Needing some good vibes

I don't want to go into any detail just yet but we hit a major roadblock yesterday in our journey to Malia. It is not a "deal breaker" but will definitely make things more difficult. I didn't sleep well at all last night and have spent most of today reaching out to "those in the know" and trying to sort this out. We could really use your thoughts, prayers and good vibes right now. I promise I will spill the beans when I know more.

Annslee has recently decided my Bible is her favorite book. Hey, maybe she has the right idea. She particularly likes the map of the Exodus and that may be appropriate right now as we feel we are no closer to that "promised land" of Vietnam than we were a year ago.

What a find!!

Annslee has been eyeing these ballet and cheerleading things at stores for months. The other day I was at a consignment sale (looking for clothes) and what did I see?? You guessed it, the same ballet and cheerleading toys sold for $20 each but now bundled together here for $7 total!! Of course I had to have them and she was thrilled. There is a mat with each, a ballet bar, pom poms, a batton (her personal fav) and 2 DVDs : )

After trying them out it was time to go to her "real" class

She loves her jump, jazz and roll class and so do we. It is 20 min of ballet, 20 min of gynastics and 20 min of cheerleading/tumbling. They are always on the move but she does look often to make sure we are watching : )

Sweetness

My friend Jana had a baby in November and we finally got to meet him on Sunday. Annslee was great with him. She was very concerned when he cried and the drooling made her laugh. She obviously has forgotten that she was the Queen of Drool about two years ago : )





I can't get over how big she is!



I was looking for a drool pic but I think most of them from that time are on my other computer. I did locate this one ~ you can see it on her shirt and even a little droplet on her sweet chin ~ seriously, she wore a bib 90% of the time! This is from December 2005 and yes, that is Mia with her ~ they have grown so much *sigh*

Happy Birthday To

well, me technically but don't try telling that to Annslee. She has a CD where the Princesses sing to her and say her name over 80 times (yeah, fun) and one song is where Ari*el sings Happy Birthday Princess Annslee so she thinks every birthday is hers. If you ask her whose birthday it is she will say "Anns eee" and will let you know Ari*el said so!! Notice my birthday cake is purple : )

The card she gave me was a Princess card...of course I am one but she thinks the card is hers. Dad gave me a card that sings "Super Freak" hmmmmm



*btw, she has underwear on but it doesn't look like it ha ha



The cake was very tempting and she just couldn't help but sneak some icing as it thawed (it was an ice cream cake)





Of course she blew out the candles ~ twice



Yesterday we went to brunch to celebrate since she has gymnastics tonight and we wouldn't be able to do dinner. Honestly, I really like brunch better anyway.



She obviously enjoyed the chocolate fountain!



41 was a good year ~ so come on 42, I am ready!!

Is there anything better

than true friendship between two sweet girls?? Seriously, they are so funny and sweet together we just can't get enough of it!


Yeah, Mia came to visit and after playing in Annslee's room for a while it was time to get on the princess attire and have a tea party

After the tea party we found them back in Annslee's room holding their "look alikes" and they thought it was really funny : )

They each got a peppermint patty courtesy of Mia's mama and I wanted a picture of them eating it ~ they just wanted me out of the way so they could watch their show!

I hope everyone is as lucky as Annslee to have a best friend like Mia. Seriously, Annslee LOVES her so much and it is so sweet how excited they get about seeing each other. The bonus for me is that Mia's Mama (who does have a name by the way ~ Jenny) absolutely loves Annslee. I mean the kind only usually given by grandparents, aunts, uncles, you know the what I mean. We are truly blessed to have friends who love our daughter that much. Of course, we feel the same about Mia : )

Thanks B, R, M & E

Today's mail had another Valentine package for Miss Annslee!! This was from Aunt Beth, Uncle Rich and cousins Matthew and Evan. She is finally saying Beth but still signs "B" when she says it , the others are still signs only. I am always amazed at how quickly she can run through all the signs for people. Anyway, she was thrilled to receive some new goodies for bathtime and after dinner we had to try them out!

The ladybug squirter was fun of course ( I liked it most when the water was staying IN the tub)



I have a mirror close by b/c she LOVES seeing herself with crazy hair!

She used all of the purple crayon~ surprise, surprise : )



My water baby really enjoys her bath



These shirts were also included in the package ~ can't wait to see her wearing these! Thanks again Aunt Beth!!!



*Glad another post is up and we can get back to staring at the real cutie in this house...seriously 45 comments on my hair!! Was my hair really that bad before or were y'all just impressed with Annslee's photography skills??

Chop Chop

Annslee is feeling much better today : ) Thanks to everyone for your kinds words, thoughts and prayers for her.

On another note, I got my hair chopped off today. Hey, I am going to be 42 on Monday and the Marcia Brady hairdo needed to GO!! Here are a few pics....Annslee took them : )







It is a little shorter than I planned but I love it. I have such straight baby fine hair and this definitely gives it more body. (If you don't remember what it looked like before you will have to go to the Christmas Eve post to see) I think it will take a little for Daddy to get used to but Annslee loves it. When I was leaving to go I told her I was going to get my hair done like hers. I meant short but when I said that she said "Black?" LOL No, I think I would look pretty scary with jet black hair!

Poor Baby

Annslee finished her antibiotics for strep on Saturday and since then hasn't felt well. The past two nights I have slept with her because she has been coughing so hard I thought she would throw up. Well, that finally happened today : (

I took her to the doctor this morning but ours wasn't there and it was a horrible experience. She was fine until the doctor tried to look in her ears and then she basically screamed the rest of the time! Her ears are fine ~ she just has a lot of that dry wax and so it is painful to look at them (yes, her hearing has been tested and is fine) Anyway, they said it was just a really bad cold. She had a HUGE melt down at the "treasure chest" b/c she wanted three of those cheap crappy bracelets and the doctor said "only one please" so I felt I had to back the doctor as my sick child screamed for more. Yeah, she was still screaming as I was buckling her into her carseat but wanted a hug from Mama. I know I did the right thing (didn't I... I mean, she has to have boundaries) but she is sick and I really think OUR doctor would have let her have three LOL

I brought her home and this afternoon her fever spiked to 102.5 and I sat with her and watched TV for a while. I went to put cornbread in the oven and when I got back, this is what I found~



If she isn't feeling better by Thursday we are going to see OUR doctor whom Annslee loves : )

Mail time!!

Yeah, she got a Valentine gift in the mail...from her GiGi : ) Waiting over three weeks to open it was not an option!! Hey, and she picked the perfect card for her....she actually squealed



She sent York Pep Patties..YUM!!
* since people have commented ~yes, GiGi is on the ball but the gift was included in a package that held my birthday gift. My bday is the 28th but of course Annslee had me open that already too : )

Guess who we saw today??

After watching Return to Never*land for the 100th time this morning we finally made it out the door to go to the bookstore for storytime

We heard a friend was going to be there and we could meet him


Can you guess who it was??



Yep, that silly monkey! All the kids had to make monkey noises to make him come out and my little monkey was the loudest one ~ I am not joking : )

I had to snap the pictures fast because there were so many kids trying to rush the stage!

She had fun listening to the story and meeting CG~ she went through a phase of really loving him but even though she is past that for now it was still fun seeing him in person. My only issue was that there were about 60 kids there and the people in charge had no control over the situation. I kept having to tell my 3 year old that she had to wait her turn over and over as other kids and some adults were pushing her out of the way to get to him. Finally , I just took her right up and gave the stink eye to anyone even thinking of trying to move her. Come on, really?? Then on her way back to me the "mob" rushed the stage and she was poked in the eye. We headed to the bathroom to put a cold papertowel on it!

Needless to say, when she asked to play with the train set I said of course : )

Ramblings~

Last night she wanted to sit at her desk and write while watching a movie. She always prefers an ink pen over crayons or markers. She enjoys coloring but LOVES to just write or draw.

You can tell she was enjoying the movie : )

She was watching "Return to Never*land" and if you have seen it you know that Jane keeps a list of "things she needs" so of course Annslee was doing the same *note, she switched to her left hand ~ she goes back and forth for now*

After the movie it was bathtime. I thought putting bubbles on her head was pretty fun ~not sure she agreed LOL

Poor baby, she doesn't get to play in the tub enough b/c she usually jumps in the shower with one of us


Finding a foot in the bubbles was pretty entertaining : )

Today was her second day of preschool and it was also Donuts with Dad day. What fun on your second day of school!! Daddy even had artwork given to him that she made : )

Miss Independent also has started something new. She will NOT let me go into the stall with her in a bathroom. I peek through the crack in the door as she does everything herself and of course this all takes twice as long as when I help. Today I really cracked up as she kicked her leg up to flush with her foot ~ she came out laughing about it : )

First Day of Preschool *updated*

She had her Tink backpack, her lunch box and her "Mimmie" mouse shirt ~ she was all ready to go! Her speech therapist was able to get us a slot in one of the local preschools for a 3 morning a week Pre K 3 program. It is not the language based preschool we are still hoping she will get into but at least it is an opportunity to get some socialization and interaction with her peers. The big difference is at the lang based one the teachers are all trained in dealing with and teaching children who are behind in speech and they also have a speech therapist who works with them in the classroom. We are still hopeful that she will be able to get in but at this point her receptive skills are so high it seems to be causing a problem with that. Her therapist has diagnosed her with apraxia and that may be the reason she will be allowed in ~ fingers crossed.

As you may know she spent a year in daycare but she has been home with Mama for almost a year now so we weren't sure how this would go. Please note it was about 25 degrees outside but Miss Thing refused her coat!



She was a little apprehensive when we walked in and didn't go straight to the gym like we did the day we visited. She also kept asking "Mama bye??" I told her that yes, today I would go bye bye but only for a little while (it is actually for 4 LONG hours....too much for Mama)


Of course her silliness won out and she was soon laughing and cutting up with me

There were no tears as I left. Actually she ran over and gave a giant hug to a girl she remembered from Monday when we came to visit and they sat down to "read" together. I had to ask her to come kiss me goodbye. Her "buddy" is the oldest child in the class and Annslee is the youngest : ) I think the other little girl may be playing "Mama" with her as she came over and told me "Annslee is fine, you can go now" LOL

My phone has not been ringing and I am anxious to see how her first day went : )

*I just picked her up and she did great! Miss Jennifer said she asked where I was once and she told her I would be back in a little while and she could go play and she ran off back to her game. Apparently she and Jordan (the little girl from this morning) buddied up all day. When I walked into the room they were sitting together coloring and Annslee spotted me and ran, jumped in my arms and kissed me saying "mama!" over and over. You know I loved that! Jordan looked at me and said "Annslee likes me, she really likes me" It was super cute.

Trial Run

Last Saturday night we got a trial run at having two kiddos in the house. We kept our 2.5 year old nephew overnight. He was literally stunned I think that his mom (my sister) left for work and he was stuck with us. He was soooo quiet, which isn't his nature, but he did play with Annslee. She was so excited to have her cousin spend the night and have a playmate. We were so proud of the way she played so nicely, shared and of course expressed her concern as he missed his Mama. I didn't get any great pictures of them together because Gabe was really not in a playful mood.

Since he didn't want to play with me I went to my girl for some fun. Here she is making her best Tri*ton face (Ar*iel's Daddy) when he is angry

And here is Ar*iel when she spots Prince Eric

Oh, and of course Urs*ula ~ the villain!

Here is a last peaceful moment before bedtime. Notice Annslee's sippy ~ I need to get her saying "Mimmy" on video, it is super cute

Bedtime was pretty rough. Gabe cried for Aunt LaLa and Annslee wanted her Mama. Poor Daddy tried to appease both. Hopefully he will be older before we keep him again and a little more ready : )

Please note that my child had on PJs but don't think for a minute they stayed on at bedtime LOL