Sister is 10 Months Old!

I took these pictures a few weeks ago, around the 10 month mark for Little Miss Anna Banana.  It is so wild to me that she is 10 months old already!  How did we get here?  It feels like time is flying by!  Well, at least, it seems that the months fly by.  Most Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays do not fly by . . . and most days 3pm-7pm does not fly by.  But the months, yes, they fly by.  The week that I took these pictures, the boys were sick, so we were staying close to home and sister was playing with my lens cap in the big blue chair while the brothers were splashing in the pool next to her.  She is so fun to watch!

Anna has mastered sitting, rolling, and even scooting her little self back onto her rear into a sitting position.  When she first began to sit, she would do it in her crib and then cry because she couldn’t figure out how to lay back down again!  In this set of pictures, Little Miss has a boo boo on her lip because she fell trying to crawl.  Being a big baby is hard work, you know!

Today, Sister began to crawl.  I held out some snacks and she followed my hand across the room until she could grab them!  So far, food has been the only thing that has motivated her to move! 

Anna lights up when she sees her brothers, her Daddy, and her cousin Charlie.  It is so sweet!  Hudson has a special voice he uses when he talks to her, and everytime she gets up from a nap, he says in his deep-Anna-only voice with his head cocked to the side:  “Hi Booo-teee!” (hi beauty) or “Hi fweet Ting!”  (hi sweet thing) or “Hi fweet peas!”  It is absolutely precious.  Hudson will sing to Anna if she is sad, and most of the time, when I walk into the den to see who is doing what, Hudson is playing on the quilt next to Anna.  Oh, my heart!

 

This past week, we went to the Children’s Museum with friends, and Hudson was behind me wanting to play in the sand box.  He climbed up on the bench, and while taking his shoes off, he looked over at the mom who was sitting beside him with a baby in her sling and said:  “What your baby called?”  She told him (I couldn’t hear what she said), and he said “Why?” (of course!)  Then, he turned to her, and he said:  “My baby is Anna.”  It was just so dear!  Oh, how I love these boys of mine! 

Sissy loves to eat and will munch on just about anything we put in front of her.  She takes 3 bottles a day, and snuggles her lovie and plays with my hair while I feed her.  It is such a sweet time.  I don’t want her to stop taking her bottles when she turns one—I just love that time with her!   Sister LOVES her lovie—she giggles when we give it to her, and she also giggles when we cover her with her blankie.  It is so sweet!

Annabug’s hair is coming in thicker, and I’m eager to see what color it will be in the end.  I still say she will be blonde like William, but who knows!  Only time will tell!

Anna has a tad of a dramatic side as well.  She may throw her cup across the room when done eating, or scream as loud as she possibly can if you try to change her diaper.  It seems to me that she has no problem “asking” for attention, and I feel certain that her squeals are the loudest things I have ever heard.  Watch out brothers, Little Sister is going to rule the roost (at least in volume, if nothing else!)

 

Anna Kathryn is starting to chit-chat more now, too.  She will repeat sounds that we make, and at least twice a week she begs for us to put her to bed (bless her heart!)  “Ni Ni, NI NI NI NIIIII(ght)”  She has said “all done” in her own little language a few times, too.  She makes a little panting noise when she sees Dog-Dog!  And she loves to shake her head no and dance to the boys’ “tractor song” in the car—it is adorable!

Hey, beauty!

Anna chomps on everything in her path these days!  She has her top two middle teeth, her bottom two middle teeth, and I think she is working on two more bottom teeth.  This teething thing is a wild time.  She tends to cut teeth at night, and when she wakes up screaming at 2am, there are often little toothies to be seen in the morning!

Anna loves to laugh and giggle, and she is quite ticklish!  She is such a fun little love to be around.  She smiles and grins and talks and waves—it is just so much fun!  I think I say it every month, but this baby is such a JOY.  If I could have three more of her, I think I would (but don’t tell my husband I said that!)

Sister, we love you, love you, love you!

 

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In other news, I was reminded today of the verse in the Bible that says that God won’t give you more than you can bear (1 Cor 10:13) . . . within 24 hours of my power being turned back on (my parents and sister are still in the dark!) William spiked a fever and started throwing up.  I am so grateful that we are not having to care for a sick boy in the dark!  One step at a time.  One. Step. At. A. Time.

Oh, Irene!

Last week ended up being quite a week for us! We were struggling through the lingering tail-end of a week-long stomach bug (which left us with few naps, even less patience, and lots of toddler behavior) and we survived our first earthquake and then hurricane as a family! The earthquake was wild . . . we heard it coming before we felt it, and once I realized what it was, I swooped everyone up and we headed to the basement. William was very upset because he was in the basement without his shoes on (I have trained him well)! Hudson kept talking about it thunderin’ . . . we were fine and grateful for it! Hudson was the only one who woke up during the aftershock a few nights later—he told us about the thunderin’ again. Wild!

On Saturday, Hurricane Irene came through Richmond. We are all fine, and we are so grateful for that. Several homes in our area have trees down and a home that very-much resembles ours a few blocks away has a tree through the middle of it—when I saw that, it just made me sick. If that had been our house, the tree would have gone through my boys’ room. We are so thankful that we are all safe!

We saw this on our way home from my parents’ on Saturday around 2pm—and, the bad part of the storm hadn’t started yet!

On Saturday, we lost power around noon due to a tree falling on the lines in our alley. Our friends invited us over for dinner, so we threw on our hurricane gear and headed over in the wind and rain to escape the darkness!

Since Sister didn’t have a rain coat, we put her in a sweater with a hat and with a hooded towel overtop!

She didn’t mind the darkness or the rain!

While we were at our neighbor’s house, their power went out too. And, we realized we were approaching the 36 hour mark of food in our fridge. So, Hatch took a load of fridge food to a friend’s house. And, yes, head lamps are most handy when the power is out (just don’t blind your baby with yours)! He may have been less-than-thrilled that I was taking a picture of him while he was hauling food across our neighborhood at 10pm. While he was out, he saw that a massive tree had fallen on a house and that another tree was completely blocking our street. Wild!

Sunday morning brought some drier weather and we were able to survey the damage a little better. The boys were so very excited to see all of the activity going on to clean up our street!

DIGGERS!!!

This boy was barely able to contain his excitement—he was talking a mile a minute about the diggers!

Loving life!

And, this is our new favorite truck. I’m not sure what the name of it is, but it has a crane that picks up the huge trees and a dump truck bed to put them in . . . our whole family enjoyed this excitement, can’t you tell? We spent most of our Sunday driving around Richmond trying to save our food and looking for trees and trucks all around the city!

After the crazy winds from this storm, about 75% of our city was without power. Thankfully, we were able to save most of our food—I carried around a cooler with me for two days, and we had our fridge food in two friend’s homes and our freezer stuff at my mom’s (they have a small generator.) As I write this, my mom and sister are still without power! Many stop lights don’t have power, and so driving has been scary, to say the least! My husband feels very strongly that the people doing traffic updates on the news should alert drivers that we should treat all traffic lights without power like a four-way-stop. (See Hatch, I have done my duty of spreading the word and reminding people of driver’s ed!)

Our neighbors’ across the street got power back on Sunday because one of our sweet neighbors who works for Dominion (check out his wife’s wonderful photography site here) got off of his 12 hour shift and went to fix their power on his own time! Our power was said to take a while longer because it needed new poles and new lines due to the tree falling in the alley. Yesterday, our neighbor was able to work with the cracked poles and fix the line so that our lights came on . . . they will come and finish the job (new poles, etc.) later this week. We have great neighbors, don’t you think? We are so grateful for them!

Here’s to a less interesting week this week!

Happy Sugie!

Our sweet Sugie celebrated her birthday on Sunday!  Unfortunately, the Reppard crew has been under the weather (stomach bug!), so we didn’t get to see Sugie until today.  Sister (who is not sick) and I went to join Sugs and the fam—including Uncle Chrisferferfer--for a birthday dinner.  (Hudsey, the Original, may have cried about not being able to go to dinner for Sugie’s birthday—fortunately, for us, we can let the celebration continue once the boys are better!)  We had a lovely time!

Sugie, we all love you lots and are thankful for you!  What would we do without our Sugie?  I do not know!  Sugie spends most of her “free time” taking care of her grandbabies, and they adore her for it . . . and Aunt Katie and I adore her for it too!   You are special to us, Sugs!  Sugie enjoys celebrating a birthday month . . . so, Sugie, I hope it’s a great one!  You deserve it!

Charlie was most excited to see “baby” . . . Aunt Katie may have been a little excited to see “baby,” too.  Baby was excited, but mostly tired!

Kissing Cousins!

Happy Happy Birthday to you, our Sugie!  We love you so!

Lately {in cell phone pics}

Life as we know it has left me, well . . . a little tired.  I think our summer fun may have caught up with me.  We stayed close to home this weekend and this week, and it has been a good thing!

Anna and Auntie Owl enjoyed a little of this on Saturday, between rainstorms.  And, yes, I know what you are thinking, and I am glad that my baby knows how to accessorize so well at such a young age!

The toddler creativity continues on the homefront with what I like to call our very own Chair Train.  I think, in this picture, William was insisting that he was the coal.  Whatever works, my little friend.  Whatever works!  These two tiny partners in crime came up with the Chair Train themselves.  It is really fun to see what they do and to learn more about how their minds work!  I love it!

The other day, they also played “picnic,” which I decided was too dangerous of a game considering its location . . . so it didn’t last long {this is what happens when I talk on the phone}

Some of us have enjoyed some cherries this summer (which is why we they eat in the nude)

Eating continues to be quite fun around here.  In case you were wondering, Little Miss definitely prefers to feed herself these days.  Don’t even think of trying to spoon feed her carrots.  Only babies do those types of things, and she is 10 months old TODAY.  OH MY HEART!  (Please notice her fat lip.  More on that to come.)

Despite her refusal of carrots, every so often, she will allow one of her favorite people to sneak in a bite or two of pears or applesauce.  But, only because they are her favorite people. 

Sissy Lou has also decided that she wants to move, and since all of our beach trips are things of the past, I am willing to let her try.  Her preference is to try to pull herself to a standing position whenever she can, but she still has a hard time getting those cute, chubby legs underneath her.  The fat lip from the picture above was a result of her trying to go from sitting to crawling . . . her new tooth broke her fall and went through her gum.  I started screaming “There’s blood on her dress!  What is happening!?”  Clearly, her plan did not turn out too well. 

This is her trying a normal crawling stance.  Please note that she is screaming.  For the record, if she stands up one day and walks across the room and never crawls, that would be completely perfect for me.  (Please also note the wonderful quilt from Nonna!  We love it!)

 

Sister likes to chomp on okra while dining al fresco.

Her brothers also enjoy eating outdoors (nothing like being squished between a double stroller and a beach towel hanging to dry), but they must do it shirtless if cherries are involved!

Someone continues to master my phone with great ease.  If you get a prank call from a toddler, you now know why.  This is his self portrait.  And, this picture reminds me:  We are officially weaning him off of the propranalol.  We feel like he’s gotten the most out of the medication as he will get, so we are beginning the process of weaning him off of it.  I am thankful that the hemangioma has continued to decrease in size and that he has done so well on the medication (MUCH better than I had initially anticipated).  We’re still praying for it to go away completely, and soon.  Please pray with us!  We want Jesus to fully heal our boy!

And, does it get any sweeter than this?

I think not.

Nighty night!

The Tour of Sweet Virginia

After we left the beach with the Murphy family, we went straight to the mountains with the BIG Reppard crew (like Nonna, Pop-Pop, cousins, and aunts, and uncles, etc!).  We had a great time celebrating many Reppard birthdays—including the big 6-0 for Hatch’s Uncle Tom!  I didn’t take many pictures of everyone together, which is a shame because Uncle Tom not only wore a fabulous white 70s-looking suit, but he also donned about four different wigs throughout the night!  It was a very fun and busy trip—we loved being with everyone!

Annabug snoozing while the boys played!

Fun with Daddy!

One of Hudsey’s favorite outdoor activities is to ‘wing! And, ‘wing, he did!

Checking out the creek with Aunt Courtney!

The next day, we took a family trip to the petting zoo.  Aside from a hungry pig who “eated” Hudsey’s arm (not the pig pictured below, and it was a scratch—nothing too traumatic!), it was a big hit!

Making eye-to-eye contact with a bunny is always a great idea.

And, more bunny action:  EARS!

Loving on the goats!

Hey horsey!

And, Hudsey was a helpful farm hand when it came to cleaning . . .

. . . while William focused more on the feeding aspects of the farm . . .

As a result of the boys’ new farm-hand skills, I am fairly certain they can now completely care for Dog-Dog themselves!  We’ll see how that goes . . .

The Good and the Bad

Good:  The boys, out of their own initiative, played “train” yesterday for a while during the morning.  It was amazing in many ways—the first being their new, spontaneous imaginations and creativity and the second being the 8 minutes of time I had to clean up from breakfast in relative peace!

The Good:  This love is a doll baby.  The Bad:  She has thrown up the last two days, and I’m not really sure why.  It stresses me out . . .

The Good:  I was able to write a few notes today that I had been intending to do for a long time.  The Bad:  While I was doing it, the rascals snuck off and when I found them, they were “Lookin’ for me yubby” {looking for my lovie!}  Please note the vase on the ground to the right of Hudson’s foot as well as our wedding photo on the bench beside that boys’ tippy-tip-toes.  For the record, the lovie has NEVER been stored on the mantle.

The Good:  Despite being sick, she is very happy.  And so cute.  {Sara, the shirt is beyond precious!  Thank you!}

The Good:  More “playin’ train” here, too.  They love it—they play together, they play with Anna, and they want us to play.  It is very fun, despite the clean up!

And, the quote of the day today:

William:  Mommy, I want to see diggers.  Look on Youtube.  Just look on Youtube, Mommy.

Also, as a random sidenote before I forget, for the last week and a half or so, William has taken to calling me MiMi instead of Mommy (which I think is so cute!)  He has a whole voice and persona that he uses when talking to MiMi.  Today, I asked him who he was if I was MiMi, and he said “I’m tiny duckie’s friend: Wee-Mi-Mi!”  HYSTERICAL!

Nighty night!  MiMi loves you, and so does Wee-Mi-Mi!

Tuesday

Because today is Tuesday, my morning started with two toddlers busting out of their room before I showered (I made them stand at the end of the bathtub while I showered so I knew exactly what they were doing—that was right before Hudson took the insert of the tiny potty and threw it into the bowl of the big potty and started pushing it up and down, up and down) . . .

and, as a Tuesday, today was full of:

tantrums;

William YELLING in his loudest voice:  “LADY, CAN I HAVE THIS BOOK?” while we were at the library (he was talking to the very KIND and PATIENT woman who was helping me check out our books);

me being thrown up on;

a toddler insisting that he has to have a “biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig poop, RIGHT NOW” at least three times today (which was not true, come to find out);

lots of snot all over me and everything else;

children refusing to eat the food I put in front of them and then declaring they are starving;

me hearing this at least twice:  “me tinkle in my underpants, mommy;”

and, two children needing spontaneous baths,

I decided that there was no better way to end the day than to go celebrate my cousin Mary’s 30th Birthday!

I mean, what problem does a cute hairbow and an adorable icecream cone party dress not fix?  Sister and I had a lovely time at the party.  (We left the boys at home, in case you were wondering!)

Mary Beth is exactly one month and one day younger than me.  She, Katie, and Christy (her sis) and I were the dearest of friends growing up, and it is so fun to all live close-by as adults.  Believe it or not, people often thought we were all sisters . . . I remember someone asking my mom once if three of us were triplets!  (I’m not sure any parent could have survived the four of us under one roof!)  Ha, ha!

The happiest of birthdays to you, YOUNGER cousin!  Welcome to the big 3-0.  You’ll love it here, I promise!   We love you, Mary!