January happenings

My sporadic upkeep of the blog has gotten even more sporadic, and I see no cure in the near future. That just means that Jake might actually be contributing more often, and every time I do blog, there are plenty of pictures to catch up on (if we've remembered to have the camera handy).

Annie is coming up on 15 months in a couple of days. She's a funny little girl and loves making us laugh. She has learned from her big sister that burping and tooting are some of the funniest things you can do. She is quick to laugh, and quick to copy if she sees something funny. She LOVES books. When she wakes up in the morning or after her naps she often points at the books on her bookcase and signs book while saying "buh!" (It's a good thing she's picking up on more signs, since about 75% of the things she cares about seem to start with the letter B and it's hard to distinguish between boo, book, bath, balloon, ball, binky, blanket, etc. without a little sign language to help out.) Anyway, here are a couple of her favorite places to look at books, though she's not real particular--anywhere will do:

For my birthday I got a bike trailer that also converts to a jogging stroller. We recently discovered a paved path that runs along the train tracks just a mile or so away from our house and we look forward to some family bike rides in the near future. Annie and Rachel were so excited about the trailer, I had a hard time putting it together because I had to keep pulling the girls out of it.

We went out for a test drive, and Annie had to try out Dad's bike, like she often does on Rachel's bike. Surprisingly, she had a much harder time reaching the handlebars on this one. :)

And here they are, ready to head off on their adventure. Apparently it was a little bright.

Rachel took the camera along in the trailer and took a few shots of the fun they had:

Annie got a little tired of the ride, but Rachel had a blast and looks forward to many more bike rides in the near future.

The girls have been enjoying our lovely January weather that has been getting up to the 70s most days. They particularly love digging in the garden now that I'm halfway through digging up the weeds and turning the soil in preparation for planting in a month or so. Unfortunately this occasionally results in some messy kids (but that's what being a kid is all about, right?). Usually it's just some dirt in the hair when the shovel in Annie's hand gets a little out of control. But the other day I heard Rachel telling Annie as she escorted her to the kitchen, "It's okay, Annie. Mom will help you get this sorted out." This is what I found:

It was all over her hair and shirt and face. We rinsed out her mouth and dusted her off as best we could, and a little while later when it was bath time her onesie had a good handful of dirt stored inside, as did her diaper. Lovely.

We got strawberries at the store this week and Rachel ate almost an entire container on her own. She was walking around holding a strawberry on her head saying she was Strawberry Shortcake. When Annie started copying her, smearing her partially-eaten strawberry in her hair, I decided it was time to put an end to that. Rachel "needed" her Strawberry Shortcake hat, so I got down this widebrimmed hat down telling her it was just like Strawberry Shortcakes' hat. Rachel wasn't buying it, though. "No, Mom! Strawberry Shortcake's hat is pink!" So we got to work fixing it and came up with one that was satisfactory to Rachel Shortcake:

She wore it off and on all day.

Friday nights we have our family movie night. Annie gets so excited when we say the word movie and is happy to have the TV turned on. For about 2 minutes. Rachel, of course, is a typical 4-year-old, and once the TV is turned on you can't peel her away. I got a picture of the gals during the 2 minutes that they were both happily sitting next to each other watching together.

This lasted a couple minutes, then Annie started getting up, and "jumping" (falling) onto the beanbag chair, pushing buttons on the TV, and generally annoying Rachel. Oh well. At least the peace and harmony lasted a couple of minutes.

Other January happenings include lots of contractions for me, and some big progress in Rachel's reading desire and ability. 

When I was pregnant with Annie I had Braxton-Hicks contractions starting at about 5 1/2 months until about 7 1/2 or 8 months, which made me pretty nervous about pre-term labor, but then when it was actually okay to go into labor it seemed like I never had contractions anymore. This time around the contractions started at about the same time, but they're a lot stronger than they ever were last time around. I'm not worried about pre-term labor this time, since it's about the same as last time, but it is tiring to have 2 or 3 strong-ish contractions every hour all afternoon everyday. And bending over or picking up Annie, or standing up from sitting inevitably trigger contractions, so our floor is generally a mess, and once I'm sitting I stay sitting for a while when I can. I'm 32+ weeks now, so less than 8 weeks left. Hopefully they go by fast. (And hopefully we can pull things together to get things ready for this little guy, because at this point we've got quite a ways to go.)

Rachel has really been getting more and more into reading lately. She does a fabulous job at sounding out 3-letter simple words, and any words with a silent E at the end. She's also got more than 50 sight words down pat and loves going through our sight word flash cards to show off her knowledge. She has a few "Brand New Reader" books that she can read pretty much on her own, though I think most of that is memorization. It's pretty fun to see her really getting interested in reading. I'm sure if I were a little more consistent about working with her she'd be reading like a pro by now.

The princesses

Rachel got several new dress up outfits for Christmas. The other day she got them out and Annie joined in the fun. The two little princesses had a good time running around being pretty ("pee," as Annie would say). And, as usual, as soon as they heard the garage door opening signaling Daddy's return from work, they went running to welcome him home. And if he picks one of them up, the other demands to be picked up, too:

I was thinking recently about how much more I recorded on the blog when Rachel was Annie's age. This is really a fun age (Annie's, not Rachel's) and I love seeing how much Annie is learning. She's getting more and more words every day and is a pretty good communicator. Some of her words: bah (ball), bah (balloon), baa (bath), mah mah (more), mah! (mine), nah nah (no no), pee (pretty), Mama, Dada, vvvvvmmm (vroom-for cars), buh (book), buh! (boo), duh (duck), buh (bird-with accompanying sign), bah-bay (baby), aaahh (soft), numy numy numy numy (yummy-usually when feeding Rachel or her baby doll), dah duh (all done). She also has several animal sounds down and anytime she sees a picture of one of the animals she recognizes she makes it's sound (except for birds and ducks, which she just says her version of their name, and does the ASL sign for it): baa baa, woof woof, meow, moo.

Annie is a terrific immitator and learns a lot from her big sister. Rachel alternates between loving having her around and wanting Annie to leave her alone. I think the (slight) majority of the time tends towards sibling love, rather than fighting, thankfully. One of Annie's favorite games lately (besides trying to tap the iPad whenever anyone is using it) is peek-a-boo. She plays behind chairs, cups, bowls (with or without food in them), and most often, her blanket. The other day I put Annie in her high chair while I was trying to make dinner, and gave her her blanket in the hopes of pacifying her enough that I could get something done, and this is what I looked over to see:

Isn't she a cutie?! A week or two ago I walked into her room after she had been talking in her crib for 15+ minutes after her nap and found her sitting quietly just like that first picture, completely hidden under her blanket. Rachel came in behind me and laughed, alerting Annie to our presence. Annie sat there for another 15 seconds, at least, before she decided to take off her blanket with a "boo!" She definitely has a sense of humor and loves making people laugh. And Rachel is her favorite thing to laugh at. Rachel always knows just what to do to get Annie laughing hysterically.

So, that's the update with our two little princesses. Besides failing to keep the house clean with those two running around, and a big fat belly keeping me from bending over to pick up the destruction that lies in their wake, I've been attempting to get my some semblance of a plan to get our (mostly) dairy-free gluten-free food storage in order. That is my one new year's goal this year. I mostly have a plan, now, and hopefully over the course of this year we'll get a bit more prepared.

I've also realized that in two months or less we're going to have another little body around our house and unless we do something this little guy may end up in pink half the time. Lucky for him, most of our 0-3 month pajamas are yellow and green, but beyond that we've got some work to do. We have begun to accumulate some more manly clothing as of late, but we've still got some shopping to go at this point. And I've begun to realize, as well, I should really get some meals frozen, because I have a feeling that this will be a tougher transition to 3 kids than it was having one or two, especially since Annie already makes it hard for me to cook dinner, and there's not even a nursing baby around to compound the problem. And there's not much back up for us when I don't have time to cook dinner since Jake can't eat most take-out food, and even friends making meals for us gets complicated with his food restrictions. Ordering Thai, though very tasty, gets old pretty quick. So that's my plan for the next couple of months--build up a stash of frozen dinners so I don't have to cook until this little guy is 2 months old! Ha ha. In my dreams. Whatever I get done will be better than nothing, though. :) Let the cooking begin!

New Years Post

Time to ring in the new year with a blog, now that we are halfway through the month. What in the world is Colette doing behind the laptop?

Ah-Ha! She's eating ice cream on the sly. These sort of measures are necessary when eating in Annie's presence -- specifically when you are eating something that she is not eating.

Annie does a good job of watching people in the kitchen and then persuading those persons that they should be sharing their yummy food with her. Her first tactic is to point at what you are eating and then say maw, maw (more, more) while making the ASL sign for "please". It's very charming and endearing. If this method does not result in immediate gratification, her second method is to employ her healthy lungs to wail and screech at you until you acquiesce. She tends to get her way most of the time.

Rachel likes to take pictures. Here is a shot of Annie that Rachel took.

I wasn't present when this picture was taken, but it's clear Annie loves her oatmeal.

Annie and Rachel like to feed each other on occasion. Here they are sharing their Popsicles.

My mom made Rachel a baby blanket that Annie has "quiet titled". She loves this blanket, and has trouble sleeping without it. One day when I put Annie in her crib for a nap, the blanket was not there. She sat up and looked around expectantly. I went and retrieved the blanket from the front room. When I put it in her crib she laid right down on top of it. It is very much a security object for her: she insists on holding on to it for 5-15 minutes after the end of her naps.


This evening it was cold and rainy and so I put on the Snuggie for warmth and to become "Snuggie Man". Rachel followed suit with a blanket from the front room. It seemed only fitting that Annie have a cape also.

Post-Christmas

The week after Christmas Jake had off work, so we enjoyed a nice vacation at home that involved a lot of sitting around and relaxing, reading, and playing on our iPad, mostly Ticket to Ride (new-and fun!-for Christmas) and Angry Birds. Oh, and we got to leave the kids with Grandma and Grandpa and head up to the temple. We also took advantage of our 70+ degree days and went to the zoo and the Children's museum, and played around outside a bit, too (including on Grandma and Grandpa's trampoline, of course).

At the Children's Museum they had a new display of different body parts. The nose had boogers in the nostril for Rachel to pick:

The eyeball had different colored irises you could put on. And you could make the eye blink.

When you touched the mouth's toungue or uvula it would laugh or cough. Rachel enjoyed brushing his teeth a lot more than she likes brushing her own teeth.

Annie liked pushing around the grocery cart. (She likes pushing anything and everything.)

Rachel enjoyed climbing the trees and picking the magnetic fruit.

But most of all Rachel enjoyed playing in the submarine, just like when we went back in January with her cousin Jared.

Annie got in on some of the submarine action, too.

Rachel did the rope maze this time--the first time she's been interested in it at all in all our visits.

We wear Grandma out:

Also, note Annies favorite blanket of all time above. Grandma Campbell made it for Rachel when she was born and Annie just loves the croched edges that she can stick her fingers into. She carries it around like Linus often. And it is her sleep staple--give her a binkie and her blanket and she can sleep anywhere. Ok, not exactly anywhere, but at least any crib or pack 'n play if it's reasonably free of distractions.

Playing with the super-sticky-ooey-gooey bubbles outside. Such fun.

Annie playing fetch with Dad:

Annie's love of hats extends to Rachel's bike helmet.

She rather enjoys playing peek-a-boo with it.

Rachel was our photographer at the zoo, snapping some pictures of the jaguar and the otters playing. She also insisted on a family portrait (minus her). It's a good picture if you've been wondering exactly how round I am these days.

We're sad to have Jake heading back to work on Monday, but in some ways it'll be nice to get back into the regular routine. It sure was nice to have a week of vacation to sit around at home and do nothing. It's been a great year. We hope this coming year is just as good. Happy New Year!!!

Christmas celebrations

Our Christmas festivities began on Christmas Eve. We spent the afternoon and evening at Grandma and Grandpa Knight's house. The girls had a good time reading and playing in the big sheet tent they built.

That night Rachel was excited to be Mary in the nativity.

Annie thought it was fun for about 3 seconds to have a headdress on.

Jake was a shepherd and we all enjoyed the wonderful acting with Mary (Rachel) and Joseph (Annie) fighting over a naked baby Jesus. Rachel also doubled as the angel.

Christmas morning Rachel made it almost to 7:00 before waking up and coming to get us. Rachel and Annie were both very excited to check out what was in their stockings. Annie, of course was obsessed with the candy. Throughout the unwrapping of presents she kept on trying to steal Rachel's candy, since I had put hers back in her stocking after letting her have a few M&Ms to placate her.

Rachel and Annie both got their pillow pets from Santa--Rachel got a unicorn and Annie a ladybug that happens to have antennae that are perfect for her to chew on.

Annie was super excited about Jake's new remote control trick car (the girl loves cars!) and wouldn't let him just put it down after he unwrapped it--she wanted him to get it out and play NOW!

Rachel made us a special ornament in her preschool class for a Christmas present.

The girls got some super-sticky bubbles in their stockings that don't pop very easily. They had a blast chasing them around and catching them in their hair and clothes.

The bubbles were so strong that 15 minutes later I saw one hovering under the air intake for our heater. They stick to everything. They quickly became an outside toy.

Dad helping Annie open a present (she had a fun time ripping lots of paper).

The Christmas chaos:

Rachel got a new doll she named Lucy, and some dress-ups and decided that she and Lucy needed to try on the dress ups together.

She also got Annie dressed up, but Annie wasn't much of a fan and only lasted a few seconds before wanting it off.

We are lucky enough to have 10am church, so we had enough time to do presents, and get ready for church without to much fuss. I loved having the Christmas choir program actually on Christmas day. It was nice to sing along to a bunch of Christmas songs and have a whole hour devoted 100% to the true meaning of Christmas. It definitely helped this Christmas to be a more spiritual Christmas than most Christmases that don't fall on Sunday.
After church we went in to my parents' for more presents and Christmas dinner.

Rachel was more than happy to help Annie unwrap her presents. Annie was less than happy to have help sometimes.

Rachel didn't mind jumping in to help Grandpa unwrap his presents either.

After opening presents we went outside to see about setting up a play tent Rachel and Annie got and discovered the best present of all: a trampoline.

Of course it's for all the grandkids, but seeing as how we are the only ones that live within 2 days drive, I have a feeling we'll be benefiting most from it.

The girls love it and every time we go in to their house they love going out to jump. Annie is really robust and doesn't mind getting knocked over by Rachel's jumping. In fact she laughs and laughs as she bounces on her stomach whenever she tips over.

We also managed to snap a few family pictures:

After playing for a while and spending time with Grandma and Grandpa Knight (and my siblings families via a Google+ hangout), we headed home and got to talk to Jake's family, too. It was a fun Christmas. We are blessed with a great family, and it sure is fun to have Christmas with little kids to liven everything up.