'll get her one.

What a GOOF!

"HUH?!"

Anna has gotten into the bad habit of saying, "Huh?", "What?", and "Whud jew say?" Almost anything I say to her she replys with one of those things. It gets very annoying, especially when you know she heard everything you just said. The best is when I ask her to "come here" when she's in another room and she'll just say "Huh?!" at me until I go and get her. Ugh.

Funny Anna.

While we were at the "Dude Ranch" we woke up one morning to Anna telling us, "Hey, it's light outside!" Which means no more sleeping for anyone. She then asked, "Can I go swimming now?" I told her that we had to get ready and eat breakfast first. She asked, "But where's the table and the chairs and the food?" That was the morning we were going on the hay ride.

Bandera/Zoo Photos.

This is what Anna's hair does when it gets in some humidity!  AH!

As you can see, we had LOTS of fun in Bandera.  The pool was the best part for Anna and she fell asleep in Daddy's arms on the walk back to our cabin.  She was exhausted.  Her allergies kicked into full force while we were there so her eyes and nose were leaking the whole time.  I realized on the last day that there were never any pictures of me with Anna taken...not an unusual occurrence.  So I took a picture of my beautiful feet.  Random.

Like I said...

Anna was born a mother.  I was on the computer listening to Grey start to fuss a little.  She came running in and said her usual, "Mommy, he's mad."  I agreed and went on typing.  While she ran off back into the living room where he was, she said, "He needs to eat her bottle."  Not an unusual statement.  She's said it many times before.  Then a few moments later I hear, "Mommy, I feed him!"  Hmm.  I got up from the computer and walked (quickly) into the living room to see what was really going on.  Just as she said, Anna was sitting on the floor with Grey, feeding him his leftovers from his bottle as she watched her show.  Maybe I'll just ask her next time what I should do when he starts crying again.

Bandera.

This weekend Daddy, Anna and I went on vacation.  I almost had to look up the word "vacation" in the dictionary before we went.  Ha!  We don't go many places together, and especially with kids.  Grey stayed home with Nana for this trip.  THANKS NANA!  I really needed a break from the frustration and colic (or whatever his "deal" is).  Daddy has conferences at different places around the state and this time the conference was planned strictly for families to come together, kids or no kids.  We all stayed at the Mayan Dude Ranch in Bandera just outside of San Antonio.  I know... "Mayan" and "Dude" aren't two words that I would have put together, but hey...  Anyway, we had a very "country" cabin that we stayed in.  Ours had a couple of those creepy Madame Alexander doll look-alikes as decor around for decoration.  Those immediately were put away.  I'm really weirded out by those.  We also had an old "little house on the prairie" looking dress hanging on the wall.  Not sure why...  I almost wore it on the hay ride to dinner one night.  

All the weird things aside, we all had a good time.  It was nice to be reminded of what it was like only having one kid.  That sounds really crass, but I have felt like I take most of my frustration out on Anna lately.  So we've been not the best of friends the last few weeks.  Anna was awesome in the car.  All 14 hours (round trip).  We stopped in Fredericksburg and walked around, ate some German food, and Daddy had some German beer.  Anna sat on some cool fire trucks and played at the park.  At the "Dude Ranch" she got to swim at the super nice pool, and see lots of deer, horses, buffalo, and peacocks.  She got to go on hayrides to breakfast and dinner out in woods, eat lots of junk, and dance a ton with Daddy.  She didn't ever get used to the hills of the hill country.  She had a few spills that scuffed and bruised her knees pretty well.

On Sunday, we drove into San Antonio and met some great friends, Cristin and Andrew.  They went with us to the zoo where they got us in for FREE!  We really have SO many friends in high places.  You know who you are!!  Ha!  Anna loved the zoo...almost as much as Daddy.  Daddy wanted to see every single exhibit.  It was Anna's first trip to the zoo...is that sad or what?  We hardly ever take her anywhere.  :(  I'm not that much of a "zoo person", but I had a good time because everyone else was as well.  I just have bad memories of my last (and only) zoo experience.  It involved a very large bowel movement of an elephant that was standing WAY too close to the fence where everyone else was standing (splash), and a poor and very hot polar bear that I felt very sorry for.  

I'll have some pictures us soon.  Of course, I took over 100 pics so I'll have to widdle them down before I load them.