Booooooooooootyyyyyyyyyy!

It's fun to yell "booootyyyy!" Especially when you're pillaging your boss's snack cabinet with your sister. Good times.

But this isn't about that. This is about 24 Hours of Booty. As Dave mentioned earlier, he's riding this year after helping out last year. It's a great cause that supports not only Livestrong, but local cancer organizations. Both of our families have been impacted by cancer. Some family members have survived, and some haven't. He'll be riding for them.

A few years ago, I was listening to the radio and a doctor was talking about cancer. He pointed out that while we didn't yet have a cure for cancer, getting a cancer diagnosis wasn't the death sentence it was 20 years ago. I realized that about 20 years earlier was around the time my Aunt Alyce was diagnosed. She fought it twice, but didn't survive. She is still missed. The mortality rate has dropped significantly, thanks to research and scientific advancements. Cancer is still terrifying, and unfortunately affects too many families.

So if you have some extra money you just don't know what to do with, donate to a great cause (click here to get to Dave's page). They support research and local cancer treatment facilities. And if that isn't enough incentive, if you donate, Mabes will send you a thank you. Which may or may not say "thank you," it may just be original art. For example:
I liked this one better before she added the green. It was just pencil with a hint of yellow. Note the dog's happiness, and the horror on Dave's, Annabelle's, and Mabes' faces. I was at a baby shower. Also, it will be a while before we dogsit again.

18 months!

Annabelle turned 18 months a couple of weeks ago. She is a full-fledged toddler, and I absolutely love this age when I'm not banging my head against the wall due to the screaming. It's quite the change from the sweet, calm, easy going baby that she was. Screeching aside (seriously, I don't remember birthing a banshee), this is a really fun age and I'm loving it. A few things I want to remember about this age:
She adores Mabes, and now that she's a bit older, Mabes usually loves playing with her. I love watching the two of them together.
She's really starting to pick up new words. I don't think she's saying as much as Mabes was at this age, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. She says Daddy, doggie, Mabes (Mmmmmae!), Mama, Rudy (Ru-ee, the dog we watched for a week), Annabelle (Baba), all done, more, milk, eat, ball, car, yummy, amen, me, baby, thank you, night night, and stinky (ginky, accompanied by patting her bum). If you ask her a question that starts with "Who" and say it with enough enthusiasm, she'll get really excited and yell, "MEEEEE!" (Yes, grammarphiles, I realize that's incorrect. I don't care. It's cute.) "Who wants breakfast?!?!" "MEEE!" "Who needs a nap?!?!" "MMEEE!" "Who loves Mommy?!?!" "MMMEEEEEE!" It's very validating.

I pulled out the camera and she totally turned around and posed.

She loves to dance and wiggle and run and jump. Well, at this point, she tries to jump. If she does manage to heave her body off the ground, she usually falls down, but she's quite proud of herself. She tries to sing the songs Mabes sings, including, "Baby, baby baby ooooooooohhhh..." (more banging head against wall). She loves loud noises and almost any kind of music.

If the dishwasher is open, she'll close it. If a drawer is closed, she'll open and empty it. She likes having her hair in pigtails when we got out, but as soon as we get home she makes me take them out and fluff her hair. She sleeps better than Mabes did at this age (and honestly, if one of them is going to get me up in the night, 9 times out of 10 it will be Mabes). She's not allowed to have her pacifiers during the day, but she loves cuddling up with about 4 of them and Murray, her stuffed lamb, at night. This is where I run--it makes 78 degrees and 92% humidity

before 7 am more bearable.

She's a cuddler. If I ask, "Who wants tickles?" she'll yell "Meee!" and then drop down on the floor and wait. She shrugs her shoulders and makes funny little adult expressions. She gives great sparkler hugs. She giggles in her sleep.

Is it just me or is this a Grandma Thurston face?

She had her 18 month check up almost 2 weeks ago, and is weighing in at 23 lbs 6 oz (45th percentile) and is 31.5 inches tall (50th percentile). She's been to the doctor twice this last week due to a nasty fever, and has to go back again tomorrow for another blood draw. For Becca and other medical nerds, her white blood cell count is really low, particularly the granulocytes. Following doctor's orders, she stayed home from church today since the wbc count indicates that her immune system isn't functioning as well as it should, but hopefully she'll be back to normal tomorrow. She's been really brave through all the blood draws, and though there were tears, the screaming was minimal. (But turn off the water before she's done playing in it, and look out!) She even waves to all the doctors and nurses on the way out. She's a sweet girl and we love her.

Last Day of Kindergarten!

August 2010 - - - - - - - - June 2011

See, I'm really behind. Over a month (!) ago, Mabes finished kindergarten. It was a great year. A couple of days before the last day, her class had an ice cream party that families could attend. She'd made a book about kindergarten, and at the front of the book, her teacher put in a letter that started:

Dear Parents,

We give you back your children, confidently entrusted to our care last fall. We give them back pounds heavier, inches taller, months wiser, more responsible and more mature than they were then. Although they would have attained this growth in spite of us, it has been our happy privilege to watch their personalities unfold day by day...

Getting out of the van one last time as a kindergartner

I couldn't read any more--at least not at the party. I was NOT prepared to cry that day, or even at the end of school. But as I looked up at this girl, I was overwhelmed by how much she's grown and how fast the last year has gone by. I have loved dropping her off each day, watching her skip down the sidewalk waving to teachers. I've loved watching her come out of school each day (again, usually skipping) and see Annabelle get excited to have her sister back. I've loved hearing her tell me about the things she learned at school, and hearing what made her day the best day ever and the worst day ever. I can't believe how quickly her first year of kindergarten went by, and I can't believe I have an almost 6-year-old.

4th of July

Mabes was really excited for the 4th of July. Partly because she gets excited for any holiday or birthday, but particularly for 4th of July because it's starting to make more sense. She's been watching Liberty's Kids on Netflix streaming and while I don't know how much of the history she's retaining, she's got a better idea of what happened and the significance of the Declaration of Independence. She'll tell you all about the Redcoats and why she likes to call the British "the Brattish." (I have made sure she knows we like Britain now--I mean, they gave us Cadbury, Colin Firth, and Harry Potter!)

I like that everyone is smiling, and that the Redcoat forgot his
red coat and is wearing a top hat.

In preparation for the 4th, Mabes had been coloring flags for decorations and drawing pictures and writing sentences. So I decided to make a red, white, and blue breakfast beyond our typical Belgian waffles with strawberries, blueberries, and whipped cream (because let's face it, if I'm going to make waffles, I'd rather put spekuloos on them!). And this is why I'm not a food blogger. Well, this and the fact that I can't blog regularly to save my life. And because anyone outside my family would get bored with pictures of ice cream and popcorn. Okay, so there are lots of reasons why I'm not a food blogger, and here is one of them:


Blueberry & Strawberry Baked French Toast. I overwhipped the cream. I *almost* called my mom and asked her how she makes hers so good, but I didn't think she'd appreciate a call at 5:30 am on a holiday. And also, what kind of idiot needs directions on whipping cream? Me, apparently. But despite the overwhipped cream and the patriotic colors baking into a purpley mess, it was good. And since I usually dislike baked fruit, that's quite high praise.

One of these days, we'll work on spelling. The Kindergarten
teachers were big on letting them sound out words and spell them
how they want to. I think I'll do the same, starting with "colonel."

And judging by this picture, I'm thinking Mabes may be preparing to declare her own independence. She's got the crown and the pledge of allegiance worked out already:

If only she had a little confidence...

California

More catching up...

Over a month ago, we headed to California to see one brother get married and see the other before he left on his mission. I'll skim over the details of the flights, but let's just say that we gave Delta a chance to redeem themselves, and they laughed at that opportunity. Multiple times. I was ready to knock out the emergency exit and slide out at SFO.

Once we finally made it to my parents' (and enjoyed 2 am room service of milk and frozen chocolate cookies thanks to Pappy), we were able to crash and gear up for the festivities. One nice thing about taking late flights west is that it forces the girls onto Pacific time quite nicely, and they both slept past 7 on the first morning. Friday was filled with hanging out with arriving family, going to the rehearsal (Mabes was one of the flower girls), last minute details, and the rehearsal dinner.

Dad and Dono, ready to go.

On Saturday morning, we got to go to the temple with Doov (see picture below). When we got back, we took advantage of a Groupon and took the kids horseback riding. Mabes was giddy.

Annabelle was too young to ride, but had fun watching and petting the "doggies." (She has one word for animals right now.) Mabes later admitted that she got the horse she was hoping for, Dusty.
And since Saturday was also Dave's birthday, we celebrated with cake and ice cream.
Sunday morning was David's farewell. It was really nice, as long as I didn't make eye contact with him or Laura when she sang. At one point, as I went through my diaper bag, Mabes just reached in and whispered, "here are da kleenexes, Mommy, I saw dem earlier." Thanks, Mabes.

We went home and had the kids take naps to gear up for the evening. Mabes, of course, didn't nap, despite my best efforts. I laid down with her, tried to just get her to hold still long enough to fall asleep, but I'm telling you, that girl wills herself awake. I gave up after an hour and a half. Babybelle, on the other hand, took a great nap.

Everyone looking lovely, and Annabelle is mad.

We went to the wedding, at Murietta's Well in Livermore. We took pictures beforehand, with Jeff and Jess nicely avoiding seeing each other. And being the genius I am, I forgot my camera. But my mom and brother-in-law have much nicer cameras, so I'd rather steal their pictures anyway.

The flower girls pass the time by watching Backyardigans.

The ceremony was beautiful and Jess looked amazing. Mabes took her role as flower girl very seriously, and when Gemma stole the show with her crazy walks and twirls down the aisle, Mabes was uncharacteristically serious. I'm totally fine with that, as the alternative could have been scary!

The lovely Jess.

I kind of wanted to take a nap on her train.
I don't think she would have appreciated that, though.

Jess and her attendants.

Since it was an evening wedding with dinner starting at 8, I was hoping to make it through dinner and maybe stay for the cake cutting. But the girls did great. They loved when the wedding party came in (Annabelle was clapping and bouncing in her seat), thought dinner was fantastic, and when the dancing started, Annabelle tore it up:

She came to move move move move

Mabes danced, too, but it was evident that she didn't take a nap. Babybelle was punchy and giggling and dancing and Mabes finally crashed at a table. I had prepared myself for the worst, with two girls still on East Coast time, but they did great and we had a lot of fun.

Seriously, we didn't plan our outfits. Jess asked that we not wear anything too crazy (so I had to nix the lime green tube dress, and Sarah couldn't wear a white ballgown), but look how coordinated!

The fam. Then the photographer asked for just the immediate family. Uh, this is it.

The kids.

Our original plan had been to head up to Tahoe on Memorial Day, but we decided to wait around a day and rest. Plus, we had planned on a summery vacation in Tahoe, and it looked like the weather wouldn't cooperate, so we weren't in as much of a rush. So we had a lazy day and saw Kung Fu Panda 2. Oh, and Becca's boyfriend Austin came out for the wedding and stayed for the whole week. More importantly, he put up with our shenanigans and even seemed to enjoy himself (despite being woken up early by the kids on the first day). As we were talking about who was going to go see the movie, Austin said he totally wanted to go, and Becca just laughed and said she was going to take a nap.

We headed up to Tahoe on Tuesday and were greeted with cold weather and snow on the ground. Wednesday (June 1) it snowed. A lot. My dad was mad at Tahoe--he had had a fun trip planned! Trying not to be deterred, we thought there would be a break in the snow so we went for a hike. It snowed. Annabelle was mad. But Mabes thought it was great!

I don't know what she's doing here, but I kind of love this picture.

Other than that, we spent the time just hanging out, talking, eating, and laughing. Mabes was thoroughly amused that there was a bear in the area that came out at night and ransacked the trash. We never saw the bear, but she was often on the lookout for him. Perhaps one of my favorite moments was when we were watching SYTYCD at Sarah's condo (we had 3 condos; my parents' was farthest away) and my mom hesitantly got up to leave for home. It was cold and dark outside, and I half-heartedly offered to walk her home. She assured us she'd be fine, and just grab some licorice for the walk back. We asked her to text us when she got home, so we knew she was okay.

We take singing "Happy Birthday" very seriously.

A few minutes later, Sarah's phone buzzed: "Dear Sarah I ate your mother. She was delicious and so were the red vines. Regards Bear" Okay, maybe we were a little punchy. It was late and we were already on a sugar high. But this sent us over the edge. Moomsie is hilarious. But there was that nagging worry that maybe she had been eaten by a smartphone-using-opposable-thumbed bear. I mean, then we'd feel really bad about laughing. Thankfully, my mom was okay.