All About Anna

Well, there's no question about it, Anna is just a little sweetheart! She is full of smiles unless she's sleepy, and if you swaddle her fast enough, she hardly cries then, either. Don't get me wrong, she has her moments, and can be pretty opinionated, but most of her day is spent smiley and content...especially when she's being held!

I've been keeping track of her "schedule" each day to try and find some rhyme and reason, but so far, there is none. She is still up between one and four times each night (although, I'm hoping that the "four" was a fluke! She stays awake for just under 2 hours at a time before she gets cranky. She takes about 3 naps during the day, but usually is ready for a fourth about an hour before bedtime (which basically just turns bedtime into an hour-long-and-then-some process. We're definitely still working out the kinks, but since I'm not going back to work until August, I've got plenty of time to figure her out!

She isn't rolling over yet, but I've been working with her, and she is starting to enjoy her "tummy time" more and more. She LOVES when we pull her to standing

She has been eating up her "Bapa" time and even transferred from my arms to Bapa's arms MID-NAP today at Conner Prairie. That's a first...ever! He also got her laughing huge belly laughs before we went grocery shopping. Bapa definitely has the magic touch, I guess!

Adele Starts Preschool!

Anna isn't the only one growing up too quickly around here! Adele started preschool today!

(I guess it's not *technically* preschool-it's the Mother's Day Out program at our church, but she's in a class with other kids her age, and calls her teachers Mrs. ___, so it counts as "school" in my book!)

Adele was more than ready to grab her "papat"and Tinkerbell lunchbox and leave Mommy and Anna in the dust this morning! She was so ready, in fact, that it was hard to take a picture of her! I tried again at pick-up time, but the girl is really giving my non-existent photography skills a run for their money! At home, she *demanded* that I take her picture next to Cookie, and refused to hold still, and she was just about the same next to the preschool sign (and I was also holding a fussy Anna for those...)






I had great plans of cleaning while she was gone, but Anna took a short nap and then was only happy when snuggling her mommy. I think she was a little lost without big sissy home to entertain her. I soaked up the snuggle time...my neck even got sore from staring down at sweet little Anna!

Adele talked non-stop on the ride home about her day. Apparently one of her teachers was "a little bit naughty." When I inquired as to why, Adele told me that the teacher "made a big mess." She also told me that two teachers were crying. At that point, I was pretty sure that she has NO idea what the difference between "teachers" and "students" was (that or she was playing her "game" of role reversal at school too!) At least, I'm hoping that's the case, because there are only two teachers, and I would hate for them BOTH to have cried on the first day of school!

Over the summer, when I got the enrollment information I freaked out about her food allergies. Fortunately, this morning, I was fine. I left a note and a bag of goldfish in her backpack for her snack and that was that. It was MUCH easier to leave her than I had thought...especially when the teachers IMMEDIATELY asked me about snack when I appeared in the doorway-knowing they *remembered* Adele (or her neurotic mommy) made me feel pretty secure that they'd be diligent about keeping her away from "scary" foods!

So Not Ready For This!

Conversations with Adele:

Mommy: "Adele, what are you doing?"
Adele: "I'm just checkin' out this boy"



She was just staring out the window watching a boy ride around on a scooter waiting for the bus..."checking him out".

A Dose of Anna

Not much to report, except that Anna has been such a lovie lately...I think I made that word up, but it fits, so I'll keep it. It's MY blog, and I'll make up words if I want to.

She was snuggling her elephant, but looks a bit "caught in the act" in this picture!


Ahh..that's better!


More Elephant:


Tummy Time!


Usually my blurry pictures don't make it onto my blog, but I thought she was going to roll over...and wanted to catch her in the act!

She didn't. Oh well....she's my baby, and I'm in NO rush for her to grow up!

"Tricky" Pillows and Other Such Nonsense

Daddy was selected to sit on a jury, "We Three Girls" have been sick, and Cookie is banished to the kitchen...it's been a bit busy here lately! (But don't worry, Adele is still having loads of fun playing in her mud box...uh....sand box!)

Uncle Tim and his family were down for a visit this past weekend. We had a fast and furious time trying to beat the heat while still showing off the likes of Fishers. Trips to the Y and Ben and Ari's pretty much did the trick. The babies and James slept great, but Adele was up several times throughout the night itching like crazy, poor little girl.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, we found out that she definitely is allergic to Cookie. The allergist's suggestion was that we get rid of Cookie (And this was without even knowing that Cookie is the fluffiest, most shedding dog EVER!), but Daddy and I are trying some creative solutions first-especially since Adele's major "reaction" is her eczema, and not her breathing (more about that later...) So, we bought baby gates and have blocked Cookie "into" the kitchen-hoping to keep her shedding "mess" on the linoleum which is much easier to keep clean than the carpet!
(Don't worry...this was BEFORE we "knew" that she was allergic to Cookie-Adele is adjusting to not being able to snuggle Cookie, but she still forgets pretty frequently!)

So far there is still long black dog hair EVERYWHERE. And Adele is still itchy.

Sunday morning, Adele woke up with the runniest nose ever. She looked pretty miserable all day, and we couldn't really figure out why. Flash forward to Monday morning, Anna sneezed and coughed herself (and me!) awake, and I discovered a runny nose and sore throat. Before I even made it to Anna's room, Adele was in the middle of a coughing fit as well. At least I had figured out what was wrong with Adele...and I sure was glad it wasn't allergies. I secretly hoped that having TWO sick girls might mean *sleepy* girls so that I could have an "easy" day while feeling under the weather myself. I will say that it could've been worse! For the most part, the girls were cuddly and happy to do nothing but laze around and watch Beauty and the Beast...well, Adele watched Beauty and the Beast, while Anna was pretty much ONLY content in my arms, but I forgave her!

I spent Monday night running around the house alternating between "plunging" (nasal aspirating?) the girls' noses and laying downstairs by a barking/whining/yelping Cookie, but somehow managed to rest enough to not feel completely exhausted when morning rolled around.

So, on Tuesday, Anna and I were feeling MUCH better, but Adele's asthma was rearing it's ugly head. The poor little thing just couldn't catch her breath despite breathing treatments every four hours. To top it off, she had a temperature of 101.6 at its highest, and Daddy was selected for jury duty and had to go BACK today!

Today was by far the worst day for Adele. She isn't exactly one to sit still for very long, but this asthma flare up makes it hard for her to even have a conversation without losing her breath, and she's going absolutely CRAZY sitting still! The only thing that still works is putting on Beauty and the Beast, but I hate for her to watch TV all day! I moved a table into the TV room so that we can at least play play-doh or do other art projects while she watches.

As for the "tricky" pillow, my sewing machine broke while I was sewing a pillow case for a pillow for Adele's bed, so the pillow has been "bare" for quite some time. It has white and blue stripes. For some reason my *favorite* pillow ended up in Adele's room, and when I tried to get it back, Adele told me that she doesn't like the striped pillow because it tricks her. Whatever that means. Well, she then told Daddy that she doesn't like that pillow because it tricks her. This has been going on for some time, and with Adele's recent breathing trouble, we've been TRYING to get a second pillow under her head to help her breathe, but she just won't use the striped pillow. It's just too cute not to blog about.

Daddy's trial ended today (well, not HIS trial, but the trial he was part of the jury for...) so it's back to work for him, and the girls and I have a play date tomorrow before Adele officially starts "preschool" (well, it's a Mother's Day Out program, but it's still "School" to us!) on Friday!

100% Girl...???

Usually Adele is quite the girly girl, but today a little bit of sand and some water helped Adele show off her...messy side!

Vanguard: It's an Attitude!

As I was rocking sweet Anna to sleep this afternoon, I was reminded of a T-shirt I once owned (I guess Aunt DeeDee has it now, supposedly I gave it to her.) On the front it just said "Vanguard" and then the back said, "It's an Attitude"

I think I should make a handful of shirts that say "Mommyhood" on the front, and "It's an Attitude" on the back. Because that's what it is. I've certainly been reminded of that over the past 24 hours!

Yesterday Anna was pretty fussy. She wanted to be held constantly, and wouldn't sleep in her crib for longer than 30 minutes at a time. Since she was almost constantly crying, I found myself very short on patience when "dealing with" her older sister. I would snap at poor Adele if she didn't respond immediately to my requests.

We recently learned that Adele is allergic to Cookie, and so we have blocked off Cookie's access to all of the carpeted areas in our house. I had decided that yesterday was a "stay home and clean" day, and planned on cleaning all of the carpeted areas to the best of my ability to try and remove as much "Cookie dander" as possible. That was much easier said than done with Anna being as fussy as she was, and with Adele wanting to take advantage of the beautiful weather outside.

Very little cleaning got done. I was pretty crabby about it. But when I sit back and put things into perspective, it was pretty dumb of me to waste an entire day frumping around the house because I couldn't clean. Here are some things I failed to consider yesterday:

1. I don't really like cleaning so I should've been thrilled to have an excuse NOT to clean!
2. Yesterday's weather was PERFECT! Much cooler than we've had in a while, and I spent lots of time outside with both girls playing in the yard (and even doing a little bit yard work).
3. I got to hold a chubby little baby for the majority of my day. I LOVE chubby little babies...especially sleeping ones.

So, I had no real reason to be crabby. I wasted a perfectly good day. Boo me.

Today, I woke up and mentally prepared myself for a repeat of yesterday. I made some extra strong coffee, scarfed down breakfast and waited for the girls to wake up. Soon enough I heard Adele stirring. I went upstairs and opened her door. She (not so politely) told me to close it again, because she wasn't ready to come downstairs. Sounded good to me, I wasn't going to take any chances with a crabby 2-year-old who preferred to stay in her room! I went downstairs, took a good long sip of coffee and started filling out some paperwork for Adele's preschool.

Just as I was finishing the paperwork, I heard coos coming from Anna's monitor. She woke up smiling, and when I went into her room to get her, she actually grabbed my hand and pulled it to her as if she was hugging me. She talked and smiled at me for several minutes before I took her out of her crib. Things were great until I brought her downstairs to change her diaper. As soon as I put her down she started squealing...just like yesterday. I talked her through the diaper change and decided that if I was going to hold this baby all day, I was going to be happy about it!

Soon enough we heard Adele ask for her door to be opened (in a much politer voice this time, too!). She joined us downstairs and both girls were full of smiles and snuggles.

The rest of the day has been business as usual. After running some errands, Anna fell asleep in my arms. I relished in the chance to sit in the quiet of her room while a not so sleepy, yet still in need of a nap Adele was belting out Anastasia songs across the hall. For whatever reason, I was reminded of my Vanguard shirt while I rocked her. (Probably because I was thinking of how the change in my attitude from yesterday to today has made an equally crazy day SO much easier!) After half an hour or so, I decided to try putting her in the crib. I was actually a little sad when she let me lay her down! (Because that meant dusting, you know...)

And here I sit, Adele finally fell asleep, the house is dusted, the windows are washed (gasp!), *some* laundry is folded, and there are new (to you) pictures of my little cutie up on my blog.

I just need to remember that Anna's a baby. Some days she's going to look like this:

And that there's absolutely nothing wrong with resting while she sleeps if that's the only chance I get!
(well...as long as someone is watching Adele!)





Ahhh! Life is good...as long as you have the right attitude!