Random Fun with Annabel

Here's some random fun with Annabel that I've collected over the past month and a half...

This is a girl who loves the sandbox...and her sunglasses!

 Squishing her feet around in the sand...

 Okay, I've mentioned before that Annabel eats sandwiches from the middle, and I do mean the middle...as you can see here from her hole in this peanut butter and jelly sandwich! I told you I'd show you the picture that proved this... She is finally maybe moving on from this, mostly because she likes shaped sandwiches like Daniel now- I guess I have him to thank! She is finally letting me cut her sandwiches into triangles or squares like Daniel most of the time and she'll eat normally then. Still, every now and again she wants her "butter jelly sammich BIG," and the middle hole re-emerges...

I had made a list one day of cute words Annabel says so I could do a video (which you'll see below) and ask her to say words. So then Annabel was very interested in my list pad and she wanted to write, too. She just looked so cute writing I had to take pictures...

We made S'mores Brownies one weekend (they were just okay, although I have to say I did make them completely from scratch...rare for me! And no, that's not why they were just okay, they just weren't very s'more-like) and Annabel loved helping me. Daniel appeared on the scene a couple times, but was otherwise uninterested. Here they are crushing graham crackers for the crust (and don't tell me you can buy a box pre-crushed, I know you can, but they have milk in them...so we make crumbs ourselves, works just fine and the kids love this part anyway!).

Annabel wanted a turn stirring everything!

Annabel even got her own bowl of chocolate chips to eat while she helped...she kept pausing her stirring job and "sneaking" them into her mouth and she thought she was so cute for doing so! She would be right of course!

Annabel was oh-so-cutely clapping and saying "yay!" for Daniel when he climbed the ladder at the park one day. It was so cute.

 She loves to walk along the curb around the park, just like "mattih" (gymnastics, which she really misses! She's always asking to go there!).

Now, this girl is my swinging girl!!! Annabel LOVES to swing and will swing for at least 20 minutes straight, I timed it once. She thinks it's the best and she loves to go fast! She especially loves it when Daniel pushes her.

The two of them look so cute going down the slide together; Annabel always insists that Daniel go down with her.

 My brave girl climbing the ladder at the park, over a month ago. She's even more of an old pro now!

Annabel loved helping Daniel with his impromptu sink/float science experiment. And yes, those would be her sunglasses she just tested out!

Collecting "helicopters" on the deck with Daniel and having a ball!

This is the oh-so-super-cute way Annabel holds up three fingers! Love it!

Annabel absolutely LOVES these Crayola Slick Stix I recently bought for the kids to try out. These are "crayons" (which are more like oil pastels really) that come out super bright, draw super smoothly, and you can twist them up for more. They are really fun and the kids just love them. They are a bit messy with Annabel mostly because she presses so hard that there are "crayon" bits everywhere and they really do smear. They're intended for older children I'm sure, but with supervision, they're awesome for Annabel because of their brightness and super easy smooth writing. She makes a million pictures with these in one sitting. And I find that I draw more with these, too- they really are awesome tools; Annabel always hijacks my pictures though! Still, we are having a lot of fun with these "markers" as Annabel calls them, and well, she's mostly right, they do have caps!

 Annabel LOVES her new pink scooter! She's still really learning how to do it, but she does love to try. The first time she got on it, she put both feet on and said "Go!" I cracked up and told her she had to walk it. Daniel helped show her how to do it, too. Anyway, she looks so cute trying! She was SO excited to get her own scooter, "own" she says.

Back story for this next picture: I hosted a "book exchange" party this past Thursday night (we had a ton of fun, TONS of books were brought, all the good food and drinks were gone, and my two good friends Patricia and Connie closed out the party at 2 AM!! We had so much fun chatting the night away and had NO idea it was that late!)...anyway, Ben mostly took the kids out for the night, but when they came home, the party was still going of course, and the kids were SO excited to see Aunt Christina, Patricia and Connie (the few people they knew and all three of whom they just LOVE) and of course eat all the good food, too! Needless to say, they went to bed LATE that night, like almost 11:00 I think. You also need to know our air conditioner broke that day- about two hours before the party, wouldn't you know- of course it would happen that way. Now, back to this picture, the kids went with Ben to get the part he needed to fix the air conditioner the next morning, Friday morning, and on the way home, only about 10:15 in the morning mind you, they both fell asleep. It was so darn cute. There went my chance for a nap that day...

And clearly, Annabel was still catching up from the late night Thursday night since she fell asleep in Grandma Mary Kay's lap while Ben and I were out at dance class Friday night. Daniel fell asleep waiting for us, too. And Grandma didn't believe me when I said they would probably fall asleep for them! 'Course I took a picture of Annabel before Ben took her up to bed, still sleeping...

A few cute things we've heard/seen lately:
"Ha-ha"- as in "aha, I did it!" It's so cute the way Annabel does this with two ha's.

When Daniel asks, "Annabel, can I tell you something?", Annabel immediately covers her eyes, not her ears, you'll note. I crack up, on the inside of course because I don't want to actually encourage her to not listen. It's just too funny though and makes me wonder what she's thinking.

Annabel is really into pandas these days. Daniel and I just finished a panda-themed Magic Tree House book; while we read it, every time Annabel saw a panda she'd exclaim "panna" and get so excited. She also really likes Daniel's stuffed panda, which of course Daniel all of a sudden doesn't want to share, so we told Annabel we'd put a panda on her birthday list. Annabel immediately made sure we knew she wanted a pink one! I had to laugh...of course we explained to her that it wouldn't be a panda then, pandas are black and white. Today we were talking about pandas again at some point and right away she said, "black white"- she remembered! Anyway, the pink panda request was just too funny. This girl and her obsession with pink...sigh.

And now, here are a bunch of cute videos of Annabel...talking, reading books, doing puzzles, and even making x's which I taught her to do on Friday. So cute! You'll need several minutes to get through all this cuteness though!

In these two, I have Annabel saying a bunch of words for you... you should be able to figure out most of them. She says "mine" for her own name, and I also had her say the Disney characters' names which are sorta close...

I love how Annabel reads the book Blue Hat Green Hat (by Sandra Boynton) with that cute little oops so I had to have her read that for you. She's also reading Doggies (also by Sandra Boynton) where she's learned that dogs say more than just woof, she now bow-wow-wows with the best of 'em and the nnn-nnn-nnn is what one dog says in the book, so she's actually supposed to do that. Love her "shhh!" for the quiet dogs, too. The dogs also howl on one page and on the last page there is a cat. And yes, my phone started ringing right in the middle of the video- oh well. At least she kept going!

This is our book with Disney-character versions of classic songs; Annabel mostly just names the characters she sees. The wiggling butt page is "If you're Goofy and you know it, wag your tail," and then there's a song to the tune of "Ain't it great to be crazy" (a song I have never heard of!) which goes "Boom Boom, Ain't it great to be Daisy"- Annabel is super cute saying "boom boom be Daisy!" LOVE it!

Two videos of Annabel hard at work trying to put our Cars puzzle together. She can do the top line with all the characters really well...the rest is a little foggy, but she tries.

I taught Annabel how to make x's on Friday with these new "branch" pencils (from my aforementioned book party!) that the kids are loving. Annabel had the most fun making x's all day and each time she says "down, coss" for down & across, which are the words I used to describe the motions, and yes that means it's mostly a "t" but we're calling them x's! Had to take a video because it's super cute. (Also, we were playing school, Daniel was waiting for his mommy and you'll hear him ask me, the teacher, if she's here...) I now have a million sheets of paper with one x on each of them! So fun though!

Random Fun with Daniel

I've collected random pictures again...here's a bunch just of Daniel! (Annabel's randomness will come soon!)

Daniel still loves to play in our sandbox and he's pretty creative these days...

 Daniel fell asleep on his floor one Friday night back in May, waiting for us to come home from dance class and tuck him in. It was so sweet. (This was before the new bed, so he actually had room to do this!)

Daniel LOVES his bike! He loves to ride it to the park. And I just love watching him- he can really GO! 

Side story, as long as we're being random: There was one day recently, we'd had a rough morning, but off we headed to the park to run off some energy...and I made sure to imprint this image in my head- no photo taken- just this perfect little image/memory of my sweet still 4 year old boy, riding his bike, tottering side to side against the training wheels, his Elmo backpack on with his stuffed green monkey's head sticking out...it was just so endearing and in that moment I was reminded he is still my baby, he is still young enough to want to carry his stuffed animal to the park in his little Elmo backpack. (The monkey's head was sticking out because he wanted the monkey to see where we were going.) The whole image was the sweetest thing ever. I had tears in my eyes; time just flies and yet, this moment has stayed with me, this image just had childhood and timelessness written all over it, it had the carefree spirit of being young all over it. Took my breath away really.

Daniel loves to swing these days. (And don't worry, Annabel isn't mad, she's just experimenting with how she can stand and fold her arms while waiting.)

Impromptu science experiment one day: will it sink or float? Daniel had a ball finding things all over the house and checking to see if they would float or sink. We had the most fun!

Daniel had his second dentist visit about a month ago. He did NOT like it one bit and kept swatting the hygienist away; it was a hard appointment to get through, but he got through it well enough in the end. I sat by him so he could hold my hand, and of course he had lion and kitty cat with him, but in the end, it was Curious George on the TV that helped the most! That show was clearly a better distraction than The Cat in the Hat show. I made his appointment for that time slot next time! Good thing he had no cavities and all is well otherwise!

I mentioned before how much the kids are into collecting nature "treasures" these days...here's Daniel's collection from one of those times. They really do have the most fun out there together; SO thankful for a fenced yard so I can let them head out and have fun!

I recently discovered these fun "crayons" called Slick Stix. The kids LOVE them. Daniel is finally starting to really draw pictures and name them- these crayons really kind of kicked that off. I think this was a truck carrying a dinosaur head, or something like that.

Daniel and Daddy enjoyed some special time together doing a Lowe's Build and Grow workshop a couple weekends ago. I signed them up for this one especially because I knew the project would be a hit- these Mike and Sulley (from Monsters Inc, a fave movie of Daniel's) wiggle guys. Daniel was really excited to go and loved the project of course! I'll have to keep my eye out for more of these workshops, which fill up super fast. Home Depot does them, too, and we've caught them at those truck shows and such that we've been to, but Daniel and Daddy have never just done this the two of them at the store, so this was something special we'd been wanting to try and they had a lot of fun.

Such a cute picture of Daniel with Mickey! He wanted the blanket on their laps which was cute. And also, he's been loving wearing his Thai outfit (you can just make out the shirt here) from Great Aunt Jackie, since it finally fits! I'll have to check if Annabel's fits her now and get a picture of the two of them in these neat outfits. Anyway, I loved this picture. Now here, he looks closer to five years old to me.

Things we've heard lately:

We were talking about cars on the road one day and I must have made some comment about the cars like they were from the Cars movie, and Daniel immediately exclaimed, "No-ooo! This isn't Eye-car land!" (He still calls the Cars movie cars "eye-cars" because, you know, they have eyes, as opposed to Matchbox cars which don't. This was something he did from THE very beginning of his cars collection.)

"Whoa! Who's gonna sleep on the floor?!"- Daniel's immediate response when he saw a mattress on the curb ready to be thrown away one day.

"Mommy, you sure made a good dinner!"- This from the kid who barely eats two bites at dinner most nights. And no I don't remember what I made now.

"No scrabbling" or "No scrambling"- when he tells Annabel not to scribble.

"No time to lose, no time at all!" This cracks me up!

"Certainly"- This certainly is good; this certainly is garbage- he's very certain about things these days!

"Definitely"- This is definitely for babies; this is definitely trash- things are also very definite around here lately!

The other day, I was helping Annabel with a Cars puzzle and I pointed out Luigi so she could find the rest of Luigi on the next piece. Daniel immediately and urgently said, "Mommy- you just said 'Luigi'," and I said yeah and man you could see him thinking about this and concentrating, so I finally said, "Well, you've always called him 'Wigigi' but his name is Luigi." I have secretly loved "Wigigi" and didn't want to end this, so I've never explicitly corrected him, but I have always said it correctly myself, he's just clearly never really heard it until this day. It was just too funny to watch Daniel think so hard about this- I don't think I will forget this conversation and the puzzled look on his face. He finally told me he will still call him Wigigi. This hasn't come up again to be confirmed...

And today, while Daniel was "not napping"/doing quiet time, he was clearly very busy in his room...he came down (he comes down when his hour long CD is over- that ends his quiet time if he's still awake, which he is most days) and urgently ran into the family room where I was puttering on the computer and emphatically said, "Mommy, this swim shirt does NOT even fit around my neck anymore!" and maybe you had to be there, but just his face, his urgency, his gestures, his attempt at describing how it did not fit plus the fact that this was what he found to do while he was not napping...well, it cracked me up, I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes. I finally put myself together enough to say, well then we would just keep the shirt for Annabel or donate it, and he grabbed the shirt back in his hands, hugged it to his cheeks, and said oh so dramatically "nooooo, put it in my baaaby box!" (a box he's never seen, because I know he'd just take stuff out, but that he knows I like to put special stuff into). And then he quickly proceeded to tell me that his swim shorts were fine though, he even had them on and wanted to keep wearing them until Michael's party, a classmate's party (his first party for a friend at school!), which mind you isn't until tomorrow. This all just sent me into more laughing fits. (I should also say he often comes down after naps in completely different outfits than I left him in. I just think it's funny how he fills his quiet time.)

Daniel helped us clean up our family room one afternoon after dumping the entire collection of toys (well, at least those from the family room mostly!) in the middle of the room and while we cleaned, we put a few bags of toys together for donating. We usually do this without Daniel (though I know the value of getting him to donate, don't get me wrong) because he's such a pack rat and everything becomes his "favorite toy ever" and nothing gets donated. But this time, we actually put together almost three bags full of toys and he had fun and was so proud of himself; at one point, he said, "I never donated before. I love donating." And don't worry, I made sure he came with me to Goodwill and got out of the car to carry his bags in- he was so excited. We'll have to do some more donating, since he seems to be ready and is always talking about donating now.

Daniel also loves doing school work and playing school these days. We have a few workbooks that he just loves doing. He's a hard little worker and can do most activities so independently now, though he likes me nearby. It's so much fun to sit and work with him a little bit on these.

And I think I mentioned before that Daniel is really into puzzles these days. Oh my gosh- he just loves them right now. We're stockpiling them like crazy (we did pick up a few at the project store the other the day and the kids were just SO excited to come home and do them right away, and we found a few cute cheap ones at Goodwill this weekend, too) and he's putting them together over and over again. And he wants NO help- he's very insistent on doing them by himself. So awesome!

I think that's all the news and stories for Daniel lately! 

Sprinkler Fun!

We've been getting our sprinkler out a lot these days! The kids just love playing with water, whether it's the sprinkler, the hose, or their spray bottles! Daniel mostly likes to see what the water can do (for example, it can help him make a mud pool which is why he's not in all these pictures- he was a little busy with that project!), while Annabel is still experimenting with getting wet, hence the hilarious pictures of her basically sticking her butt in the sprinkler! (She'll just love me for that second to last picture, don't ya think?! It was just too funny to pass up!)

Next up is the pool!

Here are two cute videos of Annabel's fun in the sprinkler...