Giving the People What They Want

I found an old post I never finished with some old pictures of Anna in it. So I added a couple new pictures of her and BAM! New post. 

She looks so little here.

Pre-sitting up.

Pre-eating real solids.

Pre-fat knees 

(JK she's always had those - you're welcome Anna)

Peace out, yo.

I'm trying to teach her to do the Richard Nixon double handed peace sign.

Wouldn't she be a cute Nixon for Halloween? Other people dress up their babies as bunnies or Disney characters, but I feel like since my baby has some legitimate hair I've got to go historical. Donald Trump? John Lennon? Coco Chanel? I guess you'll have to wait until October to find out. 

JK I'm super lazy and I'll be buying something at Costco the day before Halloween.

Seriously, who is this child? I feel like this Anna is from a lifetime ago! And it's only been a couple months since these pics were taken.

Belly.

Aaaaaand lets end the photo shoot with some barf.

Here she is now. Just plain squeezable.

She is my little cherub. Still a happy clam, easy like Sunday morning (Adam Levine I love you).

She is obsessed with clapping. If you say, "Yay!" She starts clapping and smiling like you are hilarious - its totes adorbs. 

She is getting closer to crawling (I think). Ev never crawled, so I'm not sure what to look for, but she's leaning forward and rocking back and forth so I think she'll get moving here in the next couple months. I'm in no hurry for her to get moving, so I'm going to be 100% honest and say I have done absolutely nothing to facilitate her crawling. 

Ironically, Anna Banana's favorite food is bananas. She loves them. She won't eat any baby food unless it has banana in it. (Bizzare?) And now that she's tried some actual solid foods, I can't get her to even eat banana puree anymore. She wants to eat real food, but the lady has no teeth ... so that's interesting. 

She shares a green smoothie with me every morning. She whines and whines once she hears the blender going and then salivates until I bring it to her. She sucks it up through a straw like a boss. Sometimes she forgets to breathe and has to catch her breath and it spills out down her chin. And since its cold it drips down her chest and makes her shiver - again, totes adorbs. 

And since she's my kid, cheese is already a major food group. Her fave is Colby Jack. Can't wait to introduce her to the finer things, but for now she's on the right track. She also enjoys pineapple, strawberries rolled in cheerios, and gnawing on cucumber.

Oh, and she ate an ENTIRE shaved ice while we were in Yakima this past weekend. Whoops.

She loves to chew on her toes - happy baby yoga pose style. 

She sleeps on her tummy.

She says Da Da, Ma Ma and hysterically laughs anytime Evie says or does anything.

She bangs her chest like King Kong when she's extremely happy (IE: Evie is playing with her)

She is still very snuggly. When she has a hard time falling asleep I grab her from her bed and she just lays her head on my shoulder for awhile. I hope it never ends.

She's beautiful.

I just love her.

She is just a perfect baby. I'm silently weeping as she grows, but she keeps getting cuter so I can't really complain. She's a healthy, happy girl and she is everyone's favorite past time.

Don't I have another child?

Oh, the wild toddler who refuses to be potty trained?

Yes, she's still around. 

But she never sits still long enough for me to photograph her. She does however, never stop talking so I have some insightful comments that have come out of her mouth recently:

Ev: Anna, say Da Da! ... Anna, say poop! ... Anna say Mini-Wheats!

______

Ev: Mom, I think I need to hit the hay.

_______

Ev: Hey Mom? Can you hold my purse for just a second so I can go to Disneyland? ... Actually, do you want to come to Disneyland with me?

_______

Me: Are you excited for your friends to come over?

Ev: No! I don't have any friends.

Me: Yes you do.

Ev: No I don't!

Me: Why do you think you don't have friends?

Ev: I only have three friends.

Me: Who are they?

Ev: Just me and mom and Anna. Just the three of us.

______

Ev: Mom! Look! I'm a little doggy. Want to pet me? (Making dog sounds and breathing heavily)

Me: Sure. Hi doggy. What's your name?

Ev: My name is Bentley the dog! And I live at Disneyland.

Me: Wow. That sounds fun.

Ev: It is.

______

Ev: Hey mom! My poop kind of looks like a seal!

_____

Ev: Hey Dad, you have a ... (thinking really hard about it) peanut.

_____

Ev: Mom, you need to stop pooping in your pants so you can have a prize.

Me: I don't poop in my pants, I poop on the potty.

Ev: Oh. Well here is your hundred dollars for not pooping in your pants.

Me: Wow! Thanks.

Ev: Actually, here is two more hundreds. Here ya go. Now don't poop anymore.

Thoughts Without Pictures

AKA you probably won't read this since there is not a single photo of my squishy/wild children.

Anyway, I'm alive dear blog! Alive, but without a computer, homeless and currently potty training my 3+ year old. So... things are going well?

Of course they are! I really want to elaborate on our move, graduation and all the many changes that have besot us lately, but now is just not a good time. All of my annoying opinions are best forced upon you in between pictures of my beautiful children (that's the only way I get people to read this thing).

Nick is still in Yakima studying his brains out. However, now that I say that I realize its an oxymoron.  You can't study without a brain!
Also, you can't eat fruit without cheese.

Speaking of cheese, I'm currently doing a cleanse with my sister that is surprisingly ... awesome?
21 days. No gluten. Semi-No dairy (KILL ME NOW). No sugar (WHO CARES ABOUT SUGAR WHEN YOU CAN'T HAVE CHEESE). Basically you can eat two things - greek yogurt and chia seeds. We were both sort of dreading doing it, but so far so good. (I'm only 10 days in) Obviously I have to modify slightly since Bananarama needs my goods, but I'm surviving this beast.

In other news:

I'm currently rocking single parenthood. And I mean ROCKING it. My kids bathe twice a week if I'm lucky and today I took Ev to get a donut after she pooped her pants in Old Navy. And by pants I mean pants, NOT A DIAPER.

Since I have no husband (AKA social life) I read a lot. Like A LOT. I feel like a cross between Belle and Hermione, except I can't sing and I'm not a Mudblood with buck teeth. Wait ... and I didn't marry Ronald Weasley?! Well now my life really sucks. JK Nick I love you. Anyway, I just finished Gone Girl. Incredible writing, horrible swearing, still read it, super liked it. Can't wait for the movie. Please Hollywood never stop making books into movies. Even though the movie never quite satisfies me like the book, it makes the characters (my friends) live longer in my heart. Also Ben Affleck is the perfect cast for Lance Nicholas Dunne.

Let's talk about potty training.
Here's the truth:
I would rather give birth naturally TWICE than potty train Ev. All you moms whose children basically potty trained themselves? You can go shave your back now. Seriously.
Why is this so hard? And don't answer that question. I will probably throw a baby carrot at you, because that's all I can eat right now and I'm not willing to sacrifice one of my ten almonds that I get for a snack each day.
I keep thinking, how would I potty train myself? Since Evie is me reincarnated. And here's what I came up with. Cold turkey. No more diapers. And at home, it goes swimmingly. Then we roll up to Old Navy, windows rolled down, blasting FANCY and we are in there for eight minutes and I smell rotten pineapple and I know its game over. And since I'm freaking Mama Berenstain Bear I finish my shopping and then leave the store (see above parenting comment). Then things take a turn for the trashy and my car is like the parking lot of the Yakima Fair while I'm trying to substitute clean underwear for soiled ones.

What's Anna doing this whole time?
What do you think?

I sing Isn't She Lovely to Anna everyday.

Isn't she lovely
Isn't she wonderful
Isn't she precious
....
Isn't she pretty
Truly the angel's best
Boy I'm so lucky
We have been heaven blessed
....
Isn't she lovely
Life and love are the same

I can't wait to elaborate more on my kids. They are just growing up like its part of nature or its supposed to happen or something.

And in case you're wondering, I still love my job.

Addendum: This is my 400th post. Huzzah!

Weedster

Easter was so late this year!  I was definitely not okay with how it infringed on Ev's birthday. It wasn't stressful for me, but it did cost me about four extra Target trips in one week just to make sure I had everything for the festivities. 

On Monday, we dyed eggs for FHE. Nobody in my family likes hard boils eggs except me so I ate them all before the weekend was over. (Winning!) Ev absolutely loved dying eggs. I bought a glitter pack and she was giddy just putting the glitter in the plastic cups. I however, was morally offended when the hard boiled eggs in my salad were blue and glittered. It didn't stop me from eating them, but you all knew that. 

Anna loved it too.

Look at that pot belly! Our shrimp is finally filling out! 

On Wednesday it was Ev's birthday.

We kept it fairly simple. We opened presents in the morning and Ev and I made cupcakes to bring to her playgroup. That night we ordered pizza (Ev's choice) and blew out candles on a few leftover cupcakes.

We had a small window before Nick needed to go to school so we actually had to wake Ev up on her birthday. THIS NEVER HAPPENS. Ev wakes up with the sun and has frequently been tapping my shoulder at 5:30 AM, so when we had to get her at 7:30 it was weird and ... awesome.

For her birthday she got a few games,

some clothes,

and her own yoga mat.

It was such a fun day.

We played with her presents, went to playgroup and then came home and played with her presents some more. Nick came home a little early and we took her to toys'R'us to spend her birthday money (from my Grandparents). She picked out the largest stuffed My Little Pony you've ever seen. I tried so hard to talk her out of it, but it was her birthday. Then she wanted the motorized mini cooper and I said, "I like the pony." 

Nick's family skyped in while we sang 'Happy Birthday,' and we called it a day.

Ev kept saying, "Is it my birthday just for today?"

And I sadly had to tell her that yes, tomorrow her birthday would be over. She handled it well and tapped my shoulder happy as usual in the AM.

Chelsea came into town for the day on Saturday. Ev was so excited to see her Aunt Chi Chi.

Chels also brought down some pertinent information - that Easter was on 4/20 and that everyone cool was calling it Weedster.

So naturally we had to call it Weedster too.

Ev enjoyed hunting for eggs in the morning (thanks Chi Chi for hiding them) and then we all got gussied up for church.

Chels took some family photos of us. 

And even though there isn't a single one where all four of us are looking at the camera - we're not picky and I think they're great!

It was so fun to have Chels down with us. We begged her to stay for dinner, but she has responsibilities and had to get back up to P-Town. 

That night we had a big breakfast at the Belton's.

It was a great/relaxing Weedster and the perfect ending to a (sort of) crazy week.