Conversations with Mabes

"Hey Mabes, guess what? Last night, when I was running on the greenway, I saw three deer and a beaver!"

"Wow, what did the beaver look like?"

"Uhhhh, a beaver. Sitting in the water."

"Did it look like Justin Beaver? I bet it did. I like Justin Beaver. Cadence likes Justin Beaver. We bof do. We heard a Justin Beaver song at school and got really excited and said, 'it's Justin Beaver! I love Justin Beaver songs!' It was crazy."

It occurred to me that while I'm trying to protect her from the tween madness that is Disney pop stars and the Biebs as long as possible, I'm keeping her in the Nick Jr. phase maybe a little too long. And I'm totally alright with that. But because of that, she's probably picturing Justin Beaver as a large, CGI singing beaver. I bet if I came home tomorrow and told her I saw a moose and a kangaroo, she'd ask if they looked like Tyrone and Austin.

Man, now I hope I see a kangaroo tomorrow. Or a uniqua.

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.

I'm sorry, Dad

Hey Dad,

Remember when we were little, and we'd beg you to tickle us? And we'd shriek and laugh as you chased us around the house, and then we had the brilliant idea, "Let's get DAD!" You'd get mad and tell us not to, and we always thought it was because you were so ticklish and we were so good at it that we'd see your Achilles heel and be able to take you down.

It wasn't that, was it? It was because we were terrible ticklers and our "tickling" felt more like we were jabbing a rake at you, right? I'm sorry.

~Allison

Is it a kid thing? Or did Mabes inherit Edward Scissorhands-style tickling from me?

The Evolution of Bipedalism

Just pretend that the empty box in the background (Mabes' car) is a monolith.

Mabes' worldview

I noticed this on the fridge today:

Her name is vertical/backwards because "it's more fun that way." And while she learned how to end sentences with periods, she never does; "exclamation points mean you're excited, so that's how I always end my sentences."

And the speech bubbles? "It's because all I like to fink about is me!" Reminds me of the Malcolm in the Middle episode where you get glimpse into Dewey's mind and his mom is only saying, "Dewey Dewey Dewey Dewey Dewey..." That would explain why she hasn't heard a word I've said this afternoon.

Aunt LAURA!!!

I picked Laura up Friday night, and after about 10 minutes in the car, we ran out of things to talk about. Awkward silence. I almost turned the car around to take her back to the airport, but remembering how important it is to my parents that we get along, we decided to try to work things out. Fine! It's so hard to get along with her. Also, I forgot to bring snacks for the long car ride back (with so much food, we might as well start right away!), and since she hadn't had much to eat that day, we stopped at Bojangles. After an agonizing decision-making process, we left with our fried chicken and biscuit. Welcome to the South.

The next morning, the girls cooperated nicely and let us sleep in until 8--they were thrilled to see Laura. Dave picked up breakfast at Bojangles (we seriously don't eat there that often--Laura likes biscuits!), and after eating, we went out to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather. It was gorgeous.

Chalk drawings:Laura teaches Mabes the art of spinning bubbles:

After Annabelle's nap, we went to the Nature Museum. We felt like we had to do something to break up the eating, plus--thanks to getting a family Exploratorium membership at Christmas--we got in free. We wandered around, saw some bugs, snakes, birds, butterflies, turtles, and an owl.


Okay, I have to admit: when I was telling Laura some of the things I'd thought of doing that day, I mentioned the Nature Museum and added, "Plus, it's right next to Freedom Park, one of the nicer parks in Charlotte. AND, judging by the Bachelor previews, Emily meets Brad at that park on the hometown dates episode airing Monday." Sold. It was a gorgeous afternoon, so we took a stroll through the rather crowded park. We embraced on the bridge, Bachelor-style:

And then we went to Cookout:
We have late church (boo!), so we spent Sunday morning playing and eating waffles with spekuloos* (yay!). Went to church, came home and had Sunday dinner, put the kids to bed, and then had popcorn. It was a good day.


Monday was Presidents' Day, but because of snow days last month, Mabes had to go to school. This worked out nicely--after dropping Mabes off at school, we put Babybelle in the jogging stroller and Laura, Dave, and I went for a run. It was a good run, punctuated by Laura periodically throwing her arms out and shouting, "I LOVE this weather!" We had time to come home, shower, eat breakfast and head over to Mabes' school to eat lunch (brunch?) with her. She loved getting to show Aunt Laura her school, and tell her friends that her Aunt Laura from New York was coming for lunch.

Then Laura and I went shopping, though the highlight of that trip was sitting out in the sun, eating frozen yogurt, and just chatting. It was perfect. That afternoon, the girls had a bit more time to play and go for a walk with Aunt Laura, and then it was time to head to the airport. As if sending her back to 30 degree snowy weather wasn't bad enough, halfway to the airport Laura realized she forgot her coat. I tried to get her to take the Strawberry Shortcake blanket we had in the car, but she assured me she'd be fine.

We did...well, not much. But that's why I love my family. Some visits are packed with things to do (organized by a yellow legal pad), while others are pretty much just hanging out. But it's always fun. Mabes had a hard time going to bed that night, and the next morning she told me she didn't sleep well because she was so sad Aunt Laura had to leave.


*And I thought the Dutch were brilliant! Kudos to that whole region for delicious breakfast foods. The jar of spekuloos says it's made from Belgian gingerbread cookies, but I think they somehow manage to get rainbows, sunshine, and perhaps a little crack in there.