Monkeying Around

I took my little monkey to a nearby playground this past weekend to run off some of that toddler energy.

For all of the fun slides and age-appropriate activites, she spent the most time hanging and swinging on these bars that were part of the exercise course. She would kick up her legs and throw her head way back. Not sure where she learned that - pretty sure all they do in "nastics" is jump, roll & flip - but this momma sure got a kick out of it!

Oh, in case you were wondering (and I know you were), that ridiculously adorable outfit is by Matilda Jane. I am obsessively counting the days until Anna's outfits arrive from the new Gypsy Blue line! They will definitely be making an appearance on this blog in the next couple of weeks. No doubt. Stay tuned.

Happy (Late) Birthday Paw Paw!

Instead of buying a birthday cake for PawPaw this year, I thought it would be fun for Anna to make one. She was really excited, and when unleashed on the baking aisle at the grocery store, she immediately picked out the Pillsbury Funfetti cake mix. If you don't know what that is, check it out - it's easy to see why it would appeal to a toddler next to plain white or chocolate cake!

She had a blast applying (and eating!) the icing, as shown in the picture below of her showing off her creation, complete with a lovely goatee of icing. She put the candles in herself (some too far), but she was scared of the red decorative icing after it backfired a little and I got stuck with that job.

All of her hard work earned her the privilege of helping Paw Paw blow out his candles. (Old people need help because they have smaller lung capacity, you know!)



Happy Birthday, Paw Paw! We love you very much (even though you're old)!

Loverboy

The many future girlfriends are going to love this one (I sure do)! So adorable, and agreeable, too! He barely made a peep the entire time we played photo shoot with him - unless I dared to touch his feet. The nerve of me!

Because he was so super cooperative, I took way too many pictures and am now left wading through trying to figure out what to edit. But here are a few that I have gotten to so far. . .

Thanks for being such a little sweetie, Adam!

Rest up: Round 2 begins as soon as that cute little hat I bought you arrives! <*evil laugh*>

Hey Jealousy

Before I post more pictures of Adam, I have to share this one of my sweet little monkey that I took that same day. . .

You may notice that the rug she is laying on is the same one I used for Adam's pictures. Totally not a coincidence.

For this one, she was actually doing me a favor and being my test subject while I was playing with different camera settings. I told her that I needed her head on the rug, and she posed herself. (Clear sign of a child that has a camera in her face far too often!)

So while I was taking Adam's pictures, Anna was playing with Olivia, but would periodically come by to check out what I was doing and to say, "You hold me, Mommy." She was very patient but was clearly getting a little frustrated about my attention being elsewhere. So I'm not sure why I was surprised at what happened when Adam decided our photo fun was over and Nicole picked him up. . .but I was.

Without missing a beat, Anna threw herself back down on the rug and said, "You take picture of me, Mommy!"

Jealous much? Maybe.

Irresistibly cute? Definitely.

Sneak Peek: Adam Luke

This one is for mommy. More to come!

Enjoy!

Funner With Five

* Please Note: I am aware that "funner" is not a word. I just liked the alliteration and I'm sticking with it. This drives Derek crazy.

I'm a bit late in blogging it, but we had some good, spontaneous fun in the backyard last Saturday afternoon. It started off with just Anna playing on her playset. . .


She likes to use this little pink spade to dig in everything in the back yard. Her favorite thing to do with it is to transport mulch and dirt from our plant beds to the cute little window boxes on her playhouse. . .

Then, some of her friends showed up, and the afternoon got a lot more fun. . .

We tried to get all five of them in, but Santi kept crawling up the slide way too fast for me! If you look really closely, you can actually see a little of his hind end at the top of the slide. lol.

Here's another one with just the brothers. So sweet. . .


Santi had a good time on the swing, too! Can you tell?!

And since running around all crazy can be tiring for even little people (not just old ladies such as myself!), I was able to grab this shot of these three relaxing in the grass for a (very) short break.

We're so lucky that Anna has such great friends! As do we :)

Unpredictable

This morning when I was driving Anna to school, she was "reading" a new Halloween book that I bought her called "Who's There on Halloween."

Anna: [Looking at a page in the book.]

Me: "What do you see?"

Anna: "A bat."

Me: "Ohhhhh, what color is the bat?"

Anna: "Black."

Me: "Read that page to me. What does it say?"

Anna: "I. Love. Bats."

Me: [giggles because it totally doesn't say that] "What's on the next page?"

Anna: " A pumpkin!"

Me: "What does that page say?"

Anna: "I. Love. Pumpkins."

[We arrive at school and I climb into the back seat to help Anna out of her carseat.]

Me: "Oh, Anna...what's on that page?"

Anna: "A spider!"

Me: [seeing the obvious pattern] "Does that page say, 'I. Love. Spiders.'?"

Anna: "No!"

Me: [surprised, but very interested] "Oh? Then what does it say?"

Anna: [sings, with hand motions] "The itsy bitsy spider. . ."


My little chica gets some definite creativity points on that one!

I Heart Faces - Photo Challenge

"Contemplative" Photo Entry:

I love this picture of my daughter Anna from a recent post! She loves to sit (and jump!) on our bed, and this was a rare moment when the bed was actually made. The natural light coming in through the windows was hitting her so beautifully that I couldn't resist getting a quick shot.

---

"Pets" Photo Entry:

This picture of my friend Ashley's dog Sophie also showed up in another recent post, but it was so cute that I couldn't pass up using it for this week's challenge. The "free to good home" caption was a joke for Ashley because Sophie has been peeing in their closet for attention lately, and Ashley is tired of cleaning up the mess!

Enter yourself or check out all of the other entries for this week's challenge over at I ♥ Faces!

Pressure

When i picked Anna up today from daycare, as soon as we got in the parking lot she looked me straight in the eye and this is how our conversation went. . .

Anna: "I want a sister."

Me: [wondering where that came from] "What?!"

Anna: [louder] "I want a sister."

Me: [still processing] "What?!"

Anna: [emphatically] "I want a sister right now!"

Me: [laughs, thinking she doesn't really know what she's saying]

Me: "What is a sister?"

Anna: [like I am the dumbest person ever] "Like a baby!"


She's getting more and more insistent. But don't worry, I can take the pressure!

Lazy Sunday

Today, we had lunch with our good friends Ashley & Paul at their beautiful new house. It was such a nice, relaxing visit, and it gave Anna the chance to play with her little boyfriend, Charles (aka "Char-less").

I had my camera with me as usual, and I was snapping away at the kiddos. Charles had this cool little toy camera, and my little booger decided to snap right back at me. . .

Like the polish job? Daddy did both her fingers and toes. They're starting to chip here, but he actually did a really great job. He'll do yours too for the low low price of $24.99. Anyone?

Oh, and this, my friends, is Charles. Killer blue eyes, gorgeous smile, and the sweetest little voice to go along with them.

Charles' mommy Ashley and I have been friends since the 7th grade. She's definitely one of those people that feels like "home" to me, and I'm so so happy that they made the move closer to our side of town. Not only do I get to see my beautiful friend more, but our kiddos can grow up together as well, and that, to me, is so special.

So Ashley says that she doesn't really have any recent pictures of herself with Charles. Here are a few fun ones of the two of them gooning today that I hope she'll enjoy. . .

One more gratuitous shot of my sweet angel by the fountain in Ashley's neighborhood. In a shocking turn, Anna actually managed to stay dry.

And last but not least, this is Sophie. She was Ashley & Paul's "child". . .before Charles came along. She's skating on thin ice right now because she recently decided that peeing in the closet is a good way to get attention.


Hehe. Just kidding, Sophie.

Maybe.

That time again?

Is it time to have another baby? Everyone else seems to think so. . .

I hear it all the time from family, strangers, you name it. I'm even kind of used to the comments and have a defense at the ready.

But today, as it turns out, even Similac is ready for me to have another one! I got a little care package in the mail from Similac - a sample of their powdered formula, another of their soy formula, and a lovely brochure on "The Art of Feeding." Oh so thoughtful of them.

Then, I'm sitting at the dinner table tonight, eating and minding my own business, and my own child says out of the blue, "Mommy, I want a baby sister."

To all of you, five words: I. AM. NOT. READY. . .YET.

Someday, though! And until then, I'll be enjoying every second of giving my sweet Anna every last spec of my attention :)

The Color Purple

Anna's school has a "color of the week" every week that applies to all classrooms. Her new class, however, requires that the kids wear the color of the week every Wednesday. Can you guess what color was the "color of week" this week?

What to put on Anna this morning was not a hard decision AT ALL!

Pre-Schooler

Today, our Anna officially became a pre-schooler! She moved from "Early Childhood II" to the class called "Pre-School I," and had a wonderful first day! This new class re-united her with lots of her old friends that had already moved up, so I'm sure that didn't hurt her success. She did have a little potty accident, but still received glowing comments from her new teachers about how sweet and smart she is.

Mommy and Daddy are a little sad to feel like you're getting so grown up, but we're so proud of you too, Anna! Here's to looking forward to many more successful days in pre-school!

The Rest of the Story

As promised, here is the rest of the story of Anna's Labor Day fun. . .

It started off as a little last-minute get-together at our house: my parents, Cesar's gang, & Ross and family. When everyone arrived, we ate some delicious barbecued pork roast that Paw Paw made along with some yummy sides, and the kids quickly moved on to Maw Maw's fabulous bag of tricks.

If anything can be said about my mother, it's that she is an amazing entertainer of children. She has the patience of a saint, is tireless, keeps them engaged & focused, and never ever ever runs out of fun things to do! On this particular occasion, she brought her face painting gear, and each of the kiddos got to pick a design out of her book.

Anna was my little rock star. . .

Emma went for the floral look. . .

While Arianna, the wiggle worm, opted for the snow princess. . .

Here are the girls together in their face-painted, cookie-eating glory. . .

(And no, Emma was not posing with the cookie. She truly got tired of me asking them to smile, and decided it was time for a bite of sugary goodness.)

Now Nico, who just started the second grade, would like for us to think that he's getting too old for most of our "fun", and he had me believing that he didn't get anything painted - until I totally busted him after catching a glance of his superhero-esque palms!

(And yet another testament to my mom, she actually made a trip back to her house to retrieve my nephew Seth's massive transformer collection to save Nico from all things pink and girly at my house. She earned some major "cool points" with Nico there!)

Little brother Santi wasn't so lucky as to get an escape from the all pink, all the time, girly-girl-land. Didn't bother him any, though - and he cooked quite a few mean (but fake) microwave dinners in that pink kitchen. With pink bowls. And pink mixing spoons...you get the idea.


So then the question. . .what to do when you still have plenty of face paint left, but all willing facial real estate is already occupied?

You give the kids creative freedom, of course. . .with their feet! Totally like letting the inmates run the prison, but only just a little less dangerous.

Here is what Ari came up with. I have to say I do think that the blue nail polish adds a little something as well. . .

And here is sweet Olivia, oblivious to the mess the older kiddos were getting into, but having no trouble finding her own fun nonetheless. She's also oblivious to the fact that she's a mere week (or less!) away from becoming a big sister, but I have a feeling she's going to get wise soon enough! She played a lot with Anna's babies, so we'll consider it practice. She's gonna be a great little helper, Mommy!

Then we find ourselves in this predicament. . .what do you do when your kids are fed, literally covered from head to toe in face paint, and clearly in need of something else to do? Um. . .give them sugar?

Anna wanted "pink" (strawberry), and Ari went with the cookies 'n cream, as you can probably tell from the oh-so-lovely moustache.

Then, as all sugar highs usually go, the kids just started running out of steam. This was my filthy little monkey, covered in dirt and smeared face paint, right before she passed out on my shoulder. . .

Then all the kids left, crashed in their respective beds (or couches), and all of the parents of the world rejoiced (and maybe possibly took a little nap, too).

The End.