Two Steps! +

Shhhhh, no one else knows this about tonight but, . . . ANNIE JUST TOOK TWO STEPS towards Cherry Chat Chat (who is now only called "ssssss" by Annie)! I was just about to read Annie some books before bedtime when I had put her down so she could pick them out. As I put her down, I held Cherry. Obviously, Annie wanted her back because she reached out and then I kept pulling Cherry just a tiny bit out of reach until she took two steps! No, I wouldn't call this really walking, but how much closer can we get!?! And no, I couldn't get her to do it again. : (

What follows are a few pictures of Annie with her beloved shape-sorters. Funny that Annie adores them while Leia never payed any attention to them at all! So neat to see different likes and dislikes emerging!
This yellow one is Annie's absolute favorite toy right now. It's the one she goes to very first, . . . but she always needs help with it. *sigh* Hard to do when you're trying to cook breakfast. : ) Sometimes Leia Rose helps Annie with the sorting. (She is ALWAYS holding that green circle, by the way.)
And sometimes she attempts sorting on her own. She's also saying lots of words on her own, too. Yesterday she added "Bell-buh-buh-buh" (bellybutton) and today she added "poon" (spoon) and "pop" (popcorn).
Leia Rose came home today determined to draw "Cow Jump Over the Moon." She called it that because it's the same picture a little boy draws on an episode of "Elmo's World." (I like Leia's version better.) This is the first time Leia has tried to draw a "sideways" moon. And you just got to love that cow! : )
And here is a picture of Leia Rose laughing really hard at Ernie and Bert's "lump in my oatmeal!" line. : ) Every morning when Leia wakes up for school, "lump in my oatmeal" is the first thing she says, . . . and it always puts her in a good mood. : )

Curly Top

Leia Rose has been wanting to curl her hair for some time now, so I finally told her that we could do it for today! So first we stayed up late to do the curling (but unfortunately Leia Rose has the kind of hair that doesn't accept curl too well), . . . and then we got up early to do the curling again. Leia was VERY proud of the way she looked and, if we had time, we would have painted fingernails, too. But we didn't. Thought it would be fun here to document the process. (Hey Karin, won't it be fun to do this kind of stuff with Aria?!?)

No, Leia didn't do any of it herself, but I needed somebody to hold the iron while I took a picture. Actually, I was so scared of touching Leia's head with the thing that I stayed about an inch away every time and kept putting my hands over her ears. (This is a result of me actually burning my friend Jenny Rose's forehead when I was in college and trying to curl her hair. She wasn't the only one who was scarred. Sorry Jenny.) I'm happy to say that it was a totally safe process and Leia's only comment was, "Ahhhh, this makes me feel warm!"


Doesn't Leia look like she could play Little Orphan Annie?!? (Maybe for Halloween next year! Even Leia Rose noticed the similarity!)
And here she is before school, holding Mrs. Schnell's late birthday picture. It was hard for me to let this one go with it's pretty rainbow and flowers. : ) [Mrs. Schnell would tell me later that Leia's hair was the hit of the day today at school, and that Price came over to her at least three times and said, "Hey, where'd ya' get that hair?!?"]

Just have to put in a little Annie sidenote here: Annie and I read books for an hour this morning! She is really having fun picking out the books herself, now that I have put lots of her favorites in the cabinet of the diaper changing table. (Although I'll admit that book-reading is no longer a "winding-down" activity, as a result.) Annie especially goes for the little flap book called Open the Barn Door (which she always looks at me and excitedly exclaims "Moo, Moo!") and the Sesame Street Peekaboo, I See You! where she has to lift the hand-flaps to play peekaboo with Elmo and such.

Special Daddy Game +

Both of my girls had a very special "Daddy Game" when they were about this age. With Leia Rose it was Daddy singing the jingle for goldfish ("the snack that smiles back, Goldfish"). And this is Annie's: Peek. Daddy does this game everywhere, but most notably at the table and on our bed. He will peek at Annie and then move to a different place she's not expecting. She loves it. (And when I'm around, she checks if I think it's cool, too.) : )
This is the way Annie looks when she's laughing REALLY hard. : ) We finally put up the "inside/winter" swings today. And the girls loved them. Here Leia Rose is playing "peek" with Annie as they both swing.
Later tonight, Leia Rose called me into the living room (the place where Leia goes when she still wants to be downstairs, but doesn't want Annie to mess something up) to see her new creation. Now Leia has never been a block-builder really, it has just never been her thing, but this was amazing! Leia called it her "castle," and it truly was. : )
I just wanted to document a fun new car activity courtesy of Laurie Berkner. She has a song called "I Know a Chicken" (or is it called "Shakey Egg"?) with all sorts of fun things to do with a shakey egg, and Santa brought the girls two purple shakey eggs for Christmas so, whalla! A ready-made car activity!

Leia Rose Paints Van Gogh

Here is Vincent Van Gogh's painting called "Sunflowers." Now, for weeks both teachers and parents have told me that Leia Rose spent a long time in wrapped observance of an older child (9 years old?) using this picture as a reference, and then proceeded to paint her own fabulous picture that my friend Hollis called "a framer." : )
Here it is. I am amazed not only because it's done so well, but also because it's actually a painting, not just a crayon or marker picture. : ) (Leia Rose said she didn't have room to paint her name of the vase, like Vincent, so she painted it on the table instead.)
And here is Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Starry Night."
And Leia's rendition. "But mine is above an ocean," says Leia. : )

Mrs. Schnell said that this was Leia's first attempt at painting "Sunflowers." This was done after just looking at the original painting, but before watching an older child paint.
And here is Leia's sand map of Asia.
And she's especially proud of her pretty pink South America. (Mrs. Schnell told me today that the girls in extended day have been busy planning their weddings lately. What?!? And that Leia Rose wants "to go to Hawaii on my honeymoon, but someday I'm going to Mexico." What?!?)
And here is Leia Rose's Chinese lantern. I asked her to show me which one was hers, but I really should have guessed. It was one of the few pink ones . . . with a Tyrannosaurus mouth drawn on it. : )

"Moo, Moo!" "Foo, foo!" (Shoe, Shoe!)

As good as Annie is at communication, I still can't always "get" what she's saying. : ) Late this morning, Annie kept looking at me and saying "Moo, Moo" while signing "please." Well, I kept getting out all of the cows in our possession. And at the third one, Annie got really frustrated. Then finally, I realized she was getting tired and asked, "Did you want Mamma's Milk?!?" And she made her usual "umh, umh, umh" sound while sucking her thumb, which meant "yes, I want Mamma's Milk" . . . . "and I've been trying to tell you by saying 'Moo, Moo,' but you thought I was making a cow sound, you silly Mamma!" Ha!

And we already added a new word today: "foo" (shoe). : ) Because of the spontaneity of Annie's new words, I can't tell you how rare it is to get one on video! : )

[By the way, last night was the first time since about 1/6 that Annie slept through the night without breastfeeding or screaming. Three full weeks. I hate ear infections!]

Amazing Tales from the Work Folder

This week Leia Rose has been learning about Asia in school, and here are some origami works she did this week! They are a frog, a fish, and a kitty (of course). : ) To add to the excitement about Asia, Leia is bringing in her pictures of her pen pal, Yukino (including the ones from the Japanese New Year celebration). There have been lots of questions this week about, "When are we going on that trip to Japan?" As if we were going in a few months or something. : ) I told her that both her and Annie had to be old enough to appreciate what we were going to do. I'm thinking (at the earliest) when Annie is 6 or 7, so that would make Leia Rose 10 or 11. At the EARLIEST. I did my best to convey this to Leia Rose. Not sure how much of it sunk in, though. : )
She has also been doing some more advanced math in extended day lately as evidenced by these wonderful worksheets.

BUT the most spectacular element about Leia's work folder this week was these two books that she wrote/illustrated at school! I was awed by this!

"Right now I have one frog for a pet. I had another, but I gave it away to Collin's. My frog's name is Tad. I named him that when he was a tadpole."
"When I let my frog go, I am going to get a hamster from the pet store. I am going to name my hamster 'Crawly.'"
"I think he will crawl around in his cage. I am not sure what I will feed him because I do not know what hamsters eat. The End."

Reading this book by Leia made me feel very proud of my daughter at the same time as it made me laugh. You see, Leia Rose had lately taken to stating things, instead of asking for things that she wants. Like "I am going to get a hamster." or "When I get my hamster." Ha! What an interesting tactic, . . . as if Mom and Dad don't have a say, huh? : ) And I am intrigued by the picture of the hamster cage. How did she know how to draw one? And what are those two little things on the top? I'll have to ask tomorrow.

"I want a Webkin for Christmas. The Webkin that I am going to get is going to be a bunny Webkin. It works on the computer."
I am going to name my Webkin girl-hop if she's a girl, and boy-hop if he's a boy. I'm going to make sure Annie likes it. I'm going to make it be friends with the bunnies at grandma and grandpa's house."
"I'm going to make sure my bunny is not retired because if it is retired it can't work on the computer. I'm going to love my bunny so much. Did you know my bunny is going to have her own room in Webkin's world? My bunny is going to be friends with Daphne's reindeer and pony. The End"



Funny thing about this story is that, although Leia loves her bunny Webkin (in fact she's using it as a snuggle bud tonight), Leia has NEVER asked to go into Webkins World on the computer. Brian and I decided long ago that we were going to leave computer skills as schoolwork for Leia, so we aren't bothered in the slightest. I love the picture of the bunny, and the picture of the computer at the end is really good, too! The other funny thing about this is that Leia Rose originally chose a Webkin that was retired (the purple bunny). Um, the purple bunny cost $60. No way. So I gave her this big lecture on how Santa probably couldn't get one of those. (Ha!) The white bunny only cost $9.

Sunday on Sesame Street

It's been Sesame Street fever these days as a result of me making a DVD of Classic Vintage Sesame Street Favorites for the girls. Every time I play it, the girls sit there in wrapped concentration like this, and I get teary-eyed because it connects them so very much to my own childhood. I just LOVE to watch this with them! The particular clip on the screen happens to be part of the "Put on Your Kammikluuk" song about Alaskan winter." One of my favorites. I also have to say that Leia Rose has two definite favorites. One day she chose to go around saying "I get mad, I get mad, I get mad. It ain't bad to get mad." Laughing after each time, . . . for about 100 times. The next day she chose to go around saying, "La, La, La, La, Lump in my oatmeal!" Again, laughing after each time, for about 100 times. [And as an added bonus in this picture, you get to see what our family room looks like at the end of a day when 1. Everyone had to go to Mass at separate times because Annie had a horrible night waking up again and again and 2. Mamma had to have a nap because of those wake-ups and 3. Mamma and Daddy choose to play with the girls instead of clean throughout the day. : ) ]
Later, Leia Rose gave her blow-up dinosaurs a tea party! : ) (She is feeding the T-Rex "beans," here.) And there was also more of the Bunnington Show from yesterday. : )
And here is one of Annie's favorite activities these days: pulling up her shirt, finding her tummy, and tapping it with both hands. : ) Yet another body part she has mastered. She still adores pointing out all the parts of my face, by the way. I love that. Today she added "mou" (mouse), "bow," "raff" (giraffe), and "nah" (the sound a goat makes). The word explosion continues! Interesting thing about that is how she reverts words ending in "p." So she says "puc" for "cup" and "poh" for "hop." REALLY interesting! (And cute, too.)
And here is one of Leia's most recent favorite things to do: "write things like a Mamma." : ) I'm not quite sure what that means (perhaps more/other words besides her name?), but it usually involves her drawing a box on a paper and then writing in it. Here the box was already there, so she copied the only word she saw which was the name of the company (Chicco) that made the little drawing toy, and then her name.

Mamma Grew Up in the 80's

Okay, so this is a post mostly about me, . . . but I'm assuming that the girls will be interested in the type of pop culture that was around when Mamma was young. My friend Karin, sent me a really cool e-mail about growing up in the 80s, and I thought I would re-create it here, with a few additions of my own. : ) And for an even more animated look at the 80s, try clicking on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMGGNUSTWT8&feature=related

You know you were a girl who grew up in the 80's if:
You remember Popples.
All the cool kids you knew were watching The Breakfast Club, Dirty Dancing, and Sixteen Candles.

You loved watching Superfriends, and still remember: "Wonder Twins Power: Activate!!!"

Your idea of studying history was watching Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. [Actually, I thought this movie was totally horrid. I lost lots of respect for my friend, Lisa, when she thought it was "awesome." I'm a bigger fan of the movie now than I was then.]

You wore flop socks. [Yes, that's me on the left.]
[Yes, that's me second to the left. And actually, I keep tabs on every single one of these people from high school. Cristy, Noelle, Jenny, Lisa, Georgie, Laura, Theresa.]
You wore stonewashed Jordache jean jackets and were proud of it . [And I still have mine, see?]

You loved watching re-runs of the Brady Bunch.
You had big hair, pink frosted lipstick, and knew at least one boy with a really cool mullet.
You wore hi-tops.
You remember having a crush on Kirk Cameron who graced the cover of "Bop" and remember Leonardo DeCaprio first as the homeless boy on Growing Pains, instead of the hero in Titanic.
You remember Matthew Perry first as Carol's boyfriend "Sandy" on Growing Pains who was killed in a drunk driving accident, instead of Chandler on Friends.

You remember Helen Hunt first as the supporting actress in Girls Just Want to Have Fun instead of Jamie on Mad About You.

You remember some boy in your class playing with the stupid "Muscle Men."
You remember when Joanie married Chachie.
You had a bike with a banana seat.
You ever wore colored mascara and eye shadow.

You insist that Aileen Quinn is the one and only "Annie."You had, or knew someone who had, one of these metal swing sets.
You have ever bruised your ribcage on a slip n' slide.
You loved to play with your Baby Alive.

You remember Hunt the Wumpus.
You loved to play Pac Man on Atari.
You learned to dance to "I'll Get Around," on the Beach Boys Endless Summer, on LP.
You fell in love with Billy Joel when he sang "You May be Right."
You listened to (and sang along with) the soundtrack of Grease over and over again, not really knowing how many sexual overtones were involved.

You remember The Beastie Boys "I'm Gonna Fight for the Right to Party!"
You thought Teddy Ruxpin was high tech.
You once wore gummy bracelets up your arm. . .
Right above your swatch watch.
You remember working on an Apple GE in school.

You traded oily stickers on the playground.
You remember Valley Girls who always said, "Barf me out" and "Gag me with a spoon."
You cried at the end of ET, and remember Drew Barrymore first as little Gertie instead of the heroine in "50 First Dates."
Three Words: Cabbage Patch Kids [Wilson Gason was mine. He now belongs to Annie.]

You've ever ended a sentence with the word "sike." And you still get the urge to say "not" at the end of every sentence.
You remember Will Smith first as the Fresh Prince of Bel Air instead of the hunk in Independence Day, . . . and can sing the entire Fresh Prince rap.
You know that 'WOAH' comes from Joey on Blossom.
You loved watching Fraggle Rock, . . .

And remember the Gummi Bears so well that you can sing their entire theme song.
You remember when the violence of Looney Tunes was quaint and fun.
You have ever worn a ponytail on the side of your head.
You knew the profound meaning of "wax on, wax off."

You owned a piece of fluoresent clothing, and you made your mom buy one of those clips that would hold your shirt in a knot on the side.
You can remember when Michael Jackson was really cool, . . . and looked normal (like before his nose fell off and his cheeks shifted). [I have a vivid memory of going skating at a skating rink with my class and them playing the Thriller video for the very first time. And at different points during the video they would flash love messages. Mine was "Chris n' Noelle" because Chris McAllister was my crush at the time.]
You have ever pondered why Smurfette was the only female smurf.
You traded Garbage Pail Kids cards in the schoolyard in between playing jacks and Chinese jacks.

You remember the craze and the banning of slap bracelets.
You thought your childhood friends would never leave because you exchanged handmade friendship bracelets. [Actually, at my school it was friendship pins. And you NEVER wanted to see a green bead on yours, because it meant "enemy."]
You actually wanted a pair of jellies.
You remember "I've fallen, and I can't get up!"

You remember skating before there were in-line skates, and find it strange now to go to a skating rink and NOT hear 80s music.
You've played with a skip-it.
You called this a "boom-box" and held it on your shoulder like you were all that. [Actually, I still use the term "boom-box" and I remember my high school students laughing REALLY hard at the term. I suppose I could hold mine on my shoulder until I dropped it off the side of our boat to the bottom of the ocean. It never worked again.]
You remember watching the Gremlin movies, and would never THINK of feeding Gizmo after midnight.

You remember Alf, the little furry brown alien from Melmac.
You remember New Kids on the Block when they were cool and can sing "The Right Stuff" with all the right moves.
You know all the words to Bon Jovi - SHOT THROUGH THE HEART.
You STILL sing "We Are the World."

You've ever tight-rolled your jeans.
You wore a banana clip.
You're favorite commercial was "Where's the Beef."
You used to say 'What you talkin' 'bout Willis?' and probably still do.
You remember when He-Man truly was the Master of the Universe. (Yeah, and the girls had She-Rah, who never quite measured up.)

And is it me, or do the last two decades just not have anything memorable like this?!? What are those kids going to remember, Brittany Spears & Tickle-Me-Elmo?!? What kind of memories are those?!?