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....Daddy playing with Anna and her bath suction cup toy. Oops.





He has the biggest, purple-est, most monster hickey you've ever seen on his forehead now.

The funny thing is, that thing NEVER sticks in the bathtub. She stuck it to his forehead and pulled and it just STUCK. Hard.

The funnier thing is, he has to do year end performance evals (an hour long face to face) with all of the people in his office over the next three days.

So funny! We both laughed so hard. He was a good sport about it. We spent the evening coming up with funny stories to tell people.

- "D'oh!!! [channeling Homer Simpson, smacking himself in the forehead] - I have no idea what that is!"
- "I told Rebekah to give me some head...but she was confused." (he won't really say that)
- "I was eating a live octopus, like they do on Iron Chef, and that little guy was a fighter!"

Last night Anna and I drove to San Francisco to pick Daddy up from work and run a few errands. We went to Pier 39, because I needed some make-up (I LOVE that Bare Escentuals stuff now). It was DESERTED! I expected it to be crowded, but there was no one there at all. We went and saw the seals and the big Christmas tree and just wandered around for awhile. It was such a nice night. Reminded me of the day after our wedding when Curtis and I puttered around the city all day waiting for our honeymoon flight to leave that evening....just the two of us. It was really nice.

So - anyway...this wouldn't be my blog without an Anna story. We walk into this cute little puppet store, and were looking at all the neat puppets. The owner was working really hard to show Anna something that she liked and kept bringing out different things. What does our tough little cookie say?

That doesn't impress me.

Curtis and I and the sales lady ALL just about fell over laughing. What a crack up.

We WON the Amazing Race! Well...the mothers' club version anyway. Kelly and I kicked bhutt!!! Even though we both went into it feeling like crap (she was recovering from laryngitis and I am getting a migraine) we had a blast. Our friends did such a great job organizing it.

We started off with a trivia type scavenger hunt at the library. Let's just say intellect was not our strong suit tonight, but we got it finished eventually. (Did you know that the California state motto is "Eureka!" and the capital of Denmark is Copenhagen?) What? Well...would you have known it under pressure in the Amazing Race? OK, fine, whatever.

Then we had to do "Hoops, Hoops, Hoops!" Complete 20 freethrows or 100 hula hoop rotations at our next task. Kelly was not in the bball groove tonight, but her boobs ROCK at keeping a hula hoop movin'!

Then, on to Starbucks, where we convinced 3 guys to give us money and then had to buy a hot chocolate and drink it, along with eating an entire mixing bowl full of pudding. This was my task, unfortunately. I saw the team that had arrived before us had been there for some time, and was only half way through. I ate two handfuls (yes - no silverware and nothing to clean up with) and said, "Let's take the penalty. It can't be done." Kelly was pissed for a bit, but eventually everyone gave up, so we had made a wise decision.

From there we had to find 20 cans of food and meet at Applebee's. We ran to my house (which was closer than anyone else's fortunately), cleaned out my pantry, made life difficult for my poor, wonderful husband who was trying to get Anna to bed, "Who was that? I think it was Mommy. No, really, it was Mommy. Where is Mommy now?", and raced back to Applebees!

Whooo hoooo!!! We won!!! A $10 GC for Starbucks for each of us. Then we all hung out and had appetizers and drinks at Applebees. All in all....a very fun night. (And did I mention, we WON!!!)

I swear, I was busy every minute of the day today....and I have no idea what I got done. I can think of a list of things, but none of them seem to have taken up the whole day, but, it's GONE!

I did make Split Pea soup from scratch with the ham bone from our Pre-Christmas this weekend. I hate spilt pea soup - but Curtis and my mom like it. And I made dinner for a friend in the mothers' club that is having a rough time, and got that delivered. I bought more Princess panties for Anna today - because no matter how many I buy we seem to run out, and I refuse to re-use poopy ones. And I spent way too much time trying to fill out the claim form for our FSA account.

Hmmmm...whole lotta nothin' - but my To Do list is getting shorter. I'm so excited that tomorrow night, we have a Mothers' Club Amazing Race! It should be fun! Wish me luck!

We're (MOSTLY) potty trained!!! I wish I could take some credit, but she just...kind of....did it. She woke up dry one morning, so I thought - "It's now or never." She only had 1-2 accidents a day for the first 2 days, and NONE during the past 3-4. She's been dry at naps, night time and all day for severl days now! Whoo hoo! Our little girl is getting so BIG now! We still have a ways to go on # 2 - but that will come in time. Yeah, Anna!!!

We had our first "Christmas" this weekend. This was the one we celebrate with our closest family friends every year. It was nice.

Friday: My friend Tracy and her son Anthony and her mom came down. Tracy and I left the kiddos with the Grammys on Friday night and went to a Passion Party! Holy cow. It was fun though....I have to admit. We drank many yummy Margaritas (just like Martha makes) and I even BOUGHT something.....scary, huh?!

Saturday: Curtis was home (yeah!) and Tracy and Anthony stayed on the sofa Friday night. We all hung out in the living room in our PJS and had a lazy morning before going to my mom's for presents then dinner. Then after they left, my mom and sister and I went shopping and just soaked up some Christmas Mall Spirit and hit Marie Calendars for munchies at 11pm. We giggles until we pee'd ourselves (which isn't that hard for my mom and I - post kids...admittedly) over the wind up Santa Stich toy that my sister bought for me at the Disney store. And laughed some more over my mom singing her nose hairs sniffing the scented oil burned at Bath & Body works.

Sunday we did pics in the morning for our Christmas cards and then came back to nap during the 49er game before decorating the tree.

*sigh*

Just a really nice weekend with some of my favorite people. I really do know what a lucky girl I am.

Yeah!!!


Curtis has been in D.C. all week on business and he surprised us by coming home a day early! I'm so happy he's home. I still miss him when he's gone - even just for a day or so...though this was longer. I suppose that 's a good sign, that we still miss each other when we're apart after all these years. I'm a lucky girl.

Or more specifically, to tinkle in the Big Girl Princess Panties until it runs down your leg onto the carpet, or to tinkle in the Big Girl potty.

Guess what we've been doing? Actually, she's been doing great. We haven't pushed it, and she seems to be taking the initiative on her own. We've only had a few accidents in the past 3 days since this really started.

Here are a few things I've learned:

- 16 pairs are not enough. We don't do laundry THAT often, and they seem to go quickly.

- That Anna loves to tell me, "I am SOOOO proud of you, Mommy" when I go to the bathroom.

- The frequency with which Anna feels the need to "go" is directly proportional to how long we've been trying to get her to go to sleep, and we can't really call her bluff on THAT one.

- The Sesame Street potty ring that Anna uses on the toilet will become stuck if her little friend tries to wear it on his head as a hat.

I'm sure my learning curve has just begun....but so far we're all starting to have fun. As ever. Anna Catherine keeps everything interesting....and we're pretty lucky for that.

I guess so. I didn't think I had slacked off THAT much. We've been busy doing the mothers' club Christmas party. We gathered around 100 toys for Toys for Tots, so I think it was a success. Everyone has a good time.

Anna got to sit on Santa's lap. And what did she think of to tell Santa that she wanted for Christmas? A pink hammer. WTF?! But, being the super parents that we are, we found one. She is so funny. I think she likes anything that Daddy does. I love that. I hope that she has as great a relationship with her Daddy as I have with mine.