McNeil Sunday Brunch

After Mass today we met at the Carolina Inn and had a wonderful brunch with the McNeils (the very first of our "monthly" brunches). They gave us a separate room. Smart people! : )
Annie started out great, and ate her usual 2-3 eggs, 2 strips of bacon, and tons of fruit. We even used our bib clip as a true bib clip today (instead of as a toy). It worked GREAT!
I'm afraid it turned a bit sour, though, when Annie was the messiest she has ever been in her ENTIRE LIFE. I have NEVER seen her this messy, NEVER! It was so far gone, I actually laughed, as I did at Mass when Annie was so squirmy and wormy, I had to take her out to crawl around in the hall. (Of course, all she wanted to do was to crawl right back into the sanctuary. I stopped her every time. And every time she cried. : ) (**Note to self: Noelle, this is a big improvement for you to find the humor in these situations. When this used to happen at Mass with Leia, YOU were the one crying, remember?)
At the end of the meal, Trevor showed us his really neat "trick" that he called "The Jack Black," where he would raise and lower one eyebrow at a time. Really cool, Trevor! (See below.)
On the way out all of us stopped to smell the roses (literally), . . . a sign from St. Therese? And Miss Laurie showed Leia Rose the fuzzy pussy willows. : )

Playing in the Carolina Inn Courtyard was fun for both of the girls. Annie was convinced that the plants were flowers, and sniffed many of them. : )
As for Leia Rose, she was most interested in using the pine straw and other grasses to make a nest for a weaver bird, which she heard about on Zoboomafoo. : ) So I was singing the special weaver bird song which goes like this . . .

And here is "The Jack Black" by Trevor:

Kevin/Leia & Tivo/Scooba

Leia and Kevin had a blast on their late-afternoon playdate, especially while they played with this really cool walking and roaring dinosaur. : ) Unfortunately though, Leia Rose seemed to encourage Kevin to do lots of activities that could really bump his newly healing eye, . . . so the Mammas had to step in and calm them down a bit once in a while.
Once they calmed down a bit, everyone shared goldfish with little Annie. ; )
And for the Daddies, it was heaven on earth: Steve got to explain Tivo and Brian got to experience Tivo. I think I feel a significant Valentine present coming on. : ) Just to couple the technology, we also brought our Scooba for the Faulkners to check out, too.
Then we all went out to dinner at a really fun pizza restaurant. Leia Rose and Kevin played Candy Land while they waited. When Leia Rose said our blessing at dinner, I could tell she was distracted by the TV and after the "from Thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen" she said, "And I know the ending of Scooby Doo is . . ." at which point I just finished a personal prayer for her. Then I got REALLY angry at her (in that I went over to her and squeezed her arm really hard). I was so embarrassed that she would do that during our blessing in front of others. I made her cry. Not one of my best parental moments. Anyway, the only real tragedy was Leia's reaction when we told her that she couldn't have an ice cream bar from the "dessert box" (one of those box freezers). My, how she carried on about that!
But it was Annie who was the handful tonight. Not as bad as last week at Outback, though. Just enough to swipe all of her food on the floor and whine a bit. : ) As for words today, though, Annie said "bzzzz" for the sound a bee makes and "boon" for balloon! : )

And, just a cute last thing that comes from Karin's blog: "It was a fun evening. :) When we drove away, Kevin was upset that he didn't say good-bye to Annie, who was already buckled into their car. So as we drove off down the road, I counted to three and we all shouted, "Good-bye, Annie!" together. Kevin was quick to point out that she couldn't hear it though. ;) So of course, he tried again."

Such a considerate and thoughtful little boy, Kevin Faulkner. : )

On the Road Again

On the way to Cary this afternoon . . .
Our Jeep Liberty hit 100,000 miles. How often do you really get to see that milestone for yourself! : )
And Leia Rose drew a very nice self-portrait in the car as well. I just love those eyelashes! : )
Leia Rose also drew a great picture of Mickey Mouse! And she's showing us with such a silly smile! : )

Gotta Watch That Kid

I just love this particular set of bathtime peek-a-boo pictures. (Peek-a-boo continues to be Annie's favorite game, especially using the kitchen towel.)


But THIS it the thing that makes me know that I've just gotta watch this kid in the pool this summer. One of her favorite bathtime games (in addition to peek-a-boo and stand-up-sit-down-fast) is pour-a-whole-up-of-water-on-my-face-and-breath-in. For goodness sake! She does this multiple times a bath, sputters and coughs, . . .
and then LAUGHS really hard. Oh my. Gotta watch that kid in the pool this summer! I say that because I honestly have two different kids in regards to water. Leia Rose always hated water, didn't like baths, didn't like going under the water (and still really doesn't). Annie loves water. She can't get enough of it. (Does this have to do with her water birth?) She even loves the feeling of being suffocated by it. Hmmm. I always thought mothers of "Annies" really had their work cut out for them at the pool. She's the kind of kid who would just jump in, you know? No better time to work on water safety, . . . and life jacket protection. : )

And just to recap a couple of things a bit earlier: Annie gets the thrill of her life every night when she's finally allowed to climb the stairs under close supervision, always looking back to see if I'm watching to be proud of her.

And this is interesting, every single night Leia Rose always used to stop at the "button step" (a step we have with two epoxied screw holes) both to count them and touch them, . . . with Annie, she stops to touch Auntie April's flowers. So fun to see the minute differences of personality! : )

And as for words today, we had some interesting two-word phrases pop up! She will do the sign for washing hands and then say "ass ands" and she will also say "cow moo"! : ) Other words she added today were, "ree" (tree), "bag," and "pone" (pony). We've more than a hundred words now! Keep 'em coming!

And then there's the almost-walking. Thought you might like to see what I mean . . .

Perri-Pat-Pat(s) & . . . Parts

Leia Rose was overjoyed today when a parcel came from her Oma carrying lots of fun Valentine gifts, . . . and a NEW PERRI-PAT-PAT, who has been lost for months. I can't even begin to describe the love that Leia Rose has for this new kitty. She grabbed the special handkerchief she was wrapped in and immediately adopted it as a blanket (let alone that it belonged to Leia's great-great grandmother).
As I said, new Perri became the focus of play for the rest of the day.

HOWEVER, can you believe it, I actually FOUND the original one today!?! (See the one that's all misshapen? That's the original one.) I was looking for Annie's lost Cherries, actually, and I decided to pull her bed out, thinking, "Nothing could EVER fit back there!" Well, guess what, there was Perri Pat Pat, covered in a thick layer of dust! It reminded me a lot of Toy Story, for some reason. I'm just so glad that the new one came long before I found the old one. Anyway, now Leia Rose has twins.
And here is Leia Rose, incredibly proud of her favorite project of the week: Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog. Leia Rose has (literally) made three of these. The first was the day we went in for Mrs. Schnell to oberve Leia's school readiness. And, boy, how different the project looked. That first one, when Liea was 3, was colored only in pencil and cut so raggedy that it didn't really fit in the cup. And now look at this one! Rainbow colored and perfectly cut! (Leia Rose has been telling me that she has been working hard on her "careful cutting" in extended day.)

In other Leia news, she told me something that really made me laugh today: "Mamma, you know, all boys have bunnel nuges. All of them." [As most of you know, a "bunnel nuge" is what Leia Rose calls a boy's private parts. We have tried to teach her the real term, but she will have none of that. : ) ] I asked her where she learned that, she said, "I learned that at school. I have been watching lots of the little boys go to the bathroom. All of them sit down except for Charlie who sometimes stands up. I like to watch them because there are no doors on the stalls now because they all broke off." Wow. She really HAS been watching. My first reaction was to speak to the teachers about this broken door problem, but then I realized that this (as well as Leia's natural curiosity with Brian) is probably a good way to be exposed to this. In preschool. No real worries here, just curiosity at work. I have long worried about there being no little boy in the family for Leia Rose to naturally be able to "see" during baths and such. When asked, she said, "I have noticed that Annie and I look the same." And after reviewing the names of girls' private parts, I told her that when kids gets older, both boys and girls get hair in those places too, to which she responded, "I know." At this point, I felt like it was important to tell Leia Rose once again the real terms for a boys private parts, and of course her immediate response was, "Why do I always call it a Bunnel Nuge?" And I told her that she had named it herself when she first saw Daddy, and she just never used any other term. She just snickered a little bit and said, "I guess I called it that because the penis looks like a 'nuge' and the other little part looks like bunnels! And I've always known what the girls part is really called." : ) Oh my. Finally, I told her, "Leia Rose, when someone goes to the bathroom, they really want privacy. That's why the stalls had doors, you know? Please give the children their privacy. You know how YOU are when you need privacy, right?" She remembered. We'll see what else she mentions about this along down the road. Anyway, I feel pretty good about how the whole thing went. Interesting though, huh? : )

It's a Rainy Day

Sistine Chapel Revisited

Quite honestly, this project was done on one of the snow days we had, but in the flurry of things, I forgot to include it. So here it is. Leia Rose eventually told me that she never did do the painting under the table and was very upset about not doing it. So, I thought it would be a great snowy day project!
Here is Leia Rose painting her own Sistine Chapel. It didn't take long for Leia Rose to begin disliking the whole thing. Paint was dripping on her, and she was getting messy. : )


Therefore, we switched to crayons under the washer door. : )Leia had to eventually lay on a blanket because the tile was so very cold. But she made some very nice work, didn't she? : )