Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Emma Rose and Anabelle have been having some Sister Quality Time.


Sisters: Post-nap snack and a movie.

Sisters: Sunday afternoon milkshake and a Disney movie.

Anabelle had her 18 month check up at the beginning of the month. She was 33.25 inches (89th percentile) and 24 pounds, 9 ounces (54th percentile). It was the first time since her 2 month check up that she was out of the 90+ percentile for her height. She's still fitting in some of her 18 month clothes, but mostly we are moving her into the 24 month clothes. I can't believe she is already more than a year and half.

Anabelle: Being Cool.
This is Anabelle after Daddy left her alone with the yogurt.


This is Anabelle wearing (or maybe hiding in) Daddy's jacket.


Emma Rose Funnies:

Last week when Emma Rose was getting out of her day time clothes and into her beautiful gown, she stuck her chest out and said, "See, Mommy. My boobies are getting bigger. I'm growing up!"


Emma Rose helped me vacuum the furniture. She took the little nozzle and went over all of the cushions, not once but twice! She kept saying things like, "Daddy will like this when he gets home" and "Maybe Jessica and Bill can come to our house when it's clean." She also insisted on using the vacuum upstairs today after I finished. She pushed it into each room, vacuumed a few times, and went on to the next room. The vacuum is still taller than she is. She is so precious to want to help me so much. I'm also very proud that she is seeing some value in cleanliness!



When it was warm a few weeks ago, Emma Rose, Anabelle and I were starting to walk again. Emma Rose insisted that we stop by Jessica's house to ask if she wanted to walk with us. When Bill is home, he goes with us, too. Emma Rose had a special treat when Bill let her walk Jake, their large lab. Really, Jake was walking Emma Rose. When Jake would stop to taste the grass, Emma Rose had to stop, too.

Emma Rose enjoyed jumping in the puddles in her new rain boots.

Emma Rose has also been drawing things rather than just scribbling on her Doodle Pro. The bonus is that the things are becoming recognizable. Drawing faces seems to be her favorite for the moment. The picture on the right is an alien with a beard, antennae, and three legs.















Hobie and Jasper enjoyed some of the Spring sunshine one afternoon last week. We are all so ready for warm, dry weather!



Tuesday, March 17, 2009

This morning, Emma Rose, Anabelle, Hobie, and I went on a walk with Kelly and her two boys. Emma Rose would jog quickly ahead of us and then jog back toward us. When she would get pretty close, she would turn around and jog ahead of us again. At about the half way mark, she started slowing down. She would look at every rock and every flower (weed) she passed. It was so wonderful to be outside and to have the girls get some fresh air! I'm so glad we had sunshine and warm weather today!

When we got back home, Emma Rose found the remains of a puddle in front of our driveway. She had to stomp and splash in it. Anabelle had to follow in her sister's footsteps. She went over and carefully walked in it. Then they started running from the puddle to the garage door and back again. They both stomped and splashed. Both of their pants were wet half way to the knees from the puddle that couldn't have been more than an inch deep. Anabelle seemed to want to explore further, so she decided to sit in the puddle. She also somehow got the slightly muddy water in her hair and on her face. When we came inside, I had to strip Anabelle down to the diaper, and Emma Rose had to take off her socks, shoes, and pants. They had a semi-naked lunch.

During lunch, Anabelle kept putting peanut butter on her belly with her finger and try to remove the peanut butter with her fork. She was not successful. Emma Rose kept asking, "Mommy, what's wrong with her little boobies?" After lunch, we went upstairs to for a bath. They have ducks and frogs for bath time, so Anabelle spent the bath naming each over and over again. Frog still rhymes with duck. They smelled so good after a bath and baby lotion!

Tonight at dinner, they each ate from their new melamine plates. There is a large frog and several flowers on them. Anabelle was very concerned that none of the food get on the frog, which still rhymes with duck, so she kept saying, "No Frog! No Frog!" when her food would touch the frog. She did, however, like it when the food was on the flowers. She covered each one with a little pieces of her food. Emma Rose thought it was cute and started to do the same.

We had another walk tonight without the stroller. About half way, we ran into Lynn, Kelly, and their babies. When Anabelle saw Matthew, she got really excited! I think she loves him. The air is still pretty cool at night. It was great! The girls were able to walk off some energy, and I think they'll sleep great tonight! I'm sure I will. :)

When Anabelle takes a nap or goes to sleep for the night, she has been asking me to kiss and hug Pie and Baby before I leave. It's been getting to the point that I have to hug and kiss them several times before I can leave the room. She's really getting attached to her animals and baby dolls!

When Emma Rose has to go to time out, Anabelle has been looking at either me or John and saying "See-ter ug-ee" (Translation: Sister is acting ugly.) or "See-ter tub-ul" (Translation: Sister is in trouble). It's amazing that she is starting to recognize actions and label them. It's getting to be about time that I start using time out with Anabelle. It was so easy with Emma Rose because I could just carry her to her room and plop her in her crib for 60 seconds. With Anabelle, the crib is more difficult to get to, so I think I may have to bring down the pack-n-play for her time out. When I put her in time out now, she just gets up and walks to me saying, "Mommy. Hug. Mommy. Hug." She already knows how to manipulate me.

Next week, Emma Rose's dance class will wear their costumes for pictures. They also have to have their hair in a bun. I'm not sure how I'm going to manage to do that with Emma Rose's hair, and if I actually can get it into a bun, the bun will be the size of a dime. There is also a clip with a flower that is suppose to go in her hair. I don't think all the bobby pins in the world will hold that flower in place. Whatever her hair looks like and whether or not we get the flower in her hair, I'm sure she'll look beautiful - even if the costume is day-glow orange!!

The recital is coming up quickly, and I'm still not sure that Emma Rose fully understands the concept of following along with what the teacher does. When I watch her during the lessons, she follows along occasionally, and other times, she is doing her own dance. She uses the moves she's learned in the class, but she doesn't move in unison with the rest of the girls. All the mommies have been talking about how funny and cute they will be! My plan is to get a seat close to the front so that I can take lots of pictures!

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Chairs and Beautiful Gowns

Last weekend, John bought Emma Rose and Anabelle little chairs for outside. So far, they've only been outside once. They sat in them for about 5 minutes each! When they are inside, they are used a lot. Anabelle's chair is pink, and Emma Rose's chair is purple. Anabelle likes to tell us, "Sister chair." Then she sits in her chair. Mostly, she has to have her sister's chair right beside her. The first morning we had them at home, Emma Rose and Anabelle put them in our bathroom and sat them up right in front of my sink. It was as if they were at the movies, and I was the main feature. They each sat there and watched me dry my hair and put on my make-up. When I was all done, so were they.

The chairs are now downstairs. They like to drag them about the house so that they can just sit and watch. Anabelle likes to sit in hers and drink from her sippy cup. They were watching a movie in the picture below. The picture is blurry because Emma Rose likes to run away from the camera lately.


This week, the girls got matching beautiful gowns. (Emma Rose use to call all of her night gowns "beautiful gowns, " and now I can't call them anything else.) Emma Rose loves beautiful gowns, and I think Anabelle will love them, too. This is Anabelle's first beautiful gown, and when Daddy put it on her, she watched her feet when she walked. She also noticed that her beautiful gown was the same as her sister's. I couldn't get a picture of the two of them together because they were moving too fast. Emma Rose would only let me take a picture of her when she was jumping on the bed. I love the way her hair looks like it's floating around her head. It may be because I'm so glad she now has hair!


Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Black Bean Soup & Mini Ice Cream Cones

One of Emma Rose's and Anabelle's favorite meals is Black Bean Soup. We usually eat it over rice. Anabelle is now insisting that she feed herself, which makes for some very messy meals. (The blue stickers are compliments of Emma Rose.)


Below is the mini-ice cones the girls love. Well, Emma Rose loved them until she saw the adult size ice cream cones! Anabelle still hasn't figured out that she can eat the cone. She just dips her fingers and thumb into the cone and licks off the ice cream.
For breakfast, Emma Rose's favorite meal is oatmeal with gold fish crackers. Yuck - but if she likes it, she eats it! I am not complaining.

Emma Rose and Anabelle are hugging!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Beautiful Weekend

What pretty weather we had this weekend! John and I were so grateful for the weather and for a fun filled Saturday. We joined Nicki and Laurin at Ston Mountain Park. I think it may have been too many years to say since I've been there last. I did have a flash back when we went by the spot on the lawn where I have watched the laser light show. The last time I saw that show, I had just had my wisdome teeth out and was still a little swollen. Fun times.

The weather was perfect for our adventure, and the girls had a great time. Emma Rose and Laurin are developing a close friendship - for a 3 year old and 2 year old. They don't want each other to go home at the end of the play date. That says it all! Anabelle is getting to be one of the big girls, too. She wants to walk and run and play just like Emma Rose and Anabelle. She's not quite ready to do all that fun stuff, but she tries!

Our visit to the park started with standing in line in front of a lady and her child. I was tankfully unaware of her complaining about said line until she busted her way up to the ticket counter. It seemed as if she had purchased her tickets on line and did not want to be inconvenienced with waiting like the rest of us. In the meantime, Laurin and Emma Rose were entertaining Anabelle by playing on and around the stroller.


We had a ride on the Duck, a large people carrier that could ride on land and the water. We also were given "quackers" and they are still loud at home! Just like the rest of the kids, Laurin and Emma Rose got to drive the Duck, but they drove together! Nicki has the picture! Then we rode the sky ride to the top of the mountain. We could see the Atlanta skyline! Laurin and Emma Rose threw tiny rocks into the tiny puddles. It was the highlight of their visit. Anabelle walked around with Daddy and then she threw rocks, too. She was also very grumpy and cried all the way up the mountain and a bit of the way down. She missed her afternoon nap, and everyone at Stone Mountain knew it! (This is the link to the rest of the pictures: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8QYs3Ldo5at2s)


John and I also had a great date night at Buffalo's in Canton thanks to Cricket. The Buffalo's parking lot is always full, and we finally tried it. We were pleasantly surprised! The food was awesome, and the service was good. The girls played with Cricket and had a great time watching Chicken Run. I thought they would be too tired to exhaust Cricket, but I was wrong. They played the entire time we were gone. It might have had something to do with the ice cream cones, but I'm not sure!

The weather was still beautiful tonight, so we took a walk after dinner. We saw a few neighbors and enjoyed the sunset and the breeze. I'm don't think we could have had a nicer walk!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Play Date

Last Wednesday, we had a play date with Nicki & Laurin and two of our neighbors, Kelly and Lynn, and their children, Matthew, Andrew, and Paisley. We had a great time. It was so much fun to see the 5 kids running around. Andrew, an infant, spent most of his time in Nicki's arms. She's getting her baby fix before her baby gets here. :) I've also realized that play dates are more for the mommies than the kids. The kids have a great time, but the mommies get the bonus of adult time.


































Anabelle loved playing with Matthew, who is just 3 weeks older than her. She tried to give Matthew a hug, and when she leaned in, he kissed her! It was pretty cute. She was a little surprised, but it looked like she enjoyed it. This is the post-kiss picture. Yesterday, Emma Rose and I were looking at pictures from the play date. I was naming everyone for Emma Rose. Anabelle heard me say Matthew's name, and she started screaming "Maaatheeeew!" She likes him!

Anabelle has also started to insist that she feed herself. I think it's great until I have to clean up the mess! She is allowing me to put a bib on her occasionally, so I get a little break sometimes. She gets so excited when it gets close to meal time or snack time. She starts saying, "Fork. Fork. Fork." She walks over to the drawer and fishes out a pink fork. When we're at dinner, I've caught her hanging her spoon or fork down toward the floor. I didn't understand why she was doing that until I saw Hobie on the other end of that spoon. She's eating potato soup in the pictures below.


















Here is a picture of Emma Rose from the same dinner:
This past weekend, there was a prediction of lots of snow. Most of Atlanta and its suburbs got enough snow so that it stuck to the ground and there was ice on Monday morning. We had heavy snow for about an hour. It was that pretty fluffy snow that makes you want to go skiing. None of it stuck to the ground! I was disappointed. I was able to live vicariously through some of my Facebook friends who posted great snow pictures. As a consolation prize, the sky on Sunday night was really beautiful. There was lots of pink, orange, and purple. The picture below is of the eastern sky in the evening.