First day of School

Jackson started First Grade this year which was considerably less traumatic (for me, neither was traumatic for Jackson) for me than last year. It was no big deal this year except for being sad to part with him all day long. Jackson got one of the teachers this year who moved up from kinderdarten last year due to so many first graders. He is still in the Kindergarten cove area and right next door from last year, so not much of a transition. He is doing great so far and catching up on sleep on the weekends with three hour naps :)

Anna-goo

Here's a few pictures of Anna from the last few months....

This is how the painting activity began
And this is where she went with it after about 2 minutes unsupervised... this is Anna after about two minutes unsupervised seated at the table at any point. About two weeks ago I watched her smear yogurt all over her dining chair with a spoon, climb up on the chair and squish around in it. She then came to me and said, "mom, I have yogurt all over my bum." When I asked her why she said she spilled some on herself and it was an accident. When I replied that no she didn't, I was watching her, she then said, "Oh, you were watching me? I did it because it was fun, sorry mom". That conversation perfectly represents Anna, logical and can make a mess in any situation. She also told me yesterday when I asked her why she wrote on the table with smooshed blueberries, " because I'm little and I don't know better". She's going to be trouble. She can wiggle her way out of anything with exact wording, "but you told me not to sit on the table, I'm not sitting on it I'm standing on it." I have to be very specific and cover all my bases with her.


First taste of cotton candy, messy and sugary and blue. Anna's heaven. "Blue Please" is the most common saying in our house which Anna says like this "Ba-loo, Pah-leese" in a very southern accent.

Anna started dance and loves it. She started to want to dance after discovering Angelina Ballerina. Her favorite part is tap and of course twirling in the skirt.

All dressed up with no where to go... Anna is into dressing up and princesses. Her favorite game these days is Pretty Pretty Princess.

She is a walking contradiction of a girl who loves to be in a big dress everywhere she goes but is messier than any of the boys after playing outside for about 10 minutes. And we love her for it :)

Anna's first and only haircut thus far, a little trim to even up her baby hair. It just keeps curling up and doesn't seem like it ever grows!

Baker number 3

Well here's the first pregnancy pic.... 12 weeks pregnant.

The kids are super excited and ask to see the pregnancy app on my phone all of the time to see what the baby looks like now. Anna will ask to kiss my belly and says good morning to the baby daily. The coolest part of the whole experience is to see it through the kids' eyes. Jackson would ask every morning, in the beginning, to see my belly and when it was going to get bigger. He also asked at one point if the baby was always going to look like Mega Mind. Both kids are hoping it's a boy and as of now (17 weeks) we aren't finding out what we are having at the ultrasound next week so we'll have to wait a while to see. This pregnancy has been a bit of a rough one and I have been much sicker than I was with Anna. This of course makes mre irrationally think that this must be a boy since I was so sick with Jackson. I'm sure that it really is just different with every preganancy but since we aren't finding out what we are having I'm clinging to any clues I can (can you tell how excited I am about the not finding out part?). In my dear husband's defense I did agree to this before I got pregnant then quickly decided the instant I saw a positive pregnacy test that I had to know as soon as possible, it's not his fault that I'm a hypocrite. I guess I can wait until December if I have to.... "if I have to" being the key phrase!

Christmas break at Nana's house

First time ice skating. True to each of their motor abilities, Anna was able to skate basically on her own and skating with Jackson was like a full body workout which landed you on the ice approimately every thirty seconds. They both loved it though. It was freezing but so fun.

Anna wore the smallest pair of skates they had, they were adorable.

Playing at Crown Center after...

The most fun part of this trip was playing Dance Central for hours with Brittany and then laughing hysterically at my mom playing it and somehow beating Britt. I cannot seem to find the pictures of that yet.

Christmas 2010

A pictorial entry to remember Christmas by since it is July and I have six months to catch up on...

The night before Christmas...

The aftermath...
We had a great low key Christmas this year. It was just us Christmas morning and it was really relaxing and nice. It was really fun to have both of the kids really into it and excited for Santa. We had some friends over for Christmas eve and played corny christmas games that I played growing up. It was great. Jackson said his favorite part was eating gingerbread cookies and Anna said it was opening her presents. My best part of Christmas came a day late...

It definitely counted as a White Christmas in my book and will probably be the closest we will after have. I think ended up with around 10 inches if I remember correctly. It was awesome, it snowed all day long.

Anna banana

Last night while giving Anna a bath she quietly whispered, " Can you help me please" while trying to pull up the drain in the bath. I asked her if she needed help and she looked at me slightly annoyed and said, " I wasn't talking to you I was talking to my hand". She then went back to pleading with her hand to help.

No more catching up

I've decided my problem with keeping up with the blog is that I get overwhelmed when I get behind and then the whole blog becomes aversive to me because I feel like I have to go back and catch up on everything that has happened. From here on out I'm going to post when I have a chance and let myself of the hook if I miss stuff. Some posts are better than none at all right? I'm hoping this will change my aversion to the blog and help me to stay more current. I guess time will tell.

"Why is it always all about Anna?"

This is a draft that I wrote in November so that I could be ahead of the game and post it on Decemeber 1st. Ahh, so much for good intentions. Here is the post anyway....



This is the unfortunate comment that I heard Jackson mutter yesterday and sadly it's somewhat accurate these days. Anna has discovered the joy of being classically two years old and she loves everything about it. Don't get me wrong I love this girl to pieces but I never experienced anything like this with Jackson. Anna is definately a bit of a drama queen. Here are some examples of what Anna has been up to lately:



Anna is constantly torturing Jackson and her favorite game is to take a toy from him and run for her life, this is followed by screaming and very dramatic tattling about how Jackson tackled her and took her toy. I have seen it too many times to be fooled.



As much as she is always torturing Jackson Anna loves him to pieces and her world falls apart if he won't play with her or do what she wants him to do (fortunate for her he is very easy going and will most likely give in and do what she wants to do). Lately she has taken to calling him Jack which Jackson does not appreciate. This has resulted in her using it nearly all of the time now. "Come on Jack", "Let's go Jack" "Jack where are you?" all followed with Jackson saying "Don't call me Jack, my name is Jackson".



Anna has her sweet moments and has not wanted to play by herself. She uses the sweetest face possible while asking "Mommy you want to come play with me?" If I hesitate she immediately follows with " Come on Mom. I'll hold your hand." and the very irresistible, "Come on honey, come on."



Anna's favorite things to play with are her many Minnie Mouse figures and her cupcake and tea set. We have a minimum of three birthday parties a day around here.



Anna is nearly always naked at home. I chase her around throughout the day making her wear at least underwear. When I asked her today where her clothes were she said "I not telling, I no like clothes." When I asked her why she said, "I no like underwear I like to be naked".



Anna figured out on her own how to use her little potty as a stool and climb up on the big potty to go. The fact that I no longer have to clean out a gross little potty ten times a day is awesome. Anna is big about her privacy and if I try to check on her she will tell me to "Go away" and will climb down to shut the door on me.



Yesterday Anna climbed into the bottom of the round part of one of our bar stools and said, "Look I'm a Anna pie"



Some popular Anna phrases:

"I ALREADY did" (caps are necessary to the phrase)

"You no help me I do it by myself."

"I need my Minnie"

also not really a phrase but hours straight of only meowing and pointing with what look like paws as she crawls around pretending to be cat. This is a bit of a problem at church and Walmart.

She will now comment on her own "There are no kitties at church?" when we walk in.

"Anna crying".... followed by the explanation of why she was crying



This leads into the most maddening thing that Anna has been doing the last week which is not sleeping. Anna had strep a little over a week ago and so naturally every time she cried I went in and cuddled her or got her water, etc... Well after two days of this Anna decided there was no reason to sleep in her crib when she could be cuddling on the couch. I was undecided how much was learned behavior and how much was something internal still bothering her until two days ago when I asked her if she was going to take a good nap for mommy and she thought for a moment and then said, "No, Anna going to cry alot" to which I ignored and she followed up with "Anna no like to sleep in my crib I want to cuddle with Mom". Time for an intervention. Two days of no going in after she was laid down and she slept through the night last night.

Another One Bites the Dust

Please listen to this entire song. Then listen to it again. One more time. This is what my entire trip dropping Jackson off to school and back sounds like.

He heard this song on the radio one day and loved it. Kurt in a moment of unknowing foolishness told him that he owned the CD. This has resulted in a Queen obsession from both of my children. Jackson is specifically obsessed with this song and wants it on repeat. He asks with real concern who is dropping him off and picking him up at school this morning and would act heartbroken if I was not taking him. This did great things for my Mommy ego until the day I did not have the CD in my car and he had no intrest in me or my vehicle. Anna out of sheer desperation to listen to something else while in the car has begun to request "Rock You" and "Bicycle" when she can't take Another One Bites the Dust one more time. There really is nothing funnier than hearing your two year old sing the lyrics and sound effects to Bicycle and Another One Bites the Dust. I'm not sure how long this will last but I guess I should be glad it's not the Wheels on the Bus or the Itsy Bitsy Spider on repeat.

First Day of School

I just took a look at the blog, then hit refresh because surely my last post was not really in August. Yep. Surely it was. I also happened to notice in one of those August post I promised to be better this fall. It's technically still fall so I'm not a liar yet. Here's the beginning of the five or six posts I've been meaning to write which should redeem me and remove me from liar status.



Here are some pictures from the first day of Kindergarten for Jackson...

He did great and only Mommy cried.

I thought I'd at least get a few tears from Anna, who just went straight to the baby and waved goodbye like we were old news.

Post number one. Done. I promise to make the others better, it's a start right?