"Can't Tip It Up, Like a Drink"

I just had to put some of these precious pictures on the blog (mostly for Annie's and my own benefit). Annie is just the sweetest little love while breastfeeding these days (when she's not squirming around because she's too old now, that is). : ) Often she lets go, looks at me with a serious face, and says, "Mamma, can't tip it up like a drink." She means that with a sippy cup, you can get more out if you tip the cup way out. But, unfortunately, you can't get any more out of Mamma's nipples no matter what you do, after the milk is gone (which these days, I'm assuming there's only a very little). A few months ago, she used to say, "Can't tip it up like a sippy cup, get more out."

Dinner at the Grove Park Inn

Believe it or not, right in the middle of our tanking economy, Brian's company was doing so very well that the bosses planned a surprise fancy dinner at the Grove Park Inn this Saturday!!! The Grove Park Inn: one of our favorite mountain spots, built in the 1920's and home to our second honeymoon. The girls and I truly felt like princesses as we were escorted through the rooms full of fancy food to our dining room. The prime rib and the wild mushroom cream soup were to DIE for. But the girls' favorite? The crab legs!!! And the sundae making (plus pastries) for dessert weren't too shabby either! Ha! : )

"From this hearth--it's warmth

From this room--it's charm

From this inn--it's amity

Return them not--but return"

And I have to say, I have never been more proud of our girls' behavior than on this very evening! They truly behaved like they were guests at a fancy restaurant, . . . and even when every other little kid was allowed to get down and run around, our girls stayed seated with good manners and without complaint. There was no one prouder than thier mamma!!! : )

Annie's Little Mermaid

In regards to future Disney preparation, Annie and I watched The Little Mermaid today! Annie really liked it, but not as much as the others, I have a feeling. However, out came the figures, and Annie fell in love with Ariel and Scuttle specifically. : ) [Leia specifically requested to NOT be present for this viewing in that Ursula REALLy scares her.]

In Love with Star Wars: The Clone Wars

In Love with Annie's Alfagators

Recital Costume!

Leia's Recital costume came in already! Leia Rose just LIVES for these moments!!!

Sunrise, Sunshine

This morning, Leia Rose made her own sunrise with tinkertoys. What a special start to the day!

Knock-Knock, Who's-There, Mamma!

In an effort to stop Annie's usual comment of "sared me!" ("You scared me!") when I open any door (car or room), . . . I started taking a new approach. I knock a few times and then say, "Knock Knock!" and Annie replied "Who's There" and I say, "Mamma!" We do this about three times, and only THEN do I go in. Ironically, the time in the video, Annie still says, "sared me!" Ha! : )

"You're Being a Bad Mamma!"

Hmmmm, . . . I thought this would be a good way to introduce what has been happening the last few months. In dealing with my grief and anger in regards to our move and Karin's death, I have definitely lashed out at the kids a bit more and, admittedly, planned less activities for them (and blogged less). (Couldn't I have just started sucking my thumb and wetting the bed again, like Leia?) This has saddened me to no end (to the point where I even went to confession in regards to this)! Simply said, I have been having a really hard time with the tragedy in my life over the past half-year. This has led to a few times when I took Leia Rose aside and mentioned that Mammas make mistakes too, . . . but now Leia Rose says this whenever I get angry at all. For example, today, Annie took a lollipop, licked it, and then slimed it all over our comforter in an effort to get comfortable before her "Lamby show." I got mad. And immediately Leia Rose said, "Mamma! You're being a bad Mamma!" That got me madder. (Ha!) Trying to explain that saying this was a form of disrespect, I found myself at a loss for words. But all-in-all, I'm very happy that I am beginning to get back to my normal self in regards to absolutely everything. In regards to blogging, though, my plan is to record all memorable things, . . . instead of every single day. This simply seems more realistic.

Back Into Lamby & Cowie

Just thought I'd mention that Annie noticed Lamby on her shelf the other day, and in the midst of playing with it, I thought I would try showing the DVDs that go with the interactive toys once again. (Annie LOVED these last year.) I wondered if Annie would remember them at all. She didn't. It was like watching a brand new thing, . . . and Annie LOVED it! She couldn't wait for Leia Rose to come home in order to show her as well! : )

Leia's School Box

Today, in the midst of hoping Leia Rose wouldn't notice that I threw away her millionth paper of handwriting practice (*sigh*), I decided upon a new school tradition: the school box. I took an old diaper box and told Leia Rose that she could paint the whole thing with acrilic paint, . . . we will put every single school paper in there until the end of the year when we will sort it and decide together which papers to save and which to toss. What a great way to include her! : ) And when Annie's old enough, . . . she'll have a box, too!!!
One side features Leia Rose (and hearts). : )

The othe side features "navy-blue-eyed" Annie (and hearts). : )

Long Hair?!?

About a week ago, my thoughts were dashed. I honestly thought my first-born was always going to want short hair, when all of a sudden, Leia Rose said, "I think I'm ready to grow my hair long, Mamma." No problem! It just surprised me. : ) But suddenly, today, Leia was mentioning not being able to wait to have her hair cut short for the summer. What?!? "Leia, I said, you have just spent the last week telling me you wanted to grow your hair LONG!" Leia Rose replied, "Oh, yes, but I only want to grow it long until the summer!" Ha! : )

Finding Bald Rock

On the way back from exploring Pickens, SC (yet another Oma-Papa-home/land-possiblity), we returned via 276 and found my favorite site: Bald Rock!!! Its name is such because, from a distance, it looks just like the top of a bald head. Ha! (And, obviously, the wind really whips your hair up over there. Ha!) This is SUCH a special place! Upon learning about it through Geology class at Furman, I took many a trip alone up here, . . . then there were picnics with Brian, . . . and then showing it to Mom and Dad, . . . and now finding it again with them, . . . and it will be the future site of countless picnics for our family, . . . I PROMISE!!!

"Soft, Soft, Soft"

At every available moment, Annie would come up to Papa with the special "relaxed blank stare" that meant, "I want 'soft, soft, soft'" which meant she wanted Papa to gently tickle her face and body with his rough hands. : ) I could easily call this Annie's very favorite activity. She would stop what she was doing for just a tiny dose of "soft, soft, soft" which reminds me a lot of when she was years younger . . .

Looking Glass Falls

Valentine Loot

You can tell from Leia’s leotard here that Oma and Papa accompanied us to ballet this afternoon: a fun experience for everyone! And, oh, how I wish I had my camera as both Oma and Papa stood at the one windowed-door and watched Leia Rose for the entire ballet portion of class! : ) Afterwards, Leia Rose was thrilled to explore her Valentine loot with Oma. (Leia had to receive it after the fact because she was sick on Friday.)

Blue Ridge Log Cabins

Oma and Papa were particularly excited to see a new log cabin modular home they saw on HGTV, so we high-tailed it to Blue Ridge Log Cabins right away on Monday. The girls were STELLAR as we toured many log homes today. They were even the first to have lunch at Oma & Papa’s favorite home’s kitchen island. Ha!

And Oma was the first to re-discover Annie's love for "light tickleing." : ) This is surely a child sharing the genes of "spider trails." ; ) But it was Papa who would share this joy the most . . .

A Visit from Oma & Papa

This week we were blessed with a visit from Oma and Papa! They finally got to see our new home and experience us within it (amid a new intestinal sickness and lots of home-looking errands). There were lots of games (including Leia's favorite shown here: Alpha-Bug Soup!) and book-reading and wii-fitting and general playing. Unfortunately, the one thing Oma wanted to do (tromp around in the woods) she never got to do with us. : ( Errands always seemed to get in the way (as well as the cold).

Oma even got to participate in our Noah's Ark game (a favorite of Annie's). This involves reading two short books about Noah's Ark and then loading the real Noah's Ark up with all the animals to the following song (repeated over and over again for each boy and girl animal): "I'm a little boy rhino going to the ark. I'm going to the ark because I obeyed God. Doot, doot, doot-doot-doot, doo-doo-doo-doo-doot." Ha!

"Daddy on Base!?!"

I just had to record a very special time for Daddy and Annie: every night after I tuck Annie
in. : ) When I leave the room, Annie always asks, "Daddy on Base!?!" which means she wants what I have shown in the picture here: Daddy laying on "base" for thier running games, which is the ladybud beanbag, resting next to Annie in her crib, while he plays her "nighttime songs" in the background, . . . and every time the Cinderella song comes on they say, "Cin-der-ell-la!!!" and every time "A Dolphin's Lullaby" comes on they say, "The Dol-phin Song!" Such sweet father/daughter moments! : )

"Leia's Tea Party"

Happy Valentines Day 2009

In keeping with our "less is more" goal this year, here were our valentines to the girls this morning. When I asked Leia Rose if she saw them, she said, "Yes, and it was a sad amount!" I wasn't sure whether to laugh or to scold her for showing disrespect. Ha! The girls both got the biggest kick out of the actual valentines with the "kitty lips." And even Annie would comment when I put her to bed this evening (after I asked her what the favorite part of the day was), lowering her voice and saying, "The kitty cat lips!" Ha! They liked these cards so much that instead of throwing them away, we just let them eat the chocolate and then re-insterted the foil. Good as new!

I also made the girls a special valentine breakfast with pink pieces of balogna in the eggs, chocolate to dip their bananas in, and a heart piece of food-colored "Papa Toast," which is the special kind of toast with butter/sugar/syrup/cinnamon that Papa taught me to make. : )
Here are a few of the Valentines that Leia Rose made for us. : ) I just love this one because it has Leia’s first poem on it: “Candy is sweet, hearts are love, and we like them all!” (She said that the “like them all part” she couldn’t fit, so she just told it to us. Ha!) That one was for Annie and I.

Then Leia figured out how to make an origami heart all by herself, decorated it, and even included one of only two valentine lollipops she got! What a sweetheart!

And this one is ingenious, if I may say so myself. Look at how she made this heart open to reveal a message! : )

Now we have to discuss Leia's school valentines, too. Here are the two for the teachers. I just love how she spells things these days! : )

For her class, Leia Rose chose some 3-D type dinosaur cards (which were really nice plastic, actually). Leia wrote every single name of the whole class. It took her days to complete this project! And for each person that she liked, Leia drew a picture over the dinosaur fact. I got a kick out of seeing who she drew pictures for and who she left blank. ; ) A couple ones of note: Alexis not only has a heart but also the word "love." Leia LOVES Alexis, and for her to write an EXTRA word was a BIG deal. ; )

Kimber got three hearts (Leia really likes Kimber). Both Gabriel and Rhett got "light saber crosses" (which look a bit more like X's than she wanted). That's because those three have bonded over Star Wars lunchables. Quinten got four hearts, "Because I love him." Ha! But look at poor Kennedy's card. Nothing on that one. Kennedy is a girl in Leia's class who Leia Rose says is always being a bit of a bad girl. Leia's always coming home with stories about Kennedy being outspoken and disrespectful. And look at poor Cameron's card. Nothing on that one. Leia Rose really doesn't like Cameron at all because he's always bothering her. In fact, when I asked her more about this, she compared Cameron to Cael. "Mamma, Cael is one of those rare boys that knows how to get a girls attention without being annoying." Ha!

The unfortunate thing is that Leia Rose didn't get to go to school on February 13th (the day their class celebrated Valentines day) because I went up to get Leia ready for school that day only to discover that she had thrown up in her sleep! And she would throw up a few more times that morning as well. : ( We've just GOT to stop that thumb sucking!!!