John at 4 and Anna at 2 and a Half Years

This is a long post....sorry! Trying to make up for lost time and document a few little details about the kiddos personalities that have had me smiling lately.

Tonight as John and Anna were bathing we were talking about our family. John told me he was not ready to be a daddy because he wanted to be a pilot after he was a garbage man. Anna was happily turning a bucket of water over her head and laughing hysterically.
I told them that I was so happy to be their mommy and what would happen if God hadn't given me them....who would make me laugh?
That had them stumped...John proposed that Kyle would be around to make me laugh. I suppose that's true but he wouldn't be around constantly during the day to make me laugh because he'd be at work....thoughtful silence....Anna is still laughing at water all over her face, really not interested in John and I's deep convo.

I haven't blogged much because I've spent most of the summer enjoying these little people that seem to be growing too quickly!

 Here are recent observations on John and Anna's personalities:



John loves analyzing things. This totally reminds me of stories I've head about my dad when he was little. Taking things apart around the house just to put them back together. Just this evening John and I were inspecting the tooth floss dispenser. John looked at all the pieces and muttered to himself "ok, the string starts there....it goes around that thingy (the metal cutter) and you take it off...ok...got it" He is so curious about how things work. Ever since our trip to California (more on that trip later) John has been OBSESSED with airplanes, how the baggage loading conveyer belt works, how the air traffic control tower works, how pilots fly planes.....the questions are endless but we try to feed his curiosity with our best answers. He picks things up so quickly.



Anna has a very funny and charming personality. She LOVES to sing, she sings in the car, she sings at home, she sings at the grocery store, wherever she goes she is usually just singing to herself. The other day at McDonald's the cashier commented on how she just happily sings to herself. Occasionally when she's trying to get someone's attention with her singing, she sings LOUD and truly expects people to clap for her because she puts her hands together and does this coy little smile. It is the silliest thing I've ever seen.

Anna has also developed a habit of acting like a puppy, requiring someone to take her invisible leash and walk her around the house, give her treats, put her in her "cage" (a baby tent) and, yes, clean up her tinkle and poop because puppy Anna makes lots of accidents all over the house. Shame, shame...



She also has an invisible lizard that appeared almost daily for a week. Her name is Pink and Anna happens to find her in the same spot hidden in her bedskirt every evening (freaky, I know). Somehow Pink appeared in California. You know when Pink is around because Anna holds one little hand in a cupped position while doing other tasks. It's difficult to do things as a two year old with only one available hand. But we pet Pink and make sure she is loved until the next time she reappears.

Next week my babies will start their MDO program. They will both be in 3 days a week! I can't believe how big they are and Kyle and I are so blessed to have these little people in our lives. What joy you bring  us every day with your unique little personalities.

Anna Bear Grylls

In honor of her adventurous spirit, we have decided to rename Anna, "Anna Bear Grylls: Woman v Wild", for those of you that are familiar with the Man v Wild series on the Discovery Channel

So today was Anna's second time at gymnastics class and my first time to go with her since dad took her last week. Anna has been desperate to do the mommy and me gymnastics class that is taught at the same time as John's class. Lately she's not content to sit on the sidelines and just watch like we had been doing. The mommy and me class is actually for 18-36 month olds but the teacher, Ms. Sarah, noticed Anna's desperate longing from the bleachers and said she would love to have her in the class since she seemed so interested. So I ponied up and paid for 2 classes for Anna. It was a great investment. The child is in her element.

Anna was so excited when we got to the gym. She kept trying to rip off her shoes and run to the baby gym area. Finally we started class and Anna ran around the stations like a pro. She had no fear. Then trapeeze time came. Oh, boy, the first time around she was so hilarious. She got to the trapeeze and paused for a moment to acknowledge her audience and smiled a huge smile as if to say "Behold I am Anna. I am on the trapeeze. Everyone watch me". Wish I could have captured it on camera. Everyone was laughing at her precociousness and marvelled at her freakish strength in how well she held on with it only being her 2nd class.

This is video of the second time around....notice her rippling biceps.....



God is good. I think if John would have been a rambuctious, rough and tumble little fellow I may have never fully recovered my wits about me but since he is so chill and cautious I can actually appreciate the activity and spirit of Anna's little personality this time around. She is so different than John, personality-wise, and it doesn't freak me out as much as I think it may have with John.

A wise person once reminded me that "God knew and created the personality of your children and gave them to you in the exact order and spacing they are supposed to be in your family with precise purpose". So true....so true....

Anna's Post

Now it's Anna's turn. I have written a lot about John lately because he's just so darn funny in what he says and does at this age but I am rediscovering the fun a 15 month old (I guess I started this post a while ago??) brings to your life again.

I remember John at 15 months was a turning point in his understanding and development and personality and Anna is no different. I have seen so much change in her the past month and it is exciting.

She understands so many things now, I feel like it all snuck up on me because I keep seeing her as a "baby" and John as the "big kid" but Anna is starting to grow up and assert her independence.

Anna at 15 (or 16 months)

-She loves wrestling with John and rolling on the floor with him. John is taking a gymnastics class where he practices his pike, tuck, and roll positions and recently Anna has started to immitate him! She tries very hard to do a sommersault. And yesterday she attended her first mommy and me gymnastics class with daddy! Kyle said she had a huge grin on her face the whole time and loved jumping in the ball pit, the trapeze, running, balance beam. We might be following in our Aunt Teen-Teen's footsteps....

-She gets very offended when she is verbally scolded or when she thinks people are laughing at her. The tears come on like a faucet.

-She walks everywhere but is wary of cracks in the concrete like they will swallow her whole.

-She loves to shriek and scream for no reason. I think she's just happy and talking (although sometimes the shrieking is directed at John).

-Lately she has become more of a picky eater but I think since she's on the move now, the world is way more exciting than wasting time sitting around eating.....unless it's a birthday cupcake...then I'll take a moment to chow.

 -She's kind of a mama and daddy's girl. She has a hard time with new faces and people but we're working on it.

-As much as I've tried to get her to call me "Mama" or "Mommy" she calls ME and Kyle "Da-deeee!"

-She gives high fives and open-mouthed slobbery kisses on command

Anna, you're so much fun and we are loving seeing your personality come out!

 

A Spunky Li'l Lady

So John, Anna, and I went to the Children's Museum with our neighbor friend, Gabriella. J and G had a blast but apparently Anna missed the memo that she isn't a 3 year old. She was all over the slide. She learned how to go up the stairs and slide down the slide by herself today. We knew she liked slides from our time at the park in Carmel but today she reinforced her new trick. Almost every time she went down she would yell "WHHAAAAOOOOO!"
I could see people watching her, first, with curiosity, worried she might tumble head first or fall sideways, then, laughing at her precise sliding form. I think it's so amusing because she's so little in size yet had good technique and she refused to go down on her belly, feet first. She had to do it like Gabby and John.

I must note this is amusing to me because my sweet cautious little John did not go down a slide by himself until he was 2.5 years old. And he wasn't much into trying new physical things until that age either.

Here she goes....



and another cute video I can't resist sharing....Anna has started to give kisses when asked.....Awwwww! Melt my heart!

The Legend of Mamaw

For the past few years Granny (Kyle's grandmother) has told a staggering legend of her daughter (Kyle's mom) starting to walk maybe a little later than "normal". BUT the day she started walking she just up and walked all the way across the room. No offense, Granny, but I think we all heard this story and weren't sure what to think of it. I've never seen a child just start walking without a gradual arc of improvement...3 steps one day, 5 steps the next, pulling up on furniture then walking over to a table for stability . At least that's how John started. It was all so gradual.

But Anna....Anna lived up to the legend of her Mamaw. Yesterday we came home from church and I was fixing lunch. I turned around and Anna had stood up on her own and just walked across the kitchen as if she had done it for several weeks. You'd think she had been practicing in some secret place for months. CRAZY!

She's taken maybe 2 or 3 steps before but never just walked across the room without warning. If you had only seen her on Saturday...she was still crawling everywhere. Now she's all over the place! What a difference a day makes....

Pictures from January 2010

I have all sorts of random pictures so I'll load them up in this post....

Here are some beautiful roses that have been in my house this week. These flowers were just the perfect shade of the palest pink you ever saw. I hate to see them go. Had to dispose of them yesterday. So sad! Why do floweres have to die? Why do we have to die? Let's get deep....

...or not.....

If you remember my posts from Philadelphia's Longwood Gardens here and here and here, I am obsessed with taking pictures of flowers. They are stationary and they're usually very well lit. Perfect conditions for an amateur photog........

Kyle and John chillaxin' on a Saturday afternoon watchin the Ags play basketball.

GIG 'EM!
Ridin' the new trike!

When Mom is too busy to feed Anna, we put brother to work!

Reminiscent of the 101 Ways to Have Fun With A Burp Cloth post from Baby John days, here is

Anna dressed as Mary, the young mother of baby Jesus, and the bride of "Jofus" (as John says when we recount the Christmas story)
Watching the big kids play at Pump It Up

Portrait time with the camera. Too bad she had a rashy mouth this particular day

I have FOUR teeth! Seeeeee

John is teaching his sister the proper way to conduct a ride-on train. What else are big brothers for?

Couldn't resist this sweet little puckered face!

Anna is Growing Up!

What has Anna been up to lately? A lot. She has had an ear infection ever since the day before we were supposed to go to Ecuador (a month ago) and on Monday (after a long cranky weekend) I took her to the doctor and her ears were still infected! Poor thing. She had just finished up her 3rd different antibiotic. She also had some gnarly looking purple gums from teeth that were attempting to come through so she's been through the ringer.

By Sunday I was beside myself with all the waking up in the middle of the night and general crankiness. Since I couldn't give her any pain relief besides Tylenol and teething gel I got desperate and went all holistic on her. I read that you can make a mixture of 1 tbsp warm olive oil + 5-10 drops of tea tree oil and put a few drops in the infected ear. The tea tree oil has antiseptic properties and is supposed to help soothe the pain. I also read that you can rub a warm cloth with a few drops of lavender oil on the jawline to help with teething pain and yes I did that too. Well, the next day I took her to the doctor and she perscribed some numbing ear drops that I administered once and ever since then she's been fine so was it the essential oils or the perscription drops? I don't know but my sweet angel is back.....

.....back to modeling mom's crafty projects that is! Here is Anna's Christmas dress I made. I'm basically making her wear it every other day so I get some good use out of it. I used a pattern and, man, is that so much easier than trying to wing it!

It kinda looks like an angel robe the way it's all flowy and loose. I think I might add a sash to cinch it a little at the waist. um, check out those chubby legs...oh my goodness.... Here Anna is showing off standing with one hand. She's really advancing. Two days ago she crawled to something, kneeled, and pulled herself all the way up and stood. She is mobile! And today I actually saw several crawling paces on only hands and knees versus the army crawl she normally does. This little woman means business--especially when it means keeping up with the brother.

And here she is REALLY showing off doing some push-ups in that Christmas frock. Gotta stay in shape for cookie season!

We love our bath time. I think we're going to have to move to the tub soon. I've been getting soaked and end up having to clean the kitchen floor of all the mess.

This picture is kinda scary--she looks like an amputee with her right arm moving so fast. Not even my fast lens could capture the intensity of her delight.

So the other day John looked at Anna so sweetly and said "I love you , Anna". Let me note on this blog here that is the first time John has ever VOLUNTARILY told anyone he loved them without being prompted or someone saying it to him first. How sweet that his first declaration of love was for his sister. Ah, makes my heart melt! And I must also note that on Thanksgiving I asked John what he was thankful for and he said "Uuuuummmmm.....Anna!"

Bless his little heart. I hope he feels that way in 6 months....

Mommy loves you two crazy cats!

Driving Miss Anna

Look out, world! Here I come!

It's The Great Pumpkin, Anna B!

Sorry....last one!

I totally forgot to post this picture and it's one of my favorites!

Pumpkin Patch - The Man and The Mama Version

I'll just preface this post by saying that both my kids have an aversion to the camera lens. Which is a bummer for a photography-loving mom like myself. But I gotta work with what I got.

Unfortunately, Anna has given up her modeling career earlier than John did because I believe he was still a working model for me at 7 months. Anna is so over it. So this was more of a "candid" photo shoot....

Anna posing with the pumpkins

I'm not sure why I even thought I could get a picture with the two of them together

And those are Anna's arms peeking out from under John's body as he body steam rolls her


So we go back to the single shot of Anna

John lifting a pumpkin with Daddy..."Too heby, daddy!"

The money shot. My only decent picture from the pumpkin patch. It was worth the 80 or so shots I took.

Apparently pumpkins are for climbing too

Giving Anna a kiss

Anna is not too excited about pumpkins this year

She certainly didn't like the tower of mini pumpkins John was stacking up her chest

Happy Harvest!