Spotlight Stealer.

The boy needs a bed.

Potty training.

Something we are NOT doing anytime soon...  But Grey has found this little round basket next to the potty in their bathroom that he likes to sit on.  Anna likes giving him pointers.  We were thinking seriously about potty training when Anna was Grey's age.  But it will be a LONG time before Grey will be able to grasp it...  Notice the little potty where Anna is resting her foot?  Grey likes the basket better.  At least there is another pro to help me out when the time comes.  Sorry for the bad quality images. Bleh.

Anna's world

10-13-05... Me sporting my swollen face and sleepy eyes.

Anna: 2 weeks old

I didn't know HOW many times I'd see this look since this picture was taken.  Probably thousands. Anna: 3 months

The acrobat.  Anna: 1 year

Fast Forward a bit. Anna: 3 years

She wasn't too cool with me laughing at her for pouring baby powder all over her face.  Anna: 3 years.

Our Anna at 4 years old.

Ashley Eclectic

Ok, I have started another blog...  Yes, seriously.  So that makes FOUR blogs for me.  Well, three, really... because one of them, my first photo blog, must sit idle in case there are any who have been directed there for info about my photography. "Why another blog?", you ask?  Because I'm obviously an idiot.  But here's the real reason.  Some creative friends of mine have started a Daily Art Pact, aka: DAP.  It's a daily challenge to creatively stretch our brains and post snippets of art based on and related to a weekly theme.  I'm not sure how well I'll keep up with this, although it sounds like such fun!  And sometimes my creativeness gets in a serious rut...ok, not just sometimes.  I will also post random other things that are not "kid" or "photography business" related on this blog.  :)  So here ya go... there's only one entry so far:

http://ashleyeclectic.blogspot.com/   

Edible Gold.

You would have thought this box contained gold or something else very valuable when you see Grey's reaction to it.  I bought some last night and put them next to the pantry on the counter.  Bad idea.  Well, I thought that he wouldn't see them since I scooted them back as far as they would go knowing that he'd try every way he knew how to get to them if he spotted them.  This morning, he turned around while standing next to the pantry and almost ran into the cabinets while reaching for them while yelling, "TEDDYS!!  ...  GET, IT!!!.....peeeze!" (as he rubbed his tummy, signing "please").  Hilarious.  He just got louder and louder as the SECONDS ticked while I opened them.   Sounded like a life or death situation...

Bump it.

We were at some friends' house and their son had these camo hulk hands.  Grey LOVED them.  We asked him to "bump it" a lot.  He thought that was awesome.

Anna's big day!

Anna had a big day on Tuesday, which was her "real" birthday.  We had to have several conversations about how her "real" birthDAY was on Tuesday and that we had to have her party on Saturday so that others that had to travel could come.  I'm not sure how much of that really soaked in, but we made it thru both Tuesday and Saturday without many major mishaps.  So the plan for Tuesday was to take both Grey and Anna to PDO.  I had made cupcakes the night before so that she could celebrate with her friends at "school" and thought that I may pick her up early to have some "Mommy and Anna" time.  Don't worry.  Nana was picking up Grey at the regular pick-up time.  We loaded bags, lunches and cupcakes into the car Tuesday morning and off we went.  About a block away from the church (PDO, "school"...all in one) Anna started complaining about her tummy and thought she needed to throw up.  If you know Anna, this isn't really a rare thing.  She thinks that ANY twinge in her stomach means puke soon will follow.  I blew it off and tried to convince her that she indeed was a hypocondriac (no, not really) and that she'd be fine.  She kept at it and I parked the car, looked back at her and saw her hand covering her mouth with oozing puke dripping down through her fingers.  Nice.  She was very sad.  So Grey started crying because Anna had started to cry... I pulled Grey out and took him along with the cupcakes inside.  Anna stayed, of course.

We went back home and got Anna cleaned up.  She was perfectly fine.  I think she drinks her chocolate milk too fast in the morning sometimes...  She was sad that she didn't get to eat cupcakes with her friends at school.  I had gotten one of the cupcakes from the tray, just in case, before I got back in the car to take Anna home that morning.  She decided that she wanted to eat it.  We put four candles on it and I sang to her while I took pictures.  :)

She chose to eat lunch with Daddy at Chic-Fil-A (that's my girl!).  Then it was off to a local clay studio where you can choose a cased item to glaze.  They'd fire it for you and it would be done in about a week.  She chose a dress hook (literally a dress with a hook) and a mermaid.  She really did a great job and I refrained from helping her much.  I just filled in some spots.  :)  The dress will look great, but the mermaid was a little more technical...  We'll see how that one comes out.

She loved painting and they even gave her some balloons to put on her chair which made her feel REAL special.  :)  She invited everyone there to her party on Saturday.  (We didn't know anyone there...)

Next we had some time to kill before our next appointment.  We went over to the toy store to look around.  The first thing you see when you walk into the store is this:

Anna's dreamland.  She stood in awe for an awkward amount of time staring at the princesses...  Then picked out every single thing on the shelves and asked for them specifically for her birthday.  We left the toy store (empty handed, because Anna is SO good about that!) and went to our next appointment, a pedicure!!.  I didn't get one, mainly because I'm cheap and also because someone needed to focus and take pictures!  :)  Anna didn't really know what we were going to do... But she acted like she'd been there a few too many times as soon as she saw the foot bath!  She sat in the chair and stuck her feet in the water like a seasoned pro.  Hilarious.

Purple with sparkles, of course!

Anna said at one point, "(Sigh...) Mom, my legs feel REALLY goooood..."

After.  I forgot flip flops for her to wear so she went barefoot.  Beauty has a price!  (Through her teeth, she's saying, "I'm smiling AND looking AT you MOM!")

Next stop was back home to rescue Nana from Grey.  They were outside playing.  And of course, Anna got a little crazy and messed up one of her newly painted toes.  Then Grey stepped on her big toenail and took a chunk of purple off the top.  Oh well...

Later that evening we took both kids out to eat Mexican food...Anna's choice again.  She wanted to "go to that place where we went with Papa Joe..."  Sure, we could make that happen.  She may have thought Papa Joe was going to be there...  Either way, it was a good place.  So we loaded up again.  Daddy had gotten Anna a couple of pretty sweet gifts and after dinner we let her open them.  But we had to wake the poor, sleepy girl up.  She was very tired.  Pedicures can wear a girl out!  Ha!

Aaaaaannnnnn-nnnnnnnaaaaaaaa......

Grey...along for the ride.  Get those fingers OUT Grey!!

A cool new soccer ball with butterflies!

And PINK shin guards!!

A pretty happy camper.

After dinner, we HAD to go to the park and play soccer with the new stuff!  Off we went.

And she's off!

I had a GREAT time with you Anna (like you can read...).  We'll do it again soon, and maybe not just for your birthday.  :)

p.s.-Jenny, please fix my stupid blog...or tell me how!  Thanks.

Anna is FOUR!

Anna had a big day today. It's pretty crazy. I was thinking today that this may be her last birthday that we will get to have where we'd just go do whatever she wants... No other commitments (like school or whatever). And it would probably be the first birthday that I'd remember as a "non-baby" birthday. My sister pointed out today that she couldn't really remember specific things about her kids birthdays...that they all kind of ran together up until their 4th birthday. She said it was like they were little people, all of a sudden, not just babies. It's true. Anna has really flipped her "little person switch" in the last year. It's been so fun to see her personality grow up even more. She had a big day today. More on that on the next post. But here are 10 things I love about my Anna.

1: Anna is the most selfless 4 year old on the planet. Seriously. I mean, she has her moments of thinking the world revolves around her, but about 90% of the time, she is thinking of others before herself.

2:Anna has the most self-control of any 4 year old I know.

3: She sings all the time...usually at the top of her lungs and makes up every word of every song.

4: Anna is a space cadet. She stares off into space several times a day. ...her own little world.

5: Anna is fearless.

6: She totally takes tremendous care of her little brother. I don't know what they would do without each other.

7: She tells the best stories.

8: She can swing herself on the swings (what 4 year old do YOU know that can do that?!)

9: Anna amazes me everyday with what she is capable of and what she really understands.

10: She has a crazy short and long term memory. I can ask her someone's name (because I really forgot) and she can think for a minute and remember it. She has told me stories that are 2 years old...from when she was 2. It's a little scary sometimes.

--there are so many more. I can't even imagine what our lives would be like without her. Without her, I'd probably be some boring museum scientist or gallery worker somewhere. She's the one that sparked my interest back into photography... We may have gone the military route and be halfway across the world by now.... We definitely wouldn't have Grey... I wouldn't have realized how selfish my plans for my life really were (not that you have to have a kid to realize that...that's just what did it for me)... We for sure wouldn't be at the church we are now and wouldn't know so many fabulous people... I wouldn't be hooked to medical tv shows (especially "Deliver Me")... ect...

I documented every second (almost literally) of our day today ...minus the puke in the car while dropping them off at PDO...(she didn't go to PDO, but Grey sure did!). I'll (hopefully) post them tomorrow!

If you see Anna in the next few days she'll probably greet you by saying, "Hey (your name here) guess what? I'm 4."

Nana and Papaw's.

We spent a couple days at Nana and Papaw's house last week while J was out of town. The kids always have a blast out there. They can run for a mile and it would be fine... since they'd still be in sight, literally. They played with the pine cones, played on the swings and big slide, roasted marshmallows, watched entirely too much tv, ate nothing but Nilla Wafers, crackers, M&Ms...well, that was mostly Grey, played with Reagan and Sage, and visited Jon, Lee, and Ridge. They also made about 800 trips down the curb thing along Nana and Papaw's driveway and played in the eternal sink hole near the road.