And speaking on my behalf....

Anna is a social butterfly. Everywhere we go she talks to people and strikes up random conversations. A few examples:

A while back we were at the mall, and Anna was sitting in one of those little ride on trucks. I never put money in them and she still has fun, but once or twice other people have so she knows that it can be even more fun. She asked me for money and I told her that I didn't have any. A few minutes later I look over at her and see two women talking to her and laughing. Then they came over to me and told me that she was so cute when she looked at them and said, "May I have some money please?". Anna! No asking strangers for money!

Last night Nathan had a company dinner that went pretty late, so I ordered a pizza. When I opened the door for the delivery man Anna ran up behind me and yelled out, "Oh thank you man! That looks soooo yummy!". He just stood there like, um, okay.

This morning we went to the library. As we were checking out our books Anna looks up at the librarian and says, "You look like a grandma!". The woman could not have been older than 40, and she just laughed and said that she hoped she didn't look old. I tried to cover it by saying something about how Anna's grandma wears glasses too. Geez. Only slightly embarrassing!

Later I ran into Babies R Us to buy a gift for a friend who just had twins. While I was there I started looking at double umbrella strollers for our upcoming Disney trip. Anna, of course, wanted to sit in each one, so I was pushing her back and forth in one while I read the box. A little boy walked over and just started smiling at her. When his mom came up behind him Anna looked at her and said, "Hi, I'm Anna! That is Noah. And that is my mommy!" while pointing up at me. The lady was cracking up.

Lately I feel like I don't even need to speak anymore, because Anna will do it for me. No need to make introductions as long as I'm pushing the welcome wagon around town! I was a pretty shy child, so it's funny that she's so outgoing. I know as she gets older she might become a little more unsure of herself, but I really hope she can keep her confidence and her friendly nature. She is so fun to be around!

In that picture she is pretending to talk on an old cell phone that my aunt gave to me for Anna to play with. The phone can be charged and it lights up and makes sounds when you dial, but for some reason it can't make an actual call, so my aunt had to get a new one. I have considered charging it for Anna, but then I'm afraid I would have a 2 year old screaming out in public that, "my phone needs to be charged!". We don't want that ;)

Buster

Warning: picture overload. Many repetitive pictures of the same baby.

Another photo shoot after church. I walked in and sat Noah on the floor so I could get his food ready and he just looked so little and cute sitting there in his hat and blanket. You can really see those top teeth now!

Nathan thinks this looks like another senior portrait pose. I like how he's losing a shoe.

Love that button nose!

Giggle boy

I love this age SO much! Don't get me wrong, Anna is still completely adorable (she's calling her eyebrows her "eyebrowns" and today she told me she was going to carry her eyebrowns in her pack-pack) but she has her own ideas of how things should be done. That's a good thing most of the time. But sometimes it's nice to have a little, completely portable, guy who just does whatever mommy wants to do...and usually with a smile!

**I can't help myself. Check out the super cute video on Ashley's blog!

America's Most Wanted

This morning I walked into the gym locker room and found lots of women talking and walking around looking stressed out and frantic. Apparently someone had put their purse in a locker and not locked it, and the purse was stolen. This never happens at my gym, and most people don't use locks, so they were all upset.

I started to put my bag away and two women came up to the lockers next to mine. They were both quite a bit older than me, and they were also those super gym women, the really muscular, spandex head to toe, live at the gym, types. They were talking about the stolen purse when one says to the other, "I know who did it". The other lady looks shocked and asks who. The answer?

"It was those housewives! You know, those stay at home moms!"

I was standing almost between these women at that point and they're looking right at me while I put on my childcare ID bracelets. You know, indicating that I have kids? That I'm there in the middle of the day? With my kids that I stay at home with?

So she looks at me, looks at my childcare bracelets and says, "I'm sorry, but that's who it was. Those stay at home moms! They're always the ones".

I was almost laughing it was so absurd. I just kind of said, "I don't know about that" and walked out. But....what?! I wasn't even mad. I was seriously cracking up! You should have seen this woman's face. Stay at home moms! Watch out! Here they come!

So, just a warning to all of you. If you see a lady coming your way with a few kids crying, maybe a giant stroller and a diaper bag, hold tight to your purse! We all know she has nothing better to do that to go after your cell phone and car keys! Ha!

Good Neighbors

This afternoon when we got home from church, our neighbor Rita was outside doing some things in her yard. Anna loves Rita and her husband Jack, and they are so nice to Anna. Last summer she spent tons of time in their driveway drawing with chalk, blowing bubbles, and playing ball. When their grandkids came over Anna was out there with them in their little plastic swimming pool until she turned blue.

Since it's been so cold outside she hasn't been able to see any neighbors for quite a while and she was really excited to go into their yard again. Rita let Anna come inside for a while and I went in to feed Noah while Nathan did a few things in the garage, waiting for Anna to come back out. When she came in the house I had to laugh. She looked like she had been to Mardi Gras, not just to a neighbor's house!

This, of course, inspired lots of dancing and singing of the famous, "Da-da DAAAA!" song. You have to lift your foot on that last note for it to be just right.

An Interview

Inspired by the super adorable Mini Boden catalog, where they interview the children modeling the clothes, I did a quick interview with Anna this morning.

Me: Anna, what is your favorite food?

Anna: Ice cream!

Me: What food is yucky?

Anna: Toast! (not true, she loves toast and had just eaten 2 pieces)

Me: What is your favorite color?

Anna: Pink!

Me: What job do you want when you grow up?

Anna: A pink job! (see previous question :)

Me: What is your favorite book?

Anna: Dia and the choo-choo

Me: What animal would you like to be?

Anna: A donkey! A donkey!

Sticky

When it's Noah versus the Biter Biscuit, the biscuit often wins. The only way to clean up this mess is with a full bath! He's so cute in the bathtub. He kicks and splashes and squeals and then acts surprised when water hits his face like, "Hey? Who splashed me?!".

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Ashley today! You're the best BFF a girl could ask for ;)

Sweetsie

I thought Noah looked like such a little boy in this outfit so I wanted a few pictures. But once I downloaded them I loved how the sun was lighting up his fuzzy hair and his tiny blond eyelashes. Love that little softie!

Last night Nathan and I went and saw the Phantom of the Opera. We had so much fun just being out on a long overdue date! Although we always feel weird driving away with no kids in the car. It's like we look at each other and for a split second we think, "Wait! If you don't have them, and I don't have them, where are they?!" . I was actually telling Nathan that some of these pics of Noah were Phantom-esque with the way the sun was only lighting half of his face. He probably could be in an opera with the soprano squeals he makes all day long.

Ooooo spooky........ ;)

Brrrrrr!

It is COLD here! It was so warm for so late into the fall, we thought we might escape a super cold winter. But even the cold can't stop Anna from wanting to go out and play. She asks me all the time if we can go to the park and slide, and she would be perfectly happy to stand with the front door wide open and look outside for hours.

The other morning she was pretty excited to put a hat, coat, and mittens on over her jammies and help daddy get the paper from the end of the driveway.

Yeah, that's our crazy dog out in the street...

Hurry up Springtime!

For Doug

Today on the way home from the gym Anna told me, "I am going to Amy's (my sister) house to see Doug (her husband)".

I said, "Oh you are?" and when I turned around she was smiling a big cheesy smile.

So I said, "Aww, do you love uncle Doug?" and she yelled out, "YES! I do love him! And I am going to give him some shoes!".

Now Doug, let me tell you, Anna giving you some of her shoes is like any other person giving you their most prized possession. After the hugging that took place on Christmas, it's obvious her feelings for you have changed and you are now on her list of favorites. Congratulations, I know you worked hard to win her over ;)

Tea Time

Anna loves her little tea set, and she loves making and "eating" tea for all of us. Except Noah. She will offer to make tea for him, but when it comes time for him to actually touch her tea set she changes her mind.

One of the first times we played tea, I tipped the tea pot into a cup and said, "bloop bloop bloop", like something dripping into the cup. Well, once was all it took, and now I have to hide my laughter as I can hear her from another room saying, "bloop!" over and over.

This day Noah got one of her cups. She was going crazy telling me to get it back from him but I said that we had to share. I guess I would kind of freak out too if I saw my brother putting all that drool on my toys. Luckily, Noah found out that it wasn't much fun to eat and started to cry, so Anna got it back pretty quickly.

Has anyone else seen those giant cupcake pillows at Target with all of the Valentine's Day stuff? Anna spotted it last time we were there and just about lost her mind with excitement. I told her she could hold it for two minutes but that we were NOT taking it home with us. When I gave it to her she hugged it tight, closed her eyes, and said, "Oh my sweet cupcake! I love you!". A lady across the aisle was cracking up. Then as we put it back and walked away Anna leaned backwards and yelled out, "I will miss you soooo much!". I couldn't help but think that the cupcake would go perfectly with tea, but seeing a $10 cupcake on the floor or crammed into the toy basket would just be depressing, so it stayed at the store. Maybe I should make her one of these. Ha!

Super Baby!

When I had my first baby, I never understood why people kept bibs on their babies all day long. Bibs were for eating, and they were covering up their baby's cute shirts. Then I had Noah, and I realized what a clean baby Anna was. Noah spit-up a lot when he was younger and he drools uncontrollably now that he's teething. If he didn't wear a bib all day, we would be going through multiple shirts a day!

When he's on the floor playing his bib sometimes travels around to his back and it looks like a cape. Super Boy! The Amazing Drool Man! (Nice background. Think we need a few more toys?)

**To all of my mommy friends who have blogs, have you seen Catherine Newman's article in the February issue of Wonder Time? (that link is not the article, but it's good nonetheless, and it reminds me of Anna). I wanted to quote so many things out of there that you'll just have to go read it yourselves. Basically she says that blogging is narcissistic, time consuming, allows people to judge your parenting choices, and could one day embarrass our kids. Then she gives all of the good reasons for doing it anyway :) I really enjoy her writing. So much so that when I finished her book Waiting for Birdy I wanted to cry. In the Noah newborn haze I felt like I was reading the story of my own life. A screaming baby in a yellow edged diaper waiting to nurse while the older one rolls and screams on the floor in a tantrum of their own? She totally gets me! Good stuff.

A few more

I knew I was forgetting some of my favorite Anna-isms in that last post. I'm sure I'll hear about twenty new ones this week so stay tuned ;)

These aren't Fruit Puffs. They're Fruit Pups, and most of the time just, "Can I eat some of those pups?".

And any sort of dress shoe or high heel is a "Da da da shoe". I have no idea what this means other than sometimes when Anna is in a dress, or just pretending to dance around, she will sing a little tune with those same, um, lyrics? Da da dada!

These would not be considered Da da da shoes. They're just her super cute slippers :)

Okay last one. I just remembered that she calls Chap Stick, Chop Sticks. Hee hee :)

Hammy

Here's the face I see several times a day. Whenever something goes wrong for Anna, it's eyebrows up, bottom lip out. I can't even remember what the problem was this day. She was really happy to be using her new paint set, even though she only wanted to use the red (as you can see from her water cup). In fact by the time we were finished painting the red was almost all gone, just like the blue in her last set.

These things have nothing to do with her painting, but Anna is saying some of the funniest and
cutest things lately that I just have to write them down for myself.

The other day she decided that she no longer wanted to wear her hair in a pony tail, but in a bunny tail instead.

When she gets the hiccups she tell me she has the "Pick-ups. Right here! In my mouth!".

The other day I said something was a bummer. She kept repeating, "Bunner, bunner" and now everything, in the completely wrong context, is a bunner. "Mommy, I need to eat some bunners" "Those dogs are bunners". Huh?

Going through a drive-thru the other day she told me, "We're getting special meatloaf for daddy. He's gonna love it soooo much!". Meatloaf in a drive-thru is funny enough, but of all foods she thought of meatloaf?!

She also informed me this week that, "Some birds eat berries, but robins eat trees". When I told her that maybe robins liked berries too, she was pretty mad and insisted, "NO! Robins only eat trees!". Okay then!

She says so many things every day that crack me up. I try to remember them all so that I can tell Nathan when he gets home, but I always forget the last one when she does something new. She keeps me entertained all day long!

Noah's 9 month check-up went well this morning. They called him a "tall glass of water" because he's so long and skinny. He's right on track developmentally and they were quite impressed with his porpoise impersonations. Tee hee.

Happy 9 Months Noah!

Check out this super cute shirt from his Aunt Sarah and Uncle Chris. They know him so well, ha!

Today our little biscuit is 9 months old. Whoa! How can that be?! He is so much fun these days, if you can handle the most shrill and loud dolphin squealing ever...squealed. He does it when he's happy, sad, bored, excited, pretty much all day. I thought Anna was the queen of shrieking when she was a baby but I'm pretty sure he passed her volume level about 5 months ago. He's also got her angry arms, but his are more like little fists of fury that he holds up by his shoulders while he's yelling. Pretty hilarious on a good day ;)

Here you can see one of his many talents: the 12 inch long stream of drool. But that little mouth is working hard! This morning tooth #5 popped in, and number 6 is coming in fast. Getting four teeth in one week makes for a few sleepless nights, but overall he's still a pretty happy boy. It cracks me up that he's going from the two bottom teeth to a full smile in such a short amount of time! Anna was toothless until she was 13 months old, so this is a new thing for us. Tomorrow is his nine month check-up and I'm eager to see how much he weighs and how tall he is now. I'm about 100% sure shopping for a new car seat will be in our weekend plans after he sits on that scale :o

The Little Wormaid

A while back there was a Dora episode where she met a Mermaid named Mariana and together they cleaned up the Mermaid Kingdom that had been trashed by a "mean octopus". Being a foolish mommy I found the book online and bought it for Anna for Christmas. She loves it, and often requests that book at bedtime. It was a foolish purchase because I am stuck reading it sometimes several times a day. But on a positive note it has increased Anna's Spanish counting skills and her pronunciation. You should hear her say "Mariana"....very authentic ;)

(Yikes)

When Anna first saw a mermaid she called it a wormy, because of their long tails I guess. But after hearing us say it correctly enough times, she has changed it to wormaids, which I think is adorable and I completely go along with it so it won't change. Earlier this week I had the TV on as we were getting ready for the gym. On Good Morning America they had the cast of the new Broadway musical "The Little Mermaid" and they were preforming a few of the songs. Anna was completely amazed. We rewound and watched it 3 or 4 times and then, since her ultra-cool mommy knows all the words from the movie, I just sang it for her for the rest of the day.



Now the Dora book is gathering dust while Anna is asking, "Mommy, you sing Little Wormaid?". I sing and she dances and everyone wins. She gets to hear her new favorite song and I get to belt out all of those fabulous songs from 1989 (isn't that right Kelly? Hee hee). I haven't even shown her the VHS Little Mermaid I have in the basement, but I know she will lose her mind when I finally do break it out. Ahh, like mother like daughter......

Two years ago

I have all sorts of new pictures and stories to blog, but the pictures are sitting on my memory card while I figure out where to put them. If you've been around us for more than 2 minutes, you know that we like to take a LOT of pictures of our kiddies and, well, our computer has had enough...literally. We're quickly running out of places to store them, and I'm actually surprised it hasn't happened long before now!

So here's what we were doing two years ago today:

It was a Sunday and Anna wore her mini-skirt to church. I actually already blogged the story, so there goes my attempt at a new post! She looks so tiny to me, but she seems big when I realized that she was just a few weeks older than Noah is right now. Of course he's not near as orange as she was either, hee hee.

Munch -N- Stuff

Noah is a Biter Biscuit machine! Even though he doesn't meet the criteria of "crawls with tummy off the floor" he can put one of these away in seconds flat. Like Anna, if I waited for him to crawl before I gave him finger foods we may be waiting for months! I scooted his seat into the kitchen so I could keep a close eye on him while I was cooking, and he really enjoyed his new treat. He's our little screecher monkey who likes to scream when he's happy and sad, so having him completely silent while he ate was kind of strange. Of course he was a complete mess by the time he was finished, but he was a happy mess!

This little stinker decided to give his mommy a nervous breakdown this week and went on a 2 day nursing strike. After some serious stress, not to mention wrestling during every feeding, I'm happy to report that he is back to his old munchie ways. Just keeping mama on her toes!

Sous Chef

Anna loves her new play kitchen and she loves to wear her cool $1 pink chef's hat. But her favorite thing right now is to go get that trusty plastic stool and help mommy cook. Whether it's muffins or a casserole, I always get a detailed play by play when she's around. Last night we were making some chicken with beans and rice and Anna was super excited.

"Mommy there's beans in 'dere! That's butter! You're pouring in da milk! That's an egg!"

Cracks me up to have her exclaim every step I take. It's like living on a game show or something! After we ate I heard her tell Nathan about 100 times, "We made chicken for you!". Our dish was a little too spicy for her to eat, but she kept her hat on while she ate her chicken noodle soup. Ya' know, just so we would all know who really made that tasty meal.

Another Last Chance

A few weeks ago it was unseasonably warm, so while Nathan was outside doing yard work we let Anna run around the front yard in her pajamas. This obviously doesn't happen a lot in December or January (or ever if we're talking about playing outside in your jammies), so she was really excited. I told Nathan that it was probably the last time she would be able to play outside without a coat until the spring. And it did get cold, for a few days.

But this week has brought crazy temperatures in the 60s and 70s so Anna and Noah both got another chance to show their pjs to the neighborhood, and Nathan got another chance to do yard work.

Noah had to wear a hat since he's such a baldy.

I love when her hair gets curly like this! (Excuse our missing screen door - there's a new one on order)

No he was not sitting on this step by himself! See the mommy hand?

Anna has started to hold Noah's hand all the time and it is so cute! I love looking in the rear view mirror at a stoplight and seeing them holding hands and smiling at each other. He adores her, and every time she makes him smile she yells out, "He likes it mommy!". And most of the time he really does!

* After some concerned family members' (Amy) questions I must state that in the Tiny message, Noah did not, and can not, get into a sitting position by himself. I sat him up in his bed and then took pictures. As soon as he can get up on his own the crib mattress will be lowered! Now you can rest easy. He won't be climbing out anytime soon :)

In the Looney Bin

Oh Anna. You are such a funny and feisty little girl. When I put you down for a nap you almost always get up at least once and I come back in to get you settled again. Most days you are down on the floor playing with your baby dolls or reading books. But today? Well, let's just say you're always full of surprises. Your creativity when avoiding sleep is impressive!

Folding your body into a 1 by 2 foot baby doll playpen is so much better than sleeping in your nice big bed, right? I love you so much you little hammy!

Tiny

Maybe it's because I've done this once before, but I am really appreciating this stage of Noah's life. Even with Anna I felt that the 6-9 month time was so great. They're big enough to sleep well, eat well, and have lots of fun playing, but they're still small enough to snuggle and hold and look completely like a baby.

As he has grown, Anna has become more and more fond of him. Now when she's awake and he isn't she's constantly asking if we can go get him. Every sound in the house is an, "Oh mommy! Noah's awake!", and I suspect more than once she has woken him up by being loud with a purpose.

When we first go in to get him he seems a bit shocked by the sudden commotion. Love that sleepy face!

But then he realizes, "Hey! It's time to play!"

Wait a minute, what is that?


Oh it's just the big sister. Most days she wants to climb in with him, and some days we let her. It makes her look so big. I can't believe she ever slept in there!

And these are just cute :)

When Noah was a (completely precious) never sleeping, nursing around the clock, screaming from reflux, newborn I used to dream about where we are now. On those really tough days I would remind myself that in 6 months or so he would be so cute and fun and all of the difficult adjustment stuff would be over. And while some days I would love to hold that 6 pound boy again, I'm so glad that he's a more comfortable and happy baby now. He is such a cuddle bug too. Life would be perfect for him if he could spend the entire day in your arms with his face smooshed up against yours. You'll hear no complaints about that. He's just growing too fast!

For the last week he's been up on his hands and knees rocking away and getting ready to crawl. Makes me a little sad, but it's too cute to see his proud little face when he gets up there!