The _________ twos

So Annabelle turned 2 over two months ago. She's changed a lot in the last couple of months, so maybe it's best that I didn't do this on her birthday. A summary of Annabelle at two:

The bad
-She poops in the bathtub. She's only done it twice, but that's two more times than Mabes ever did. She preferred my sister's foyer.
-She likes to scream in public, and has found it effective in getting me to leave craft stores.
-She repeats what she wants until she gets it. She doesn't care if you ignore her.
-She hits Mabes. We're working on this.
-When holding hands and walking, she likes to play human obstacle course by jumping in front of me and laughing when I try to not trip over her.

I only mention these things to illustrate that she is a two-year-old. She can be a stinker and drive me nuts. In spite of the above, however, she is quite possibly the cutest (or among the cutest, Mabes) two-year-old ever. I want to rip my hair out almost every day, but I find myself saying "I love this age!" every day. Some highlights:

-She's funny. She has mastered the side-eye and give me looks that seem to say, "Okay, mom..." when they are well-deserved.
-She has the cutest run/dance/skip.
-She insists on wearing her sunglasses in stores. That, combined with her pigtails, gets her a lot of attention. She plays it cool, but it's an act.
-If she doesn't get the desired attention, she'll wave at other shoppers until they notice her. Then she plays it cool.
-She absolutely adores Mabes. The highlight of her day is when Mabes gets home from school. She looks forward to this all day, and it even makes her want to take a nap. From the time she gets up, she starts talking about her afternoon plans: "Eat yunch, take a nap, and TADA! Mabes home! Ow-side, PAY!"
-She's picked up Mabes' habit of saying, "Ta-da!"
-She's also picked up Mabes' habit/insistence of wearing cat ears ALL DAY
-She likes playing with balls and has a surprisingly strong arm and good aim.
-When we exercise at home, Annabelle likes to join us. She uses Lincoln Logs as her weights.
-She got a mini-trampoline for her birthday and I could watch her jump on it all day
-I know there's a bunch more, but I'm getting distracted by the cuteness of Annabelle "flying" outside and I can't think. And now both girls are covered in mud from "flying" into the giant mud puddle in the corner of the yard. *reverie over*



Sarah had commented that she was pretty sure Annabelle's pigtails could cure cancer or something. I would agree. I'm thinking pigtails+trampoline could be my happy place for labor:

Hey look, I still have a blog!

I'm still slacking on my blog. My excuses:

-Busy with church
-I'm ridiculously tired all the time
-Winter sends me into a funk (not the good kind), and I think pregnancy compounded that.
-Finally finished Sharon Kay Penman's Welsh Trilogy (aka 1,920 pages of awesome)
-Busy eating my weight in chocolate chip cookies
-Whenever I get online, I somehow end up looking at houses instead of doing whatever I had intended to do.
-My kids are actually doing pretty well (more on that in later posts, if I ever get around to it) and I'm afraid that posting that will change it.
-I just haven't wanted to.

So there you go. Spring is on it's way and my street will look like this in a few days:

So I'm hoping to find some motivation and post some pictures of the girls.

Not with a bang but a whimper

And so, this is the way the year ends.

I *meant* to blog more. I'll admit, I felt guilty after reading my cousin's post a few weeks ago about how not documenting things on her blog makes it as if things didn't happen. And while I haven't had the year she has, I somehow managed to not write anything for nearly two months. No good excuses--just the usual: busy, writer's block (I was asked to write 4-6 sentences about myself for the Relief Society spotlight and it took FOREVER), laziness, the desire to make batches of fudge and caramel, busy, and STILL working on a book I started several weeks ago (heaven help me, I will find out what happens to Llewelyn ap Gruffydd, Davydd ap Gruffydd, and Simon de Montfort).

Two weeks ago, I was going to end the year with a bang and crank out a blog post a day. That didn't happen. So now I need to catch up on the last two months, along with write about my parents' visit in September. So here's the last two months, in pictures:

My parents came in September. We showed them Charlotte, ate lots of food, took them to South Carolina (my dad had never been), and just had lots of fun. We spent a day at Historic Brattonsville, and though we went a few years ago, it was good to go again when it was green.

Mabes in the log cabin with Grandpa

Riding Papa's shoulders


With Grandma at the Bratton residence, built in the early 1800s.
This house was used in The Patriot.

TA-DA!

The girls had a lot of fun with their grandparents, and my dad really made an impression on Annabelle. A couple of weeks after they left, we had the missionaries over for dinner. Before they arrived, I was setting the table and as soon as Annabelle noticed the extra places, she got really excited and started chanting, "Papa! Papa!!!" She was a little crushed when I told her that Grandpa wasn't coming that day.

Moving on to fall, Annabelle was able to enjoy fall this year, complete with jumping in leaf piles and everything else Mabes had promised her:

Also, Annabelle is working on the art of fake smiling:
We spend Thanksgiving with Dave's family, and went to the local science museum the next day:

lot of mirrors

Annabelle got to meet Santa at our church's annual Christmas breakfast:

She still doesn't like him.

Mabes was thrilled when we got a letter from Santa the Monday before Christmas saying that as an early gift, we were going to go to the Great Wolf Lodge for a night. It's only about 30 minutes away, but we were a little worried that she'd be upset about leaving her best friend/our next door neighbor. They don't get to play during the week, so she was hoping to cram in as much friend time during the vacation as possible. However, the letter said to pack your swimsuit and that was all she needed. Dave showed her pictures of the water slides and pools, and she was ecstatic. We left Tuesday afternoon, spent a few hours at the indoor waterpark, spent the night, and spent most of the day Wednesday swimming, sliding, and just enjoying the 84 degree park. While we were there, it was rainy and cold outside, so that was an added bonus.

Swim diaper on, she's ready to go!

In the wave pool

It's hard to see her, but Mabes is on her way up to the slide

Mabes comes down a slide

Dave and his girls

I'll do Christmas in another post...sometime. But we took care of my big Christmas present in November: our first "real" family photo:

My amazing friend Lindsay (Hart to Hart Digital) did them and put up with our girls' craziness. Despite them running in opposite directions and trying really hard to not smile, she managed to somehow capture some smiles and make them look really sweet. I mean, they ARE sweet. They just weren't being sweet that day. It was SUPER fun:
But I'm very happy with the pictures we got. Here are a few:

I like this one because it's like, "Look, it's a mom and toddler, playing and having fun
together!" Really, the mom is just frantically trying to get a smile!

I'm so glad we took these pictures. I'm not going to lie, it was exhausting. And I appreciate Lindsay for saying that she's worked with much worse (even if I think she's lying, I appreciate her caring enough to lie). I promised Dave we wouldn't have to do that again for several years, but then a few days later we found out that #3 is on the way, so who knows...maybe we'll be taking family pictures again next year!

Hey Laura...

In Mabes' mind, her Aunt Laura is the only one running the ING New York Marathon tomorrow.

Best of luck tomorrow. I would tell you to make us proud, but you did that already by having the guts to sign up for this crazy event. I know you're pumped to make it to mile 20 and have every step after that be farther than you've ever run before, but I'm just excited for you to get to the start line. Every step after that? I'm just in awe. Imagine cheers, yells, high fives and butt slaps coming from NC. You're amazing.

And then take birthday relaxation/eating to a whole new level on Monday!

Halloween

For Halloween, Mabes wanted to be.....(drumroll please) a cat! I'm kind of surprised at how long this kick is lasting. I'm certainly not complaining, though, because her costume was ridiculously easy: leotard from 2 years ago, black ears (as opposed to her daytime white ears, you know, worn when playing around the house and going to the store) leftover from her party, tail, and fancy it up with a sparkly skirt/leggings combo my mom gave her for Christmas last year. So it naturally followed that Annabelle should dress up as a mouse. Again, super easy.
This year was Annabelle's first year trick-or-treating. She only lasted a few houses, and the whole idea seemed to blow her mind. She kept looking around the dark streets with a confused-but-giddy look on her face, as if she knew she should be getting ready for bed but was instead on a quest for candy. And even though we had practiced, she had major stage fright at each door and just stood there wide-eyed while the other kids yelled, "Trick or treat!" She did manage a whispered "kee-kew" (thank you) when she was given candy. Once it was clear she no longer wanted to walk, I took her home and traded with Dave--he got to go with Mabes, I let Annie have some candy and get ready for bed.

I may have let her have too much candy. But who could say no to this face?

Columbus Day...a little late

Columbus Day a year ago: Mabes was in school, Dave had the day off, so we decided to go for a run. We had been working out regularly, our cardio health was great, and I've always wanted to be a runner. The idea of just going out, running, and clearing your head sounded so nice. I was in the best shape I'd been in a long time, so really, how hard could it be?

HARD. That run was terrible. We went about 4 miles (why? I don't know), but I ran maybe 1.5, mixed with lots and lots of walking. It was painful. My knees, shins, everything hurt. For a week afterwards. I had told Dave I wanted be able to run a 5K by the end of the year, but after Columbus Day, I gave up. Screw this, I am not a runner--I'll stick with workout DVDs that make me want to punch the trainer.

And then my parents decided to run a half marathon. My PARENTS. I was fine with it; that was a distance I had no desire to conquer. But when Laura came to visit in February, she casually said, "You know, Mom decided she needs to start running, so she went out and ran 3.5 miles." SERIOUSLY?!?! My mom is an awesome cyclist, but she's always said she'd never be a runner. But my mom could run 3.5?

Thanks to new shoes and significantly improved running form (who knew you could run wrong? Apparently Phoebe-like running is no good for the shins), I ran 3.5 miles with Laura. And that's where it started. I ran a 10K in April, but vowed it was my max--I got bored by mile 5. We kept running over the summer, but didn't add distance, because it's hot and humid here, even before 7 am. Once it started cooling down, though, I started adding more miles.

I had my eye on a couple of half marathons, and decided I wanted to run one as close to Columbus Day as possible. I put off registering until two days before, and as soon as I did, I became a nervous wreck. It was a hilly course, and I haven't trained on hills. Judging by the times from last year, people who run this are good. I began to realize that there was a very real possibility that I would be last.

Dave's mom had graciously offered to come out and watch the girls, so I kind of had to go through with it. As we drove to uptown Charlotte, I couldn't tell if I was shaking from nerves or the cold. Once we started running, though, I was fine. I had told Dave that he had to stay with me for the first 3 miles, as he has a tendency to start out too fast. We had an easy pace going, and took my family's advice to walk through all the water stops. I felt like I walked a fair amount, at least a little on all the hills, but I think it really helped. Dave spent a fair amount of time with me, but decided to speed up around mile 5. I had an awesome playlist (thanks to the fam) and just enjoyed running through lovely neighborhoods. Miles 6-10 were great--runner's high kicked in and I felt like a unicorn prancing on rainbows. I was sweating glitter. Then my knee started hurting and my left calf tightened up, so miles 11-12 weren't quite as fun, but still not terrible.

I LOVED the people cheering along the way. There weren't tons of people, just random people here and there, but it was really nice and very encouraging. And I giggled as I ran by a little girl who said, "Mommy, that girl is eating a snack!"--I was shoving a couple of Gu Chomps in my mouth.

As I made the final turn, I could see the 13 mile marker and the finish line not too far behind. I was not prepared for the rush of emotions. I had been running and breathing fine, but suddenly I couldn't breathe because I was fighting back sobs. I'm going to make it. And there are still people behind me! A year ago, I had completely sworn off running and here I was, finishing a half marathon. I focused on the music, regained composure, and just kept going. And then I saw Dave and promptly lost it again. But I finished.

As much as I wanted to run the whole thing without walking, I'm happy with it. Aside from some soreness in my left calf, I feel really good. I think my recovery after a 9 miler a few weeks ago was rougher. I felt good enough to go home, play with the girls, and then head out to a Halloween party and stay up way too late. And then run a 2 hour Primary program practice on Sunday--I crashed after that, though!

As Betty and Don Draper. I'm trying to look mad. Also, my hair looked
really good for about 5 minutes, then it went flat. Boo. And
that's Crystal Light in my glass.

It was a great weekend and I'm so glad I was able to do this with Dave. A HUGE thanks to Jackie for coming to visit and watch the girls for us. I never thought a half marathon would be this fun. The morning of, I was such a nervous wreck I vowed to never do anything like this again. But now? I want to do it again. Not a full--only crazy people do those (ahem, Laura). But the half was a blast.

Fears

On Friday, Mabes decided she was afraid of cheetahs. She kept talking about them, but I brushed it off. Later, I realized she was drawing this, and left it in the playroom:
When she got up Saturday morning, she ran into the playroom. She looked at the sign, and let out a sigh of relief when she saw it was still up. "Oh, good, it's still there! I was afraid that the cheetahs would come into our house and change the sign to say 'No People Allowed in the House'! That would have been weird." What cheetahs, Mabes?

"Oh, you know, cheetahs. They could come in. They're scary."

At this point, I was torn between being the sympathetic help-my-scared-child mom and just laughing. I mean, cheetahs! CHEETAHS. So I calmly explained that there were no cheetahs anywhere near us. Deer, sure. Rabbits, yes. Frogs, obviously. But no cheetahs. And if, somehow, cheetahs did invade the area, we'd hear about it on the news. See? No cheetah stories. We're safe.

And then I read this. Shhhhhhhhh...don't tell Mabes! She doesn't need help not sleeping. I didn't see any mention of cheetahs, but there were leopards--that's probably close enough. And there are only 3 animals still on the loose, and really, what are the odds that they'll wander 400+ miles to us? Very, very slim. What are the odds that Mabes hears about this and can't sleep tonight? Pretty good. Doh.