Finally...the Birthday post!
Annalee turned 2 on Sunday March 29th. We went to church that morning and were having her party that afternoon at 4. After she had a chance to nap. In hopes that she would be in a good mood. Problem is, she wakes up super grumpy from her afternoon nap. I mean SUPER grumpy. And she basically hates people. She doesn't want anyone, other than me or Jay to touch her, look at her, talk to her, nothing! And I thought 4 would be late enough for her to get over herself and get happy (it usually only takes about 10 min and she's good). But she slept a little longer than normal, and a couple of people showed up a little early... So we had a few of these moments...
And I just kept joking.."yep she's officially 2!" :)
Anyway, she eventually settled down and we were able to enjoy her party! She got to wear her pink number 2 shirt with the sparkly "2", with her gold party skirt! (she was soooo mad at me for trying to make her be still and let me take her picture...so this is what I got...typical)
We had a Tinkerbell theme since she had become obsessed with the "flies" on the Tinkerbell movie. So we got her a Tinkerbell cake, that turned out really pretty.
She was so in to every single gift she got. She looked at each one and took in every detail about it, and wanted to open and play with them all as we went along. it was so much fun to watch her be excited over every one!
All in all it was a really good day, in spite of the few tears that were shed.
I'll leave you with a little comparison of what a difference a year can make...Eating cake at 2....such a big girl!
Eating cake at 1...she was such a baby...*sniff sniff*
This morning just after I got up, I put a dozen eggs on to boil. It is Egg Dying day!! Yippee! This is the first year Annalee has really been able to participate, and boy did she have fun! Her favorite part was putting the eggs into the dye, and she wanted to do this over and over again, sometimes putting multiple eggs into the same cup, and always putting each egg into several cups. Every time I would take an egg out and put it to dry on a towel, she would pick it up and promptly drop it into another cup...therefore, most of her eggs are a little greyish in color and quite cracked up (we didn't realize this would be the theme for our day)...but hey she had fun, and here a couple of pics to prove it...
When you see the cups with eggs at the top half out of the water, these are the ones with multiple eggs in them, she would just pile'em up...
And this is what Jude thought about the eggs...
I really thought that was going to be the extent of our excitement today...but sadly no...
A little later my Mom and Andie came over to see the results of Annalee's very first egg dying, and Annalee and my Mom were playing in my bedroom, and she (Annalee, not my mom :p) LOVES to climb up on our bed and play "pillows" which is a game where Jay basically picks her up and throws her into the mountain of pillows on our bed over and over and over and over...well you get the picture, Annalee would do it all day I think.
Anyway, she goes to climb up on our bed, and she always uses this little brown leather ottoman that we have at the foot of the bed to get up there, but this time when she went to climb up on it, it tipped over with her, and she hit her head on the foot of it. Resulting in a small gash on her eyebrow bone. She cried and cried, and even though it really didn't bleed that bad, I was concerned about how it might heal up, so I called the ped's office and they said to bring her on in.
We get there and they look at it, and say it could really benefit from some dermabond (basically super glue for skin, the np was actually glued to Annalee's head for a moment :0) so we go ahead with that, and there is 1 nurse holding her down, while the NP squeezes both sides of the very tender and swollen cut until it is shut tight, while Dr. Moll (we love Dr. Moll) applies the glue. it was very traumatic for mom and baby girl, she cried like I have never heard before and called out for me, it was horrible, and I know it really hurt, and was really scary to have 3 people basically on top of her, but they had to be really careful since it was so close to her eye, they didn't want to glue her eyelids shut! Seriously.
Anyway, she survived and should have very minimal scarringto her head at least, still not sure about her psyche...Here she is before the dermabond...
And this is after with her lollie (she got 2 and a big piece of chocolate, she definitely deserved it!)...
Through out my days here at home with these children, I encounter a lot of things, sweet things, good things, mean things, screaming things...things that make me smile, things that make me cry...things that make me gag, and things that make me want to pull my hair out...and occasionaly make me want to throw things (not the children themselves though :) )Anyway...Annalee is 2 now (even though you may not believe it due to no actual photographic proof here, she really did turn 2) and she is in full on 2 year old mode! Her favorite words right now are "Me and Mine"...it's a lot of fun...
She has been feeding herself for the most part for about 6 months, and she does a pretty good job most of the time, but there have been a few things that I have still been able to convince her to let me feed to her, like yogurt, and soup and cereal. Well yesterday morning that changed...I made her a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios (although we bought the off brand so it was actually called Honey scooters or wheels or round thingies or some other equally lame thing) and as I'm pouring the milk she starts banging here finger down on the tray of her highchair saying "righchere, righchere" which means right here, for those of you who don't speak Annalee...so I knew what that meant, she DID NOT want me to feed her, but I tried anyway...but she would have none of it, and since this is an inevitable part of growing up, I can't exactly be feeding her with a spoon until she's 18 now can I, I gave in and gave her the bowl, milk and all...oy...I was scared of the ensuing clean up of her, the highchair and the floor...
But she actually did pretty good, and thanks to her bib the spilled milk wasn't all over her, the highchair or the floor!
The bib itself was howerver quite disgusting...and so I thought I would share it with you all! Aren't you glad??? Look, of all the disgusting things I see around here on a daily basis, this was the least gag enducing, so quit your complaining!
And then so as to end on sweet, cute, precious, smile enducing note, here are few pics form Jude's new favorite pass time...and yes that is cake pan behind him...
Did I ever tell y'all that the entire time I was pregnant with Jude, I worried that I wouldn't love him the way I love Annalee? May seem silly, but I really did. I absolutely could not imagine loving another person the same way I love Annalee. I knew I already loved him while he was in my belly, but I also knew that was not the same as the way you love them once they are in your arms, and my brain just could not comprehend it...until I saw him that is, and I was once again overwhelmed with love for this little person that was part me and part Jay, and came out looking exactly like his big sister, and who upon being laid on my chest right after delivery, before any cleaning up had been done, promptly grabbed my hand as I went to touch his face, he may as well been grabbing the very heart within my chest...And here we are 4 months later, and I am amazed at how much love my heart can hold for these 2 babies of mine, and how different it can be going form girl to boy.
Jude is quite possibly the sweetest baby I've ever met. His smiles and giggles are infectious, all you have to do is make eye contact with him to get a grin out of him, and he's Ticklish! Very very ticklish, his neck, his ribs, his chubby little thighs, and it will really get him going, and then when it makes me laugh it makes him laugh even harder. I love it, I can't even tell you how much I love it, that laugh of his is like food for my soul, I can't get enough of it.
Yesterday I had Annalee in the highchair having a snack and Jude in the exersaucer and I turned the radio on and cranked it up, and danced like a fool, just hear them both laughing at the same time. It had a better effect on my mood than chocolate cake!
When Annalee was a baby we oohed and aahed over every tiny little thing she did, and were (and really still are) amazed over every new thing she does, and I really thought that with the second it would all be old hat...and not nearly as thrilling (especially since it just hasn't been that long since we watched Annalee do all the same things) but I was soooooo wrong! I still love it, it's totally the same fun and exciting time when he started jabbering for the first time, and sucking on his fingers, and smiling and laughing and when he rolled over for the first time, I took a video on my phone and sent it to everybody I know! It hasn't gotten old at all...I love everything about him, from his sweet little cowlick to sweaty little feet, and all the sweet little fat rolls in between.
Here's a quick picture/video update...
He rolls over...
He plays with his feet...
He sucks his thumb...
He eats cereal...
He looks cute in hats...
He sits in Annalee's Tinkerbell chair...
