Special Day

Smile Hunting

My mom has been great about getting smiles out of Evie from almost the first week. I think she's just great at that positive reinforcement and it seems like as soon as Evie heard Grandma's voice, she'd smile. For me the smiles always seemed to come as she was drifting off to sleep and when I didn't want to disturb her with excited praise. Once Evie hit about six weeks old, the smiles seemed to come even more readily and in response to my efforts as well Grandma's. So I've been trying to catch her smile on camera and caught some cute faces along the way.

Grandma was happy to help me get Evie smile, but on this particular day, Evie seemed to be extra uncomfortable. Grandma could get her to smile, but before I could snap the photo, her face would crinkle up and and she'd cry out in misery. It was so sad.

This time, she's almost smiling. We're getting closer.

Well, this one makes me smile.

Finally a good smile!

The biggest and best smiles always seem to come with a little spit up or gas.

Cabela's

On February 27, we got to see Heather and her parents again. We met up at Cabela's and it was a fun reunion. In fact, we so enjoyed talking to each other that before we had realized it, we had spent four hours there.

Four hours is a long time for an almost-two-year-old, but Anna loved exploring Cabela's. So that meant that Dan and I got to take turns following Anna around the store. When it was my turn, I dragged Anna all over the store looking for chocolate-covered cinnamon bears, but couldn't find any. So we bought a pound of gummy bears. Then I started looking for funny things for her to take to show daddy.
We didn't end up buying this hat, but I had fun putting it on Anna. She loved the giant fish pillow and I wish I would have caught Dan's reaction on camera when she walked up to him with it. But alas, our camera is a little slow. Or maybe it was the photographer. :)
As much fun as I had following Anna around from the porch swings to the pink camo camp chair promoting breast cancer awareness, the highlight of the day was catching up with Heather and her parents. They even brought Anna a birthday present of some board books and a Magna Doodle Glow, which Anna is still loving. For me it was a perfect Saturday: spending fun time with my kids and catching up with good friends.

Bad Reflection

Anna has become quite the mimic lately as her ability to talk improves, and she's already picking up those things that I'm least proud of. Recently she started saying "shoot!" When she says it, it's like a little explosion coming out of her mouth and her pronunciation of the vowel sound isn't always clear, so sometimes she sounds a little profane. Of course she picked it up from me. The word seemed so innocent until I heard it come out of Anna's mouth. Now I'm thinking that I need to come up with a more innocent expletive like yae yae, nay nay.

Anna's other favorite words/phrases these days are:

Fun: She uses this word anytime she likes something. A few weekends ago, Dan took Anna to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. I guess it was pretty traumatic. She didn't like the dark rooms. When she got home though, she stood by me as I fed Evie, and told me all about it. She had quite a lengthy description but the only words I caught were Daddy and fun. Although fun was uttered with such solemnity that I wonder if she was trying to tell me it wasn't fun.

Hower you?: She loves to ask, "How are you?" And she keeps asking until you say good. Don't try to get creative or honest with Anna. She just wants to know that you're good. I suppose if I were better, I would have already taught her that the correct answer is well, but good works for me.

Mom, are you? or in other words, where are you.

Anna's such a polite child. To be honest, I'm not sure where she gets it. She's pretty good at saying thank you and if she doesn't want something she says, "no thank you." She will also say "scu me" when she wants to get by and likes to say "I sorry Mama" even when I'm not sure what she could be sorry about. And if she's not too upset about me leaving, she'll yell, "Bye bye! Have fun!"

She often gets shy when friends or family try to talk to her, but she's always happy to yell "bye bye" when they leave. And lately she's taken to yelling, "Stop it!" when my mom walks in the door. I guess she knows that when Grandma comes, Mom often leaves. It's a good thing my mom's a good sport and doesn't let Anna get to her.

Imagine My Surprise

So tonight, I was browsing blogs when I came across photos of Anna dressed as a crocodile. My friend Angela had been nice enough to let Anna come play a few weeks ago. Angela even fed Anna lunch, so that when she came home she was all ready for her nap. But I had no idea that they had played dress up. If Angela hadn't mentioned Anna's name in the caption, I might not have realized it was my child roaring in that costume. It was a fun surprise.

I borrowed this photo from Angela's blog, but for more fun photos, go here.

Simming

Recently Anna has started climbing into our bathtub. She's been turning on the water for months now, so I try to keep her out of the bathroom and out of the tub, knowing that it can be dangerous for little kids. But the other day she managed to climb in the bathtub while I was folding laundry on our bed. As soon as I heard the water turn on, I went and checked on her. She was in the tub, but hadn't managed to plug the drain. I figured she'd be okay as long as I kept an ear out for her and I'd be able to finish folding the laundry.

The next time I went to check on her, she had the faucet on full blast, had managed to plug the drain, and had filled the tub with a couple inches of water. She would put her flat palm under the stream of water, causing it to spray across my bathroom. So there was water all over the floor and she was soaked. She looked up at me and said, "Mama, simming!" (swimming). Let's just say that I've been much better at keeping the bathroom door shut ever since then.

Big Girl Bed

It only took us about a month, but Anna has moved out of the crib and into a big girl bed. I hope I don't jinx myself, but Anna has been in her bed for about two weeks now and she is still taking naps. I think I was more nervous about moving Anna to the new bed than she was.

We bought the bed about a week after we brought Evie home, but it sat empty for three more weeks while I gathered the sheets and bed rail. It took me a long time to find a plastic mattress cover, not because it was difficult to find, but I kept forgetting to buy it. But I'm thinking that having the bed sit in our house for that long actually helped Anna get used to it. She played on it and we talked about her moving into it while we waited for the plastic sheet and the bed rail.

Finally everything was ready and we put Anna to bed in her new bedroom. She was so excited that she seemed to fall asleep without any problems. Of course, the next morning was a little rough when Anna found Evie sleeping in her crib. There was some pretty intense screaming, "My bed! Mine!" But she's gotten used to it. We've also had moments of crying and yelling when she didn't want to go to sleep. It helps that she can't open doors by herself, so in a sense it's almost the same as putting her in her crib, which she never learned to climb out of. At least once, she played all through nap time. That day I put Anna to bed a little later than normal and everything seemed to be quiet in her room, but as soon as Evie let out her first squawk announcing that her nap was over, I heard loud knocking on Anna's door and "Mamma! Come in!" When I did open her door, several books were scattered across the floor and she had managed to turn on her lamp.

Often I will open Anna's door just a crack after I put Evie back to bed in the early morning hours so that Anna can get out of bed herself in the morning. The first few mornings, I woke up to the sound of little feet running across the floor and suddenly Anna was beside my bed yelling, "Boo!" I guess that's how Dan used to greet her when he got her out of her crib in the morning.