A converation with Annabelle

Annabelle: Does the sun move? Does the clouds moves? (She has been asking these question lately.)
Me: I think everything moves in its own way.
Annabelle: Does the sky move?
Me: That's an interesting question. (Mostly because I do not know how to answer it.)
Annabelle: The sky is as still as a rabbit. (She says this in a kind of dreaming voice.) Yeah, the sky is as still as a rabbit.

I think she likes this explanation better than anything I could have come up with!

Annabelle in the mornings!

As we lay in bed waking up and Max nursing on and off, Annabelle was busy pretending. Some of the game was just in her head, only she was aware of it. Then she would start talking to us, like we were in her pretending game. "This is my baby," she would say about Max. "I think he needs to nurse me right now." "You sing this song, while I nurse him." Then she wanted me to start singing a song, that I had never heard of before and she would look at me and say, "ok, go ahead," as if I knew the song too. So this is the song she taught me:

"The girl and boy went out to save the power.
They shoot their guns and then layed them down.
They run and run and run to catch their momma.
The girl run and catch her momma
and the boy stayed with the dada."

I sung it while she pretended to nurse Max.

Then quick as lightening she changed the game. She starts pretending to knock on a door. "Ask, 'Who is it?'" I do. She says, "open the door." I pandamimed opening a door. She says, "I am Khristine and this is my baby, Landon." "Actually this is a doll (meaning Max) and Landon is my big kid." "He is nine." "Look Landon gave you a present." She is holding an invisible box. She says, "take off the wrapping paper." I pretend to open a box and pull out a present. I say, "what is it?" "Landon will tell you." She means the imaginary big kid sitting beside her on the bed.

Then it all changed again. "Do you want to see how high I can jump?"

This all happened in a few minutes. Our day continues, with her wanting to get out a leftover burrito by herself for breakfast. This means opening the fridge door, pulling over a chair. Finding the burrito, then pulling the chair back to the table. Now she sits and eats as I type. "My belly is full." "I am going to wrap my burrito up." "Oh, Momma, it is falling a apart." "I need a new luma toil." (Aluminum foil)

I love my 3 year old girl. She is charming and silly, noisy and loud, creative and oh so busy!

Drawing and Painting Animals

Snake

Zebra

Lion

Throwing, Jumping, and Flying

February for us

Picnics with treats
Books to read
Bare knees

Boxes for playing
Leaves for jumping
Grass for running

Sun on our skin
Wind in our eyes
Winter for us

My boy is five months.

I can’t believe how fast the time has gone. You are five months and you are amazing. You are sleeping all on your own right now, without me! You seem to be able to sleep lots of places and lots of ways, in the car, in bed, in my arms, in the sling or wrap, at friends’ houses, the store.

You are a calm guy, quiet, but happy. You lie on the floor and watch us, especially your sister. Sometimes you get so frustrated when you can hear her, but can’t see her, you try to move to her voice, wiggling and squirming. You love to lie beside her, but sometimes her hugs are too much, she loves you so much. You prefer to hold hands with Annabelle. She lies on the floor with you and you hold hands and she sings and talks to you for a long time and you are content.

You make lots of beautiful noises too. This morning, I woke up to your sweet sounds.

You laugh a lot, at all of us. We try hard to make you laugh; you think my hair is funny when I shake it around. You think your dad is funny when he makes funny noises and faces at you. You especially love to laugh at your sister. All she has to do is look at you and you squeal with delight, though your favorite is when she jumps up and down.

You also love being scared. I will play our version of peek-a-boo where I hide behind a blanket or my hands or my hair and then I jump out and say, “Boo!” Each time you jump and then laugh and laugh, who knew a baby would love that “BOO!” feeling?

You are so ticklish, under your chin, under your arms, your feet and your belly. I sing and tickle you and you laugh and laugh. You love it when we all dance and you get to dance too. All these things make you laugh and squeal.

When you are tired or want to nurse, you want me to hold you. We nurse in the rocking chair or we lie down in bed together. You get so excited about nursing, laughing right before you latch on. You love to play with my hand as you are starting to nurse. You are so gentle and your touch so light, as your fingers curl around my hand. Then you will quickly close your eyes and relax you body and fall asleep. Then I get to just watch you as you sleep and nurse and I relax too.

I try to put you on your belly every day, and you are strong and can roll over and lift way up and almost belly crawl, but mostly you don’t like it, you want to be held or you want to be in a position you can see everyone. You kick and squirm a lot. You can move lots if you want to. Sometimes you want to lay by yourself and play and you grunt and scream and talk and blow bubbles and raspberries and you are completely happy and you can turn almost all the way around like a clock. Sometimes when you are sitting in our laps, you push so that you are standing up or push so that you can almost touch the floor with your nose. You can now roll from front to back and back to front. Though you can do both, you don’t just roll the whole way around. When you roll from back to tummy, you get so frustrated to be facedown, you forget how to roll back.

I am so in love with you. What will you do in the next month, when you are the grand old age of a half a year!

a few things from annabelle

We have all been sick this week, except Max, so I haven't taken too many photographs or worked on writing anything, but did want to share this:

Annabelle says to me in bed the other night as she is falling asleep: Momma, know how I love you?
Me: How?
Annabelle: All day long!

And this morning right when she woke up she said: Is Khristine, Phil, and Landon coming over?
Her Dad: No, they live in Colorado.
Annabelle: Well, can we go see them?