Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. We went over to mom's and enjoyed her traditional home cookin'- needless to say, everything was delicious. Kurt and I just happened to stop by the next day right at lunch time to "help out" with the leftovers, too.

This past weekend was a busy one for Kurt, though I mostly sat and watched. He finished painting Anna's new room and put all the trim back up. I wasn't allowed to help paint, something about fumes being bad for pregnant ladies, but now I can start setting up the room to move Anna into it. We're planning for her to move after Christmas, so that she can get settled in her new room before the baby is born. Kurt did a wonderful job and it looks great. Every day Anna has to go and see "purple doors" before she can come down in the morning. She loves it!

We also got to visit with Cari and Cathy this weekend, which was so great. I miss the cousins! Anna took to them almost immediately, but it may have had something to do with the bribery they brought along; a small and very friendly puppy dog, Perry. It was love at first lick, needless to say.

Now that Thanksgiving is past, we're starting to get really excited for the Christmas holiday this year. Both my brothers are coming out to visit, as well as Kurt's sister Monica and her husband, Chad, and son, Ryan. Every evening it seems that more houses in our neighborhood have up their holiday lights and Anna LOVES to go for evening drives and point out all the different colors.

Time to go pick out my cookie recipes for the holiday cookie exchange this year! Tis the season to eat yummy treats! I need to get Aunt Juanita's monkey pull-apart bread recipe, too....

Peek-a-Boo!

Anna, this morning, at the new park by our house.

 

First Big Bump

Last night, Anna fell off the couch and went head first into the edge of the coffee table with a resounding "CRACK!". After about 10 minutes of crying, she reverted back to her normal self, and was actually quite chipper and silly for the rest of the night. The same cannot be said for her poor mother, I was a wreck, I felt so bad for her! Fortunately, it looked much worse than it really was, and the doctor said (because of course I rushed her to the pediatrician for a quick look to make myself feel better) that she'd be fine.

This morning she's got a faint bruise and quarter-sized lump with a little cut across it right between her eyebrows (the picture doesn't show it very well...). It looks a hundred times better than it did yesterday, so I'm hopeful it'll fade quickly. The nurse at the after-hours clinic told me that it was pretty amazing that Anna had reached the age of 2 without having any other big bang-ups. I guess that makes this a rite of passage!

Welcome to the Third Trimester!

That's the title of the automatic pregnancy e-mail I got this morning. Today I'm officially in the home stretch. I love how it says, "Welcome!" as if I'm arriving at some awesome party where everything will be fabulous. Clearly, it was written by a man. But I digress...

The baby is doing just fine, kicking and growing and generally making a big impact on my sillouhette and lower back. I finally had to give in today and go buy a maternity jacket for this winter. It's getting chilly and I just couldn't close my regular coats up over my tummy anymore!

Anna had a big day today at playdate and was practically unconscious when I brought her home. I carried her up to her room (which I almost never do anymore, it's hard to lift her), and her eyes were just rolling all around in her head as she tried to keep them open without success. She ran all around the park and climbed up the big slide more times than I can count. She's really burst from her shell lately and has been showing a hugely increased comfort level around other kids and people. She did have one mishap, though- she tripped on the steps to the slide and bonked her lower lip hard enough to draw a little blood. Still, even with all that, she recovered enough to still play for almost another hour before her pre-nap meltdown.

I'm so thankful that I found this mom's group to join. Besides the fact that I've made some wonderful friends for myself, having the weekly activity and connection with other kids and families has really helped Anna to blossom socially.

She's been spending a lot of time lately just cuddling up to me and Kurt, walking over and hugging my legs, or curling up against my belly on the couch. Now she'll cuddle up, say, "Oh, big hug, mamma,", and pat my belly softly with one hand. She likes to hug Kurt and pat him on his head. I don't know if she's got all this extra affection to make up for the fact that I can't carry her nearly as much anymore or simply because she's becoming more demonstrative. Either way, I love it! Keep the hugs coming!

Anna's Two Year Check-Up

Anna's two year check-up was this morning, and she's coloring in the corner now, fully recovered from the trauma of it all. You would have thought from all the yelling and crying that she'd be scarred for life, but no. Coloring ponies makes everything better. Oh, the resiliency of kids!

The doc declared her super healthy, which is good to know, and he also said her tantrums are normal, even though they are on the more extreme side in terms of how frequent she has them and how suddenly they pop up and then disappear. He said to just keep doing what we're doing and gave us a handout on some loving discipline techniques to try. I have to say again, I really, really like Dr. Kuskie. He's very down-to-earth, straightforward and comforting in his lack of drama, hype or judgement.

Anna really is a stingbean, too! Her head circumference is in the 90th percentile, her height (she grew 2.5 inches!!!!) is in the 75th percentile and her weight... well, at 24 pounds, she's in the 12th percentile. She's so skinny! She's built like her daddy, long and lean. I was worried she hadn't gained more weight, but the doc said that it's obvious from her big height growth that she's getting enough calories, so that's okay. He was proud of her walking, too, but in such a way as make me feel he always knew she was going to walk and be just fine. She had two shots, poor girl, but seems fine now, so it was only a brief bit of terror for her. And that's all! Next time I see him it will be for my NEXT baby's first check-ups in February. That's a mind-blower!

Birthday Party Fun

I just posted a photo album on the left with pictures from Anna's 2nd Birthday party. We had so much fun! All of Anna's friends were there and the kids went nuts chasing each other all around the house for most of the night. There was a surprising lack of drama and tears, especially from our shy girl, and she really seemed to enjoy the whole event. This year we had a book theme with the gifts and Anna is in absolute heaven today as she tries to make her way through each new story. Thank you so much to everyone for a wonderful celebration!

She's Two, She's TWO!

Happy Birthday today to my little girl! We're going to find a carousel in town that's open today and let her ride, since it's the only thing she's been asking for at all. This is a picture from the park yesterday, she had a lot of fun running around and getting silly.

I can't believe she's TWO. Sigh...

 

Giraffe!

Anna was the littlest giraffe this year for her first time trick-or-treating. In fact, she loves the costume so much, she's still wearing it as a cape, calling it her "giraffe hat".

Trick-or-treating went pretty well, though she was a little intimidated at first. But then it suddenly hit her that these strangers were giving her candy, CANDY, and then she got excited. It was less than 30 degrees out last night, so we just took her up our cul de sac and back, but she collected a pretty good haul.

Once we got home, Anna put on her giraffe hat, with the rest of the costume trailing behind her like a cape, and greeted all the other trick-or-treaters at the door with a smile and loud, "Hi, KIDS!".
All in all, a perfect Halloween for everyone.