Disneyland Day One

Sunday was our first day at Disneyland. It was also the day the park was open the longest, it being the off-season and the time of funky hours during the week. So we headed to the park pretty early that morning with very excited kids!

Daniel took to Uncle Brad right away and was already holding his hand as we walked across the street to Disneyland. It had been more than a year and a half since we've seen them, too long...but that didn't faze Daniel one bit. Annabel, well, she was shy at first like she can be, but she warmed up pretty quickly, too, and was in their arms in no time.

So there we were- at Disneyland! Our first stop was to get the kids their "1st Visit" pins for Disneyland, which we pinned to their coats right away. Annabel looked at hers, pointed to it, held on to it, etc. pretty much all day! She LOVED her pin and was excited about the characters on it and kept pointing them out and naming them, especially if she saw them. Daniel wanted it off at one point, but he wore it for longer than I thought he would. These will be such fun little treasures for them! I have plans for all of Daniel's pins...we got a bunch on this trip!

Then off to the rides we went! The kids were very excited to start riding the rides. There was absolutely no hesitation from either kid for any of the rides we took them on all week. And Daniel was so cute with the rides he really loved- he'd get off and exclaim, "We're gonna ride that AGAIN!" with his voice increasing in enthusiasm and volume as he said this. I loved this! You always knew which rides he really liked when he said this! Annabel would just keep saying, "TWO!" with her one finger held up, which meant "again!" for her- she loved just about any ride we took her on! Daniel had a few he wasn't impressed with and so he didn't want to go on those again; none of the rides scared him or anything, he just didn't like them as much, which is fine, can't win 'em all and certainly can't ride 'em all again. Annabel would have though...again and again and again. In fact, there was one night, Tuesday night I think, when we were all laying down in bed, trying to sleep, and Annabel kept popping up and saying "riiii!!" and then proceeding to name some of the rides she wanted to go on- seriously, this girl was falling asleep thinking about the rides and making plans for the next day's rides! That's how excited she was for the rides! Loved it! So contagious!

Here are the rides we went on: Astro Orbiter, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters- a FAVE! (which somehow Daniel remembered as being different at Disney World- something about batteries, Aunt Wendy- help??? His memory is usually amazing and spot on, but we're kinda confused about this one! Regardless, he loved the shooters of course and Annabel loved playing along too!), Alice in Wonderland, then we played around in Toon Town next, rode on Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin, met Mickey Mouse, climbed Chip & Dale's Treehouse, Daniel & Daddy and then Daniel & Uncle Brad rode the Go Coaster, we all did the Storybook Land Canal Boats, Snow White, Pinocchio, then we went over to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride (Daddy's favorite ride, Annabel fell asleep at this point, while waiting, while on the ride, while getting off and then still continued to sleep...pretty funny actually!), then Uncle Brad, Daniel and Mommy climbed in Tarzan's Treehouse (which was pretty cool, I must say- I loved this) and then Daniel & Uncle Brad went up AGAIN while the rest of us sat for a bit and Annabel continued to sleep in Daddy's arms. By this time, it was getting dark and much colder (Sunday was our coldest day, tiny bit of rain in the morning but then just cloudy and chilly all day), so Rose and I headed back to the hotel real fast to put on some warmer layers and grab everybody's hats and mittens, all of which really helped us stay warmer for the rest of the night. While we were gone, they rode on the Sailing Ship Columbia and then went to the Enchanted Tiki Room, which turned out to be one of Annabel's FAVORITE rides (video here if you're curious)- I'm sad that I missed her first time on this ride, because I'm told she was apparently very into it and super excited, but we did go on again another day and she was super adorable then, too. Then we rode Winnie the Pooh TWO times (another ride Daniel exclaimed he wanted to go on again) before heading back to the Main Street for the parade and fireworks. So, you can see it was a VERY BUSY day!! And we had a great time! I will say that MY favorite ride was closed for refurbishment & blah blah blah, so unfortunately we couldn't ride It's a Small World on this trip- but we knew that going into our trip (so much handy info out there on the internet!). I do think Annabel would have LOVED that ride; she has been on it before at Disney World though and liked it then, so we'll just be sure to catch it next time we're at Disney again.

I have to say Sunday was the busiest day at Disney, it still being the weekend. So the lines were a little longer this day, but not so unbearable. We certainly got on a LOT of rides in one day! And I don't think we waited in any line longer than a half hour, maybe 45 min. max.- which is about all we could stand with the kids, although really, they were INCREDIBLE in each and every line! I was super impressed with my kids' patience on this trip! Who knew? Brad and Rose's company helped, too. Also their arms were a great help for passing kids around when carrying them! Thanks, guys!

We saw Pluto and Mickey Sunday, but neither kid, especially Annabel, wanted anything to do with them really. Daniel wanted to see them, but then he didn't get really jazzed about them when it was our turn. Annabel waited in line to see Pluto like it was Christmas time- she was excited. She kept pointing to Pluto on her button, saying "ruff!" and then she'd look for him as we got closer to him. But when it was our turn, oh my goodness NO WAY was Annabel going up to see him! The reality was clearly too much for her. She pulled herself back between Rose's legs, crying, poor thing. Rose picked her up and she calmed down and looked at him, but she really didn't want anything to do with him. Same with Mickey, she was curious, but she didn't want to be near him either. And that's how things went with characters for the first few days of our trip pretty much. Wednesday, our 4th and last day, was an entirely different story with the characters...more on that later!!

We spent a lot of time in Toon Town. There's just so much there that is great for the little ones to play with, in, on, around, etc. There's a fun play yard at Goofy's house, a (lame) Chip & Dale tree house to climb, cars to "drive", and it's just a really cute area for this age group. Toon Town was also where Daniel rode one of his favorite rides, Gadget's Go Coaster, his very first roller coaster ever! That was one of the rides he got off, ran up to me, and said "we're gonna ride that AGAIN!" Ben also said Daniel was pretty excited that only HE got to ride that and Annabel could not (she was a few inches too short). That made the ride even more special and exciting for Daniel. Poor Annabel spent the whole time watching the ride, saying "Mine!" while pointing to herself; she desperately wanted a turn! She had fun watching though and waved this crazy enthusiastic wave whenever the roller coaster went by.

We saw the parade at nighttime from afar, good enough for us, but I really wanted to stay that night to see the fireworks, since they were only doing those on the weekend, not any of the weekdays, so this was our only night to catch that. That was a lot of fun to watch. We particularly liked how they sent a few off in a circle around the crowd- that was pretty awesome. And they were bright, fun, and lots of shapes, and such. The kids had fun watching those. I love fireworks and would watch them every night if I could!

Daniel fell asleep on our way out of the park, actually he was asleep as soon as we put him in the stroller the second the fireworks were done. He stayed asleep the whole way out of the park, down the few blocks to the hotel, into our room, out of his jeans and into his pajama pants and into bed- he was OUT! He never woke up until the next morning around 8:00 AM. Clearly he was worn out- a sign of a great day, I think! Annabel was so cute- she kept trying to give him things, juice, toys, while he was sleeping and we were getting ready for bed. She even curled up next to him at one point. He slept through all that.

Sunday night brought another adventure health-wise- Annabel came down with a fever. Thank God I'm smart enough to ALWAYS bring the kids' Tylenol with us on trips. She was seriously miserable and up all night, even with Tylenol which she fought like you wouldn't believe. And we were supposed to go to Cars Land the next day at the other park, California Adventure. We also had reservations for a character breakfast Monday morning, too. I was so worried how we were going to survive Monday, how we were going to manage Annabel's fever and still try to have a good time, and of course I wondered how long this would last...it really felt like we couldn't catch a break with my kids' health between Daniel throwing up the night of our arrival, and Annabel coming down with a fever the very next night. Aiyiyi! Time would tell...

Still, it was a GREAT first day of vacation! I was so glad Daniel and Annabel both liked the rides as much as they did! It was so fun to watch them, to catch their reactions, to each and every ride. I spent more time watching them, looking at their faces, catching their excitement- that alone was just as much fun as the rides!

Heading in, Daniel already holding Uncle Brad's hand!

1st Visit pins!

Such a HAPPY smile on Annabel! And you can see what I mean about how she loved her pin and pointed to it all day!

 

Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride!

 

Annabel checks out Pluto while in line to see him- she points him out on her pin and says "ruff," too!

Oh boy, here we go- NO WAY is Annabel going near Pluto!
This didn't surprise me one bit...but she had us going because she was so excited to see him!

Daniel was a bit more interested in his popcorn, I think! Next time, Pluto!

SO cute and so happy driving the fire truck! 
One of my fave pics from the trip!

Hello from all of us!

Daniel tries to pick up the fake weight! He gave it quite some effort and declared it was actually stuck.



Daniel and Daddy trying to pump up the TNT. Annabel is in the background trying to pick up fake bricks, getting the idea from the weight Daniel tried to pick up.

Daniel calls the police and tells them to put Aunt Rose and Annabel in jail (he's pointing to the jail)...

And then he said he had to lock them up, which you can see he's doing!

Goofy's Fun Play Yard!

Group photo with Mickey Mouse! Annabel wasn't too crazy about Mickey either.

"Mine!" Annabel watches Daniel ride the Go Coaster and wants HER turn! (She was too small by a few inches, though!)

Daniel's turn on the Go Coaster- you can just make out Ben waving in the second to last car there! Daniel LOVED this ride!

Time to consult the map...where to go next?

Heading into Alice's Wonderland...I love the way Annabel's hands are gripping the bar...something about it is so sweet.

Storybook Land Canal Boats...Annabel's expression here is so cute! She was this excited for just about every ride!

Daniel just took it all in!

What a cute grin!

Aaaannnnd...she's OUT! Annabel napped in our arms the whole trip- perfectly fine with her and us!

Daniel and Daddy ready to ride the Pirates of the Caribbean!

Annabel is still out, and yes totally & funnily flopped over- didn't bother her apparently, while riding the Pirate ride!

Tarzan's Treehouse!

Still asleep while Daniel's in the treehouse!

Magical Sleeping Beauty Castle at Night!

Excited for fireworks!

 

And now Daniel is OUT! The second the fireworks were over, Daniel wanted to sit in the stroller and he immediately fell asleep...I don't think I've seen him fall asleep that fast ever! And I absolutely LOVE the way his hands are clasped together around his lion- so sweet, melts my heart.

We got Daniel into his pajama pants and all the way into bed with him still sleeping!
He woke up the next morning and exclaimed, "I have two different clothes on!" He did NOT remember any of this at all!

Annabel snuggled with Daniel while he was sleeping...

Such a great day! We couldn't wait to go back for more!

California Here We Come!

This past week we had a GREAT family vacation at Disneyland in California!! I have so many pictures and stories to tell, but of course I must start from the beginning...the day we left.

We'd been talking and talking and talking about taking a trip out to California for ages and only just booked it like a month or so ago...which was fine because we were all just so excited to be going we could hardly stand the waiting! I can't tell you how much we needed a vacation, some different fresh air, some fun and excitement, just a real change of pace. And we sure got that- it felt great! Of course, the biggest factor in our trip to Disneyland was Cars Land, yes, as in Daniel's favorite movie, Cars- a whole "land" just for Cars!! Everything we read told us that February was a good time to go and we really wanted to get to Cars Land, which just opened in the summer of 2012, so now was as good a time as any! We had also really wanted to see Uncle Brad and Aunt Rose before they moved on to their next assignment in D.C. this summer (they live just a few hours away from Disneyland in CA), and we're SO glad they joined us on our trip! They were such awesome company- the kids took to them right away! So, the trip was very much looked forward to all around!

So anyway, the day finally came last Saturday, February 9th, after a week of telling Daniel how many nighttime sleeps until our trip. In fact, Daniel was up at the crack of dawn, ready to get on the airplane; he said so- "I'm ready to get on the airplane now!" Mind you, our flight wasn't until 2:45 and we weren't leaving until about 11:30- he was a bit early, but oh so excited and who could blame him! We'd let him pick out a matchbox car at the store to take with us, but we told him he could only open it on the plane, and man, he held on tight to that car, through about two naps and two nighttime sleeps- I don't think that car left his sight! I was pretty impressed with his patience. So he had that car in his hand all morning...just waiting. And since we'd finished packing early, Ben and Annabel dashed out to the store to pick up an early edition of the Sunday newspaper for some extra reading and of course the crossword puzzle Ben and I like to do. Daniel grabbed the opportunity to make marshmallow sculptures (I only let him do this when Annabel is out with Daddy) and we had a lot of fun. He is really getting very creative and very clever with his designs, very 3-dimensional as well, quite impressive really! Not long after Daddy got home, Daniel put on his own shoes and his coat, hat, and mittens and declared that he was really ready to get on the airplane now. We still had over an hour to wait at this point. Sigh. It's so hard to wait.

Finally, Grandma Mary Kay and Grandpa Larry showed up to take us to the airport and right at that moment we found out our flight was delayed by a half hour. So we loaded up the car and headed to Portillo's for lunch instead of going straight to the airport as planned, because I was not about to sit in the airport for 3 hours! We had a good lunch and headed to the airport. The kids were both champs all the way through luggage check-in and security. Daniel even let go of that car like a champ- I was proud of him, and of course he got it right back and continued to hold on to it. The only brief hang up Daniel had was that he wanted Grandma to come with us, he was a bit confused that they were not coming, they were just dropping us off. But he got over that quickly with the increased excitement of getting on the plane and his car ready to open. We had time to get some water and juice, use the bathrooms, and then voila, it was finally time to get flyin'!! California here we come!!

Annabel had fun looking out the window while we waited for take off and she did great during take off, too. She waved bye-bye the whole time! She was so cute- she put her pink bear up to the window so the bear could see out the window, too. And she even had the bear wave bye-bye! Super adorable. Up in the air, well, let's just say the initial excitement wore off VERY fast. Annabel was bored within ten minutes of flying, I kid you not- we still had another 4 hours to go, mind you. She was thrilled to look at the new books I bought for the flight, the interactive truck book being the most popular and the one that held her attention the longest, but then she was just done with the books and the cars and trucks and toys and snacks I brought, done done done. She wanted Daddy. Daniel was happily hooked up to the tablet watching some new shows Ben got for him; he's much easier to entertain, always has been. So we pretty much bounced kids, Annabel more than Daniel, but yes, even Daniel, too, between Ben and me for the rest of the flight (Annabel and I were in front of Daniel and Daddy). This got old real fast. I was glad when the snacks arrived; they were a great diversion since they were different snacks than ours- yummy shortbread cookies (which for some reason didn't have milk in them- although I now question this...more on that later) and Golden Oreos (which are just wrong in my opinion, but much enjoyed by my kids!). Then it was back to more bouncing kids. Neither kid slept one wink! Ugh! Finally the flight was over!!! Annabel cried during the landing, mostly because she had to get buckled back in her seat, even if she was next to Daddy at this point, although Daniel did remind me that maybe her ears were hurting her, too, because his sure were bothering him. Alas, we survived the flight.

We grabbed some McDonald's nuggets, found our luggage and then began the looooong journey to our hotel. Loooong because we had to wait for our reserved van, which then had to pick up other passengers around the airport and around the airport again (I felt like we were never going to leave the airport because we kept going and going, around and around!), and then we were finally on the highway, dropping off other passengers first before finally getting to our hotel (actually I find this part interesting, especially when we drop people off at their homes; call me a voyeur, but it's kinda fun). Whew. That was an adventure in itself. Annabel of course fell asleep as soon as we hit the highway, which left us wondering if she would be able to go back to sleep when we got to our room.

Our room sure looked cozy after the long day of traveling!! And Daniel was super excited that our room had "one BIG bed," as he told everybody before we left, so we could all sleep together. We decided to do this for a lot of reasons- Annabel doesn't sleep in a pack & play- never has, Daniel likes to sleep next to Daddy on trips like this, Annabel likes to snuggle with Daddy in our bed at home and I knew she would want to do this at the hotel too, plus Annabel wants whatever Daniel has, and so we thought what the heck and we just got a room with a king-sized bed, which also had a pull-out couch-bed for some added flexibility if that was needed. The big bed worked out just fine and we all slept great all week. Ben and I got more sleep than we usually get at home even, since we would all go to sleep at the same time and the kids slept in every morning- so NICE!

Right away, of course the kids wanted to go to Disneyland...but we still had to wait another 10 or so hours! So, off to bed we went.

And now we're back to that cookie I questioned...about two hours after we all fell asleep, Daniel threw up all over the bed. Poor kid. This would make only the second time ever that Daniel has thrown up. We're still not entirely sure why he got sick, whether it was the excitement of the day, the flying (which doesn't really make a lot of sense since we'd been off the plane for about 4 hours at this point), or whether the shortbread cookie did indeed have milk in it (I keep saying, I've never met a shortbread cookie Daniel could have, so why this one, although the ingredients sure didn't list milk- I've checked and rechecked now)...regardless, it was not a fun thing to go through just a few hours into our vacation. I was mostly worried about Daniel and what this would mean for our first day at Disneyland. We got him showered and cleaned up, sheets pulled off, which Annabel totally and surprisingly slept through, and then he and Daddy slept in the pull-out couch bed, while Annabel and I managed to stay on our side of the big bed. It turned out that Daniel was absolutely fine the next day. However, the puzzle still remains, because the same exact thing, same timing and all, happened when we got back home- same cookies were eaten, same flight duration, same duration at home before another episode (which Daniel was so smart to listen to his body this time and luckily caught it well in advance)...so I think next time, whenever that is, no more of that cookie for sure, and we'll see if the flight itself or the nerves that go along with it have an effect. Such a puzzle and what a way to start our trip!

We were just glad to finally be within walking distance, even within eye-shot from our hotel too, of Disneyland!!!! YAY!!!

Here are a few pictures from our day of departure!

Daniel made a clothesline with marshmallows and toothpicks while Daddy and Annabel ran an errand.

 Daniel was VERY READY to leave for the airport! 

Annabel was just happy happy!!

 Annabel absolutely insisted on carrying my water bottle. Daniel was carrying his juice bottle and well, she had to have something, too! Yes, we've already begun the he has/she has game in our house...

 Finally, we're on the plane and Daniel is SO happy to take his car out of the package!!

 Annabel shows her bear the view out the window and even makes the bear wave bye-bye!! SO CUTE!!

 Annabel loved her new interactive truck book! I love how her feet are up so she can hold the book in her lap better; this cracks me up!

Daniel was already hooked up and watching some new shows on Ben's tablet!!

 So happy to be free! Annabel had a ball "dancing" on our big bed, because she escaped our hold after a diaper change, which of course made us super nervous, but man is she hard to catch!!

Next stop: Disneyland!!!

2 More Months until Annabel is TWO!

Annabel will be so excited to finally be TWO in two months because "TWO" (said exactly that enthusiastically every single time, which is about every ten seconds!) is her favorite word! We think it's hilarious that she will hold up just one finger when she says "TWO."

Oh- and yes this monthly post is a few days late, sorry! We went on vacation (!!!!) last week and came home on Annabel's "Minnie" day, Valentine's Day, and after a long day of traveling, taking her Minnie picture and posting this was the last thing on my mind. We are slowly catching up! More on our vacation later!

Annabel is very busy learning a TON of new words and new sounds as well, her newest and most confusing sound being a "t" for the "k" sound. Anyway, I'm not even sure I can keep up with all the words anymore, but here goes (I try to list them as they come throughout the month, this didn't just all come to me now, I'll tell you that much!): "mella" for Amelia (Brian's girlfriend, Bella and Kaleb's mom), "tella" for aforementioned Kaleb, "boot" for book with the correct /oo/ sound, "tahllah" for towel, "shh" for Asher, "ts" for Patricia, "paht" for part/apart (taking apart blocks, breaking her toast up in two pieces, breaking up playdoh, etc), "paht" is also press as in press buttons, "butt" is button, "baht" is back, "bott" is box, "watt" is for walk, "pahlah" is play, "pull-uh" is playdoh (very hard to differentiate from play, except that she's more insistent for this word, maybe because I am so confused with this word!), "luhluh" is eleven which is said often enough only because Daniel will sometimes tell us to count to 11 when playing hide and seek (he picks random numbers for us to count to)- Annabel thinks it's pretty cool that she can say this word, "wiy" is her word for drink (no idea where she got that, Ben still hasn't caught on to this one because it's such a weird word for drink, but it's her word, she knows what it means and we eventually figure it out- that's what matters!), "shiy" for shower and hide, "daht" is for dark and she points to her squinty eyes for this word- cute, "puh" is pink or purple, "waht" is white, "baht" is black, "rah" is red, and she's just now got "b-luuue" (she works so hard at this one, it's adorable! the tongue action for the "l" kills us!), "Papa" is Grandpa- she gets SO excited and will say "papa" over and over and over when she knows they're coming!, "dada" is Daniel or Daddy or Donald or Daisy, Daddy is sometimes "da-EE!" mostly when she's crying, "minih" is Minnie, "Puht" or "ruff" is Pluto, of course she's got "MIne" down pat, more has become "monah" for some reason- backslide there since she was doing fine with this word before, "tahh" is for tablet- she loves Daddy's tablet just like Daniel does, "domp" is a new word (like as of today) for stomp because we were marching and stomping our feet to Jim Gill's song The Tempo Marches On (click to listen), "doo-doo-doo" in her screechy voice is cock-a-doodle-doo which is said a lot around here when we're pretending to sleep, and she can "baa" for sheep which is also super cute. We watched a show Daddy has on DVD called Shaun the Sheep (silly clay-animation show with basically no words, just all silly animal antics) and Annabel spent the whole time saying "baa" every two seconds because of course there are sheep in the entire show! So, we know she's got the sheep sound down! And last week on our vacation, more on that soon!, Annabel learned a ton more new words that of course had to do with our trip, which was so exciting and tons of fun- "Roh" was for Aunt Rose, "Batt" was for Uncle Brad, "rIII!" is for ride, "pIE" was for pirate, and she can "argghhh" with the best of pirates...and well, I think you get the idea. Her vocabulary is just huge right now and she will try saying just about any word you say now. She was even trying to count to twelve with me today when playing hide and seek- it was so cute to listen to her trying to say each and every number- loved it! Whew...she's one busy girl!

Annabel is almost exclusively in her "junior chair"/big girl chair now, actually has been for months, but I'm not sure I've mentioned it much before. She can even finally get on it by herself, which she was super proud to learn a few weeks ago. It was pretty funny- I turned around one day and there she was, up high on her chair! She can't get down though, so she's stuck once on it, which honestly is mostly fine by me otherwise she'd totally run away with completely messy hands! I never use her highchair anymore and I'm trying to convince Ben to get rid of it, but he still likes to be able to put her in it from time to time, if she wants to be close to the action in the kitchen and he needs his hands free (because she's totally a Daddy's girl and always wants him to carry her, which he does!), during meal preparation and such. I kind of agree that it is nice to have somewhere relatively safe to plunk her down, so the highchair stays for now. The junior chair is just so nice to have so she can be up at the table with us, she and Daniel love to sit next to each other from time to time, it's just nice to be a family all together at the table at meals. I just look at my two kids at the table with me and sometimes it astonishes me that we have this great little family- I'm so lucky!

Speaking of meals, Annabel has learned the art of washing food down. Yes, at the tender age of not-even-two! She will eat some food, grab her cup and wash her food down. I was shocked the first few times I saw her do this and wasn't even entirely sure what she was doing, but she's totally not even chewing or tasting, she really was literally washing the food down with her milk or juice. We've managed to curb that a little by reminding her to chew and holding her cup away from her as another reminder, which she hates, so she's getting better. But seriously, already? She's a pretty decent eater most of the time really, unless Daniel is in a hurry or not eating and thus moving onto things faster which makes her decide she's done faster than she might be otherwise. And after her weight check back at 21 months, we learned that she'd grown an inch and a half in three months (wow!), but she'd only gained a few ounces weighing in at 18 lbs 3 ounces...SO, we're really trying to beef up her foods every chance we get, or at least when she'll let us. She's been a pretty good sport about this, but we'll see what it amounts to in a couple months. I just have tiny, skinny kids! Good thing they're so cute!

Annabel at 31 inches tall was waaaay past due for a new car seat (she was still in her infant seat up until recently- she still mostly fit, she was happy, it was convenient, it worked, but yes, she was just a tiny bit past the limit, which we knew, we've just been busy). It had been on our list for ages and we finally bit the bullet and found a new seat for her. She seems to like it for the most part. She can see out the window now and I think she loves that part. She falls asleep in it just fine, if we happen to be out after lunch time and closer to her nap time. I think she will be much happier when she can forward-face, but since she's still just 18 pounds, she's nowhere near the weight requirement for forward-facing just yet. We'll probably just turn her around when she's 2 regardless, just like we did with Daniel.

Annabel's canine teeth are finally all cut through! The top two are in more than the bottom ones. The bottom ones must have just cut through in the last week or so, because they were not there last I checked- and I'm always checking. Anyway, glad to finally have those cut in at least. Her finger is in her mouth all the time, poor thing, and she sleeps terribly (which isn't really that unusual, just that I feel like we went from sleeping a tad bit better to sleeping horribly again). Hopefully the fact that they're finally cut through will translate to some better nights for us all! Those teeth sure took forever!

Annabel loves to read, loves to pretend to write people's names (just like Mommy does) on her Magna-Doodle- her favorite name being "Papa," loves play-doh, loves painting, loves to pretend to cook in her play kitchen, loves puzzles, loves blocks. She's getting faster at walking down the stairs while holding our hand, and she's good about holding onto the railing if she goes down herself. She loves to close doors behind her, so chances are if you can't find her, you'll find her in the bathroom or in the pantry with the door closed, often in the dark. Annabel can identify just about any body part you ask her about. She knows most of her colors and tries to say their words, which I mentioned above in her list of words; green orange and yellow are the few she hasn't tried to say yet. Annabel can identify tons of pictures in her books. She recognizes all Mickey characters and says most of their names, Goofy being the last in the pack since she hasn't said that one yet. Daisy, Donald, and Minnie are her favorite characters.

And now for the drumroll please...Annabel actually used the potty for the first time- TWICE- this month!! She was super excited and a little shocked I think. So now she says "pa-ee" several times a day and likes to try and sit on the potty. She loves to "dump" it regardless of whether there's anything in there or not- this is just her favorite part, next to flushing. Anyway, we're not officially training her at all, but it's awesome that she's taking an interest in trying! I will be SO glad to be done with diapers...but no rush just yet.

So that's a busy month in the life of Annabel! Just as soon as I'm caught up on this blog (is that even possible? I'm not sure!) I've got to get started planning Annabel's 2nd Birthday Party- not even 8 weeks away!! Time flies!

Here are some Minnie picture outtakes! Annabel posed very nicely and quite eagerly this month, she practically ran up the stairs to her room where we take the pictures- and then she actually sat in her chair and said "chee" (her cheese) and then she was all over Minnie with hugs and kisses during which I got the super adorable humongous toothy smile you see (now waaay) above! These other pictures were too cute to pass up on sharing!

Annabel tried to stand Minnie up...

 

Then Annabel "ro" (rolled) Minnie over and over.

 

Daniel decided it was his Mickey day, too, so he came to pose as well!

Annabel decided it would be fun to lay down with Mickey and Minnie- I love how she practically blends in with them! Yes, she's in there!

Oh, and you probably will totally not remember this, but it's a silly tidbit for you, and besides, I sure remember- this was the shirt Annabel wore last Valentine's Day- her 10 month Minnie day, you know, her first Valentine's that wasn't such a Valentiny day because of my appendectomy. She totally had a cute new Valentine shirt this year, but she wore it on Valentine's Day on the airplane all festive and super cute and of course we were too tired to remember to take Minnie pictures that night when we got home, so I have no proof. I'll catch it later. Anyway, this sweater still fits her great of course, since she's so tiny, so what the heck, she wore it for another Minnie picture! Deal with it! (I managed to deal with it...well, kinda...!)

Okay, off to get those posts about our vacation ready for your viewing pleasure!