keriland

Multiplyin'

2012-01-24T15:55:00.001-05:00

Annabelle and I are working on her "homework" for their "100th Day of School" celebration. She has to count 100 of something. We picked dinosaur shaped sprinkles. As we were starting to count them, I said, "There are 5 different colors of sprinkles. Why don't we sort them by color equally. If there are 5 colors, how many do you think we'd need of each color?" I was fully expecting to go over the counting with her to figure this out, but instead she immediately (seriously, like within 2 seconds) replied "20!" I said, "That's right, how did you know that?" (thinking may she had just guessed, but nope...) She replied "Because 20 5 times is 100!"
That's right!

Lunch Date with My Corgan

2012-01-10T21:17:00.000-05:00

On Our Lunch Date

This morning I dropped Juliet off with my mom and I got to go with Corgan's class on their field trip. The field trip went late enough that he missed lunchtime at school, so I decided to take the free time before we had to pick up Annabelle to go on a Lunch Date with my boy!
When I asked Corgan where he wanted to go on our date, his first answer was Chick-fil-A. I told him I wanted to go on a real date so we needed to go somewhere fancier than Chick-fil-A, a real restaurant. He said "Okay... Can we go somewhere with smoothies for dessert?" So we went to Longhorns. :)
On the way there, I prepped Corgan with how a gentleman should act on a date. I told him he should open doors for me, hold my hand, be sweet, order for himself, and that I'd even let him pay (with my money, of course). He was excited to try it!
When we got there, Corgan immediately grabbed my hand to hold it crossing the parking lot, then when we were safely out of the street, he ran ahead of open the door for me. I thanked him as I entered the doors. When we sat down, we immediately looked at the menus so he would know what he wanted to order. When the waiter came to take our orders, Corgan proudly asked for "Chicken fingers and broccoli, please" but he kept his eyes down when he said it. I told him to say it again and look at the waiter, and he happily did it. During the meal, he was sweet and offered me his oranges ("You can have my oranges because I know you like them."), talked to me about his field trip, and we played some of the games on his menu. The only "gentleman" thing he wouldn't do is sit down and put his napkin on his lap ("I'm not going to spill anything, Mommy."). He was a wonderful date!
On the way out, I accidentally started to open the door for myself. He gave me a big "Mommy!" and I stepped back and closed the door when I realized what I'd done. He then held the door for me, and even held it for someone else to come inside (without me asking) before he closed it. Then, he held my hand on the way back out to the car, and the cherry on top was that he ran to open my car door for me! I never even mentioned the car door!
I can't wait to see what a little gentleman my little guy is going to be, and I'm so thankful to our pastor, Nicole Olinski, for this idea! I'm going to have no problem exceeding my "dates with Corgan" goal!

My 2012 Goals

2012-01-08T23:08:00.000-05:00

I realize that I'm a week late posting my goals for 2012, but I wanted to take a little time to really think about what I wanted to do this year. I made a list of goals for 2009, and it was a great success because I accomplished every one of the goals that year. In 2010, I created another list, and although I didn't accomplish all of the goals, I was able to check off quite a few. :) The goals that I did check off include getting lasik (in July 2010), part of "be in super duper shape" (I completed the Pineappleman Triathlon in 1:43:05 and the Art Festival 5K in 25:53- beating my record of 26:20 from 2009), was VERY active with Nana's House (including collecting items for fundraisers, helping Annabelle to raise $1200 in the walk-a-thon, producing promotional materials for fundraisers, giving presentations, getting them on facebook, and more), I visited a new U.S. State (Utah- February for a Ski Trip and a day of touring Salt Lake City), I saw "Wicked" (with Carla Ely during our trip to NYC in the fall and we splurged for 6th row seats), Keith and I took an "alone" trip as a 7th Anniversary cruise in the Caribbean, hopefully Annabelle and Corgan would agree that I was the best mom that I could be, and my most significant accomplishment was becoming pregnant with Juliet in October! Some of the goals that I wasn't able to check off, will now appear on my 2012 list (I missed making one in 2011).

So, without further ado, here is my official list of...
KERI DONALD'S GOALS FOR 2012!

Donate to Locks of Love

Yes, it's 2 years later, and my hair is just NOW finally long enough to donate without leaving myself with a super-short hair cut. Look for the new shorter "do" to be coming very soon!

Finish Filling the Empty Picture Frames in My House

During my period of bedrest in June 2011, I managed to fill most of the frames, but a few were left empty to fill them once Juliet was born and some where I just couldn't decide on the right picture.

Continue to Make Contributions to Help People in My Community and Beyond

I plan to continue to volunteer with Nana's House, but have become passionate about a few other organizations that I am very interested in helping where I can. These organizations include The South Brevard Sharing Center, KeepVolunteering.org, Scotty Sacks, and Need-based Scholarships in information technology at UA.

Grow Spiritually

Regular Prayer/Devotional Time Daily
Become Active at our church (Grace Church Melbourne), including attending services and catching up on missed services online and helping out where needed
Read books on having a relationship with Jesus and watch tv shows that educate me on the history of the Bible

Support Keith with Pastime, his new creative/entrepreneurship venture!
Help Annabelle to grow in her interests

Teach her to ride a bike
Do a few races (running and/or kid triathlons) with her
Teach her at least 50 words in French
Finish her "Fairy Forest" and work with her on redecorating her handmade doll house

Help Corgan to grow as a young man

Keep working on his math skills as long as he's interested
Take him out on at least 3 "dates" to teach him all about being a gentleman
Help Corgan to become more independent in getting himself ready to leave the house

Help Juliet to grow into toddlerhood

Teach her sign language
Give her all of the love (and more) that a baby needs!

Help my marriage to grow

Go on a getaway with ONLY Keith (no kids and no other friends/family)
Make plans for a date night at least once a month
Read at least one book on getting the most out of our marriage

Be a "Fit" Version of Me!

I may have a hard time breaking my records in both the Art Festival 5K and the Pineappleman Triathlon this year, but I intend to give it my all! My fitness goals are:

To once again break 26 minutes in a 5K race (this was a "life goal" that I met in 2009)
Finish the Pineappleman Triathlon in 1:42 or better and to complete at least one more sprint triathlon
Have a respectable time in a 10K race
Do something "active" an average of 4 times per week throughout the year
Run a mile in under 7:30

Get through Level 1 of Rosetta Stone French
Complete a "366" (not "365" since it's leap year) Photo Project for 2012
FINALLY complete the Media Room!

Here's to a successful 2012!

Juliet LOOOVES her Annabelle!

2011-11-02T12:07:00.001-04:00

Last night I sat on my bed with Juliet chatting with 'Cole for a little bit. Annabelle stopped in to stay good night to us and to play with her baby sister for a few moments before heading to bed. Juliet was all smiles as Annabelle coo-ed and smiled at her, but as soon as Annabelle left the room, Juliet immediately burst into all-out sobbing! It was the cutest thing ever! I immediately called Annabelle back into the room to see if her presence would make Juliet happy again. As soon as Juliet got a look at her big sister, the tears stopped. Annabelle came over and gave her baby sis one last kiss, then headed out the door again and, immediately, the waterworks started again! We repeated this experiment a good few more times, all with the same results! It was SOOOO stinkin' cute!

I love that at only 4 months old, Juliet LOOOVES her Big Sister Annabelle SOOO much! I'm such a lucky Mommy!

Annabelle's 2nd Tooth Fairy Visit

2011-10-27T03:24:00.001-04:00

Last week Keith bought some hard foam softballs that are standard softball size and started practicing with the kids on catching fly balls. He even rainbowed the balls to them at 2nd base from home plate, and they did very well at catching quite a few! So, last Friday (October 21st) when Keith took the kids outside for a little practice before our Saturday morning game, Annabelle wanted to try catching a fly ball with a real softball! Keith reluctantly popped up a few to her from about 20-30 feet away as I watched from the sidelines. She had a few misses, but then one went straight toward her glove... and into her face!
Annabelle immediately burst into tears as blood started gushing from her mouth! I saw her violently toss something from her mouth into the grass. I ran over to check on her and her bottom tooth was missing! I asked her "Did you just throw your tooth into the grass?" She realized that the thing that she had just thrown down was, in fact, her tooth, and the waterworks REALLY opened up! She refused to go inside and clean up the blood (which was GUSHING out of her mouth) until we found the tooth! I tried to explain to her that the Tooth Fairy would be able to find the tooth better than we would because of her tooth radar and that she would still get her dollar even if the tooth wasn't in her pillow, but she just wouldn't accept that. As soon as I finished explaining that, Keith miraculously spotted the teeny-tiny little baby tooth in the grass! I could not believe he found it since Annabelle had run a good 10 feet away from where she threw down the tooth before realized what had happened and went back to look for it!
With the baby tooth in hand, Annabelle and I went inside to clean her up. Once she calmed down and realized that she was going to get another visit from the Tooth Fairy, she wasn't nearly as upset. And now she has a cool "how I lost my tooth" story to tell!
For tooth #2, the Tooth Fairy left her another special dollar. She really liked how the Tooth Fairy colored and wrote on her first dollar, so the Tooth Fairy decorated this dollar too. :)

Close up:

Like with Annabelle's first dollar, The Tooth Fairy wrote her name, the date of the tooth, and the tooth number on the dollar so Annabelle would always remember it. She also circled and colored all of the 2s (for tooth number 2), colored an A (for Annabelle), and spiced up ole' George with some color (which Corgan did NOT like, for the record). Annabelle LOVES that the Tooth Fairy loves art like she does! :)

How'd We Get "Juliet"?

2011-09-19T00:15:00.001-04:00

Long before we knew that Baby Donald 3.0 (now known as Juliet) was a girl, I had fallen in love with the name Aurora. I thought for sure that my next girl after Annabelle would be named Aurora. Keith likes the name, but isn't in love with it like I am. One day not long after we discovered that we were pregnant with baby #3, I had mentioned that I kinda liked the name Juliet. Keith immediately jumped all over that name.

I think the reasons that I feel a connection to the name "Juliet" is because I have always really liked the Romeo and Juliet story. I was a fan of the story when I was in middle school when we watched the movie in 8th grade English class. I chose a scene from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to act out in my 9th grade English class, and I wrote a "Verona Times" newspaper for a computer class in high school. Then many years later, when we visited Northern Italy in 2006, we made a trip to Verona, the residence of the Shakespeare's fictional Juliet. In Verona, we visited Casa di Giulietta (Juliet's House) where we were able to walk through the house created for the fictional Juliet character, stand on her famous balcony, and even rub her right breast for luck (oh yeah, and Keith got pooped on by a bird while we were there, but that has nothing to do with the story)!

Fast forward a few years to 2010... Marian (Keith's sister), Annabelle, and I tagged along on a business trip that Keith had in Munich, Germany. In Munich, Verona's "twin town", we happened upon the same bronze statue of Juliet that I saw in Verona. It turns out that Munich's Juliet statue was a gift from Verona. Of course, we rubbed her breast for luck there too!

Keith's connection to Juliet, in my opinion, stems from his infatuation with another fictional Juliet, Dr. Juliet Burke from LOST. Simple as that.

Because we both really like the name Juliet, it was definitely a top choice for a possible girl name for Baby Donald 3.0. When we told the kids about it, they didn't like it at all at first. Once we showed them the trailer (and website for) the new Gnomeo & Juliet movie, they warmed up to the name a bit (but only if baby had brown hair and green eyes).

When Juliet was born, we immediately decided that she was 100% "Juliet"! She is a perfect little Juliet, and I love that we both feel a connection to her name!

One final note, when I was in the hospital after giving birth to Juliet, the movie Letters to Juliet was one of the on-demand movies available to watch. I had never even heard of the movie, but was very excited to watch it based on the name alone, and even more excited when I realized that it was set in Verona and revolved around the letters to Juliet that are left at the Casa di Giulietta!

Taking the Time to Stop and Smell The Baby

2011-09-18T23:00:00.000-04:00

Now that my first baby is in kindergarten, I really know what "they" have been talking about when they say "They grow up so fast!"

For a couple of reasons, I feel like I appreciate Juliet's newborn stage so much more than I appreciated it with Annabelle and Corgan. With Annabelle, I was never a nervous new mom and generally felt like I knew what I was doing, but everything was still so new to me. I was still always learning this new stay-at-home Mom routine and my new role as "Mommy". Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed relaxing on the sofa with her and getting excited about every little new thing that she did, but I didn't realize how fast every little stage would pass me by and didn't know to really just take it all in and appreciate it. Then when Corgan came along I already knew many of the Mommy tricks to caring for a newborn, but I had an 18 month old Annabelle to take care of at the same time. Corgan was a slightly easier baby from the perspective of him sleeping a little better than Annabelle did and he had less health problems than she did (although all of hers were fairly minor), however I rarely had the time to focus solely on Corgan without being totally exhausted myself.

Now, it's 4 years later and I already have "raising two newborns" under my belt. I did forget a few things, but most of it is comes back to me in an "ah-ha" moment. My next youngest "baby" was already nearly 4 when Juliet was born, so I don't really have another baby to constantly keep an eye on. Both of the Bigs are in school, so at the very least I have a few hours in the morning to focus on (or nap along with) just Juliet. A few days a week I have even more time than that because my parents now live nearby and love to take care of the Bigs in the afternoons too. Now that I am very confident in my mommy skills (as a mom of a newborn anyway), there is really very little "am I doing this right?" type anxiety with Juliet. I also realize how fast she will change, so I am really taking in every little moment that I have with her. I am doting on every little grin, every little coo, and every little snuggle. I LOVE to sit and play with her by sticking my tongue out as she mimics me and does the same or by laughing a silly laugh just to make her smile a smile so big that I can't help but smile and laugh even more! I also LOVE when I motor-boat my lips and she attempts to do it too. Or when she sees me chewing or talking and she opens and closes her mouth like she's trying to chew or talk too. I can see the intensity in her eyes as she tries to figure out how to do it!

To make things even better, I notice even more things that I never noticed before because her Bigs are so in love with her too and they constantly point out the adorable things that she does. They both LOVE to sit and talk to their little baby. They rarely call her their "little sister", she is their "little baby" or "baby girl". When she is in a swing or somewhere by herself and starts to cry, it isn't long before one or both of the Bigs is by her side trying to calm her by singing (usually either "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" or "Rock-a-bye Baby") and smiling at her. They constantly ask to hold her and both are getting quite good at it. They have never shown one ounce of jealousy in all (nearly) 3 months since she's been home! Annabelle daily remarks that she is the prettiest baby that she's ever seen, and she even adores the sound of Juliet's cry! Just yesterday she was describing her favorite of Juliet's cries to me, then when Juliet cried that way later in the day, Annabelle pointed out "That's the cry that I love!" followed by a little "Awe" in honor of how cute it was! I never would have imagined that 3 months later, they would still be so infatuated with their baby sister! I love that the excitement of the newness of Juliet continues with each new thing that she does, and I think that excitement rubs off on me too!

With Annabelle and Corgan, I felt like I couldn't wait for the next milestone and was always looking toward what they would do next. But with Juliet, I know that "next" will come soon enough, so I am in no rush at all. It does seem like the past 3 months have really flown by, but at the same time, I feel like I have let myself really enjoy them not only with Juliet and her newbornness, but with appreciating Annabelle and Corgan's new roles as Big Sister and Big Brother. Yes, Annabelle has been a Big Sister for over 4 years now, but it's definitely a different kind of role with being five-and-a-half years older as opposed to one-and-a-half year older. I know with my little brother (who is 7.5 years younger than me), I had a very different, almost motherly, relationship than I did with my sister (who is only 2.5 years younger). I very much value both of those types of relationships, and I am very glad that Annabelle and Corgan now seem to have both types in their sibling dynamics.

These first 3 months as a family of 5 have already been amazing, and I look forward to seeing what the future brings... but I'm not in a hurry to get there. :)

Annabelle's First Visit from the Tooth Fairy!

2011-09-17T00:57:00.000-04:00

Annabelle's first loose tooth has been loose for quite a while. In fact, I was starting to get worried because she was experiencing what her dentist called "shark tooth"...

Last night, she FINALLY had a break through (literally)! Annabelle was eating jello (of all things!) and all the sudden started crying because her mouth hurt and was bleeding. I told her that losing her tooth was going to hurt a little, but that she should keep working at it and maybe it would come out soon. Not five minutes later she came running out of the bathroom with her tooth in her fingers and a hole in her mouth! I haven't seen her this excited about anything since Christmas morning!

For the rest of the night, her tooth was all that she could talk about! She was going over her ideas of what the Tooth Fairy would bring and told me about what some of her friends got from the Tooth Fairy. We discussed that the Tooth Fairy collects teeth because she takes them back to her home and grinds them up to make magic pixie dust. She was excited that she was going to get to tell her class and teacher about it the next day and that she would get to wear a "tooth necklace" in class. She even asked me exactly what time her tooth fell out so that she could tell her class when it happened (my estimate was 5:00). She was so excited that she wanted me to call her teacher and tell her about it right then. Instead, I offered to email her teacher about it and send a picture. She repeatedly said "I still can't believe that I lost a tooth!" As we talked about the Tooth Fairy, she ran to her room to retrieve the "TOOTH" pillow that my sister and I used as kids (Thank God she knew where it was because I had no idea!).

When bedtime came, Annabelle put her tooth into her pillow and put the TOOTH pillow next to her pillow. After saying her prayers, she told God that her "Thankful For" thing for the day was losing her tooth.

Once she went to bed, my Tooth Fairy job began. I had already hit facebook to ask my fellow Tooth Fairies for help on the going rate for teeth. Armed with this knowledge, I decided to go with a treasure hunt approach to giving Annabelle a special dollar for her tooth. At first I was hoping to give her a dollar coin, but in the end I'm glad I ended up with a paper dollar because then I (I mean, the Tooth Fairy) could write on it. I went to work cutting out "clue" paper and armed with my pen and crayons, I made up the clues.

I finished my clues around midnight and went around the house planting the clues. Once all of the clues were out, I went to Annabelle's room to put the first clue into her pillow and retrieve the baby tooth. As I slipped my hand into the pillow to get the tooth, my girl who sleeps through EVERYTHING immediately opened her eyes and said "What are you doing?!" I told her I was heading to bed and just wanted to check to see if the Tooth Fairy had come yet. Whew! I thought I had just blown the whole Tooth Fairy thing before she ever got to enjoy it! Fortunately she believed me, and just asked if she had come yet or not. I told her the tooth was still there and that she was probably waiting for Mommy & Daddy to go to bed too so that we wouldn't see her. She laid her head back down and drifted right back to sleep.

Not wanting to be caught again, I was struggling with whether to make my second attempt at the tooth/clue exchange before going to sleep or to wait until the middle of the night (or early morning). Also, I didn't want her to wake up and find the clue in her pillow before the morning because I REALLY wanted the treasure hunt to happen when it was light out, not in the wee hours of the night. Before falling asleep around 1 a.m., I decided to try again (in hopes of turning off my 3 a.m. alarm clock setting), and this time I was successful! Go Tooth Fairy!

After that, everything went exactly as I had hoped! Annabelle woke up to her alarm clock in the morning, found the first clue, and immediately came to show me! I helped her read the first clue, and she immediately found the second. She ran around collecting clues, getting more excited with each one that she found! While she collected clues, she told me that the Tooth Fairy probably gave her clues because she knew that she loves treasure hunts. She also complimented the Tooth Fairy's drawing and coloring skills (especially on the Wii Fit game), and she told me a story about how she actually saw the Tooth Fairy in her loft when she opened her eyes for a second. She said that she only saw her head with beautiful long blonde hair and her pink wand, and she thinks she didn't see anything else because she left quickly when she saw that Annabelle was awake. The whole time Corgan was on her heals helping her to find the next clue. It was priceless!

When she finally found the "prize" special dollar bill, she was on cloud 9! She loved that the Tooth Fairy wrote her name and the date on her special dollar AND that she loves coloring so much that she colored on the dollar bill too!

After Annabelle's hunt was done, Corgan said "Okay, my turn now!" When I told him that he was going to have to wait until he lost his first tooth to get to do a treasure hunt from the Tooth Fairy, he was totally bummed!

Annabelle asked to bring her dollar to school so that she could share about it in front of her class. She assured me that another friend had taken her dollar in a few days earlier, so I let her bring it (and cleared it with her teacher before she took it into the class). When I picked Annabelle up from school, she was so proud to be able to be wearing her tooth necklace and her teacher told me all about how well Annabelle did telling her class all about her tooth experience.

I am having a hard time believing that my baby is old enough to have lost a tooth, but I never imagined that this experience would be so much fun for her! She has been giddy about it all day long, telling me her "I saw the Tooth Fairy" story and about how she keeps reaching for her tooth to wiggle it only to remember that it's already gone! She has also commented many times that she can't bite her fingernails now because she doesn't have a tooth there. Her "Thankful For" again tonight was losing her tooth. I love her excitement, and I loved being her Tooth Fairy! I can't wait for Corgan's turn!

Calendar Smarts

2011-08-28T21:23:00.002-04:00

The other day when I went to pick up Corgan, his new VPK Teacher, Ms. Tara, asked me if we work with calendars at home. She said that she could tell that we did because Corgan is the only kid in the class who is able to answer correctly when she asks things like "If today is Wednesday, how many more days are there until Friday?" That sort of question is one of the things that we go over on a very regular basis. Any time the kids ask "How many more days until _____?" I always tell them, "Today is _____, and that happens on ______, so let's count how many more days." We even do it adding 7 days if things are over a week away. It makes me proud to hear that he is really picking up on that well and it able to show off those skills at school. :)

If I haven't mentioned it before... Corgan LOVES anything to do with math and numbers!

One more thing calendar-related, lately Keith and I have both heard Corgan say "Tomorrow back" when he's talking about something that happened "Yesterday". It's so cute that he came up with that!

Rock-a-Bye Baby as sung by Corgan

2011-08-28T14:34:00.002-04:00

Rock-a-my Baby on the tree top
When the wind blows the cradle will rock
Rock-a-my Baby cradle will fall
And then they put Humpty together again!

Corgan's Grown Up Job

2011-08-26T13:01:00.002-04:00

On the way home from school today, Corgan announced that in addition to being a Daddy when he grows up, he wants to make video games. He said something along the lines of this...

Corgan: When I grow up, I want to make video games. I want to make a Cars game first. I know how to do it... it will need to go this way and that way and this way and that way and any way you want. But for the first one, I'm just going to make it go straight.

How many 4 year olds do you know who not only plan out the features of their first video game release, but plan how they will scale the feature set down to focus on the most important one in the first version?! I worked with college educated adults who still didn't grasp that concept!

Still a Sneaky Sister

2011-08-16T22:31:00.003-04:00

Over a year and a half ago, I posted about Annabelle being a Sneaky Sister and nearly pulling one over on Corgan. Apparently she has been sharpening her Sneaky Sister Skills because she got him good today... and he still doesn't even know it!

Yesterday afternoon, the kids had been playing with a pile of small characters at the end of the hallway. Because we had so much going on yesterday evening, the toys never got put away. This afternoon, I told them they needed to clean it up before getting ready for bed... and threw in that they needed to put away a game that was in the living room too. The game was already in the box and just needed to be put on the shelf in the playroom, but the characters were all over and needed to be collected and put away. Corgan, being the good boy that he is, went back to start putting away the characters while Annabelle picked up the game. She then started slowly walking down the hall toward the playroom with the game in her hands and said "Corgan, I bet you can't put all of that away before I put this game away!" He promptly accepted the challenge by hurriedly putting the characters into their container while she took her time taking steps toward the playroom closet. In the end, he ended up cleaning it all up while she just put the game on the shelf.

I briefly thought about calling her out on her trick, but then I instantly recalled doing the same sort of thing to my little sister while growing up. While it probably wasn't fair, I think she's actually learning some valuable skills through this manipulation, so I kept my mouth shut. He'll catch on eventually... right?

P.S. Knowing that Corgan has already learned some of these sneakiness skills too, poor Juliet doesn't stand a chance! ;)

Juliet at 8 Weeks Old

2011-08-16T22:18:00.004-04:00

Today was Juliet's 8 week appointment. The checkup went really well, as expected. She is up to 10 lbs 12.25 oz and is 22.25" long. She was previously measuring in the 25th percentile, but she's now in the 50th. The doctor checked out her right foot and said that it looks like it is healing well and he doesn't expect that we'll have to do anything to fix it in the future. It still isn't exactly where it should be, but is getting there and he said that the lack of resistance when he puts it into the proper position is a good sign. Juliet also got another shot and oral vaccination today. The shot means that she's now medically okayed to get her ears pierced, so expect to see that happening very soon!

Since I had my camera out at the appointment, I snapped a few pictures of Juliet during the nurse and doctor's visit. When I got home and saw one of the pictures that I took, I immediately thought of a picture of Annabelle making the same face when she was an infant! While Juliet definitely has her own distinct look different from the other two kiddos, she TOTALLY looks like Annabelle did as a baby when she's sleeping and when she cries... as seen here:

They couldn't look more alike to me! I'm sure Juliet will grow up to be a beauty, just like her Big Sister Annabelle!

Sweet Brother

2011-07-25T21:53:00.003-04:00

Today when I got home from picking up the kids, Juliet was sleeping in her car seat so I put the seat in her bedroom and turned on the monitor to listen in for her to wake up. The big kids and I went upstairs to do some things while she slept. When Juliet woke up, I was working on something with Annabelle so I was letting her cry for a little bit when all of the sudden I heard Corgan's voice over the monitor. He had gone into Juliet's room and was singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" to her to get her to calm down. Even with the crying, the combination of the crying and hearing Corgan singing so sweetly to his baby sister was such a sweet sound! I almost didn't want to go get her to stop the crying!

I can't get over how much both Corgan and Annabelle absolutely adore their baby sister! I keep waiting for some kind of jealousy to surface, but the only jealousy has been one of them being jealous of the other for getting to sit next to or touch or kiss or hold their little Juliet! I LOVE it!

The Perfect Lunch

2011-07-03T13:27:00.004-04:00

Today after church, we had one of the most enjoyable family meals out ever!

Juliet was a little sleeping angel the whole time and the big kids not only behaved, but they actually ate their meals without being threatened. :) Corgan even tried something new (bbq turkey) and ate it all! Both of the big kids enjoyed working on their kids' menu activities (word searches, reading jokes, a maze, tic-tac-toe, etc.), and we had some great family discussions. Corgan told us that when he grows up, he wants to make movies and video games. Annabelle said that she wants to teach part time (on "Wednesdays, Fridays, and Thursdays") and run a flower shop on the other days. Annabelle told us about a dream that she had last night where a sun flower in our yard grew so big that it went "all the way up to God's castle"! She also said "You know why I like to sleep in so much? I really wake up early, but I like to finish seeing my dreams so I go back to sleep to finish them." I love it! Annabelle told us that "God is everywhere, even in your heart!" (I assume they talked about that at church today.) She was also proud of herself for answering 3 questions first/right at Sunday School. We all had a discussion about boys vs. girls... Daddy and Corgan gave us reasons that it's better to be a boy and Annabelle and I came up with things that girls can do that boys can't. It was a fun conversation. Watching Corgan work on the menu activities just reminded me that Corgan continues to impress me with his ability to do things that keep up with Annabelle from a learning perspective. The boy just loves to learn, and I love to see it!

Just wanted to record this truly memorable lunch and conversation so that I don't forget the adorable things that my five-and-a-half year old and nearly four year old said/did! And also, that there are times that we can take them out of the house and actually have strangers comment on what a well behaved and adorable family we have (because sometimes it seems like their energy overwhelms them when we're doing something calm like having a meal and I feel like I have a couple of little crazies on my hands)! But not today!

I love my family!

The Story of "Juliet Lynn"

2011-06-29T10:30:00.001-04:00

As Shakespeare's Juliet said:
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet?"

Since finding out that our newest little one would be a girl, Keith and I had decided that we would wait until we saw her to pick whether we'd name her "Juliet" or "Aurora". While (like I mentioned in an earlier blog entry, What's in a Name?) I like to be able to plan things and was a little bit uneasy about not having a definite name for her, as Juliet Capulet implied, I knew that no matter what we named her, she would still be our same sweet little girl!

Everyone in the OR with us for the c-section knew that we had decided on the name "Juliet" or "Aurora". As soon as the anesthesiologist saw her, she said "She looks like a 'Juliet' to me!" Maybe that was just her favorite name of the two and she was trying to influence us to pick that. Keith and I got a quick look at the baby before she headed out to get the tests done and cleaned up in the nursery, so we didn't decide on anything then. Not much later, I was in recovery and was doing so well that Keith was able to bring her to me in recovery. After everyone came in to see us (well, really her), they left so Keith and I could have some alone time with her and I could feed her for the first time. It was during those quiet moments that we decided that we were 100% sure that she is a "Juliet Lynn"!

We had previously decided that her middle name was going to be "Lynn" which is short for my mom's name, Linda. When we were throwing around names for a middle name, we knew that we wanted something that would honor my side of the family (since Annabelle's middle name, Claire, is a legacy of Keith's side of the family). My mom's life-long best friend, who has always been known to us as "Aunty Paula" and is now known to our kids as "Grammy Paula", has always called her "Lin" (I believe that's how she spells it). So when brainstorming middle names, when we came up with Lynn, we both immediately fell in love with it and the special meaning behind it!

Because we have all been calling Juliet by the name "Baby" for so long, we're still having a little bit of a hard time calling her by anything else. Both Annabelle and Corgan call her "Baby" nearly every time they refer to her (Annabelle will call her "My Baby" or "Baby Juliet" sometimes though), and I am definitely having to be conscious about purposefully calling her "Juliet" instead of "Baby" to get myself trained to call her by her real name.

A long time ago, we jokingly told the kids that if Baby was born with blue eyes, we were going to name her "Aurora" and if she was born with green eyes, we'd name her "Juliet". I thought that if anyone had a problem with us not picking "Aurora", it was going to be Annabelle because she had really fallen in love with the name (although later on her love was split between the names Aurora and Paris). However, Corgan is still having a hard time accepting that we decided to name her Juliet despite her dark blue eyes. When we were in the hospital, both big kids colored pictures for me and Juliet, but Corgan still wrote "Aurora" on his picture because he liked that name better. A few times when I've called her "Juliet" to him, he has asked me for verification that "Her eyes are blue, not green; right?" He has even told some people that her name is "Aurora" when they ask him what his new little sister's name is! Thinking that this is just a phase, I've told him a few times that he can keep calling her Aurora if he wants to, and that can be his special nickname for her. Just a couple of days ago, I told him he could keep calling her Aurora, and he said "I don't want to just call her Aurora. I want YOU to call her that, and Daddy, and Annabelle, and Grammy, and Papa too!" He's SO in denial about her name being Juliet! I'm sure he'll eventually come around, but I'm surprised that he's still upset about it 6 days after she was born!

So, there you have it, the story of our sweet little rose, "Juliet Lynn Donald"!

P.S. And yes, the fact that the earlier blog was titled "What's in a Name?" was definitely a nod to the fact that we were leaning toward "Juliet" at that time, even though we had still decided to wait to see what she looked like. :)

Juliet's First Doctor Visit

2011-06-27T20:39:00.005-04:00

When Juliet was born at 37 weeks and 4 days into the pregnancy, she weighed 7 pounds and 5.5 ounces and was 19 inches long. She scored 9 and 9 on the Apgar test (not sure what the 1 was that she missed). The only issue that was noticed at birth was with her right foot. Apparently, in utero her foot was being smushed so it was turned out nearly 90 degrees when she came out. The twisted foot is most noticeable in this picture immediately after birth:

The neonatal doctor immediately pointed the foot out to Keith as she was being cleaned up while still in the OR, and I could hear a little bit of the conversation going on from the table, but I couldn't hear the details. He told Keith that the foot should work itself out over time.

After 2 days in the hospital, Juliet's bilirubin levels were tested for jaundice. When reading about the risk factors for it, 2 of them are having siblings who were jaundiced (both Annabelle and Corgan were) and being breastfed. The earlier that they are born, the higher the risk is as well. Mainly because of her older brother and sister having it, I fully expected Juliet to be jaundiced too and sleeping with the glowing blanket for a little while. I was very pleasantly surprised when the neonatal doctor told me that although she was near the level for being considered jaundiced, she was still below it and therefore didn't have it. Because she wasn't eating a lot or pooping a lot during the next 24 hours in the hospital, they decided to test her again before we left. She was still just below the unsafe level, but because she was so close to it, they wanted us to schedule her one week checkup at 6 days so that she could be looked at again.

Another potential issue that came up before we left the hospital was Juliet's weight. The morning that we were preparing to leave (on the 3rd day), they weighed her and she was down to 6 pounds and 10 ounces. Although this isn't generally an unsafe weight, she had lost nearly 10% of her body weight (if she had been 6 pounds and 9 ounces, she would have been over the 10% mark and he would have made her stay in the hospital), so they were a little concerned. When I told him that my milk had just started coming in overnight, the neonatologist felt a little better about it, but again, wanted me to really make sure to take her in for her checkup early so that our pediatrician could monitor her weight sooner rather than later.

So... this morning, we took Juliet in for her one week checkup at 6 days, and everything went really well. Her weight is 6 pounds and 10.5 ounces, which the doctor was happy with. Even though she had only gained an ounce, she hadn't lost anything so he wasn't concerned. He did say that we might want to supplement breastfeeding with an ounce or so of formula every once in a while just to get her a few extra calories. He also said that her coloring and alertness looked really good, so he wasn't concerned about jaundice either. More good news! He looked at her right foot and was impressed with how much it has straightened out already. He told us that at around 6 months, if it hasn't fully fixed itself, then we would look into doing a series of casts that would straighten out the bones as they grow. He stressed though that it should take care of itself and we probably won't have to worry about that. Hopefully he's right! :)

Juliet was a good girl and opened her eyes for the doctor to check them out:

First doctor's appointment weigh-in:

Swing Love!

2011-06-27T16:34:00.003-04:00

I don't know who loves this swing more, Juliet or Mommy! She has already spent many hours happily rocking and sleeping in her swing!

Good and Not-So-Good

2011-06-25T17:03:00.000-04:00

The Good:

Taking a shower and getting all of the residual bandage stickiness off of my body!
Losing 5 pounds overnight!
Getting a reasonable amount of sleep last night even though it was the first night in the house with a new-newborn!
Only taking OTC meds!
Juliet loving her swing!
A baby with a healthy appetite.
No jaundice!
A baby who loves to cuddle with her Daddy!
A Grammy & Papa who are always on-call!
A Big Sister who thinks (and says) that she has the cutest Baby Sister ever!
A Big Brother who can't give his new Baby Sis enough kisses!
Coming home from the hospital to a clean house!
Rain 2 days in a row!
Being able to pick things up off of the floor.

The Not-So-Good:

Weighing 2 lbs MORE when I checked out of the hospital than I did when I checked in, despite delivering a 7 lb baby!
Pain when getting out of bed.
Sore nipples.

As you can tell, the Good WAAAY outweighs the bad! Life is good!

Comparing My Babies

2011-06-24T02:27:00.007-04:00

Annabelle was my lightest (7 lbs and 4 oz; 20 inches long; born at 38 weeks & 1 day)

Corgan was my biggest (8 lbs and 9 oz; 20.5 inches long; born at 37 weeks & 5 days)

Juliet was my shortest (7 lbs and 5.5 oz; 19.5 inches long; born at 37 weeks & 4 days)

I had forgotten that Annabelle was so tiny and Corgan was so big in comparison! Crazy that Annabelle and Juliet are so close in size (even though Annabelle had a few more days to cook), and Corgan was SO much bigger!

Welcome Juliet Lynn Donald!

2011-06-21T22:34:00.001-04:00

Maternity Self Portraits

2011-06-20T13:22:00.006-04:00

With my pregnancies with both Annabelle and Corgan, I was MUCH more swollen and had no desire to capture my baby bump with a formal maternity photo shoot. This time around, I haven't been nearly as round all-over and really enjoy looking at my silhouette in the mirror so I decided to take a few maternity self-portraits. I LOVE the way that they turned out!

My "Not Having a Baby" Surprise

2011-06-14T07:41:00.006-04:00

I REALLY thought yesterday was going to be the big day! For the days leading up to yesterday, I was sure that at my doctor's appointment, he was going to say "Yeap, you're already at 3 cm so let's go to the hospital." Although I was pretty good with stickin' to doctor's orders on bed rest, I was still having very mild contractions the whole time. But this is the first pregnancy that I've actually felt the contractions ahead of the big day, so I was sure that they were doing something! And to top it all off, the morning of my appointment, I woke up at 5 am to really strong contractions! I didn't go to sleep until really late the night before (because I was so sure that I was going to be in the hospital for the next few days so I was getting all of the last minute things done around the house), so waking up that early and being as exhausted as I was really meant something. Because I was so tired, I just stayed in bed hoping that I would drift off again and thinking that the pain would go away. But it kept coming back. When I went into labor with Annabelle, I went from 3 cm to 10 within a matter of 5-ish hours, so I was starting to fear that I wasn't even going to make it to my 10 am appointment. I've never had to do the "Should we go to the hospital now?" thing because with both Annabelle and Corgan, I was at a doctor's appointment and he said "Yeap, time to go to the hospital" so I was worried about going too early or waiting too late.

After laying in bed for an hour, around 6 am I finally came to the realization that the contractions were not getting lighter and didn't think they were going to stop. I wanted to take a shower before heading out of the house (it had been a while, and I knew that if I went to the hospital, it was going to be at least a couple more days), so I cranked up the hot water in the shower and got in. As I took this nice, long, steaming-hot shower, the contractions seemed to get more and more mild. I assumed that it was just the heat of the shower making it not hurt as much though.

Then, I got out of the shower and proceeded to get dressed. By this point, I wasn't feeling the strong contractions at all so I thought about laying back down. I didn't lay down though because I assumed that those really strong contractions earlier REALLY meant that I was going to be going to the hospital that day and I could sleep when I got there so I went upstairs to write a couple of blogs that I had been thinking about and get a few more last-second things handled before the appointment.

So... in the few hours leading up to the appointment, things were as they had been over the past couple of weeks. Mild contractions, but nothing regular. I went to my appointment as scheduled, and the doctor checked me... still 1 cm and 90% effaced... just the same as I was 2 weeks ago! I was SOOO surprised! The only information that he added this time is that she's at "Station 2". So she's all locked-and-loaded, but apparently not quite ready yet.

So... I get to keep holding her in my tummy and playing our little secret games for at least a few more days. I'm kinda torn on the bed rest thing. At this point, I've been taking it easy so much the past couple of weeks that the tiniest things wear me out, but... I'm ready to get things moving! 37 weeks is Friday, so she'll be all cooked then. I did leave the house last night to attend a family "Life Group" meeting (like a Bible Study), but that didn't involve much effort on my part since Keith drove and I just had to eat dinner, then sit on a comfy couch to listen to the lesson/discussion. So, again, I'm torn... do I try to get out there and get all extra-active to get things moving or wait until Monday to start doing that because my doctor is not on-call this weekend!? Ugh!

A Bittersweet End

2011-06-14T07:22:00.002-04:00

As I face the reality that Baby Donald 3.0 will probably be born very soon, I am also hit with the reality that this is nearing the end of getting to feel her inside of me. Although it can be uncomfortable sometimes too, I LOVE feeling her kick, stretch, roll, hiccup, and move in my tummy! I love when she is pushing on one area and I rub that spot or push back and she responds. I love how she gets all energetic when I drink orange juice. I love being able to see my stomach pulse up and down very quickly from what I assume is her practicing breathing while her back is pressed up against my stomach wall. I love watching for those tummy jumps when she has hiccups. I love knowing that wherever I go, she's there with me and she's safe without me having to keep an eye on her.

I know from experience that the next step, holding her in my arms, will be equally as magical, and I am very much looking forward to that too. But then I have to share her with the world, and right now, she's all mine and we can share these secret moments of playtime in the middle of a crowd of people without anyone else even knowing that it's going on. Having your baby in your belly is such a miraculous and amazing experience, and having it come to an end is so bittersweet.

Keith and I have discussed that we might possibly have one more after this one, but that is still not definite. Having said that, even thought the "sweet" part of "bittersweet" is still greater than the "bitter", thinking that this might possibly be the last time I that I experience this type of bond with one of my children definitely ups the "bitter" ratio higher than with the previous two pregnancies when I knew that I was going to have at least one more. I wish there was a way to record physical feelings so that I could experience this moment any time I was feeling nostalgic, but I guess recording these emotional feelings and describing the physical in this way is the best that I can do. So... here's hoping that when I read this again in the future, I will be able to close my eyes and recall the amazing feeling of my babies wiggling around inside of me!

Comparing My Pregnancies

2011-06-14T07:04:00.004-04:00

This pregnancy has been very different from my other two... at least the last couple of months of it has. With Annabelle, my feet grew 2+ shoe sizes. With the first two, I seemed to have swelled up A LOT starting around the 7th month. With the first two, I had carpal tunnel so bad that I had to wear wrist braces to sleep in starting around the 7th month. I could only sleep comfortably with about 6 pillows surrounding my entire body. My boobs went from 36B to 42E! Looking back at pictures of me from as early as 7 months, I looked like a totally different person (complete with full-on "pregnancy nose"). I snored pretty much every time I fell asleep. My fingers swelled so much that I had to take off my wedding and engagement rings very early in the pregnancy. But with Baby Donald 3.0, I haven't experienced much of that at all. I've had a couple of "snoring" episodes, but they seemed to be more related to having a little bit of a cold or allergies. My feet swell up if I'm on them a lot and shoes that were tight already didn't feel comfortable, but I can still fit in all of my regular shoes. I had to wear maternity pants (or at least very stretchy pants) fairly early on, but I still wear mostly non-maternity shirts that happen to be long and stretchy in the tummy area. I've only felt carpal tunnel when on my laptop on the sofa, but it goes away as soon as I stop. Boobs are definitely bigger, but not that much. I have been sleeping with more than one pillow lately, but don't have to be surrounded by them (and it's mostly to hold my stomach up when I'm sleeping on my side or to put behind my back on one side to keep me tilted when I'm laying on my back). My face is definitely rounder, but nothing like it was with the first two. Of course, when I checked into the hospital to have Corgan, I weighed about 15 pounds more than I do now. My rings (which I did get sized up after I lost my Corgan baby-weight and more and they still didn't fit me comfortably) got a little tight, but fit me the entire pregnancy. And the only thing that seems to have been worse this time around is back pains, but I think that's more of a result of my back being bad now than just pregnancy-related. The only other difference is that I've actually felt contractions before really going into labor this time... with the first two, I didn't feel them at all until after I was about 3 cm dilated.

Aside from the aches, pains, and swelling, the pregnancies have been similar. Babies all seemed to be average size from sonograms, consistent weight gain, wasn't forced to slow down much (until I was put on bed rest... again, with all 3 kids), etc. Annabelle was a surprise breach baby, so I will also have had c-sections with all 3.

Both Annabelle and Corgan were similar babies too (in sleeping habits, eating habits, not taking the bottle or pacifier, energy/strength, etc.), so I'm looking forward to seeing if Baby Donald 3.0 will be similar to her older sister and brother too, or her totally unique self! :)

Bed Rest Days and Nights

2011-06-07T20:39:00.006-04:00

I have felt so well taken care of and loved these past few days! Everyone is taking such good care of me! I've been spending most of the time in my bed with my laptop on my lap (or beside me, depending on my position) watching LOTS of tv/movies. Keith has been great about bringing me meals, snacks, water, or anything else that I need. My parents have been constantly on call when they aren't already watching the kids. They have been running errands for us, picking up movies, etc. I first went on bed rest last Thursday, and on Friday, Annabelle went to spend the afternoon at the pool with her friends so I got to have special "Mommy/Corgan" time. Corgan was my "bed rest helper" that afternoon and enjoyed running upstairs to grab snacks for us. We spent the afternoon "resting" while he filled out his Big Brother book, picked out pictures for his Disney Autograph photo album, and we watched Toy Story 3. Saturday morning, I had to miss out the kids' softball end-of-the-year ceremony. I had originally planned on going out there and just sitting in a chair and watching all of the activities, but I had been feeling some mild contractions on Friday so I decided to stay home. But, Saturday afternoon I got to go "rest" on the Konickis' sofa while the Stewarts visited too. It felt good to get out of the house! And, of course, I was well taken care of there too. :) Sunday, after sleeping for nearly 12 hours straight (aside from the regular visits to the bathroom overnight too empty my bladder), I actually parked myself on the sofa upstairs for the afternoon so that I could do some picture organizing on my iMac. I finally got all of my pictures through December 2010 (all 20K+ of them) organized, edited, and selected some to print! That's been on my to-do list for a LONG time! This afternoon, I spent a few hours with Annabelle working on her "Big Sister" book and we started on a "Mommy & Me" book that I got her for her birthday that is about both of us and our relationship.

Yesterday afternoon, the owner of the kids' school called to tell me that she was planning to bring us dinner, and that a few more people would be doing the same throughout the week! Then tonight, Nikki brought over a yummy taco dinner. As a bonus, Nicole made a special trip over to do some 'Cole-straightening up around the house.

One of the first things that I did on Friday was to go through my DirecTV guide and set all of the "AFI's Top 100 Movies" that I could find to record. One of my life goals is to watch all of the movies on that list, and I have about 39 to go. Mom went to the library to get "Dr. Zhivago" for me (also on that list), and I subscribed to NetFlix so I can get some other movies to occupy my time. I've also finally started watching my "Party of Five" dvds that I've had for years! So far I'm all of the way through Season 1 (all 22 episodes) and have begun Season 2.

On the computer, I've been organizing pictures (both on my iMac, as mentioned above, and on my MacBook) and have printed hundreds in anticipation of actually putting pictures in frames once all of the pictures are organized and edited. I've also started planning for Corgan & Erin's shared birthday party (in August), caught up on some bills/paperwork, and gotten everything backed up on both computers.

Perhaps my favorite part of bed rest has been the new bed time routine that I've been sharing with the kids. They come in and lay down with me, lights out & tv off, and we go through their regular routine, except it's in my bed. They both curl up on either side of me, say their prayers, say what we're thankful for that day, maybe talk about the rest of the day for a minute, then I scratch them both while they drift off to sleep. It usually only takes about 10-15 minutes before they're both out, but it's such a peaceful 10-15 minutes that a couple of times I've drifted off too... even if it's only 8pm! I love this sweet time with my kiddos... all 3 of them!

My second favorite part of the bed rest has been that I'm sitting still long enough that I notice Baby Donald 3.0 moving around so much more. I'm getting to know her routines, noticing her hiccups, able to guess her positions, and even watch (what I assume to be) her "breathing" as I see my tummy going up and down in one little area that looks like a chest rising and falling with each breath for long periods of time. It's funny to see that "breathing" combined with hiccups too. I've gotten a couple of videos of it, and even have taken a couple of pictures of my lop-sided tummy when she decides to setup camp on one side or the other.

Here are a few pictures that I've captured from my bed during bed rest...

Coz keeping me company as I watch "Party of Five".

Corgan proudly showing off his "Big Brother" book. I'm really looking forward to filling these out with Annabelle and Corgan as the baby grows up!

My lop-sided belly from my point of view!

Bed Rest- Take 3

2011-06-02T23:41:00.003-04:00

The day that I expected is now here... I'm on bed rest again. I got put on bed rest with both Annabelle and Corgan too, so I was fully expecting this. I believe I'm a tad bit earlier this time around (35 weeks tomorrow), and although I'm at 1 cm dilated (just like with the other two), he has never mentioned effacement before and I'm 90% effaced already. To top it off, my doctor is the only OB in his practice so he is in an on-call rotation with about 5 other doctors, and he's leaving to go on vacation all of next week. I definitely don't want another doctor delivering her (or handling any other emergency), so I better be on my best behavior!

As I mentioned, I was expecting this so I was telling Annabelle that this might happen last night when she was going to bed. I told her that I might have to stay in bed for a long time to keep the baby healthy, and she immediately came up with the idea to put her "Shhh... Princess Sleeping Inside" sign on my door. Then today when she got home from school and found out that I was definitely going to be on bed rest, she came downstairs and put the sign on my bedroom door. Such a sweetie! Mom pointed out that maybe she was using the sign to subliminally get us to pick the name "Aurora" since Princess Aurora is the "princess" sleeping "inside". If that's truly her agenda, Annabelle is even smarter than I gave her credit for!

For the rest of the day, the kids hung out with Papa, then came home and Daddy got them ready for bed. Once they were ready to go to bed, Annabelle wanted to go to bed with me so I agreed to let the kids fall asleep in my bed. Each one of them was curled up on either side of me while they said their prayers, thanked God for their favorite things today, then told me a little more about their days. Corgan kept rubbing my tummy and telling me that he was "petting baby". He decided that she's trying to come out early because she wants to come out and play with them. I love getting Annabelle and Corgan's perspective on all things baby-related!

Each of the kids fell asleep within about 15 minutes, and it was such a peaceful moment to have each of them cradled on each shoulder while baby gave me a little kick every once in a while. A Mommy could get used to that. :)

Girls Rule!

2011-05-22T13:39:00.001-04:00

The other day Annabelle and I were talking about boys and girls. I told her, "A girl can do anything that a boy can do." She responded "But a boy can't do everything that a girl can do." I said, "Oh yeah? Like what?" (totally expecting to hear something about having a baby, which we had just discussed the day before) Her response: "Get a pedicure!" I said "Boys can get pedicures." To which she responded, "Yeah, but not with colored polish!"

What's in a Name?

2011-05-08T21:35:00.002-04:00

The fact that Baby Donald 3.0 still doesn't have a name is a foreign concept to me because Annabelle and Corgan were named so early on! When I first found out that I was pregnant with Annabelle, I jotted down a notebook page full of names as I semi-listened in on one of Keith's first conference presentations (NFJS, Orlando in June 2005). Both "Annabelle Claire" and "Corgan Alexander" were on that list. For boy names, there were really no other front runners because we both liked "Corgan". There were a few more girl's names on the list, but we both liked Annabelle so it was an easy decision too. Then, over the next couple of years, we had both our "Annabelle" and our "Corgan".

I say all this to point out how strange it feels for me to be 7 months pregnant and still be calling this baby girl "Baby Donald 3.0" over 3 months after we found out that she's a girl! Keith and I have definitely narrowed the list down to the names "Aurora" or "Juliet" (middle name still TBD... although we do have a short-list for that too, but we're going to keep that to ourselves for now), and we have both accepted the idea that we'll pick her name when we see her sweet face. I am truly okay with that, and do genuinely like both names so I will be happy with whichever name we choose for her.

However, it's a little weird from the "bonding" perspective. From my experience, there are definitely different levels on bonding that I have noticed that I experience with my babies as they grown in my tummy. There's the initial bonding of just finding out that they exist. Then there's further bonding that occurs when I first hear a heartbeat or see them on an ultrasound. Then further bonding when I learn the gender... I suppose because at that point I am able to buy clothes and decor specifically for that child so things seem very real. In the past, finding out the gender also meant being able to call the baby by name, which, to me, also attaches a personality to him/her (whether it's his/her actual personality or not) and makes the family dynamic that is to come seem more real. Because I attach all of that to having a name, it's very weird not having that "personality" to bond with, as opposed to just thinking of her as "Baby Girl". Decorating her room in a very specific theme and buying her clothes that are different from the clothes that I picked out for Annabelle definitely helps with forming her uniqueness in my head, but then I get a little bummed in the decorating department too when I can't buy or make something personalized with an initial or name that is unique to her.

Maybe this whole thing has more to do with my need to organize, plan, and have everything perfect than it does with bonding, but either way, not knowing her name yet is a weird concept for me. I'm really looking forward to seeing her face and getting to know her a little bit so that we can decide whether she is a "Juliet" or an "Aurora". Hopefully we don't take too long to decide. :)

P.S. In case you didn't get the memo, the "Paris Melbourne" name was just an April Fools' Day joke, despite the fact that both Annabelle and I have started to fall for the name "Paris" (but not Melbourne) since then.

The Negotiator

2011-04-19T23:53:00.002-04:00

This evening, Annabelle had a softball game that ran until 7pm. In the name of not spending the time to cook and feed the kids when we got home, I told them we were going to stop to pick something up for them to eat on the way home. I gave them the options of Burger King or Chick-fil-A. Corgan picked Chick-fil-A and Annabelle picked BK. I told them they had to talk to each other and decide on which place. And the negotiations began...

Annabelle: "Corgan, can we go to Burger King?"
Corgan: "No, I want Chick-fil-A."
Annabelle: "Corgan, what if I give you all of my money? Then can we go to Burger King?" (Note: Annabelle has a change purse FULL of coins that she keeps hidden in her room as "her money".)
Corgan: "Okay. We can go to Burger King."
Annabelle: "Alright. I'll give you 10 coins as soon as we get home. How about I put 5 of them in your monkey bank and you put 5 in it?"
Corgan: "Okay."
Annabelle: "No wait... I have an idea! You can put THREE of them in and I'll only get to put 2 in. Does that sound good?"
Corgan: "3 + 2 is 5. (Thinks for a second...) Okay."

When we got home, Annabelle did exactly what she said... she gave him 3 coins (a penny, a foreign coin, and a dime) to put in his bank, while she put 2 coins in there herself. Quite a stretch from her original promise of "all of my money".

If you ask my sister, she'll tell you that Annabelle is taking after me in the "negotiating skills" department. When we were little, I used to pay my sister to clean my part of the room. One day, she told me that 2 quarters just wasn't enough and she was going to have to up her fee. Then she agreed to continue doing it for a half-dollar coin. :) I don't know exactly how old I was when I tricked her and negotiated that fee, but I'm pretty sure that I was much older than barely 5 years old!

Preschool Sex-Ed?

2011-04-11T23:38:00.003-04:00

This afternoon, Annabelle was telling me "Today Mr. Science told us about little things that are inside of you that turn into kids."

This immediately got my attention so I prodded for more information by asking "Oh yeah? What are they called?"
Annabelle: "I don't remember, but I can draw you a picture of them. They look like little circles that break apart, then break apart again and again until they turn into a kid."
Me: "And you don't remember what they're called?"
Annabelle: "No."

At this point, she went to draw a picture of this "circle" that turns into a kid. Do I just have baby on the brain or would you have also thought she had attended a sex-ed class in preschool today?

Anyway, she returned with a picture of a circle with dots and lines on it. Amazingly, she drew it so well that I immediately recognized her drawing from my 9th grade biology class! It was a cell! And when I said "Oh! Is that a cell?" She excitedly responded "Yes!"

Whew! I am generally pretty honest with my kids about how life becomes life, but I never imagined they'd be teaching about eggs and sperm in preschool! Glad to find out that I was right! :)

Baby Donald 3.0's name will be...

2011-04-01T17:04:00.006-04:00

Paris Melbourne Donald!

Earlier this week, Annabelle and I were at the store and saw a picture of Paris. She said "I love Paris!" and I said "I do too!" Then she said, "Why don't we name our baby Paris?" I was surprised to hear her mention anything but Aurora for this baby's name. I laughed about it at the time, but later on when I was telling Keith about the conversation his response was "I kinda like that name too." I thought about it for a second, and realized that I did too. I really like using the names of cities for names ("Aurora, Missouri" is the name of the town that my grandmother lived in for most of her life, and that's where my love for the name "Aurora" came from), and although I briefly thought of the names "Rome" or "Roman" for a boy, for some reason "Paris" for a girl never crossed my mind.

So... since we've been at such a stand-still deciding between the names "Aurora" and "Juliet" for Baby Donald 3.0, and we all LOVE the name "Paris", we've decided to go with that! It's a city that we really love (and even hope to make our residence there one summer), and the fact that the most famous "Paris" has blonde hair (like our Paris most likely will as well... but hopefully our Paris will be MUCH smarter!) makes it even easier to visualize her with that name. :) Oh yeah... and with my mind always on decorating, just think of all of the free "Personalized" things I'll be able to find with her name on it! :)

And "Melbourne"... that, of course, also goes with the whole city thing. Back when I first thought about naming a little girl (like 10+ years ago, just after moving to Melbourne), the three names that I loved were "Aurora" (my grandmother's city, as mentioned above), "Madison" (the city where I went to middle school and high school in Alabama), and Melbourne (my Florida grown-up home). My love for "Aurora" never faded, but "Madison" became too popular by the time that Annabelle was born and I just felt like naming my kid the same name as the city that she lives in would be a bit weird so I didn't give Melbourne another thought. But, then, once we started seriously talking about "Paris" and I had to get used to the idea that I'd never have my "Aurora", I thought... "Melbourne" could work as a middle name! Since it's another city that really means a lot to our family (it's the city where we fell in love, married, all of our children were and will be born, and we'll most likely be raising our family here for quite a while), Keith went for it too! Soooo...

There you have it! In late June or early July, we expect to welcome "Paris Melbourne Donald" into the world!

My Little Triathletes

2011-03-15T21:49:00.005-04:00

The other day when the weather was absolutely beautiful, the kids and I spent the entire afternoon outside. I was working on painting the rocker for the nursery, and Annabelle & Corgan were playing make believe together. As they rode their bikes around the driveway, Annabelle got the idea to "do a triathlon" with Corgan. So they both pretended to swim around the driveway by flailing their arms in big circles as they ran in big circles, then they rode their bikes in circles for a while, followed by a few laps around the house. I love that my 3 and 5 year old love being active and that I've been such a good example for them that they decided to do a pretend triathlon all on their own!

Starting the running part of their triathlon...

Crossing the finish line!

Sneaky Boy!

2011-03-11T11:17:00.003-05:00

Yesterday when I went to pick Corgan up from school, his teacher said "I need to tell you about something I caught Corgan doing today." UH-OH! That's usually not a good thing to hear from the teacher!

She proceeded to tell me about how the kids were all doing a free-play type thing, and some of the kids were sitting at the table doing puzzles. She noticed Corgan walking up beside one of the puzzle-kids, watching the kid do the puzzle for a second, then he sneakily grabbed a piece of the puzzle off the table and walked away with it. He then went to a corner across the room and just dropped it there, thinking no one was watching. Then, he walked over to another puzzle-kid and did the exact same thing. Neither of the puzzle kids noticed what he had done.

After the second drop-off, when the teacher realized that he really knew what he was doing, she called him out on it and said "Corgan, you need to go put those puzzle pieces away." She said he immediately got that "Doh!" look on his face, then pouted as he took the puzzle pieces back!

His teacher was nice about it though... she was actually impressed with his sneakiness skills, but said she wonders how long he's be sabotaging the other kids and is going to be keeping a closer eye on him. I told her that Annabelle has been doing things like that that to him a lot lately-- trying to get him in trouble for things that she either instigated or doing something to cause him to get upset without getting caught herself.

Sigh!

While on one hand I'm proud of their creativity, these smarty-pants are driving a Mommy crazy! :)

Footloose

2011-03-07T20:48:00.002-05:00

Baby Donald 3.0 is kicking all of the time now! While I have loved having this little bond of being the only one to feel her moving for a few weeks now, I LOVE being able to share it with my kids and her Daddy even more. :) Keith first felt her kick a couple of weeks ago, but she generally kicks the most when I'm laying down and that doesn't happen often when the kids are around so it has taken a little while to catch a moment when they could feel it too.

Last Friday, I was sitting up and felt her kicking so I laid down on the couch and told Corgan to come over and he could feel her kicking. He excitedly came over and put his hand on my tummy. After just a few seconds, she kicked exactly where his hand was and he flinched with a surprised look on his face. It was so cute! But then not 2 seconds later, the first thing he said was "Can I have some milk, please?" So, although his initial reaction was adorable and fun, apparently it wasn't as impressive as I had hoped it would be for him. :)

Today the same sort of situation happened with Annabelle. I could feel baby girl kicking so I laid down on the couch and told Annabelle to come feel her. 3.0 immediately kicked her hand, and she smiled and said "I felt it!" She was excited, but not as excited as I thought she'd be. But then tonight when I was putting Annabelle to bed, after she said her prayers, I asked her what she was thankful for today (as is part of our nightly routine), and her answer was "Feeling the baby kick." Awe! So it WAS actually a bigger deal to her than she let on when it happened!

I think both of the kids will get a kick (pun intended) out of feeling the baby kick more and more as she grows and starts to move with more and more force. And me... although the kicking, punching, and turning over can be uncomfortable sometimes, I absolutely LOVE being able to feel my baby girl growing and getting stronger in my tummy!

Baby Girl Clothes are Impossible to Resist!

2011-02-20T15:45:00.004-05:00

Although I know that our newest baby girl will have more clothes than she'll ever need, there are SO many adorable things out there for little girls to wear and I just can't resist buying even more! Besides, a girl needs outfits of her very own; right?

So... less than 24 hours after finding out that Baby Donald 3.0 is a girl, I purchased her first never-before-worn outfit. With all of the ribbon, animal print, and bright colors, it is SOOO southern!

With just a tiny bit more shopping (the next day maybe?), I had found my baby girl's "Coming Home" outfit! She'll be wearing this outfit on the day that she comes home from the hospital, and there's even a coordinating shirt for her Big Sister Annabelle to wear to match!

The whole outfit, down to the adorable little frilly shoes:

I realize she'll be coming home in the summer in Florida, but I just couldn't resist this precious, tiny sweater with it's beautiful bead button:

And here's Big Sister Annabelle's purple ruffled shirt that matches Little Sister's skirt:

I still need to find the perfect headwear to go with baby girl's outfit, but the rest of the outfit is SO perfect! I already have so much pink from Annabelle, so I'm trying to go with purple or other different bright colors for the new outfits that I buy for this little one. I'm sure some pink will sneak in there though. :)

Baby Donald 3.0 is a Girl!

2011-02-20T14:26:00.004-05:00

Back on Annabelle's birthday (SO long ago on February 8th) we went for the big ultrasound where we find out the gender of Baby Donald 3.0! Baby was not cooperating at first and had legs crossed in her "baby pee pee" area so the sonographer was having a hard time determining the gender. Grammy, Papa, Annabelle, and Corgan waited so patiently in the waiting room (and by "patiently" I mean fighting, jumping off of chairs, getting in trouble, and even coughing hard enough to throw up a little in the hallway... so lots of fun for Grammy & Papa) along with our friends visiting from the U.K., Sally, Jenny, and Baby Daisy. When we were still not having any luck with the gender determination, the family finally got to come back to at least see what we were seeing.

At the VERY end of the sonogram, the lady checked one last time and was still unsure. She said if she "had to" guess, she'd say it was a girl, but that we'd probably have to wait until the 28 week sonogram to know for sure. At that time, the doctor walked in and immediately said "That looks like a girl to me!" The doctor has a very thick Spanish accent and his tone was kinda hard to read, so we couldn't tell how sure he was of that. At that point, the rest of the family left Keith and I (and Baby "Girl" Donald) in the room to discuss all of the results, and the doctor very briefly said that all of the tests looked great and baby seems to be very healthy with no birth defects that they could detect at that time, then proceeded to talk about how girls are so much better than boys for a good 5 minutes or so. At first, we thought he was going to just say that girls are healthier than boys in general or something along those lines, but it turned into a speech about how his wife is so much better than he is and how his two boys are also inferior to girls. It was very strange.

So... we left the exam room, but as I was paying the co-pay, Keith and I were discussing that neither of us could tell how sure he was about the gender, so I asked the lady at the desk to ask the doctor just how sure he was. She came back with an answer of "That was the best I could tell from the picture." I didn't know if that meant that it was a crappy picture and that was his best guess, or it was a good shot and it was definitely a girl! But, I didn't want to be the annoying patient, so I just took that answer as "It's a girl", and we left to announce to the world that Baby Donald 3.0 is a girl! By the way, Annabelle had been REALLY hoping for a sister (but "would still love the baby if it was a boy"), so she was thrilled to find out on her birthday that the baby is a girl!

Although we announced to everyone that Baby Donald 3.0 is a girl, we still had that doubt in the back of our minds. EVERYONE had been telling me that they thought we were going to have a boy, so that didn't help matters either. But the doubt didn't stop me from immediately shopping for both clothes and nursery items for our supposed baby girl, I have just been leaving tags on everything and making sure to hold on to the receipts.

A week or so later, I was realizing that I was really going to have a lot to return if we did indeed find out at the 28 week sonogram that Baby Donald 3.0 is a boy (and I was going to really regret buying unreturnable items off of etsy), so I did a little research and found what appeared to be a quality place to get a short 3d/4d sonogram for not too much money. We booked an appointment for this past weekend.

This time we decided to leave the kids at home and Keith and I went to the sonogram on our own. It only took about 2 seconds of looking for the sonographer to say "Yeap... looks like a girl to me too!" She had been doing baby sonograms for over 17 years, so between her experience and seeing the "baby girl pee pee" in 3d, we feel comfortable going full steam ahead with planning for baby GIRL Donald!

You Spin Me Right Round, Baby, Right Round!

2011-01-04T13:40:00.003-05:00

Today begins by 14th week of pregnancy with Baby Donald 3.0, and I'm 99% sure I just felt him/her move! I was around 16 weeks when I first felt Annabelle (I remember sitting on a Norwegian Fjord cruise half asleep and being awoken by a feeling that I'd never felt before in my tummy!), and, unfortunately, I don't remember my first feeling of Corgan, but 14 weeks seems so early. Of course I immediately jumped on the internet to see if maybe it wasn't even possible, but apparently with past "movement" experience in my belly, it's definitely possible. :) It wasn't quite a kick, but more like a feeling that he/she was flipping over. So crazy! Feeling the baby in my tummy is my absolutely favorite part of pregnancy! Well... that and finding out if the baby is a boy or a girl!

Annabelle on Getting Bigger

2011-01-03T12:18:00.001-05:00

"Look Mom, because of the baby, even your waist is getting bigger!"

At just 14 weeks pregnant, that's such a nice thing to hear. :S

Annabelle on Pregnancy Boobs

2010-12-16T16:55:00.001-05:00

Annabelle: Mom, how come your boobies look bigger and they are falling down?

Annabelle and Corgan's Exciting News

2010-12-02T21:24:00.005-05:00

It's been hard keeping this secret for nearly 6 weeks now, but we are expecting Baby Donald 3.0 next summer!

He/she is due on July 5th, but a scheduled c-section will put me at late June for a delivery at the latest. That puts me at 9 weeks pregnant as of last Tuesday. It's crazy how fast your clothes stop fitting when you've already had 2 babies! Clothes that fit me okay at the beginning of one week, don't fit anymore by the end of the week!

I'm currently in that stage of feeling famished all of the time, yet nothing sounds good to eat. Certain smells have made my stomach cringe (bacon, ham, and pork in general), and I developed an aversion to mayo within minutes. I was eating a sandwich and loving the first half of the sandwich, but by the time I got to the last few bites, I couldn't stand the smell of the ham or the mayo on it! I put it in the fridge thinking I'd want it later, but then the thought of even eating it made me nauseous! This is a crazy feeling for me because I never had any problems with eating with either of the first two pregnancies! Fortunately, it hasn't gotten to the point of "getting sick", only of feeling like crap. :)

We told the kids about Baby Donald 3.0 two nights ago. They have been SO cute and asked so many questions since then! I told Annabelle that I had a secret for her to tell Corgan, then I whispered in her ear "We're having a baby!" She ran over to tell him, but after her saying it to him like 3 times and him responding with his typical "WHAT?!", we finally told him too. I don't think they really got that we meant that there was one in my tummy then because for months we have been talking about having another baby when Annabelle is 5. So I have a feeling they thought we were talking about the same hypothetical baby that we've been discussing for months. That night, there wasn't much of a reaction about the baby from them, but then on the way to school the next morning, it clicked!

Annabelle was singing her "Months of the Year" song and skipped June. I stopped her and said "You can't forget June! That's when the new baby will be born."

Annabelle: "How do you know?"
Mommy: "Because that's what the doctor told me."
A: "How does the doctor know?"
M: "Because he looked at the picture of the tiny baby in my tummy and said that's when it will be born."
A: "How did he see a picture?"
M: "They have a special machine that can look inside your tummy, like an x-ray, and see the baby."
Corgan: "What kind of baby is it?"
M: "Do you mean is it a boy baby or a girl baby?"
C: "Yes."
M: "Well, we don't know that yet because the baby is still this tiny (holding fingers up to show them) so you can't see if it has a boy pee-pee or a girl pee-pee yet. In about 3 months we can go see it again to find out."
A: "Can I go with you to see the baby in your tummy?"
M: "If you want to, you sure can!"
C: "I don't want to see the baby in your tummy because I don't want to see baby pee-pees!"

The questions and comments that I have gotten from them since then have been awesome! They're so inquisitive and it's funny how their little minds process things! Corgan's having a hard time with the concept of it being 7 more months until the baby will be ready to come out. But Annabelle seems to be really getting the concepts and is so excited to help me with the baby! It's pretty neat having kids old enough to pseudo-understand what's going on and to hear it from their point of view!

Needless to say, we're all super-excited to be adding on to the family, and I can't tell you enough how thankful I am to have my parents living nearby this time around! They seem to always want to take the kids for the afternoon on the days that I'm most exhausted, I barely ever have to cook dinner because Mom is always making yummy meals, and Dad is on top of the un-fun household chores like trash duty and cat litter!

Until today, we've only told our news to a few close friends and family, but now that this video is on facebook, the word is out!

Tuna Noodle Casserole

2010-09-22T00:49:00.005-04:00

My mom's tuna noodle casserole has always been one of my favorite comfort foods. Keith has been out of town, so before he comes back, my mom offered to make this delicious dish for me. Why before Keith comes back? Because he's not a fan of the tuna or the casserole part of tuna noodle casserole (yes, he does like noodles). My mom even made extra tonight so I'll have some leftovers for lunch tomorrow. :) Yea!

On my way to bed tonight, I peeked into the fridge to see if there was anything that I absolutely had to put into my belly before hitting the pillow. I saw the tuna noodle casserole leftovers and smiled, not because I am eating it tonight, but because in addition to the dish always reminding me of my mom, it's always going to make me think of how much Keith loved me from the very beginning...

Rewind about 9 years when Survivor was first on the air. Me, Keith, and a co-worker friend, Artie, were all single and fans of the show Survivor. So, on the nights when the show aired, we all met up at my condo for "Survivor Night", which included watching the episode (duh!) and one of us making dinner for the other two. One time when it was my night for dinner, I decided to make my mom's tuna noodle casserole, not knowing of Keith's extreme dislike for canned tuna and most anything "creamy". While we were eating dinner, Artie and I were both chowing down on the tuna noodle casserole, and I noticed that Keith was kinda just picking at his, and forcing himself to take every bite that went into his mouth. I made a comment about him not liking my meal, and his response was "I like the celery" (referring to the TINY pieces of celery that were scattered throughout the casserole). I always smile at the thought that Keith wanted to impress me so much (and I'll go out on a limb and say that he loved me then too) that he was willing to force these foods that he hated into his mouth (and if you know him now, this isn't something that he does easily) and he found the good in the dish (the celery) and was sure to point out how much he liked it.

So, in summary, I love my mom's tuna noodle casserole, and I love my Keith!

Where I've Been, and Where I'm Going...

2010-09-22T00:32:00.004-04:00

So far this year I've been to:
Salt Lake City, Utah

Linz, Austria

Munich, Germany

Leuven, Belgium

Paris, France

Orlando, Florida (a few times)

Barcelona, Spain

Malta

Tunis, Tunisia

Naples, Italy

Pompeii, Italy

Rome, Italy

Adjecco, Corsica,

Nice, France

Pembroke Pines, Florida

Los Angeles, California

Atlanta, Georgia

Springville, Alabama

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Madison, Alabama

Guntersville, Alabama

And before the end of 2010 I'm going to:

New York City, New York

Rentz, Georgia

Ocho Rios, Jamaica

George Town, Grand Cayman

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Orlando, Florida

Can you tell that I love to travel?

Worst Tantrum Ever!

2010-09-11T22:19:00.002-04:00

Tonight, Corgan had THE WORST tantrum that either of my children has EVER had! He has been complaining about being "tired" the whole day (his own fault for waking up so early and for running the other way any time we even mentioned the word "nap"), but tonight I got tired to his whining and made him go to bed at around 6:30. He was in there screaming bloody murder on and off for at least 45 minutes. He tried to sneak out through the secret closet door into Annabelle's room, so we had to lock that from her side. He kept opening and slamming his door shut, each time throwing another item out of his room into the hallway. I finally locked his door (since we have those little bobby-pin type "keys" to open it), then I went back in to check on him and all of the blankets and pillow were off of his bed. His bed stuffed animals were across the room. His bedside table was knocked over. The blanket was thrown off of the chair that I usually sit in. The stuffed animals were all wiped off of the shelf and onto the floor. His night light was on the floor. And he was STILL screaming! After trying to go in and calm him down about 5 times (which didn't work at all), I finally just left the room with the door locked for a while. When the noise stopped about 20 minutes later, I went in to check on him and he was "in" his bed (and by "in", I mean under the fitted sheet which was still on the bed) and nothing else was on his bed (he usually sleeps with 3 blankets on top of him, his "blankie", and a pillow, at the very least). But he was sleeping and the tantrum was over. Finally.

The downside to this is that this early bedtime means that he's probably going to be up and ready to go before 7am tomorrow. Hopefully he'll at least be in a better mood then.

Still the Same

2010-09-04T22:25:00.004-04:00

I have always thought that, as she gets older, Annabelle doesn't really look much like she did when she was a baby (while Corgan looks just like a larger version of his baby-self). Tonight I've been going through her baby pictures (trying to edit down all of the duplicates, blurs, etc.) and I'm once again watching her grow up before my eyes. I still think that she doesn't look much like she did as a baby, but I am noticing some things that are exactly the same as when she was a baby. First, her crying face... it looks JUST THE SAME then as it does now. Second, her sleeping face... she looks JUST THE SAME. Third, her concentrating face... even when she was just 4 months old and was discovering the baby gyms for the first time, she still did the same open-mouthed thing with her eyebrows all turned in just like she does to this day! It's crazy that you can learn that so darn early! Fourth, her smirk... JUST THE SAME too. :) I'm going to have to try to get picture of all of those things now to compare them to then (I'm thinking the sleeping one is going to be the hardest to do... then again, she is a VERY deep sleeper)!

That's One Way To Get It Done...

2010-08-26T21:55:00.004-04:00

Since Corgan's 3rd birthday (on Sunday), I have been working with him on peeing in the potty. He seems to genuinely want to do it, but just doesn't get how to go while he's sitting there. I really believe he is trying too hard (as evidenced in Figure 1).

Figure 1: Corgan's "trying to pee on the potty" face.

He didn't really try at all yesterday, but he did try a bunch of times on Sunday, Monday, and a little on Tuesday. I talked to his teacher about it the other day, and she told me that if he wanted to wear them, I should go ahead and send him to school in underpants instead of diapers. Yesterday, he didn't want to. Today he did. So he wore his "big boy underpants" to school, and I sent in about 5 more pairs of underpants, 2 more pairs of shorts, and an extra shirt (he had on crocs, so I didn't have to send extra shoes). Apparently he did the same thing at school that he does at home (which is telling you right AFTER he pees in his pants and not being able to pee on the potty). He still wanted to keep putting on new pairs of underpants though. So, when I picked him up, he was in underpants.

After school, we went out for some shopping before heading home. Before going into the store, I asked him if I could put a pull-up on him, but he didn't want to . So I let him be a big boy. Anyway, we're shopping away and Annabelle announces that she had to use the bathroom, so the 3 of us were off to the bathroom. Since we were in there anyway, I had Corgan sit on the potty after Annabelle was done. He sat there for a little while doing the same thing he always does (which is NOTHING) until... someone else in the bathroom had just finished washing her hands and was using the crazy-loud intense hand dryer. It was SO loud that Corgan (while on the potty) put his hands over his ears and yelled out of fear. At the same time, he began peeing in the potty! As soon as he realized that he was peeing, he stopped and couldn't do it again! That hand dryer had literally scared the piss out of him!

Regardless of the reason, we did lots of praising for Corgan's success hoping that something would have clicked. But nope, not 5 minutes later he peed his pants in the shopping cart. Sigh.

Nicknames

2010-08-19T13:26:00.003-04:00

The other night when I was putting Annabelle to bed, we were talking about how when she's 5 years old we plan to have another baby. She and I still like the name Aurora for a girl (but we're still working on Daddy with that one), but we are at a loss for a boy name.

Annabelle: How about "Firetruck" for a boy name?
Mommy: Hmmm... Firetruck; huh?
Annabelle: Yeah, and his nickname could be "Trucky"

And she's never even seen Pootie Tang! That's my girl!

Corgan's Reading Skills

2010-08-10T16:19:00.003-04:00

Corgan was just sitting next to me looking at a flash card with the word "cold" in all lower case. He doesn't know the sounds yet, so he was really just looking at the letters and identifying them. Also, he doesn't know lowercase letters yet, so he was just guessing based on what it looked like. When I taught the kids their letters, each letter was also associated with a word, which was usually a persons name (like "D for Daddy" or "A for Annabelle"). For some reason, Corgan was reading "cold" backwards, so he said "P for Papa" (for the lower case "d"), then "One for nobody" (for the lower case "l"), then "Zero for nobody" (for the lower case "o"), and finally "C for yesbody" (instead of "C for Corgan"). :) Silly boy!

And, unrelated, but another silly Corgan story from earlier today... I asked Corgan "Do you have poopies? Tell me yes or no!" And he smiled slyly, then said "Yes or no!" Smarty Pants!

Finally, for your viewing enjoyment, a picture of my little Heartbreaker!

Horsey Camp

2010-07-19T01:30:00.004-04:00

The kids both attended their first Horse Camp this week, and to say that they both loved it is an understatement! They both rocked on the horses and even enjoyed helping out with cleaning and feeding the horses! I knew Annabelle would love it, but I was pretty pessimistic about what Corgan's participation level would be. From day 1, he really did great though!

Annabelle's favorite part was "posting" because that's when she got to go the fastest. She's always been all about speed! She really loved trotting! I had a hard time explaining to her later in the week that her sore leg muscles were a good thing because it meant that she was working out (from the posting). She just wasn't understanding how pain could be good, and she kept wanting me to give her medicine to get rid of the pain. :) Here's my favorite picture of her on a horse:

Corgan's favorite part was riding "Star Pony" because that's where he got to do the dare-devil tricks like standing up on the horse (they do this to learn to balance really well on the horses)! From the very beginning he had no fear (but he did still respect the danger of it), and even did so well that Annabelle was getting jealous and kept wanting another turn to try again so that she could do what he was doing! Here's my favorite picture of him on a horse:

Funny story about Corgan... on Thursday night, I was laying in my bed on my side. Corgan came up behind me, jumped up on the bed, then proceeded to stand up on my hip and stuck his arms out to the side just like he's doing in the picture above! Apparently he's really diggin' that balancing thing! I've also had to stop him from attempting to do that on the back of our sofa! What a boy!

More photos of our week at "Horsey Camp" (as the kids called it) can be found here! Enjoy!

Thoughtful Bellee

2010-07-11T22:10:00.002-04:00

Today on the way home from Ft. Lauderdale, Annabelle ate her snack and threw the wrapper on the floor of my van...

Me: Did you just throw that on the floor?
Annabelle: Yes.
Me: Do you think that goes there? I don't want my car to be a mess!
Annabelle: But your car IS a mess, Mommy. (She's very right, it is a mess!)
Me: You're right. It is. But look down and tell me what you see down there. Are those my shoes?
Annabelle: No.
Me: Are those my food wrappers?
Annabelle: No.
Me: Are those my toys?
Annabelle: No. (and before I had a chance to ask another question she said...) I have an idea, Mommy. When we get home, we can help you to pick up all of our things so that your car won't be a mess!
Me: (SURPRISED!) I would LOVE that, Annabelle. Thank you!

And they did!

Later on when I thanked her for the great idea, she told me "If we all clean up together, then one person doesn't have to do it all!" I asked her if she heard that from Papa (who said countless times as we were growing up "If we all pick up a little, Mommy doesn't have to do it all!"). She said that she didn't hear it from anyone, but somehow I seriously doubt that. Regardless, I'm totally impressed that she suggested that all on her own! She really is such a thoughtful little girl!

What Number?

2010-07-08T00:09:00.002-04:00

While driving today, Annabelle asked me a question that she asks 100 times every time that we get into the car now...

Annabelle: How much longer is it?
Mommy: Just a minute.
Annabelle: How much is "a" minute?
Mommy: "A" means one.
Annabelle" What number does "b" mean?

My First 2nd Triathlon

2010-06-06T14:50:00.006-04:00

(Note: I started this blog entry the afternoon after the triathlon so I'm retro-dating it back to then even though it's now nearly a month later!)

This morning, I completed the Pineapple Man triathlon for the 2nd time. This is my 3rd tri, but it's my first race to have done twice so I actually have previous results to compare. :) Last year, this race was my first triathlon. I haven't been training during the entire year, but I did make a significant improvement in my overall time from 1:57:40 last year to 1:43:05 this year. I improved in swimming (.3 miles, from 14:41 to 12:46) and biking (15 miles, from 1:05:21 to 53:49), but my running time was slightly slower (3.3 miles, from 31:16 to 32:01). I ended up finishing 9th out of 19 in the 30-34 year old females category, while last year I was 12th out of 14.

The .3 Mile Swim
In 2009- 14:41. In 2010- 12:46.
The swim was even more frustrating this year than it was last year! In March, Keith and I took a Triathlon Swimming clinic which really helped me out a lot speed-wise. I learned proper form, got MUCH better on my breathing, and was continually beating my personal bests in the .25 mile and .33 mile distances in the gym pool. I guess the training still helped a lot since I did improve my time by nearly 2 minutes, but at the same time, I felt like all of my training was out the window during the actual race because my form was horrible! I kept bumping into people everywhere I went, and I must have swallowed at least 4 mouthfuls of that nasty river water because there were waves that kept ending up in my mouth when I turned my head to take a breath. In the pool, I'm able to do 4 strokes/breath on average, but in this race I was generally taking a breath every time that my right arm exited the water. I even ended up swimming at least 30 seconds of the race on my back because of the frustration. When I exited the water, I thought for sure that my time this year was slower than my time last year. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't, but still frustrated at the thought that I could have done even better. I guess the only way to really beat the frustration on this one is to actually be at the front of the pack, so... I guess I'll just have to get over and just keep doing my best.

The 15 Mile Bike Ride (flat road)
In 2009- 1:05:21. In 2010- 53:49.
The bike portion of the race made the biggest difference in my overall time. Last year, my main bike training was to ride the 6 miles to school and back with the kids riding with me on my cruiser bike. While the extra weight of the kids helps with my strength and the 6 miles helps with endurance, the cruiser bike itself and the way that my knees have to stick out to the side to keep from hitting Annabelle seat in front of me aren't the best for training. Last year, I rode on a fat tire bike that I hadn't practiced on too. This year, I bought a new racing/road bike (hybrid) that I LOVE! After last year's race, I bought a used racing bike, but between my carpal tunnel and my lack of being able to control the bike (which resulted in a major crash in my race last fall), I decided that I needed one that I had tried out and felt really comfortable on. On my new bike, I am continuing to get more and more comfortable on the aerobar, which I think makes a huge difference in my overall bike time. I've also figured out the gear shifting and how to determine the ideal settings for the situation. I didn't do a lot of training on the bike, but I feel like the training that I did do, really helped to condition my legs to go faster than last year too. My quads were really sore from the beginning of the race though, so I know that I have a long way to go to conditioning my legs to go faster next time!

The 3.3 Mile Run (flat roads)
In 2009- 31:16. In 2010- 32:01.
Of the 3 triathlon sports, running is definitely my sport. This running season, I have broken my personal best records in two 5K races (I have finished under 26:00 in both races this year) and I did really well when I practiced this course about 6 weeks ago, so I really had high hopes of finishing in under 30 minutes for the run. However, life got in the way. :( It seems like we've been traveling for vacations for the past 6 weeks, which makes it hard to keep up with training. I was really proud of myself though because even on the days when we spent MANY HOURS walking all over the Disney World parks, I still got out and ran 3-4 miles a few times during that week. Then on the cruise, I did go running about 3 miles at a time the first few days of the cruise. About half way through the cruise, the only way that I was going to be able to run was to get up extra early (like 6am early!) and do it (because of the super-long days at port), and that just wasn't happenin' while I was on vacation in the Mediterranean. :) I was hoping that all of the miles of walking, stroller pushing, and 35-40 pound child carrying would help to keep me in shape, but it ended up doing the opposite. During the last couple of days of the trip, my lower back started hurting really bad (I'm sure the crazy night of breakdancing with my siblings didn't help!). By the time that I came home, I was in major pain and had 2 rounds of acupuncture to try to help it. I could barely walk normal, so I certainly wasn't able to do any training (this was just 2.5 weeks ago). As I started feeling a little better, I got back in the pool, and, just a week ago I got back on the bike for the first time in over a month. Then on Monday of this past week, I ran again for the first time in nearly 3 weeks. I was definitely slower than usual, but at least I knew I wasn't going to have to back out of the race! I ran one other time this week (only 2 miles though since my back still wasn't 100%), so... I guess considering all of that, I can't be too upset with myself for my run time.

By the way, I TOTALLY wanted to stop during the run because I felt like I was spent, but another racer heard my music on my iPhone and asked if she could run with me for a while to listen along with me (yes, I ignored USAT rule about not running with music and used the speaker on my iPhone to listen to music as I used my GPS app during the run). This was about 1 mile into the run, and she stayed with me for about a mile. I wasn't going to stop while she was there, and by the time she dropped back, I only had a little over a mile to go so I wasn't about to stop then! I love how God puts people right there for you at the times that you need them most!

Transitions In 2009- T1 (Swim to Bike) 3:51, T2 (Bike to Run) 2:31. In 2010- T1 3:28, T2 1:03)
Despite all of my pre-planning, my first transition (T1) was not as much as an improvement as I was hoping, but my second transition (T2) was. I think what slowed me down during T1 was trying to get my clothes on my wet body, but I did that last year too in addition to untying my shoes and putting the numbers on my clothes and bike (which I did pre-race this year) so I'm not quite sure why my time didn't improve more. The only additional thing that I did during T1 this year was pop a piece of gum and put a packet of Gu into my top (to take during the bike)... neither of which took more than a couple of seconds. The only thing that I can figure is that I thought that I had everything so together that I took my time more rather than rushing. Who knows!?! I did buy lace locks the other day, but since I haven't run with them before (and I didn't want to push it with my back pain before the race), I opted to stick with the good 'ole double-knot for the run. Maybe if I get trishorts, use lace locks, and just put on a shirt, I can knock some more time off?

General Observations 1. When I went to look at my results for the race, I compared my time in my race category to the next category up (since I'll be moving up next year) and could not believe what I saw! Like I mentioned earlier, in the 30-34 women category, my time of 01:43:05.90 put me at 9th out of the 19 in my age group. If I had competed in the 35-39 age group, I would have been 28th out of 37! That's nearly double the entrants and I would slip from being in the 52nd percentile to the 25th percentile! That's a MAJOR drop! The 40-44 age group doesn't get much better either... I would have been 16th out of 28. Crazy! I'll just look at the bright side and say that this means that I will continue to get better with time! ;)
2. If I had competed in the Athena category, I would have received a prize for finishing 3rd! Athena is the "big women" category, so I didn't even think about that until it was pointed out to me that "Athena" is defined as 150 pounds and over, regardless of height! That alone blows my mind. I guess if you're really in it to win prizes, and you aren't a skinny minnie (who, let's face it, is the typical figure that's going to win these things), then entering Athena might make sense. I may change my tune later, but I will probably stick with the age groups for now.
3. I thought it was interesting that both my primary care physician and my OB were competing in this same race. It's good to know that my doctors are athletic people too. :)

This certainly will not be my last triathlon. I'm looking forward to doing many more of these in the future, and hope to someday be one of those women who races by a young 30-something and makes her think "Wow... I hope I'm still able to do this when I'm her age!"

Big Girl Discussions

2010-05-25T20:18:00.003-04:00

When Corgan's in the car, Annabelle and I don't seem to "discuss" that much. But when it's just the two of us girls, it's crazy all of the things that she says and asks. Tonight's conversations included discussions about what would happen if the moon were to get too close to the earth, if a star can really fall out of the sky, how blind people are able to get around, communicating with a deaf person, what "Miss" means (followed by attempting to then explain why "Miss Jason" is called "Miss"), how she's going to miss her friends when they go to "big school" (kindergarten), what daydreaming is, and many other conversations that blew my mind and I'm unable to recall right now. She brought up every one of these topics!

The things in my little 4 year old's head never fail to surprise me... and that's only the things that she vocalizes! I can't imagine what else is up there!

Corgan Alexander

2010-04-24T23:57:00.004-04:00

Apparently I don't use Corgan's middle name very much because tonight when I was getting him ready for bed, I playfully called him "Corgan Alexander" and he laughed at me like I was making a joke! He said "I'm not Corgan Alexander, I'm just Corgan!" He then laughed hysterically at me saying "No, you're Corgan Alexander Donald!" This went on for the entire duration of getting into a new diaper and his pjs! It was so adorable and really made me laugh a lot too.

It really is the little things like these silly conversations with your 2 year old that make being a parent the best job in the world!

New Gymnastics

2010-04-23T18:26:00.006-04:00

Thursday we tried out a new gymnastics gym for the kids. At this gym, both of the kids are at the age where they're in instructor led classes. I decided to search to see if there was something that I liked better than our old gymnastics place for a couple of reasons, but mainly for Annabelle's sake. If you asked her if she liked it, she would tell you that she does, however, I really didn't like her teacher at all or the setup of the classes. At the old gym, they have parent/child classes until 2 years, then they have a 3-6 year old class. There's a HUGE ability difference between the ages of 3 and 6, so even though Annabelle was doing really well for her age, she was comparing herself to 6 year olds and always felt like she wasn't doing well at all, which was hurting her confidence in her abilities. The ability difference for that age range probably wouldn't even be an issue if she'd had a better teacher though. Her teacher was very non-kid-friendly and never praised the kids, only corrected them when they did something wrong. I have to admit though, I have never liked this particular teacher because when Annabelle was only like 15 months old, she was climbing over a barrel and said it was "blue" (and it was actually a teal blue), and before I could say anything, this particular teacher said "No, that's green." While the teal blue color could go either way, I would have called it blue myself if I'd had to choose. And, even if she really did think it was green, she didn't even say something like "Good try, but this is green." Anyway... I digress...

So, we checked out this new gym. Both kids went in all excited. Annabelle, I wasn't worried about at all. Corgan... he doesn't do so well with following instructions from new adults sometimes. Corgan's class is 2.5 to 3.5 year olds and Annabelle was in the 4.5 to 5.5 year old class. Their classes started out together for stretches, then broke off for the other stuff. Annabelle loves to follow directions and try new things, so this whole thing was right up her alley. But not Corgan's. He sat on the sidelines watching everyone else stretch and wouldn't do it himself. Then when it was time for them to break off into their own classes, Corgan really got stubborn and didn't even want to follow the class. I had to go in there with him to coax him over to his class. Then he didn't want to do any of the activities anyway. I ended up just taking him outside where he cried and said he wanted to go back in. I explained that he had to do what the teacher asked him to do and he agreed to do it. So we tried again. When we went back, he did about half of the activities that he was asked to do, with me standing next to him coaxing him into doing every little thing. His teacher was very nice and very understanding about the whole thing. In the end, she said that if we decided to join there, I would be welcome to attend the class too until he was comfortable on his own.

Annabelle, on the other hand... she did great! She loved trying all of these new things. The class itself is more like real gymnastics rather than a jungle gym. She tried everything and loves the challenges! Even though I was busy trying to get Corgan to do what he was supposed to be doing, I kept an eye and ear on Annabelle's class too to see how I felt about what they were doing and their teacher. When Annabelle was on the trampoline, the teacher had them jump, land on their booties, then jump back up to their feet. Annabelle tried it, but just wasn't getting it. I observed the teacher instructing her on how to do it, then letting her try it a few more times. By the 3rd try, she was doing it. The smile of pride on her face was priceless! At another point, the teacher had all 5 of the kids walking on the balance beam. Most of them were doing it on their own since the teacher was only able to hold 2 of the kids hands at one time. Annabelle was a bit nervous at first (on a regular height beam), but the teacher encouraged her enough that she gained the confidence to do it all by herself. She was even able to get Annabelle to hop on the beam without holding her hand!

After the class, I asked Annabelle whether she liked "old gymnastics" or "new gymnastics" better. Without hesitation, she answered "New Gymnastics!" That was just what I had wanted to hear! So, this summer, I think we'll be enrolling both kids in "New Gymnastics," and hopefully Corgan will warm up to the class quickly!

Friday Afternoon Swimming Party

2010-04-23T18:14:00.013-04:00

Today was the perfect afternoon for swimming, especially with friends. We invited the Konicki girls and Annabelle's friend Annabelle (aka "Belle") over to Grammy's pool for swimming and pizza. The kids all had so much fun both in the pool and inside the house playing with Grammy's toys. We played Ring-Around-The-Roses, they swam all over the pool in their floaties, Annabelle learned that she can stand in the shallow end and spent some time swimming on her own, Belle made LOTS of progress with her fear of the water and was crying because she wanted to keep swimming by the end, Halle and Annabelle made up games to play all over the pool, Elena was Ms. Independent in her floaties, and sweet Sonja slept and barely made a sound through the entire afternoon! Us Mommies even got a bit of down time to chat while the kids played together and watched Snow White inside the house. It was truly a perfect day weather-wise and for the kids. :)

Here are a few of my favorite pictures that we took today:

Happy Halle

Independent Elena

Me playing with Elena and Belle

Flying Annabelle

Circle of Ring-Around-The-Roses

Sleepy Sonja

Pizza Time

Underwater Annabelle

The Donald Kids all wiped out not long after we got home

Enjoy the rest of the pictures from our fun afternoon!

What Color?

2010-04-21T22:17:00.002-04:00

This afternoon, I had this conversation with Annabelle as I drove and she watched "The Princess and the Frog" in the back seat.

Annabelle: "How come some people have brown skin?"
Mom: "Because God makes everybody different so that we aren't boring."
Annabelle: "Like brown skin and white skin?"
Mom: "Yeap. Some people have brown skin, some people have dark brown skin, some people have white skin, some people have very white skin..."
Annabelle: "And some people have blue skin. Blue is a very popular color."

Um... okay.

Today's Psycho Workout

2010-04-20T20:58:00.006-04:00

I don't know what exactly came over me, but today was a psycho workout day for me. It all started with me telling myself that I HAVE TO get my new bike out and get some miles on it soon. I'm going to be out of town for about 3 of the next 6 weeks (before the triathlon) and I have to get all of the kinks worked out of the bike before then since it's new. I've been riding the spinning bike at the gym a bit, so I'm still getting some biking in, but it's not exactly the same. Anyway...

FIRST...
This morning after dropping the kids off at school, I took my bike out for a 3 mile ride around the neighborhood to make sure everything was working and to try out the aerobar. It was and I had some aerobar success, so I loaded my bike into the back of my van and drove to the location where the triathlon is going to be. I've ridden the course before, so I knew there wasn't too much traffic (on the sidewalk anyway) and I had a goal of doing 15 miles today (the bike length of the tri that we'll be doing soon). The 15 mile ride was a GREAT success. I rode it in 57:30... about 8 minutes faster than my race time of 1:05:21 last year. Plus, in the race I don't have to slow down every time I cross a driveway or parking lot like I had to do today, so I'm very optimistic that I'll shave a few more minutes off of that time! :)

THEN...
I decided to try to run. Don't get me wrong, I peddled HARD during the bike ride so I was exhausted, but I'm always telling myself (usually while I'm running) that the time that you get better at running is when you're tired and you keep going (whether that's really true or not, I don't know, but it works for me). So... I put my bike back into the van, got my iPod and headphones out, and took off running. From the get go, I felt like I was taking super-small steps and going SO slow. I felt like I was using every ounce of energy that I have, yet I wasn't getting anywhere fast. I was about ready to stop around half of a mile when I checked my gps app (MotionX's GPS on my iPhone... AWESOME app!) and saw that I was running at an average speed of 8:04/mile! I guess my legs just felt really weird from being on the bike so I just felt slow. I knew that I couldn't keep that up for long, but I kept going. This tri's run distance is 3.3 miles, so I decided that I was going to do the whole 3.3 miles to see how fast I could do it. The first mile, I managed to keep up my pace and ended with a time of about 8:15 for my first mile. I don't remember what mile 2 was, but my 5K time was 27:30!!! Despite feeling like there was no way in the world I could make it the additional .2 miles after hitting 5K, I completed the 3.3 miles in 29:22... nearly 2 minutes faster than my race time of 31:16 last year!

I left the park that was my home base for these workouts feeling hungrier than I've ever felt in my whole life, but SO excited about how I'd done! I headed straight to my favorite sandwich joint (Don's Famous Hoagies, a local fave) and chowed down! My parents had the kids for the afternoon, so I took advantage of that and came home to nap off some of my exhaustion.

THEN...
I had promised Annabelle that I would take her to the big gym tonight where she'd get to play with her school buddy, Annabelle. The last couple of weeks, I've taken her there on Tuesdays (when other Annabelle's mom teaches aerobics classes) so that I can get some swim time in while she plays. So, my original plan was to do that again today. By the time that gym-time came, I was still SO tired and did not want to go, but I also didn't want to go back on my promise. So, I suited up, picked up Annabelle, and we went to the gym. I managed to get in a total of . 5 miles in the pool! I timed my 1/3 mile (the distance of the tri swim) and completed it in 13:48... nearly a minute faster than my race time of 14:41 last year!

So, even though I didn't do the whole race with the events back to back the way they would be in the race, I did more than I would have done in a race anyway and am really excited to see how I do in the actual race! The hard part is going to be keeping up my training (which usually consists of just doing one of these events) during the 3 weeks of vacation before the tri. While I don't intend to have any more of these psycho-workouts, I will definitely be pushing myself to do as good as I possibly can!

Life in a Barn

2010-04-18T16:15:00.014-04:00

So... I'm enjoying a relaxing afternoon of fixing things and decorating around our master bedroom and bathroom, when I look around the bathtub and notice something "decorating" the room that I certainly did NOT put there!

Look closer...

A freakin' snake in my bedroom!!! And I'm thinkin' it got in a few days ago when Keith left both the screen door and the french doors open overnight, so it's probably been in there for at least 3 or 4 days! I was TOTALLY freaked out! I went up the stairs to tell Keith about our new friend. He came down to check it out and told me to catch it. I was sure to thank him for the assistance. I went to the garage and quickly gathered up a few boxes and went to the kitchen to find some thongs. I know, not the best idea, but I was kinda freakin' out. So, I went back to the bedroom to think some more while Keith followed me around with the camera. I then decided that trying to catch it with my hands (with gardening gloves on) would be my best move. So, I suited up in the gloves, but couldn't make myself lunge at my scaly friend. I backed up a little and decided to try the boxes approach again. So, at Keith's suggestion, I scared him into the corner behind the rice basket...

That worked! He slithered back behind the basket!

Now what? Oh yeah... grab a box and move the basket (and breakables) out of the way, hoping that he didn't jet further into our bedroom!

Sllloooowwwwllllyyy move the box in closer...

And he's caught!!!!

I headed straight outside for the release!

And the little sucker quickly slithered away, while showing us how big he was (about 3 feet long!)! (Click on the picture to see a bigger version where you can see the snake crawling through the plant.)

Another animal that didn't belong in the house has been banished! We can now add this snake to our "get out of our barn!" list of screaming frog (yes, SCREAMING frog!), countless mice (including the magic mouse, although it's been a LONG time since we've seen any mice), so many spiders that we barely flinch when we see one anymore, and the creepiest possum ever! Whew! I guess that's life in a barn! :)

Annabelle The Softball Player

2010-04-17T16:31:00.009-04:00

For the past month or so, Annabelle and Halle have been playing wiffle ball style softball on a team together. Although they have practices on Wednesday afternoons and games every Saturday morning, it's a very relaxed kind of thing to teach the kids the basics. For the games, the top of the inning consists of team 1 batting through the batting order (they only have 6 kids on the team and so far there has only been 1 week with all 6 kids there) while team 2 lines up across the infield to field the ball. Team 1's coach pitches the ball to them (which I like better than hitting off of the tee since it also teaches hand-eye coordination). When each kid hits the ball, the batter runs the bases while the other kids retrieve both the hit ball and a bunch of other balls that the coaches throw to the field to them so that no one gets too bored. Once team 1 finishes batting through their batting order, they take their turn in the field while team 2 bats through. It seemed a bit disorganized at first, but it really seems to work well!

Today I decided to try out my sports lens and captured Annabelle in action. I knew she was good, but seeing her in still frame made me realize just how good she really is! Sometimes it still takes a few swings to hit the ball (while other times, it only takes 1 pitch), but her batting form is awesome!

Check out the way that she keeps her eye on the ball...

Or the way that she leans in with her back leg while swinging while keeping her front arm straight to pull the bat around...

And the way that she swings all of the way through while still keeping her head toward the ball...

And can even hit the ball right back to the pitcher! (Yes, that's the coach jumping to avoid being hit by the ball!)

And fielding... she always races to the ball and has gotten really good at catching a fly and trapping it in the glove with her other hand ball (usually thrown since most of the kids don't hit fly balls) and at stopping a grounder as she's running to do here...

And look at this wind up! Not only does she lift her front leg and rear WAAY back to throw far, she points her front wrist in the direction that she's aiming!

And her throw ends with a flip of the wrist!
As far as running the bases goes, she's a pro at that too! She still has to be reminded sometimes, but she will generally stand on the base with one foot on the bag and the other in front ready to take off as soon as the ball is hit. She doesn't need much coaching on the bases either. She actually runs to touch all of the bases (which doesn't sound big, but many of the kids still don't do that), and I usually have her stop on either 1st or 2nd so that she gets that base running experience rather than just running all of the way around on her hit. And when she runs... she runs FAST! (This girl LOVES to run!)

While Annabelle loves the game and takes it seriously, she also has lots of fun with it as you can see here where she's joking around with her coach in the field.

And finally, she's a good sport who takes her turn, doesn't get mad when a ball isn't hit to her, and likes to "good game" the other team after the game is over!

I'm so proud of my little softball player! I can't believe how well she has listened to and executed all of these softball techniques at such a young age! I really expected her play at 4 years old to be quite a bit more chaotic, but she has impressed the heck out of me once again!

My beautiful little Softball Annabelle really makes her Mommy proud!

Proof that Sleeping Habits are Genetic

2010-03-30T20:11:00.001-04:00

Keith has always been someone who could sleep anywhere. I joke that I have pictures of him sleeping all over the world (seriously though, I do... someday I'll post an album of pictures that are just Keith sleeping). He falls asleep on trains, in airports, in cars, and sometimes even standing up. Well, maybe not really standing up, but just about. Anyway... apparently Corgan has inherited his ability to fall asleep anywhere, although Corgan seems to take it to an extreme.

A few months ago, I found Corgan sleeping right in the middle of the living room area, in front of the kitchen floor.

A few weeks ago, Corgan slept on the floor in Annabelle's room so that I could stay up late packing in his room. When I went in to wake them up in the morning, Corgan was sleeping under the table in the corner of her room using Macy's dog bed as a pillow.

The other night, I found Corgan in the strangest place so far...
Annabelle and Corgan had been playing in the playroom in the back of the house, and I was in the living room. Annabelle came out and said "Where's my brother?" I responded "I thought he was with you?" Corgan also has a way of just disappearing and not coming out when you call him, so Annabelle and I both set off to find him. I looked in the playroom and closet, checked the bathroom, looked in my office... and here's what I found...
Corgan's feet under my desk! I still thought he was just hiding though, so I walked around to check the view from the other side of my desk and...

He was sleeping! Not just sleeping, but propped up on the footrest of the desk! I called Annabelle in and we both laughed. We took pictures. I had Keith come in and check him out when he got home. And Corgan finally woke up when Annabelle crawled under there with him and woke him up.

Then finally, this morning, here's what I found when I went into Corgan's room to wake him up...

What? You don't see Corgan? That's because he is sleeping UNDER his fitted sheet. And yes, the fitted sheet is still totally ON the bed! What a crazy kid!

In general, Corgan is a strange sleeper. Yes, his bed is just a mattress on the floor. That's because he rolls ALL OVER the place while he sleeps. A few months ago, Corgan started climbing out of his crib. That was fine, until his crib started falling apart because of it. He still needed the borders on all sides though, so instead of converting his crib into a toddler bed where he was sure to still fall out, I made his mattress into a bed on the floor. About 95% of the time, when I go in to check on him before I go to bed, he is not in his bed, and about 75% of that 95% of the time, he's in the middle of the room instead of in the corner of his room where his bed is. He knows he's a crazy sleeper too. Many mornings he wakes up before we do, so he comes pitter-pattering into our room. If it's early enough, he'll crawl into our bed and lay on my chest. He'll usually fall back asleep for a little while, but lately, after a while, he is rolling around into so many uncomfortable (for me) positions that he decides that he'd rather be back in his bed so he'll even get up and go back into his room and lay in his bed on his own.

It'll be interesting to see where these sleeping habits go as he grows up. :)

European Observations

2010-03-20T19:39:00.005-04:00

Every time I come to Europe I notice things that I either wish I had back home and notice clothing/fashion that I know will come in style soon. During my Norway trip in 2004, I remember lots of Norwegians chicks sporting the hair bump and wearing huge UGG boots. The UGGs made it across the ocean faster than the hair bump did, but both did. In our Euro-trip in fall 2005, I was introduced to the baby wrap/sling by our Belgian friends and remember particularly loving the flowing capri pants that I noticed the women wearing in Spain and Italy. With Annabelle on her way just months later, I quickly searched for the wrap once I got home, only to find that the selection was extremely limited (but now you can find they all over the place) and by the time that I was out of maternity clothes, the capri pants were available at Target. Many of the trips have also included music that I found that I liked, only to hear it on American radios a few months later.

Marian and I have been keeping an eye out for those types of things on this trip. We've both been noticing that deep purple seems to be a popular color for clothing. We've seen women (and men) in Austria, Germany, and Belgium sporting this up-and-coming color. While on our bike tour, we noticed quite a few kids my kids' ages riding two wheel bikes without petals like this one. I've seen these before and didn't quite get the point of them, but now I realize that it would be perfect for Corgan who has no interest in learning how to petal, but wants to keep up with his sister. And it would also be great for Annabelle who is learning to ride a two wheel bike, and needs to master the concept and confidence of balancing before the training wheels can come off. When I get back to the states, I'm definitely getting one of these bikes!

Flying Funny

2010-03-16T13:14:00.003-04:00

Overall our flight to Austria was pretty smooth. All of our luggage arrived (3 backpacks, 2 carry ons, 3 people, 1 stroller, 3 jackets, and 1 checked bag). Our first flight was on time, but our flight from Frankfurt to Linz was about 2 hours late so we had a longer layover than expected in Frankfurt. Annabelle and Auntie M read a few books, Annabelle played a little iPhone, we had some snacks, ate 2 meals, watched some of the in-flight television, and slept. Annabelle slept for about 5 hours (of the 11 hour flight), but I sure didn't.

I fell asleep quite a few times, but whenever I did, I wasn't sleeping very long when Annabelle would burst out with violent kicks! Auntie M (Keith's sister, Marian), Annabelle, and I had 3 seats together, so we had put the arm rests up and Annabelle was laying sideways between us. She was sleeping with her head on Marian and her feet on me. While still in a sound sleep, Annabelle will violently start kicking and flailing. She's always done this, but she must have been staying in whatever level of sleep she's usually in when she does this. She had quite a few of these episodes. One of the last episodes was while Marian and I were eating our breakfast. I had been keeping a hand on my breakfast tray the entire time that I was eating, and, fortunately, they had cup holders that were up by the headrest. I finished all of my breakfast, except for the pile of diced onions and peppers that had been on my eggs. Annabelle was sound asleep when all of the sudden she let out a huge kick that knocked my tray up into the air. My pile of onions and peppers flew onto the guy sitting on the other side of me. He let out a big "Whoa!" and jumped out of his seat. He looked quite annoyed, but fortunately he got over it pretty quickly. After this happened, he got up and headed to the bathroom. He stayed gone for about 10 minutes, which was good because although I was very apologetic, I had a hard time not bursting out laughing at the "Whoa!" that he had let out and the situation that I just knew was going to happen the whole time that I was eating! When he returned, he didn't seem upset at all, but I managed to not laugh in his face. :) I still chuckle just thinking about it. :)

Too Much Mario?

2010-03-08T22:53:00.001-05:00

You know your daughter plays/watches too much Mario when she "selects" who she's going to play with ("I select Daddy to play Bear with me right now.") or refers to her check up as a "checkpoint". Sigh.

Sweet Siblings

2010-03-08T01:12:00.009-05:00

Keith and Corgan left to spend a few days in Alabama at Keith's family's house early Saturday morning. Keith had to go up to Atlanta for a conference this week and had an opportunity to speak to two of the business classes at UA too, so he went and thought it would be fun to take Corgan for a boys' trip. They've had some travel hiccups (including over 24 hours without their luggage), but sounds like they're having lots of fun.

Before Corgan left on Saturday morning, he told me that he wanted Annabelle to go with him. He said "I gonna miss my Annabelle." And Annabelle has mentioned how much she misses Corgan many times since he left. She's said "I wish Corgan wouldn't have gone to Alabama without me." and "I wish I could have gone to Alabama with my brother." Last night I talked to Corgan and Keith on the phone, and as soon as Annabelle heard that I was talking to Corgan, she said "I want to talk to my brother." They had an adorable conversation for about 5 minutes, and about 3 minutes of it was talking about Super Mario games. When Keith or I are gone, we can hardly get more than a "Hi. I miss you. I love you. Bye." out of either kid, but they wanted to talk to each other for quite a long time for a 2 and 4 year old.

It's so sweet how much they love each other. I'm anxious to see how they react when they're back together again. I love my loving kiddos!

Annabelle Funnies

2010-03-06T22:56:00.003-05:00

Today, out of the blue (while we were both totally dressed and walking into the mall to go to a party), Annabelle asked another question about nipples. This time it was "Mommy, those little circles on your boobies are called marbles?" I laughed then corrected her. Then later on, after the party was over, we were chillin' at home and decided to make some supermodelquins of ourselves. One of the options is to add freckles. We made Annabelle's first, and I said she didn't have freckles so she didn't need to put them on hers. Then as she was making mine she asked "Do you have nipples so I can put them on your face?" It took me a second to realize that she meant freckles. It's funny how many times she's either mistaken "nipple" for another word or mistaken another word for nipples. Do most 4 year olds know what nipples are? :S

Our Little Parrot

2010-02-25T22:36:00.003-05:00

This happened about a month or so ago, but I want to record it to make sure we don't forget this story. Also, I'm telling this story from the pieces that I was able to put together from Keith's version and Annabelle's version of the story since I wasn't there.

Annabelle and Keith were playing Super Mario for the Wii. Rescuing Princess Peach had become an obsession in our house. Keith and Annabelle were in the middle of trying some complete some level, blah, blah, blah, and...

Annabelle: Sh*t!
Keith: What?
A: Sh*t!
K: What?
A: Sh*t!
K: What?
A: Sh*t!
K: Why did you say that?
A: Because that's what you say when you fall off the edge (on Super Mario).

DOH!

Growlin'

2010-02-12T03:43:00.004-05:00

Last night around 3am, Annabelle came into our room in distress and told me that Macy was in her room growling and she wanted me to come in and get her out. Macy does like to sleep in there, and she does bark in her sleep or breathe heavily sometimes, so I went back with Annabelle to get Macy out of her room. As soon as I walked in, I immediately recognized the "growling" that Annabelle was talking about as my mom's friend loudly snoring up in the bed in Annabelle's loft. Annabelle was already asleep when my mom's friend came over, so she had no idea anyone was up there. When I heard the "growling" that Annabelle referred to, I wasn't surprised that my generally heavy sleeper was woken up and wanted the noise to stop. :)

Needless to say, Annabelle spent the rest of the night in bed with Mommy and Daddy, and I had a great story to tell my mom when she got up in the morning.

Sneaky Sister

2010-01-31T10:55:00.003-05:00

Just now Corgan was playin' on Daddy's iPhone (imagine that!), and Annabelle was patiently watching him play.

Annabelle (in a super-sweet voice): Corgan, you're so good at puzzles. Can you do that one (pointing to a puzzle on the table right next to them) all by yourself?

Corgan: Yeah.

Annabelle: Why don't you show me how good you can do it right now?!

Corgan: Okay! (getting down to go do the puzzle)

Annabelle: Hand me the iPhone so you can do it!

Corgan: (realizing that he'd just been dooped) No. I not do puzzle right now.

What a sneaky sister Corgan has! Her trick almost worked!

Busy Days!

2010-01-26T19:02:00.000-05:00

No wonder my house has been a wreck lately! I just started listing in my head all of the big projects that I have going on right now.

Buying a new house. (Don't freak out... it's an investment property that we'll be renting to my parents. Still... there was plenty of work to find the right house and get the deal closed.)
Decorating above-mentioned house. (Picking out new carpets, tile, door hardware, etc. Helping with painting, cleaning, moving, etc. Fortunately, the house really doesn't need a lot of work, but any house is going to need some work when it gets a new owner... and this one is no exception)
Triathlon/10K/5K training and healthier-eating plan.
Planning Annabelle's Birthday Party. (I know this shouldn't be a huge one, but I tend to make parties out to be MUCH more work than they should be. I enjoy it though, so it's isn't "work" to me!)
Doing Nana's House Volunteer Work. (Attending weekly meetings, working on their graphics needs, volunteering at events, assisting with planning their big fundraiser for the year which happens in April this year.)
Planning a trip to Europe in March.
Planning a trip to Europe in May.
Planning a trip to L.A. to see my cousin play LAX. :)
Planning (on a smaller scale) a ski trip in February, a Disney trip or two in the late spring/early summer, and a possible 3rd trip to Europe in the summer.

I'm sure there's something else I'm forgetting, but I'll probably remember it at about 3 in the morning while dreaming about everything that I need to get done! :)

My First Mammogram

2010-01-21T09:47:00.003-05:00

I had my first mammogram yesterday morning. Yes, I'm still too young to have needed a regularly scheduled one, but in late December I discovered a lump in my boob that was pretty darn painful. From what I had read, pain in boobies is actually a good thing because breast cancer isn't painful in that way so I wasn't too incredibly worried, but still... when you feel something in your boob and you hear SO MUCH about breast cancer, you worry a little.

In December, I had an appointment with my GYN, who said that he didn't feel anything (WHAT?!), but he wanted me to have it checked out anyway since I did feel something and had pain. So, yesterday morning, I had my first mammogram and ultrasound of my boob (which was not NEARLY as exciting as the previous ultrasounds that I've had). The mammogram tech was very surprised that my GYN couldn't feel the lump (which doesn't seem to have changed in size at all since my GYN appointment) because she could, but assured me again that feeling pain is actually a good thing in this case. As she was mammogramming me, the tech told me that everything was looking like normal breast tissue to her, but the ultrasound tech should be able to help us figure out what's causing the pain. So... it was off to the ultrasound tech next.

Once the ultrasound was over, a doctor met with me to go over the results and show me the films (which aren't really "films" because they're all digital now). The result? I have a freakin' clogged and enlarged milk duct! I haven't breast fed since July of 2008! He showed me some of the regular milk ducts which looked like really thin strands of spaghetti, but this one looked like a large worm! No wonder it hurts! He and the mammogram tech both said that while women who breastfeed have a much lower chance of getting breast cancer, they also seem to have more non-threatening issues like this one. Interesting.

So... I'm fine. Just some pain that I need to wait out. It's not like I can just attach a breast pump and move the clog on out. Sigh.

Oh... but the mammogram experience itself... it wasn't nearly as scary or painful as I was expecting. I've heard horror stories (mostly from women comedians who tend to exaggerate anyway) about how they squeeze your boob 'til you cry. Didn't happen. The tech was awesome and made me feel really comfortable... even while I was wearing a poncho that snaps in the front and is the consistency and thickness of an old sheet. Because I am so close to 35 (the age that they normally do your first "mammy"), I may not have to do another one until I am 40, but if I do, it wasn't too bad so it's no biggie. :)

2010 Goals

2010-01-04T13:58:00.001-05:00

Since it worked out so well for me last year, I think I'm going to have another go at this "Goals for the Year" thing. Here are my goals for 2010:

Donate to locks of love
Get Lasik
Learn felting
Frame and put up my own family and friend photos all over our house
Be in super-duper shape which includes:
- Finish the Pineapple Man Triathlon in June in 1 hour and 45 minutes or less
- Beat my Melbourne Art Festival race record
- Finish a 10K race with a respectable time
- Be able to take a non-photoshopped pictures of myself that shows my muscle tone
Make significant volunteer contributions to Nana's House
Get in the habit of taking vitamins every day
Use my DSLR camera in manual mode to the point where it takes no more than 2 or 3 tries to get the perfect lighting without flash
Finish the Media Room
Visit a state in the U.S. that I have not already visited
See "Wicked" on Broadway
Take another "Keith & Keri only" trip
Continue to strive to be the best Mommy ever to Annabelle and Corgan
Get Baby Donald 3.0 in the oven (which means I'll need to accomplish many of my "in super-duper shape" goals early in the year)!

Wish me luck!

2009 Goals Accomplished!

2010-01-01T19:51:00.001-05:00

A year ago, I decided that I was going to set goals for myself to achieve during 2009. I'm happy to announce that I did accomplish EVERY ONE of those goals! Here's a recap of each goal, and my notes on accomplishing them:

Goal 1- Learn to use my digital SLR camera in manual mode This is one goal that I almost let slip through the cracks. In October, I looked back at my goals for the year, and realized that this one might not happen so I found an "Intermediate DSLR" class to take at the local photography shop in mid-November. While I still don't know how to immediately flip to the right settings to get the picture that I want, I at least have an idea of what to try to get a great picture without flash. Plus, in that class I learned more about what lenses to use and when, the best ways to get good head shots, and I learned about some more classes that I can take. I've also been doing lots of online research about poses and settings that make for great shots. I couldn't have taken this class at a better time because just a couple of weeks after my class, my brother had an outdoor evening wedding. Thanks to my new knowledge, I managed to take some really good pictures at the wedding during the ceremony and at the dimly lit indoor reception without using a harsh flash (some of them did use flash, but I learned how to soften the flash). These are a few of my favorites:

Goal 2- Kick butt in the Melbourne Art Festival 5K in April I picked the Melbourne Art Festival 5K as my measuring stick for two reasons: 1. I've done it before and had past times to compare it to and 2. It's one of the most challenging 5Ks that I've done so I knew that if I kicked butt in that one, then I was really in good running shape. I finished the race in 26:20, and my previous best on that course was about 7 years earlier with a time of 27:00. I was extremely happy with my results! (Read more about this race in the 2nd paragraph of this blog post.)

Goal 3- Kick butt in the Sprint-distance Melbourne triathlon in October Because it goes over the LONG causeway bridges both on bike and on foot, I think just finishing this race at all is considered "kicking butt", so I'm going to say this was definitely accomplished! Unlike with my first triathlon in the spring of 2009, I rode a racing bike for this race which was a challenge in itself. I'm still pretty unsteady on it, but during the race I took a nice spill off of my bike into the middle lane of US1. I still have a scar on my elbow, but otherwise, did really well. Of the 3 events, I definitely shined the most in the running part. My 5K run time for the tri was 29:50... this is including about 1.5 miles of uphill running AFTER having swam .25 miles and biking 16 miles! My run time was 212 out of 424 peeps (male & female)! Not too shabby!

Goal 4- Take a vacation with Keith (and JUST Keith) that doesn't involve work, children, or visiting anyone In December, Keith totally planned and took me on a 6th anniversary vacation to Costa Rica. Just us. No kids. No friends. No work. It was everything I had hoped that this trip would provide when I set this goal for 2009! I hope we're able to do something like this every year! In addition to the Costa Rica trip, Keith and I also had childless trips to Amsterdam (with my sister) in the spring and a long weekend in San Francisco (for pleasure, but with his work colleagues). I love to travel with my kids, but traveling without them definitely has it's perks too!

Goal 5- Get back over to Europe! As I mentioned above, in the spring I went to Amsterdam. Keith had a conference there, so my sister (Kelly) and I tagged along as a part of her 30th birthday gift from us, then Kelly and I took a train down to Paris to spend a few days there. (See the blog entries from that trip throughout the month of May.) Although I had already been to both Amsterdam and Paris, I definitely saw a lot more than I saw the first time. I feel like I really got to know both cities.

Goal 6- Become active in a volunteer organization that I enjoy and will allow me to meet new people Around July/August of this year, I learned about a wonderful organization called Nana's House through our church. Nana's House is a start-up local Christian children's home that is totally community funded. The home serves as guardians for children whose parents or legal guardians are unable to care for them (due to financial reasons, criminal reasons, health reasons, etc.). One of the goals for Nana's House is to be able to keep families together. As soon as I attended the orientation to learn more about the organization, I was hooked and knew it was the organization for this goal. I immediately got involved by volunteering to help with fund raisers, manning the information booth at church, attending weekly volunteer meetings, and doing a Christmas fundraiser pamphlet. Through this organization, I feel like I will be making a difference in children's lives (they are still a start up, so the house doesn't have children in it yet, but should within the first few weeks of 2010) and I have met many wonderful people through the volunteer opportunities, meetings, and end of the year socials. I am really looking forward to doing even more with Nana's House in 2010!

Goal 7- Find a church that is perfect for our family As I mentioned above, we do have a church now. In the early summer, we tried out a church that was recommended to us by people who worked on our house. The church is VERY large, which had made us overlook it in the past when we were looking for churches. But because the church was so highly recommended, we decided to give it a chance. The church, Calvary Chapel of Melbourne, is a non-denominational Christian church. They have upbeat music, wonderful ministers, a great children's program, active sports groups, they're involved with the community, and everyone seems so welcoming to people of all races and economic backgrounds. In the late summer, Keith and I attended an orientation for the church to learn more about their history and beliefs and we both really liked it. The kids love their "kids church" classes that they go to and even ask to go! Like any church, it's not perfect and we do have differing opinions on some beliefs, but for the most part we agree and feel like we've found our family's church "home".

Goal 8- Finish this freakin' house addition! DONE! With LOTS of hard work, countless phone calls, many trips to the county building department, writing lots of checks, and learning more than I ever thought I'd know about being a general contractor, architect, and designer, Our Donald Barn renovations are DONE! Architecturally, everything that is needed now is done and in place. Except for the media room, the furniture is all in place. Some of the walls are still bare (despite the boxes and drawers and shelves full of things for the walls), but it's basically all been done since late spring. And we LOVE the results! We loved our house before, but now every room and every feature is just absolutely perfect for our family!

Goal 9- Continue to be the best mom that I can be to Annabelle and Corgan! I hope beyond all hopes that this goal was the most successfully completed goal of any goal that I've ever had! I love doing activities with them, have enjoyed watching Annabelle grow in her gymnastics class, working with Corgan on puzzles, making fun treats for and with the kids to bring in for school, making their birthdays as special as possible, giving them spaces that allow them to express their creativity and learn how to also be organized, encouraging independence, playing outside, exploring modern technology, traveling to new places, meeting new people, and encouraging the development of existing relationships. I love my little kiddies and hope that I am really am the best mom that I can be for them every day!

Goal 10- Figure out a recycling setup that makes it second nature for the whole family to do it This is probably the only goal on my list that I will mark as accomplished, but I kinda feel like I might be cheating by marking it that way. Our "setup" is to pile up the recyclables on the counter top in a certain place. I've at least got Keith putting the recyclables up there a majority of the time, and most of it does actually make it into the recycling bin (sometimes it gets confused for trash and gets put into the trash anyway). I tried having bins set up in the pantry for paper and others, but every time they went down stairs, they ended up not coming back up so that wasn't working. I think with just a little more effort, I can really make this work. So, while we're definitely much better about recycling than we were at this time last year, we still have some work to do to make it "second nature". However, in general, as a family we're definitely more environmentally aware of what we do, so... we're definitely heading in the right direction!

Bonus Goal
In addition to my 2009 goals, I've managed to accomplish one of my "43 Things" life goals this year... I finished a 5K in less than 26 minutes when I did the Downtown Melbourne 5K just 2 weeks before the Melbourne Art Festival in April. I completed the race in just 25:45! This was a personal record and I one that I hope to beat in 2010!

Nipplin'

2009-12-16T16:06:00.002-05:00

Just had this random (fully clothed) conversation with Annabelle...

Annabelle: Mom, what are those circles on your boo-boos (boobies) called again?
Mommy: Nipples.
Annabelle: Haha... you're nipplin'.
Mommy: What?!
Annabelle: Nipplin' means smellin'.
Mommy: No, it doesn't.
Annabelle: Then why do bunnies nipplin' on carrots?

My response was, of course, lots of laughter. :)

An iPhone Conversation

2009-11-30T13:04:00.003-05:00

A couple of days ago, I overheard this conversation between Keith and Corgan.

Corgan: iPhone! iPhone!
Keith: That's not how you ask for it!
C: Please!
K: Say a full sentence.
C: A full sentence.
K: No, ask for the iPhone using a full sentence.
C: (blank stare)
K: Can you say "Can I use the iPhone please?"
C: Yes.
K: No... "Can I use the iPhone please?" You say it.
C: It.
K: (sigh) Corgan, say "Can I use the iPhone please?"
C: iPhone please!

Not Turnal

2009-11-04T15:21:00.002-05:00

Because of discussions and books that we've read, Annabelle has known about nocturnal animals for a while. They're learning about forest animals this week at school, so I'm sure nocturnal animals have been discussed and are on her mind.

Today while we were driving to gymnastics after school, we were talking about the owl craft that she made and here's our conversation:

Belle: Mommy, owls are nocturnal.
Mommy: That's right!
Belle: That means they are awake at night.
Mommy: That's right!
Belle: We're turnal.
Mommy: Huh?
Belle: Turnal means you're awake during the day. But if you're awake at night, you're not turnal.

Boring People

2009-10-31T14:27:00.002-04:00

As I've mentioned before, Annabelle is very competitive. She's also tends to complain when someone else doesn't like to do the same thing that she does. We've been trying to stress to her that people need to be different and have different things that they're good at and like because if everyone was the same, then we'd all be boring. So...

Just now we were watching Yo Gabba Gabba and they had twins in the transition segment where the kids dance around. She said "Hey! They're the same so they're boring."

Sigh. Another lesson that we need to teach her. Why do people have to be so complicated? :) Oh yeah, so that we won't be boring!

P.S. I did explain to her that although they looked the same, the twin girls were very different and had different things that they liked to do, so they really aren't boring.

Gendered Cheese

2009-10-28T18:37:00.002-04:00

This morning while the kids were at school, I took the childless opportunity to go to Walmart for some serious grocery shopping. We're out of EVERYTHING, so I knew it was going to be a big one (and it was... $378.42 to be exact!). When I picked the kids up from school, I was telling them about all of the things that I bought. Annabelle was asking me to list specific things so I did... "... waffles... milk... raisin bread... sweet potato fries... new chicken fingers that look like onion rings... grilled cheese..." She stopped me at grilled cheese and said "I don't like girl cheese. When you don't like girl cheese, you eat boy cheese. And when you don't like boy cheese, you eat girl cheese."

I guess I need to pronounce "grilled" better. :)

Monsters and Ghosts and Spiders (Oh My!)

2009-10-27T20:57:00.004-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, Nikki and I came up with the idea to make some fun Halloween treats with the kids for them to bring to school to share with their classmates. We've had such a busy few weeks, that this week we finally got to do it. We (mostly Nikki) bought (or scrounged up) all of the ingredients and materials for some fun little brownie spiders and witch hats. The spiders were Nikki's idea and the witch hats were something I dreamed up.

So... Monday morning and afternoon, Nikki spent some time cooking nearly 50 brownie bites using her new brownie pops mold. She brought them, the other materials, dinner, and her kids over on Monday evening. The daddies came to eat too, then we got started on our treats. We tried to get the girls to help us, and they did for a little while, but they quickly lost interest. I guess it was the combination of doing the same thing over and over again 20 times, hearing the daddies playing on the Wii, and the long waiting periods of bordom in between their "jobs" that made them decide that they were "done helping". Annabelle and Halle both came back to the table to help a couple of times, but that didn't last long. So, Nikki and I were left to make the treats.

The spiders turned out absolutely adorable, but my witch's hats... no so much. I used cookie icing to make the ribbon and buckle around the base of the hat, and that wasn't such a great idea. It was too runny and just went all over the place. The only good thing about it was that it made it look like the kids really did make them. :) While I was waiting for the witch's hats to dry, I started playing with some of the extra brownies to see what else I could make. I had a bunch of leftover eyeballs, tons of orange (runny) icing, quite a few cookies, and time, so I made a monster, a ghost, and an owl. I made a couple more, but then got back to helping Nikki with the spiders. We finished up the spiders, put them on the creative spiderweb paper that Nik made, then called it a night. As I was cleaning up, I decided that I really didn't like the witch's hats but I really liked my little monsters and ghosts, so I used the few undecorated brownies that we had left and made more of the monsters and ghosts. They were so easy to do, and I've got a thing for orange and green monsters right now anyway, so I loved them and had fun decorating them. :)

Here's a couple of pictures to demonstrate one of the times that Annabelle came back to "help". She helped Nikki with putting icing on the brownie to glue the brownie to the cookie for the witch's hat. So... here she is helping...

And, seconds later, here she is noticing that something exciting just happened on Mario Baseball.

Immediately after that last picture, she once again proclaimed that she was done.

Pump It Up with Sydney

2009-10-22T08:25:00.004-04:00

Last week we went to Pump It Up with Corgan's school girlfriend, Sydney. As a double-bonus, Grammy & Papa came too! It's crazy that the kids were all big enough to go on everything all by themselves without needing assistance. Of course, this doesn't mean they didn't ask for us to go too sometimes anyway. Pump It Up during the school year is awesome because we pretty much have the whole thing to ourselves (and sometimes we really do)! It's great!

One of the funniest pictures that I got during this visit is this picture of Sydney:

During this visit, I was just telling Sydney's mom, Emily, about the crazy picture that I got of Annabelle playing at Pump It Up when she was about Sydney's age (see below). She was jumping so gravity did some crazy stuff to her face, and gave me an idea of what she might look like when she's 80. While Sydney's picture isn't quite as extreme as Belle's was, it's funny that I was just telling her about that and managed to end up with a similar picture of Sydney in the same trip! Also, looking back at Annabelle's picture, she really was within about a month of Sydney's current age. Crazy!

In case you didn't see it or have forgotten Belle's "old lady" picture, here it is:
All of the pictures from our day of Pump It Up with Sydney (with a Grammy & Papa bonus) are up on our photo gallery.

Corgan's 2 Year Checkup

2009-10-14T16:20:00.003-04:00

About a month ago, I all of the sudden had this thought of "Did Corgan already have his 2 year checkup?" I honestly could not remember if I'd scheduled or even taken him to one yet! I had to call the doctor's office to find out that I hadn't. So, I scheduled the appointment, and today, nearly 2 months after his 2nd birthday, he finally had his 2 year checkup. :)

Everything went smoothly. He's up to 36.75" and nearly 32 pounds. All milestones seem on track. Corgan was a good boy (despite the relatively long wait from the time that they took us into the exam room until the doctor came in for the exam), and our doctor continues to impress me with his ability to relate to the kids... even a generally hostile-towards-strangers kid like my Corgan.

The doctor told me that he's still on the fence about the H1N1 flu shot, but that if he decides to recommend it to his patients in a couple of months (after he's seen more results from it), then he'd highly recommend it for my kids because they've got the nebulizer. But he said that right now he wouldn't even give it to his own kids. That's kinda refreshing to hear from the perspective of all doctors not jumping on the H1N1 vaccine bandwagon and knowing that he won't really recommend it until he really believes it.

P.S. Isn't my Corgan so adorable reading the Curious George book in the doctor's waiting room?

Smirkin' at the Car Wash

2009-10-14T16:03:00.003-04:00

Since he was a tiny baby, I don't remember Corgan ever liking going through the car wash drive-thru. He has always been terrified by it, while Annabelle has always absolutely loved it! Every few months I still try again (plus my car really needs the washing), but even as recently as today, Corgan is still not a fan. Here are photo reactions of the kids during today's car wash:

Annabelle's favorite part is the "rainbow soap" (the soap comes out in pink, blue, and yellow stripes). She gets so adorably giddy about it, while Corgan cries away in fear. It's crazy how they can have such different reactions. :)

Where Else?

2009-10-06T19:57:00.003-04:00

Corgan had a random puking episode tonight while Keith was at basketball. When Keith got home, we told him that Corgan had thrown up all over the place. Then the conversation went like this:

Keith: "Awe, Buddy... what happened?"
Corgan: "I throw up."
Keith: "Where?"
Corgan: "My mouth."

The Big Family Disney Trip- Magic Kingdom

2009-10-04T00:56:00.008-04:00

Our Friday at Magic Kingdom started off with meeting a couple more Disney characters and taking some pictures with the famous Cinderella's Castle. We spent the majority of the morning enjoying classic attractions in Fantasyland like Dumbo, Peter Pan, and It’s a Small World, and the newer attraction, Philharmagic.

Grammy and Corgan loving flying high with Dumbo:

Kelson loving "It's a Small World":

We caught a Main Street parade which featured lots of the characters, then took in the Country Bear Jamboree, which I haven’t seen since I was a kid. Although I was bored by the bears, Corgan really liked it so it was worth seeing them. :) We rode the Haunted Mansion. Annabelle actually got a little freaked out in this one because of the dark parts. Keith and Annabelle did the Stitch ride, but she wasn’t a fan (I’m told Stitch has stinky breath). We also went to Tomorrowland to do the Monsters Inc show. I was surprised, but Annabelle was getting into the show so much that she was raising her hand and yelling “Florida” over and over again when the Monster asked where everyone was from. I’m sure she would have clammed up if the mic had actually been put in her face, but it was really cute to see her excited about the possibility of attention like that because it’s so outside of her personality. Uncle Jason did actually get picked on to be a part of the show so everyone was excited about that. Even though I’ve been to it before, I think the Monsters Inc show is one of my new favorites.

Annabelle on her favorite ride at all of the parks:

We ended up calling it a semi-early day at Magic Kingdom because we had a long night ahead of us. We had our tickets for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween that night, so we headed to our respective Disney homes to get naps for the kids and get them into their costumes.

Kelson and Annabelle were both adorable little Minnie Mouse characters and Corgan had a last second costume change and ended up wearing his Spiderman pjs. The kids were all excited about trick-or-treating at Disney and about getting to see the park at night. Kelson really got into the character dance parties, and even got Annabelle to join in a little. The highlight of the night had to be the kids discovering their love of Goofy’s Barnstormer. The girls went on it 3 times, but Corgan had enough after two rides. I’m sure the girls would have just kept on going if we would have let them. If you’ve never been on the Barnstormer, it’s actually pretty crazy for a small kids’ roller coaster. We were comparing it to a miniature version of Thunder Mountain, but our little thrill-seekers loved it! We finished the night with a wet ride of Splash Mountain. One of the big benefits of paying for the extra “Halloween” hours was the fact that we could pretty much walk right on to every ride. It was great!

Enjoy more pictures of our day at Magic Kingdom and our night at Mickey's Not-So_Scary Halloween.

Belle's Nightmares

2009-10-03T13:03:00.004-04:00

Last night Belle came down with a fever very suddenly (no, it's not swine flu... It's the same thing that Corgan just had and got over very quickly) so she went to bed very easily and fell asleep very quickly as soon as we got home from an outing to the mall. She was OUT!

Around 4:30 am she woke up and we found her sitting at the bottom of the stairs in the hallway crying. She said she had thrown up, but I think it was more drooling than anything (none of the other kids with this virus have thrown up, and there was hardly anything there). She was really upset! She kept saying that the bugs were getting her. There weren't any bugs though. When we had come home from the mall last night, a bunch of bugs came in the front door with us, so I guess that's why she dreamt about that. But then it got worse.

She said she wanted to come sleep with us. Since she wasn't feeling well and had just woken up clearly disturbed from a nightmare, of course I said yes. As we were walking toward the bedroom, she stopped me at the door and said "What is that line?" with fear in her voice. I didn't see a "line". I turned on the light for her, and she continued into the room. I brought her into my bed and left her with Keith while I went to get her some water, fever medicine, and her blankie. When I got back, she was sitting up in bed, pointing at the bathroom, and talking to Keith about seeing someone looking in the window in the bathroom. Then she started talking like someone was actually inside of the bathroom. She said "Why is that guy peeking out at me?" Keith and I both said that we didn't see anyone. She pointed and kept saying "He's right there." She said something about him walking past the door. Then she said "He's going up to the window [in the bathroom]." At this point she wasn't acting like she was scared as much as she was frustrated that we didn't see "him". We kept explaining to her that she was just seeing the plant in the window. She still insisted that someone was in there, so I told her I would go in and turn the light on. She was scared for me to do that, and honestly I was kinda scared at that point because she was so adamant about seeing someone in there! I went in and turned the light on, showed her the plant (from her seat on the bed), and decided to go ahead and use the toilet while I was in there. She got all freaked out that I had disappeared since she couldn't see me from the bed when I was on the toilet. When I got back in the bed, we told her she was safe, I turned on the security system to show her that no one could get in our house, and we turned on the tv to distract her and provide a little light. We also got her new pjs to wear because she kept insisting that bugs were biting her inside her footie pjs.

After watching a couple of shows, she went back to sleep and seems to have slept off most of her virus. She hasn't even had any medicine yet today, and seems to be feeling just fine now. She's still a little warm, but just like with Corgan, no eating issues or anything so I think she'll be 100% before we know it!

The Big Family Disney Trip- Epcot

2009-10-01T23:21:00.001-04:00

Last Thursday was our Big Epcot day. The kids were pumped to be starting the day with a ride on the Monorail. At Epcot, we visited the character section to see more of the same characters that we saw the night before… this time not in chef’s attire though. We actually got better pictures at this than at the dinner the night before. I LOVE Corgan's face in this picture as the girls so excitedly hug Pluto:

For lunch on Thursday, we had another character meal. This time it was Princess Storybook Dining in “Norway”. The timing actually worked out great because Corgan fell asleep on the walk (well, stroller ride for him) to the restaurant so we didn’t have to worry about him freaking out each time a Princess visited the table… plus we actually got some cute pictures of him with the Princesses. It was pretty adorable because the princesses had their own clever comments about him…
Snow White said “Awe… look… it’s my little friend Sleepy!”

Sleeping Beauty said “Looks like you have your own Sleeping Beauty!”

And Cinderella commented on keeping my little prince up after midnight.

Those princesses sure are quick thinkers. :)

The girls were really adorable with the princesses! They were both really good about getting their autographs and smiled really big for their pictures. Kelson even got the princesses to sign the bottoms of some of her character toys that she plays with all of the time. I love this picture of the girls with Aurora (which is how she signed the books) and of Annabelle with Cinderella.

We went on rides including Ellen's Energy Ride (with the big dinosaurs), Soarin', The Seas with Nemo, a boat ride through Mexico, Test Track, and the Figment ride. We did NOT ride Mission: Space! Our Epcot favorites were Nemo and the Test Track. Because we had such a fun filled day, Annabelle didn’t get a nap and was asleep in the stroller before we even left the park. She slept through the monorail ride to the car, the car ride home, and didn’t even wake up until the next morning!

Enjoy all of the pictures of our day at Epcot on our photo gallery!

Annabelle's Writing Skillz

2009-10-01T11:04:00.000-04:00

A couple of months ago, all of the sudden Annabelle began writing letters all on her own! Some of the letters she'll ask me to show her before she writes them, but most of them she can do on her own. She's doing really well with sounding out words too (Thank you Leap Frog!).

Here she is with a Happy Birthday sign that she made for her Granddaddy when we were up visiting him in Alabama:

She's just recently started drawing people too. This is her portrait of Corgan. I love the ears! :)

The Big Family Disney Trip- Chef Mickey

2009-09-28T22:59:00.004-04:00

Many months ago, my sis Kelly started planning a family Disney trip. I’ve been so excited about seeing the parks with my kids now that they’re both at an age where they’ll appreciate it and they’ve been watching enough of a variety of Disney movies that they will know most of the characters. And Kelson is a Disney lover (she was born with the gene so she really didn’t have a choice), so I was excited to see the sparkle in her eye (and toes) when she saw all of the characters. The last time that we did a trip like this it was November 2 years ago, so Kelson and Corgan were newborns and Annabelle was still young enough that she had fun, but didn’t interact too much. Annabelle is finally just tall enough that she can go on a lot of the big kid rides too! Mom and Dad came too, which meant built-in babysitters whenever we wanted to go on some rides without the kids. How could the trip not be a hit?

Our Big Family Disney Trip began on Wednesday night with a special dinner with Chef Mickey. The dinner was at the Contemporary hotel (where Kel & family stayed) and included dining with Chef Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto. Who wouldn’t want to have dinner with a couple of mice, a duck, and some dogs? :) It was entertaining to see such a variety of reactions from the 3 kids. :) This picture perfectly captures the 3 reactions: Kelson was all over the characters hugging and kissing them, Annabelle would pose for pictures but didn’t get too emotional about it, and Corgan screamed his head off if they tried to touch him.

Corgan did like seeing the characters, just as long as they weren’t too close to him. With Annabelle, I think the autograph book actually helped her to warm up to them quite a bit. It gave her an “in”. Kelson was so adorable leading the characters in dances and becoming hysterical when it was time for them to leave. She’s such the life of the party… just like her Mommy!

See more pictures of our magical dinner with Mickey and the Gang at our photo gallery.

Today is the Greatest...

2009-09-20T22:30:00.002-04:00

Corgan's bedtime routine is to read a book (or two) in Annabelle's room, then bring him into his room where he turns off his light and turns on his bedtime cd. After that, whoever is putting him to bed will "cuddle" (rock) Corgan for about one song, put him in bed to say prayers with his "prayer bear", then give him a little back scratchin'. Keith and I each have our own little variances of the routine. I'm not positive of what Keith does, but sometimes I'll talk with Corgan about his day while we're cuddling or I might dance with him during cuddle-time instead of rocking.

The bedtime cd that we put Corgan to bed with every night is appropriately Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of Smashing Pumpkins. The cd is exactly what the title says it is: musical lullaby versions of Smashing Pumpkins' songs with no words. It's really quite soothing music. Last night after putting Corgan to bed, Keith told me that during the first song, Today, Corgan said "Sing Today Daddy!". I was surprised to find out that singing to Corgan is one of Keith's routine variances, and I thought that was freakin' adorable!

Tonight I put Corgan to bed, and thought I would try the singing thing. I started singing Today, but quickly realized that I really just know the first line. I had to start making up my own lyrics which consisted of lines like "I love my boy. He is so cute!" and "I loooooove my Corgan!" After I said the "Corgan" line, Corgan picked up his head from my shoulder to look at me and say "No Corgan in Today Mommy." I could help laughing hysterically. He's such a cutie!

Not a Perfect Modern Mom

2009-09-16T16:01:00.001-04:00

Hi. My name is Keri, and I'm NOT a perfect modern mom. I let my kids watch television. I let my kids play video games. I make my kids eat their veggies. I am fine with making the kids chicken nuggets every night for dinner. I don't cook a full meal for the family every day. I am a spanker. I don't keep my kids on a tight schedule. I don't call their genitals by their proper names. I tell them that I'm proud of them for even the littlest accomplishments. I tell my kids they are smart. I am introducing them to my religious beliefs and hope that they believe basically the same things, but when they get older if they believe differently, I will respect that. I allow my kids to stay up as late as 11pm (or later) some nights in hopes that they'll sleep in the next day. I let my kids see me making mistakes, and admit when I do (sometimes). I don't douse my kids with hand sanitizer regularly. I let them eat things off of the ground. I don't always give the real answer to "Why?" because sometimes I just don't feel like answering.

In spite of (and maybe even because of) all of these things, I fully believe that my kids will turn out to be wonderful adults who I will love, admire, and respect with all of my heart! Annabelle tells me "I love you Mommy" more times a day than I can count, and Corgan (even though he wants everyone to think he's a grump) is so sweet and full of love! Both of my kids are generally very polite, and I get compliments from others on how well behaved they are (even when I think they've been behaving like terrors). Just like every other mother out there, I've read all of the articles, I've watched all of the tv shows, I've seen (but not necessarily read) all of the books, I've listened to all of the stories of other moms, I've discussed things with my husband, and I've decided on the best way to raise MY children. I don't take these decisions lightly, and in fact, many of the ideals that I had about the kind of parent I would be long before I even had children of my own are still pretty in line with what I practice now. I realize that I will always have more to learn about being a parent and always welcome advice when I'm struggling. I am not easily swayed by "new findings" about traditional parenting being the wrong thing to do. I think a lot of that has to do with learning from my mother's example.

Many of the things that I listed above about what makes me NOT a perfect modern mom are the things that I believe DID make my mom a perfect for our family. I'm sure my brother and sister would 100% agree with me when I say that we never had any doubt that we were loved beyond words (even "up to Jesus' castle and back"), we never had any issues with acting like bullies because we were spanked or over confident, we all did well in school and in the sports and activities that we chose to participate in and never once felt like a failure if we weren't the best, and we all had lots of friends from many of the different typical cliques in school. As adults, we are all very confident in everything that we do, have chosen mates who bring out the best in us and support us, are not sickly people (except when the kids bring the viruses around... then there's just no hope anyway), we eat our vegetables (except for Kyle and his salads), and have relatively healthy eating habits. All 3 of us probably don't get as much sleep as most people do... but maybe we just don't need it. We share a love for God just like our parents do, and we love and appreciate our parents more than they'll ever know! All 3 of us have varying personalities as well, and it was obvious to us even then that our parents adjusted to what each of us needed at the time. I'm not by any means saying that we were perfect kids or that we're perfect as adults, but I think we turned out to be pretty darn good people!

Maybe it's because of the confidence that my parents instilled in me, but I fully believe that as a parent, you equip yourself with all of the "facts" (which are always subject to change) and studies and stories, but then just go with your instincts about how to raise your children because no matter what worked for someone else's kids, they weren't your kids. And no doctor or book or article or other mom should make you feel guilty for the decisions that you've made for your family. If you really love your kids and want the best for them (What mother doesn't?), then you will know their personalities and their individual needs the very best!

Stylin' 2 Year Old

2009-09-11T10:57:00.003-04:00

With his Uncle Kyle being able to pull off pink so well, and Corgan looking so much like his Uncle Kyle, I have been in search of a pink shirt for Corgan forever! This week, I FINALLY found one. And doesn't he look absolutely ADORABLE in it! My little man wears pink well!

And while we're on the subject of how stylin' Corgan is, a few weeks ago he seemed to have outgrown all of his shoes. He went from size 5 to 7 in seriously like 2 weeks! The up side of that is that I had an excuse to go out and buy new shoes for him. One of my personal favorites of his new pairs of shoes are these bright orange adidas! I LOVE them!

Mother/Daughter Pedi

2009-09-05T22:08:00.003-04:00

While Daddy and Corgan napped today, I took Annabelle for our first mother/daughter pedicure. :) I have been wanting/needing one for like 6 months and have always thought it would be fun to take Annabelle, so today we did! Because of her little legs, Annabelle couldn't do the foot bath, but she did get her feet sprayed clean, her nails clipped and filed, and her toes and fingers painted. She loved getting to go pick out her color from the hundreds that they had to choose from! During the whole thing, she asked SO MANY questions. "Why is your water blue?" "Why are there bubbles?" "Why are there more bubbles?" "Why are there less bubbles?" "What's that pink stuff?" "What's that blue stuff?" "Why's she pushing your cuticles?" (asked after "What is she doing?") The lady doing my toes kept smiling and laughing at her. It was so freakin' cute!

Here's Annabelle anxiously awaiting her pedicure!

Mommy and Belle enjoying being girls!

Annabelle's fancy finger and toes! She just picked out the pink, but her nail tech got all fancy and added the white decorations. She liked them because she said they reminded her of Daddy's favorite birds. :)

I didn't get "fancy nails", just a plain ole fall color. I had to explain to Annabelle a few times why I didn't want to have "fancy" nails like she had. :)

It feels oh-so-good to have fresh feet and toenails, and it was even better that I got to do it all while having a fun afternoon bonding with my daughter!

All About Annabelle

2009-09-05T18:23:00.006-04:00

The other day Annabelle brought home a book that they made at school called "All About Annabelle".

The cover was designed by Annabelle. She chose to decorate it with a bunch of the letter "A" (for Annabelle, of course).

The first page is her hands tracing.

The second page is her feet tracing.

And the final page is a bunch of "fill in the blank" statements that I assume the teacher asked Annabelle and filled in for her. Here's what it says (with Annabelle's "fill in" in italics):

My name is Annabelle Donald.
I am 3 years old.
I have yellow hair.
I have some black and brown eyes.
My favorite book is Dinosaur book.
My favorite color is pink.
My favorite movie is Neverending Story.
I am special because I love my mommy and daddy!

Now you know everything there is to know about Annabelle. :)

What Sandwich?

2009-09-03T23:11:00.000-04:00

Today I sent lunches to school with the kids so that I could get a little extra Mommy time this morning. When I went in to pick up Corgan after lunch, the teacher handed me his daily report. As I was walking out of the building I read that it said that he "ate half his sandwich, and all of his macaroni, banana, and goldfish." The lady at the front desk asked if he had eaten all of his macaroni (because I'd commented about wondering if he'd eat it all when I left it with her in the morning), and I told her that apparently he did... but he also ate a sandwich and I didn't even send him one! :) She apologized, and I said I didn't mind that he'd eaten it, I just wanted to know what kind it was because we've been trying to get him to eat sandwiches at home for a LONG time and he has yet to even try one! She said she'd check with the teacher for me.

Corgan and I headed over to pick Annabelle up from her class, and before I knew it, the front desk lady came over and told me that Corgan had eaten a grilled cheese sandwich. I laughed and told her that Papa desperately tried to get one every time he saw one so it was funny that it was grilled cheese. She joked that since it was one of those frozen sandwiches, maybe we just need to try cutting it in a circle and stamping it around the edges. :)

Awesome!

DJ Friends Rock!

2009-09-02T15:41:00.004-04:00

Corgan's Birthday this year was all about Yo Gabba Gabba! He had a YGG party with Cousin Kelson (who also just turned 2) in Madison, Alabama (my hometown) when we were there visiting earlier in August, then he had another YGG birthday party on his actual birthday at his home in Melbourne when we got back. There were a lot of similarities between the two parties, but at the same time each party had something special to make it unique. Regardless, each party was a blast!

I'm still in the process of getting all of the pictures uploaded and ready from both parties, but I have managed to get the pictures of the Decorating Details of the Melbourne party up. Even though I didn't get around to making everything on my list, I'm still happy with how it turned out and no one else will even know what was missing anyway! :)

So... before heading to my kodakgallery site to check out the pictures of the Melbourne party details, tell me... who do you think makes the best DJ Lance Rock? :) I love that we have friends who will happily make fools of themselves for the sake of fun!

P.S. Thank you to Nikki for taking just about all of the pictures that I will be posting from Corgan's Melbourne birthday party! :)

Workin'?

2009-08-26T22:06:00.002-04:00

Tonight Corgan asked to sit on the potty (which NEVER happens), so we went and sat him on the potty. Annabelle and I sat on the floor with him for a few minutes, when he looked down at his "peeps" and said "It's not workin'!"

Chicken of the Potty?

2009-08-19T19:26:00.002-04:00

Just now I was sitting on the potty (Disclaimer: I was just peeing.) and Corgan came running into the bathroom. He pointed at the potty and said "Mommy do chicken!" I assumed I was misunderstanding him, but after a second he said "Poops!" Then I put together that sometimes when Annabelle does little turds I call them "poop nuggets", and since he associates the word "nuggets" with "chicken", he was referring to poop as "chicken". :)

(Additional disclaimer for emphasis: I was just peeing.)

My Intuition

2009-08-18T14:46:00.002-04:00

I seem to have a strange intuition when it comes to babies. No, it's not predicting the sex. In fact, I'm so bad at gender prediction that you should pretty much assume that whatever gender I'm sure a baby is, it's the opposite. I can't predict anything far off in the future, but at least 3 times that I can remember, I've had a thought just pop into my head about someone who I know is pregnant, and it turns out they are in labor. For 2 of those people, I knew they were pregnant, but wasn't close enough to them to have any idea when the due date was. The first time that I remember this happening, it was my sister's BFF from middle school. One day out of the blue, I emailed my sister to see how her old BFF was doing and ask when she was due, and she wrote me back saying that she had just gone to the hospital to have the baby. The second time, it was a lady from work. I remember thinking "I wonder when she's due", then later that day got an email saying that she'd had the baby.

I've also had this intuition apply with an adoption. Our friends Kyle & Chelsi had been on an adoption waiting list for nearly 2 years (if I remember correctly). One day in April-ish 2007, I was driving north on Hollywood Blvd, nearly at the intersection of Henry when I distinctly remember getting this feeling of "Kyle and Chelsi are going to get their baby before Corgan is born" (he was due in August 2007). I'm pretty sure I remember thinking that the baby would be a girl. :) In June of 2007, they were blessed with Ethan, a bouncing baby boy, and Corgan was born 2 months later.

And most recently, I got that "she's in labor" feeling with my friend Christina. I knew she was due in early September, but she hasn't had any signs of having the baby early (that I knew of anyway). When I was driving home... maybe around Ocala, FL... around 2am Sunday night/Monday morning, I got the feeling about Christina. I've never told anyone when I had that feeling before I got the confirmation that it was right, but for some reason I decided to email Christina when I got home (around 4am) and asked her "Are you in labor yet? For some reason I got a feeling that you are. :S" Her response 5.5 hours later was "No, I'm not in labor." But... last night she was admitted to the hospital in labor and had the baby this morning!

It seems like I've had this happen other times too, but these are 4 cases that I distinctly remember the details of. Crazy!

Trashy

2009-08-18T14:42:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I was in my bathroom getting ready to leave the house. Corgan and Annabelle were already ready so I left them to play in Belle's room. All of the sudden, Annabelle came running to me and yelled, "Hurry Mom! Come quick! Corgan's putting on too much lipstick and he's starting to look trashy!"

Ms. Competitive

2009-07-19T18:04:00.003-04:00

When it comes to competitiveness and Annabelle, to say "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" is an understatement. She is the most competitive 3 year old I know. She is always racing Corgan AND us, and saying "I beat you!" Keith discovered that this competitive nature can be used to our advantage when we want Annabelle to eat her food faster or to go up the stairs faster. Saying "Uh-oh Annabelle, Corgan is going to finish his dinner before you" can light a fire under that girl... except when she absolutely doesn't want to eat (but "stubbornness" and "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" is a whole other entry). Knowing that she already has this competitive nature in her blood, it worries me a bit to over use this because I don't want her to A. Always be in "I'm going to beat you" mode. (As I'm typing this, she is trying to convince me to play another Wii game with her and she just said "You better hurry 'cause I'm going to beat you.") or B. Feel like if she doesn't always win, then she's a failure.

Annabelle and I just played a few games of Wii Play, and of course I was helping her to win by pointing things out to her, so I lost. They showed the results at the end with Annabelle's Mii jumping for joy and mine hanging her head in shame. Annabelle said "Look mom, I beat you and made you cry!" (in an overly excited tone of voice). I made her stop playing so that I could explain to her that it wasn't nice to say something like that when you win, and that you should be happy for both players and be proud of everyone for doing their best. I told her she could say "I won, but you did very good too." So, in a very bland tone of voice, she said...

"You did very good too." Then pointed her finger at me and with a competitive voice said "But I beat you OUT Mommy!"

Sigh.