Anna is 9 Months Old!

Sweet, sweet sister is 9 months old!  I had a hard time believing it, and then I took her to the doctor for her check up and they asked me to make her ONE YEAR appointment and I about burst into tears right in front of the receptionist’s desk.  WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?  HOW IS THIS HAPPENING SO QUICKLY?  I need to be able to pause my life right now and just soak it all in!  Please, Lord, help me remember these sweet times!

How did we get from here

to here, so quickly?

Little Miss continues to be very laid back and such a sweet and easy baby (aside from her recent 5:30am bottle-cry—but she does go back down until 8am, so I shouldn’t complain too much).  She absolutely adores her Daddy and her brothers.  She and the boys play so much more now, and it is precious to see and catch glimpses of throughout the day.  Whenever she fusses or cries, Hudson bursts into a rousing rendition of “twinkle, twinkle Yittle Star” in order to calm her.  And, William will often wake up in the morning and ask:  “where is my baby?”  They just love each other, and it really warms my heart!

Anna continues to be our loudest family member, and she is really ramping it up in the drama department as well.  If she doesn’t want to sit or lay down, or if you say “ni night” and she is not particularly ready, you best protect your ears.  She is quite vocal and tries to talk and sing along with her brothers—although, her favorite place to join in in song is at church.  It is hilarious and so dear!  Anna now says MA MA all of time (which I love, you know), Da DA, Uh OH (and she even uses it appropriately, which is amazing to me), and every now and again, she will say ‘nana . . . which, I think means banana. 

She continues to be growing well, and we rarely go anywhere without someone commenting on her beautiful blue eyes!

I adore these chubby cheeks!  And, look at those eyelashes (courtesy of her father!)

Anna’s 9 months stats are:

weight:  21lbs (75-90%)

height:  28 in (50-75%)

(for comparisons sake, at 9 months, William was 20lbs 7oz and 28 inches, and big brother Hudson was 23lbs, 5oz and 30 inches long!)

Little Miss loves to laugh and giggle, and she rolls and scoots on her belly all over the place!  I thinks she is close to crawling, but I’m still not giving her too many chances to try . . . When I told the pediatrician that she was not crawling, she said “Lucky you!”  ha ha!

Her bottom two teeth have popped on through, and one of her top teeth is starting to make it’s way in as well.  I have a hunch we’ll have a wild week ahead of us in the teething department!

Anna’s hair is really starting to grow and get thicker.  We’re starting to see the first little curls at the bottom of her hair, and I just love it!  ohh, so cute!

And, here she is:  Our very own Olive Oil munching on her spinach!  She loves to eat and is quite happy trying to feed herself tiny pieces of whatever we give her (although, believe it or not, most of this mess was my doing).

I am pretty sure that I say it each month, but this little love is such a joy!  We delight in her, and we are so thankful that she is “our” baby!  Now, if she could just say this way for a tad longer . . .

Today

Surprisingly, today is not a Tuesday (more on what our Tuesdays are like here).

Today is a Wednesday.

We came home from a good, but busy morning seeing the doctor to a little bit of chaos. You see, we are still in the throes of potty training . . . and when potty training involves two year olds, (in my opinion) that means that it not only involves teaching them a skill but it also involves a bit of a power struggle over who decides when one needs to go potty. My little William is quite determined and was having a stubborn, independent streak and decided that he would rather play than tell me about his potty need. So, he had a big “accident” in his pants. He knew I was upset with him (it was clear that he chose to not tell me that he needed to go to the bathroom), and I told him to wait for me in the bathroom while I finished taking care of Anna. In his little fit of rage, he shut the bathroom door (which he knows he is not to do), and he locked it. We live in an old home with old doors and knobs and locks . . . and this lock is hard to “lock” and even harder to “unlock.”

Mr. Determination locked himself in the bathroom.

Being the wonderful mom that I am, I immediately called Hatch at work for help and I ran downstairs and grabbed the screw driver. I was able to get the knob and plate off the door, but I could not get to the locking mechanism. Meanwhile, William is screaming that he is ready to GET OUT of the bathroom, that he needs to go potty, and that he needs a grown up to help him. Bless his pointed little head, as my Uncle Fred says! Daddy and I determined that I had done all I could do, so he grabbed his cape and Super Hero Daddy flew in for the rescue.

William was quite upset, and I could see the big tears rolling down his red cheeks through the hole in the door where the knob used to be. I could tell that he was starting to panic and get scared, so we talked about the Bible verse that the boys have recently learned. My cousin, Kelly, gave us this great little bedtime prayer book for Anna’s Baptism, and the boys memorized one of the verses from a paraphrase of Psalm 23. So, peeping through the hole with big tears on his face, William said “The Lord is my Shepherd. I have everything I need.” We talked about what that means, and how we can tell Jesus when we are scared. We can ask him to help us anytime—with whatever we need. William and I prayed together: for Jesus to help him get out of the bathroom and for Jesus to help him not be scared. Through his sobs, William prayed these things. Right as we finished praying, Super Hero Daddy rolled on into the house—our very own Clark Kent—he showed up all handsome in his shirt and tie with his tool box and crow bar in hand.

Because of the layout of the lock, Hatch had to drill a hole through the door in order to manipulate the lock and get the door open. I would have had no idea how to do this. My next plan of action was to call the firemen, which would have been exciting, but having them break down the door would not have been too pretty, I’m sure!

Right before our very own Super Hero got to work on the door, we slipped William some stickers under the crack (never have I been so thankful for doors that leave gaping wide cracks underneath them!) to keep himself entertained. This is what we found when we got him out of the bathroom. The sticker in the center of his foot says it all: CRAZY.

(yes, this is my life.)

I am excited to say that now, about an hour later, our Super Hero has returned to his day job, two little boys are sleeping soundly in their beds after an exciting rescue mission, and Sister is sawing logs as well. Despite the fact that this episode was rather short-lived, I am exhausted. Exhausted, but quite glad that I will not have to buy a new bathroom door anytime soon. And, for the record, our bathroom door may never lock again. EVER. Super Hero is going to swing by the hardware store and pick out a non-locking knob and plate for our use from here on out. Consider yourself forewarned: our bathroom door does not lock!

Overheard and Flashing Back

The Best “Overheard” of the Summer

Hudson:  Me a man.  ME A MAN, MOMMY!  Me a man, cuz I have a “pee-pee.”

(I’ll let you figure out what “pee-pee” means on your own.  Let’s just say this conversation was bookended by talking about both Daddy and Anna.  Oh, how the pride and obsession begins at an early age!)

+++

People always ask me who Anna looks like.  While I do think she is a good blend of our boys, she reminds me so much of little William.  (Aunt Katie, by the way, is on a kick thinking that Anna looks just like her . . . and while that would not be a bad thing, I’m still not sure I totally agree!)

Look at this precious face!  And, let’s just pause and say THANK YOU, JESUS FOR HEALING WILLIAM’S EYE!

Due to the crazy summer heat and humidity, our four legged friend has spent some time indoors lately.  He and Sister are definitely bonding—despite the fact that one of his sneezes this week sent her into a crying fit!

You can barley see it because of her chubby finger, but Sis has two sharp little toothies popping up!

And, she is LOVING scooting around on her tummy—she mainly goes backwards and in a circle, but she is moving.  Someone please help me!  I cannot imagine three children who can all get away from me in a flash!  Does this picture remind you of anyone?

Hudsey mastered the backwards slither first, too!

And, he was not happy about it!  I love that you can see his two little teeth here, too.  Oh, these babies!

So, whether you are a man or a woman, we hope you have a lovely day and that you do not find yourself wedged under any pieces of furniture!

TGIF

Our morning started EARLY when sister work up before the birds at 3:30am  (dear sister, PLEASE do not do that again.)  This was what greeted me during our second take at the morning:

Little Miss refused to take a nappy nap, but she loved giving her big girl cup a try!

This next picture is proof that Jesus hears my prayers of protection for my children.  I grabbed my camera to take a picture of Anna, who has mastered swiveling on her tummy 360 degrees and she can also scoot/slide backward.  As I went to take the picture, Hudson picked up a rug that was rolled up against the wall and accidentally dropped it right as I was clicking the button.  Anna was totally fine—I may have panicked, but we all recovered and moved along with our day full of not napping and other such fun!  Suffice it to say that I am glad Daddy will be home tomorrow to help wrangle the monkeys!

tonight!

tonight we went to a cup eating party at our neighbor's house.  isn’t it lovely to have neighbors who fill up their pool and invite us and our babes over in the heat of the summer?  we loved it!

{these three rascals were born within 3 weeks of each other!  both of the boys are ON THE MOVE!  Annabug showed them her clapping skills, instead.  ha ha!}

Anna and “Da Bookah” (or Mr. Books, or Booky, or Book-Books, depending on which of my children you ask and their mood at the moment)

Oh, Booker!  We love you, little rascal!  Now, sit back down and do not teach Anna your wild-man tricks!  I love that you can see him grinning even with his paci in his mouth!  Mr. Book Books was slurping up the water, so we used the paci to try to distract him.  He is so precious and one of Anna’s first and fastest friends!  These two may give us a run for our money in a few years!

Here’s to cooling yourself off in a tiny pool with a bunch of red solo cups . . . nothing else says summer quite like it!

Tuesday

Today is Tuesday.  I know what that means.  Hudson even knows what that means:  for some reason in the car today, he talked about how he got locked in the car and got scared “one day”—A Tuesday, you know.

Today I am choosing to not dwell on the fact that my children pulled every single wooden letter (spelling their names above their beds) off of the wall and pulled every single piece of clothing out of their nicely organized drawers after popping out of bed an hour early.  Or the fact that whenever we go anywhere they urgently insist on using the bathroom at the most inconvenient time.  Or that my children think it is a funny game when I tell them to “Freeze” or “NOT MOVE” in a parking lot, etc.  Or that it is approximately 700 degrees and humid, humid, humid and I had the absence of mind to meet a friend OUTDOORS for the late morning-afternoon.

Instead, I will show cute pictures of my adorable children, who I love.  And, who make me tired.  And even hotter than I normally am. 

Please excuse my finger in the picture, but this is how we roll these days now that Anna can sit up well and is no longer in her baby carseat!  Thank you, GiGi!  You have NO IDEA HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS STROLLER!  (I never thought I would say something like that about a stroller.  A purse?  A new pair of shoes?  Cute earrings?  Yes.  A stroller?  Never thought I’d say it, but it’s true.)

After my boys pretended to eat lunch, we played at “the fountain frog” . . . I wasn’t planning to get sister wet, but it was too hot not to!

These boys love the water!

Victory!

They loved to pour water on “my baby’s toes”

Yummers. 

Oh, my sweetness.  Love this girl!

Two are fast asleep and one is clunking loudly in his room.  I will give you one second to guess who it is.  Yes, it’s red.  I’m off to do some convincing . . . And, here’s to hoping there is a glass of wine in my future this evening!

Happy Tuesday to you!

Birthday Cookout

So, I have this problem where I cannot remember anything anymore.  I forget everything.  For example, I forgot that I had any of these pictures on my camera when I did my birthday post last week.  So, here we go . . . round two . . . mostly of the cute tiny ones, too . . .

I adore this picture of my boy.  This may be the picture of the summer of him!

Round-faced, blue-eyed, strawberry sweetness in one milk-mustached, dirty-faced rascal!

Oh, the cheeks!

Chatterbox hardly pauses to take a breath, so I have very few pictures of him not practicing his skills.  People ask me daily what we did to get him to talk like this.  I think we just talked to him.  There is a lot of talking in our house.  ALL of the time.  CONSTANTLY.

This reminds me:  Doesn’t his little eye look great?  The medication did not make it go all-of-the-way away, but it surely better, praise the Lord!  We will keep his meds at the current level and then start to wean him off of it at the end of the summer.  Our prayer is that Jesus will fully and completely heal William’s hemangioma without our doing any surgery.  Please join us in prayer for this!

ChEEEEEEEEEEEESE!

Summer 2011:  Posterchild.

I feel certain I could wallpaper my house in pictures of these babes and their wild expressions (and hair)!

Sister had a great time playing on the blankie on the deck her Daddy built!

Shortly thereafter “the j-birds” arrived at the party . . . red buckets and all!

Despite the fact that they’d eaten, the j-birds were interested in round 2 . . .

Please check out his eyelashes in this picture.  Incredible!

Scoping out the options . . .

Then, the party hats came out!  And, who doesn’t love a party hat?

This j-bird party-goer insisted on some pre-cake rearranging of furniture. (Thank you for the chairs, A’ Monny!)

I’m pretty sure that this picture beats my wildest dreams of what my 30th birthday would be like . . . sitting on my deck with my parents, my wonderful hubby, and my three adorable children, who are running wild and free.  It was absolutely perfect!

There was a little swimming bathing after dinner, too.

Some phone-playing time with Bumpy Fwogs

And snuggles with Daddy

What a night!  It was so sweet, such fun, and a wonderful way to ring in the big 3-0!