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.

Goals, games, and milkshakes

We had been wanting to catch a Braves game for a long time, and decided that April was the time to do it. Because a mid-afternoon game in Atlanta in July didn't sound like fun. However, I had set a goal to be able to run 10k by my birthday, and I was running out of time. While I just wanted to be able to run the distance, Dave suggested I find an actual 10k to run. So once we decided to go to Atlanta for the weekend, I found three 10Ks that were also that day. I narrowed it down to the one that seemed like the prettiest run and had a staggered start for the 5k and 10k (so we could alternate running and watching the girls). So on Saturday morning, Dave and I got to run along the Chattahoochee River. Even if it wasn't as flat as the website had claimed, it was still a beautiful day and a great run.

When I started running 8 weeks ago, my goal was to finish the 10k without walking. And then I started thinking I could run it in under an hour. Then I hurt my foot. Then I got better. Then I looked up my family's times when they ran a 10k together in 2009 (I was 36 weeks pregnant and having contractions every 4 minutes, so I didn't) and started pushing myself to be in their range (between 56:11 and 1:00:00; no, David, I'm not counting your time). Then Dave told me about the hills. And I was back to the "finish without walking" goal.

Dave on the left, me in a "Where's Waldo" pink and gray tank top on the right.

I finished. I didn't walk. I felt great (a little bored and frustrated at one point; I had wanted to update my playlist but I think Annabelle may have thrown away my shuffle's cord--boo!), and I loved seeing my girls clapping for me as I approached the finish line. I finished in 56:10, averaging 9:02/mile. I'm very happy with it.

There were a lot of dogs at the race, so Annabelle loved pointed them out and waving to them. There was one that she really seemed to like, and we just happened to be going out to our cars at the same time. They ended up being parked next to us, and as we were trying to get the girls loaded up in the van, we heard one of the owners call the dog over for water. Dave and I looked at each other, and he asked, "I'm sorry, but what's you're dog's name?" The owner looked up, "This is Annabelle!" We introduced our Annabelle, and explained that her nickname was Puppy. They seemed amused (or at least politely feigned amusement) and let us take a picture:

Two puppies named Annabelle

We headed back to the hotel, showered, Annabelle took a nap, and then we went to lunch at the Varsity. I didn't get my post-run chocolate milk, but a post-run chocolate shake is even better.

Then we went to the game. Mabes was totally excited and just took everything in.

We need to work on her hand-eye coordination.

Puppy's first corndog

Runnin' the bases

"For it's root, root root for the home team..."

We couldn't have asked for better weather--high 60s with a light breeze. There had been a huge storm the night before and that game had been cancelled, so we could have stayed for Saturday's double header. The girls were pretty tired by the time game 1 ended, so we hung out for a little bit, watching them get the field ready and see the players warm up (or stay warm, since they had just played). Mabes kept thanking us for such a great day, and was so happy that she got to see Chipper, Brian McCann, and Jason Heyward. The Braves won, Chipper hit a home run, and Mabes got to dance and cheer do the tomahawk chop. It was a great day.

I'm a weaner

Annabelle is officially weaned. I vowed that I'd wean her closer to 1, but here we are: 15.5 months. Exactly the same as Mabes.

In my defense, right after she turned 1, we were traveling. Then she had a cold. Then ear infection. Then another ear infection. So we slowly dropped feedings when she got better, and at her 15 month check we were down to two. Oh, and she had another ear infection. Despite thinking I was totally ready to wean, I had a surprisingly difficult time with it. Annabelle was losing interest and I knew I should jump on that, but I felt like weaning her would be my admission that she's not a baby anymore.

But she isn't a baby anymore, she's a full-fledged toddler. Nursing won't change that. So we stopped. My body didn't get the memo quite as easily as with Mabes, but I think I'm done, and with no mastitis (see, Laura, worked that in for you!). So here's my toddler:


She walks and tries to talk and carries on these long, drawn out gurgly conversations of gibberish. She weighs in at a whopping 21 pounds (23rd percentile) and is 30 1/4 inches tall (50th percentile). By comparison, Mabes was 28 pounds and 31 inches at this age.

Stealing my foam roller.

She likes climbing on things, something we thought Mabes never did but I guess pictures correct fuzzy memories:

Mabes

She was mad that I took this before helping her out.
I told her it's what parents are supposed to do.

My sweet baby now has opinions and throws things when she's mad and throws herself on the floor when really mad (gingerly, though; she's also a fast learner and quickly realized that just falling down hurts her head). She adores Mabes and loves to chase her around. She loves music and trying to dance. You can't eat hummus around her unless you're willing to share. Her favorite book is "Good Dog, Carl," and she always laughs at the same parts. Her hair is starting to curl. She's been a stinker with naps lately (on most days, she acts like she needs two, but usually only takes one), but when she gets super tired, she's punchy and giggly and gives the best hugs.

I can't believe she's 15 months old.

One year one month one day

This little girl

is now 1. Technically no longer a baby, but still my baby. To be honest, I was kind of dreading her birthday. Annabelle has been a great baby, and I didn't want the baby stage to be over. It was a great year. I miss cuddling up on the couch with her:

But I love chasing her:

Her current interests include crawling faster than any baby I've seen, standing a lot (more lately, now that she's feeling better and her ear infection is gone), clicking her tongue, growling when something makes her happy, cuddling with Murray, laughing at Mabes, saying "Dada," not saying "Mama," and being a complete Daddy's girl. Dave works from home, so if he comes out during the day, her face lights up, she growls, yells "Dada!," bounces a little, then race-crawls over to him, knocks her head into his shins, sits back, and wiggles her ankles and wrists until he picks her up. The other day I was cleaning up the kitchen and before I knew it, she had bolted down the hall and was outside Dave's office sticking her fingers under the door whispering "Dadadada!"

She has her own opinion and gets mad when she doesn't get what she wants and randomly throws her food on the floor even though she's still hungry. So cute! And she still wakes up at night and I think she's trying to drop down to one nap, which I am totally not ready for. But despite that, she's an absolutely adorable one-year-old.

How could you not want to squeeze her?

My little Annabelle has the sweetest smile...

Dear little Annabelle, won't you stay awhile?*

I can't believe she's already 8 months old. She's calmed down a little, but Annabelle still has her days of endless screeching. She’s back to good sleeping, so I can’t complain. On Tuesday, she took a 4 (!) hour nap, and has slept through the night 3 nights in a row. Now that I’ve typed that out, she’ll be up 5 times tonight.

"Why is it that the harder I try to get Murray, the farther away he is? And I get stuck under this chair?"

We’ve found that the screeching can sometimes be alleviated by singing her new favorite song, the title of this post. Doing the accompanying dance also helps. She’s now pretty good at pushing herself up to sitting, and continues to roll and army crawl wherever she needs to go. She’ll get on her hands and knees and rock or crawl backwards a little, but she has yet to go more than a couple inches forward. She’s also able to put her own pacifier back in her mouth. Mabes never really cared for a pacifier, so I wasn’t sure when this would happen. For some time now, I’ve put her to bed with a pacifier in her mouth and one in her hand, since she would yank out the one in her mouth to play with it, only to then get upset that it was no longer in her mouth. This week I noticed that she was waking up with a different one in her mouth than the one in her mouth when I put her to bed. As I put her to bed tonight I had a flashback to when my mom would put my baby brother down with a pacifier in his mouth and one in each hand. He’d rotate them throughout the night, and he always had to have three pacifiers.

Wailin' on her guitar from Uncle David

That baby brother starts college this week. A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to my mom about how Mabes starting school was this new, huge chapter in my life. I have a kid in school now, and that won’t end until… “you’re my age?” my mom answered. Shortly before Mabes was born, my parents came to visit and brought a giant box of baby clothes my sister sent. As we sorted through them, my dad had a funny look on his face and said, “As I’m watching you hold up the nightgowns and sleepers, I kept thinking of night wakings and diaper explosions and realized what a long road you have ahead of you and thought, ‘Man, poor Allison and Dave!’ But then I thought of the fun—the first smiles, first laughter, first steps, the funny things they say and do, the family trips, the school plays, the sports…and I realized you guys have some really great things ahead of you.”

As I gave Annabelle her pacifiers tonight, I thought about how it seems like only yesterday David had his pacifier collection and awesome bowl haircut. I thought about how my parents are now officially empty nesters, and after a day like today, that sounds kind of nice. But then I check myself--I know that soon enough, days like today will seem like a foggy memory and I’ll long for this:

Of course I took a picture.

It’s hard enough that my brother is old enough to go to college, so I’ll just savor these moments while I can.


*You totally want to watch Three Amigos now, huh?

She's found her voice

It is a truth universally acknowledged that as soon as one part of your life starts looking up, another part falls to pieces.

Looking up: Dave started a new job this week! And with a company he's been wanting to get into for years now, but with the economy and hiring freezes, it's been difficult. It's very different from his old job, and he's really enjoying it.

Falling to pieces: Annabelle's awesomeness--it was fun while it lasted. Don't get me wrong, she's still quite possibly the cutest baby ever (no, I'm not biased). But she's recently taken to shrieking as loudly as she can, which is surprisingly loud considering her small size and how quiet she's been up until this point. And naps have been more difficult. And she's been waking up more at night.

I'm hoping this can be attributed to teething. Or maybe it's an early wonder week. Or maybe it's because she's *so close* to crawling and pushing herself up to sitting (I've read that their brains go haywire as they approach developmental milestones--right? Or I could just be making that up.)

Every time she'd get up on all fours I'd grab the camera and she'd drop down. So here's Annabelle pretending like she wasn't trying to crawl. And gnawing on her fingers, because she may or may not be teething.

Whatever. I'm hoping it's a phase that will soon pass, but if it doesn't, I enjoyed every moment of her easiness. And I'm certainly not complaining about the recent turn of events. If the above quote is true, a happily employed husband is totally worth a fussy baby.

6 months!

Do you know someone who constantly raves about how great something is? She won't shut up about it--something so great, but you couldn't possibly understand. But she's not exaggerating at all. This thing really is great. It's annoying, right? I hate people like that.

So forgive me, indulge me, or perhaps just skip this post.

Annabelle is officially 6 months old. And the last 6 months of Annie? They've been great. Sleeping? Great! Eating? Great! Temperament? Great! The other day, I ran errands all morning while Mabes was at a friend's house. We got home, and Dave asked how Annabelle did. I frowned, shook my head, and muttered, "it was rough." Shock took over Dave's face, "Really?!" I'm a terrible liar and just started laughing, "Of course not! She was a perfect angel--despite being hungry and tired she would still smile and laugh at me anytime I looked at her! *I* was fussier than she was!"

In the last couple of months, her personality has started to show. I can't really put it into words, but she's just funny. While she continues to enjoy the same activities she did as a newborn--cuddling into your chest, not crying, and making adorable baby noises in her sleep--she has discovered some new favorites: grabbing your hand when you pat her chest, stealthily rolling when we're not looking (though Mabes foils her attempts to go unnoticed and yells, "Mom! Babybelle ROLLED OVER! AGAIN!"), attempting army crawls, baby supermans (supermen?), and chewing on her toes:

I think once she got the whole ball of her foot in her mouth.

And I love the following picture. The look on her face generally precedes a giant smile and squeal. But for a minute, she'll just be still and look as sweet and coy as she can, watching as you fight the urge to bite those thighs. And then she'll break out the crazy smile pictured at the top of this post, and you squeeze her as she lets out a belly laugh. And that is just one of the many reasons that the last 6 months of Annabelle have been so great.

Oh, and her 6 month stats: 16 lbs, 6.5 oz, 27 inches tall. (60th percentile for weight, 90th for height. By comparison, Mabes was about 20 lbs at 6 months--she didn't have her 6 month check-up until she was 7 months, and was 22 lbs 1 oz, 27.5 inches then.) Her appointment this morning went really well. She was a little nervous about the nurse and doctor, but warmed up quickly. The doctor kept commenting on how observant she is, but with a sister like Mabes, Annie is used to watching and trying to figure out what on earth is going on. She didn't love the rotavirus vaccine (it's a drink) and made faces after each sip, and when it came time for the shots, she flinched after the first one, and it wasn't until the second and final shot that she made a face and let out a maybe 3 second cry. And then she was fine. The nurse kept saying, "I can't believe she didn't cry! That went so well!" Proving there were no hard feelings, Annabelle smiled and giggled for the nurse on her way out.

Annabelle after her shots, obviously distraught. At least she has Murray, her lamb, to comfort her. After I took this picture, she ripped off one of the bandaids to inspect. Other than that, you'd never know she got shots today.