Baby laughter=best present ever

One year ago today, this:

(You want to take a bite out of those thighs, huh? I don't blame you.)

Was just this:




Even before Mabes' birthday last year, I knew that no other birthday would compare. How could it? But it will always be a great memory. I didn't realize I'd feel the same about my birthday last year. Dave and Mabes have been asking about what I want to do today, what will make it a fantastic day, etc. But honestly? My 30th last year was pretty freakin' awesome, so I'm content to just have tri tip, cake, and call it a day.

I posted about my birthday last year, but I left out the best part. One of the presents Dave and Mabes gave me was a pair of Nike flip flops--Dave gave me my first pair when I was pregnant with Mabes and they were a dream come true to swollen feet. I had since worn those out, so Dave got me new ones for my birthday, and when Mabes was out of earshot, he said, "I was hoping to get these for you for the next pregnancy, but at this point, who knows when that will happen, so I decided to get them for your birthday." I just laughed and said thanks, and then "yeah, about that? I'm taking a test tonight. I know it's early, and if it's negative, it'll just be par for the course. But if it's positive, it'll be like, the best birthday present ever."

Dave gave me the "if-you-want-to" look (I had a referral to start infertility testing that week), and I think he was afraid my birthday would end with me in tears. But I took the test, we looked at it together, and Dave's first response was "Whoa! They actually say 'pregnant' now?!?"

The weeks and months that followed were filled with ultrasounds, appointments, calls to the doctor, bleeding, and several times when I was convinced I was losing the pregnancy. I didn't even tell my own family until after my second ultrasound at 8 weeks, because I didn't want to let myself get too excited. But little Miss Annabelle hung on, and I'm so grateful for the last year.

So when Mabes asks what I want for my birthday or why we're not doing anything super fun, I can't respond in a way that she'll understand. I have what I want. What started as just a hope last year has turned into this:

We love her. She's an absolute joy--I had no idea how appropriate the song was when I chose it last year.

It's not easy being green

On Sunday afternoon, Dave went out to water the plants, picked up the old milk carton he'd been using as a watering can, and found a little tree frog hiding in it. He brought it into the house to show Mabes who, of course, decided he should be our new pet. We named him Green Bean.

Dave cut off the top of the milk carton so Mabes could see Green Bean better, covered the opening with plastic wrap, and put in some sticks, grass, leaves, and a couple of bugs. Green Bean quickly became her new best friend. The carton sat next to her for lunch and dinner, she talked to him, showed him to her toys, and was quite disappointed when we wouldn't let her take him to her room at bedtime. Come on, Mabes, we're not stupid.



Mabes went to bed, we went about our Sunday night, watching TV and eating ice cream (see post below). Perhaps it was the sugar-induced euphoria that caused me to forget about the milk jug sitting on the kitchen floor. Okay, we might be a little stupid.

The next morning, I heard Mabes get up early and waited for her to come to our room. "Huh," I thought, "Guess she just wants to play in the playroom..." Since Annabelle was still asleep, I rolled over and drifted in and out of sleep, hearing Mabes running around the playroom, talking to her kids.

After a few minutes, Dave got up. He walked into the playroom to see Mabes standing in the middle, hair fluffed out from sleep, clutching a plastic toy spoon in one hand and holding Green Bean in the other.



"Daddy! I was playing wif Green Bean and he was hop hop hopping around da playroom! And den he hopped away and I was chasing him! And den I grabbed dis spoon to catch him and I did and now I'm holding him! And den he crawled up my arm and now my hand is a little wet."

So many possible responses, but all Dave said was, "Yeah, Mabes, that's pee," with a smile.

Mabes closed her eyes, threw her head back and giggled, "Dat's CRAZY! Why would Green Bean go potty in my hand?!?! Silly frog."



Dave helped her put Green Bean back in the container and washed her hands. Later that morning, Mabes came running in, "Mommy! Green Bean is gone!" I rolled my eyes, sure he was just hiding under a leaf, and followed her to the kitchen. "Dere he is, Mommy!" Green Bean was hopping across the kitchen floor. I spent the next 10 minutes trying to get the frog (that could hop surprisingly high for such a little thing) back in the container.



Dave and I decided that while the pet would be fun, it wasn't fair to keep him in captivity. And if we did keep him, the odds of him escaping and dying under our couch were too high. So we explained to Mabes that Green Bean really missed his family. She understood immediately. Her head lowered, lips formed a small pout, tears filled her eyes and she just said, "I'm really going to miss Green Bean."



We released him by the trees in our backyard, and encouraged him to come back and visit. Mabes was happy to let him go and excited for him to go home to his mom, dad, and baby, as they were probably very worried about him. That night at bedtime, she announced that she was thankful she could have a pet frog for the day. Dave and I were thrilled with how easy it went.



Unfortunately, I woke up this morning to see Mabes standing next to my bed, sad face and tear-stained cheeks, barely able to say, "Mommy, I really miss Green Bean." Her mood improved when Dave told her we'd go to the pet store sometime to see the frogs there, so of course, all I've heard all day is, "When can we go to the pet store?" alternating with sad, "I reeeeeeeally miss Green Bean."

It's raining so I'm hoping fresh chocolate chip cookies will fill the void left by Green Bean.

Zippers are overrated

After lamenting to Laura that despite eating much better and working out I'm still in maternity pants, I got off the phone and gave my diet the culinary middle finger:



French vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup and Cadbury egg. Further solidifying the fact that I won't make my goal of fitting in regular pants (with zippers and buttons) by my birthday.



Note the white bowl--my white bowls are considerably smaller than the blue bowls. It's called self-control. I still have a little.

Happy Tax Day!

The hospital gave us the bib when Annabelle was born (December 31). That's certainly not why we had her then, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't appreciate it when we were doing our taxes.

Being the procrastinator that I am, I'll be celebrating by making a last minute deposit to my Roth IRA. (Better late than never, right Dad?) And wishing we had Baja Fresh here.

Mistake Scissors

"Mabes, have you seen my seam ripper?"

"What mommy?"

"My seam ripper?"

"I don't know what dat is," Mabes answered.

"It's that...oh nevermind, I found it. This. This is my seam ripper." I held it up.

"Oh, daaaaaaaaat! Dat's not a seam ripper. Dat's your mistake scissors!"



I have no idea how she came up with that name; I didn't know she noticed me using it. But presumably she heard me say something about messing up and then saw me using the seam ripper. Though she appears to be incapable of listening when I want her to, she does hear and observe everything.

This week I embarked on my most challenging sewing project yet: Easter/spring dresses for Mabes and Annabelle. Because when you have two girls, you make them matching dresses. I started the project acknowledging that it would be a huge learning experience, that it would take time, and that it would probably be very frustrating at times. But that's what mistake scissors are for, and every time I had to rip out a seam, I just reminded myself that I was learning.

So here is a list of what I learned from this project:

1. Plisse is great. You have to be careful when pressing it to not iron out the puckered finish, but if you have to rip out a seam (which I did a lot of), it recovers very nicely.

2. Keep the phone nearby. I'm not sure how many times I called my mom, but at one point, she would answer the phone, "Sewing question?" How did she know it wasn't Dave calling to chat with my dad about the NCAA championship?

3. Keep Mabes away from the pins. Although this one we learned when my mom made her Easter dress 3 years ago (my mom let her play with the little tomato pin cushion and she then stuck a pin in Mom's exercise ball--we think she thought it was a giant pin cushion), it was reinforced last week. I found a nearly empty pin cushion, asked Mabes about it, and she said they were balloons for Ricecake's birthday party. We spent the next half hour scouring the playroom for loose pins.

4. Allow plenty of time. I am not my mom and cannot yet crank out a dress in an hour. But I didn't expect that. I wasn't able to finish in time for Easter, but it wasn't a huge deal since I wasn't planning on having them wear the dresses to sit at home watching General Conference. Instead, I took my time, fully lined them, and even put the tulle in Em's lining, which made the skirt puff out and made Mabes giggle when she tried it on. Totally worth it.

5. Plan on Annabelle having an explosion soon after putting the dress on and take pictures first. She made it to church and through Sacrament meeting in the dress. I had wanted to take more pictures, but at least I got these:








I already have an idea for my next (simpler) project, and since I think I could finish in a day or two, I want to start tomorrow. But my house is a disaster and I need to go grocery shopping, so their matching skirts will have to wait a few days.

Easter part 2

Saturday was our ward's Easter egg hunt, and to say that Mabes was looking forward to it is an understatement. It was pretty much all she could talk about all week. She attacked the egg hunt as you would expect Mabes to, and spent the rest of the time running around with friends.


She was playing with her friend Ellie, trying to climb the tree, and kept saying, "It's a miracle!" Uh, Mabes? I'm not sure if she was referring to the tree itself or the way they were climbing on it--we think she thinks a miracle is something that's cool.

My friend Valerie took this and the picture of Mabes and Ellie.

After the egg hunt, Dave and Mabes went to Home Depot Saturday, then came home to dye eggs:


Annabelle wasn't so sure of it, and was quite happy to go back to her seat.

Easter dinner was fantastic, capped off by Dave's now signature dessert, Chocolate Delight. Mabes has for some time been telling me what a great cooker I am, and now thinks Dave is a culinary genius. She announced that both Mommy AND Daddy are great cookers.


Not Easter related, but I know I've been saying how much I love spring here, and I do. I really do. We've had several absolutely gorgeous days here, and it's been lovely. But I don't think I've ever been so happy for rain as I was today, as everything--cars, streets, buildings, our deck--has been coated by lovely yellow pollen. This is our deck last night:


I'm very happy that our deck is back to its normal brown color. Now that I've finished the girls' Easter/spring dresses (yay!), I can take them outside for pictures without worrying they'll turn yellow.

Public Service

Mabes would like to take this opportunity to thank those altruistic individuals who give of their time and resources to make this world a better place. Specifically, the music truck man. She loves the music truck man, who has recently appeared in our neighborhood on warm evenings, slowly driving through at dinner and bedtime serenading us with lively renditions of "Turkey in the Straw," "The Entertainer," and more. Whenever he drives by, she runs to the window to watch and listen. She even drew a picture of the music truck, complete with music notes and a setting sun:

I'm sure it's only a matter of time before she discovers what is in the music truck, and I'm dreading it. I think I'll have to steal my sister's line and tell her that if the ice cream truck is playing music, it means they're all out of ice cream.

Three months!

Annabelle turned three months old on Wednesday, and I can't believe how fast those three months went. With Mabes, I remember reading that it got a lot easier at 3 months (and then 5 months) and was so relieved that it was true for us. With Annabelle...well, I decided I'd be thrilled if it stayed the same. As if to say, "I'll show you, I WILL be easier!" Annabelle skipped her 5 am feeding this morning, sleeping from about 9 pm to 7:30 this morning. (I realize things can change, that's why I'm just enjoying this. Mabes slept from 8:30 to 7:30 one night at three months and...to say we still had some sleep issues after that would be a bit of an understatement.)

As sad as I am that the newborn stage is officially over, I'm having a lot of fun with 3 months. Laughing at the fan a few weeks ago was an isolated incident, but this week she's started giggling again. She smiles and coos and kicks her legs when she sees me, which is reassuring--for the longest time she seemed to smile only for Dave. And she's absolutely mesmerized by Mabes.

And to follow up on Monday's post, a photo essay:


"She always has that camera in my face, how do I make her stop?"



"Maybe if I go over here..."



"Forget that, let's try the other way..."



"What was I thinking? I hate this way, too!"



"Wait a second...I think I've got it!"



"We're movin' here!"



"Whoa--how did I end up like this?"


She's been doing it since Tuesday and still seems pretty surprised each time. And when she's on her back, she's rolling onto her side, so who knows? Like I said, Mabes didn't consistently roll until 8 months. She didn't crawl until 10 months, so I thought I had a little girl who was just content to sit back and watch the world go by. Then she started walking at 12 months and running the week after that, and hasn't stopped since. So while I'm so proud of Annabelle's accomplishment, I'm a little nervous about her becoming mobile already.


"Mmmm...fists are good..."