ABCZ

On Christmas Eve, after we got home from church, we had our little 'tradition' (borrowed from our good friends the Bells) of opening one gift - of new PJs to sleep in that night. So, we took the opportunity to review some 'gift opening' ettiquette with Anna. I told her, "When you open a gift, be sure to say how much you love it, and say thank you. And if you open a gift that you already HAVE, don't say anything about that, because it might hurt their feelings. Just say that you love it and say thank you. We'll take care of it later."

So, on Christmas morning, Anna cheerfully parroted "Thank you! I love it SO much!" verbatim after opening each gift. We were chuckling about that, when Curtis opened a board game from Mom & Alisa. Anna rushed over to him and got right in his face so she could look him in the eye and said in a very loud stage whisper, "Daddy! Just say 'Thank you, I love it so much!' so they won't know we already have that one."

Click on the picture to see a larger version so that you can read it easier.

Anna has been interested in sign language for some time now. She used to just make gestures up and say, "That's sign language for...". And she'd give you that "it's painfully hard to deal with someone as dumb as a rock, but I am trying" look if you didn't get it.

So, I told her that there was a real language of sign language, and we bought her a kids sign language book, that we have been learning from - a little here are there. So, this week, she pointed to a sign and wanted me to teach it to her. I told her that was the sign for the word "louder".

She said, "No it's not, SILLY!!!"
I maintained that it WAS the sign for loud.
She replied, "But Mommy (yeah - I was getting that dumb as a rock look again) why would they need a sign for 'louder' if they can't HEAR anything?!"

1 Point to Anna. She wins this round.

...that she WROTE, anyway. As read and illustrated by the author. Enjoy!

"Obstructed View" tickets to see Van Halen's reunion concert, that they actually stayed together long enough to do .........$50 each.

Anna has been sleeping in our bed for a few nights, while she was pretty sick. I stayed up to get some stuff done the other night, and when I finally came to bed, this is what I saw. It made me smile to see them lying there in perfectly mirrored sleeping positions, all snuggled up. So sweet, my loves...

Only, it was ANNA giving the lecture to us. And it was hilarious...

I've probably noted on here, more that once, that my mom does a TON of stuff to help us out (and Alisa too). Sometimes, if they are using our van to go do stuff while they are watching Anna, they decide that can't stand the clutter one more second and go clean our van out for us. Sooo sweet of them...really. Well, keeping that in mind, enjoy the following conversation that Anna, Curtis and I had while driving the other night:

A: Why do you sometimes let Grandma clean your van?
{B&C exchange shoulder shrugs, wondering where this is going...}
B: Well, sometimes she just helps us out, like we help her out.
A: [In a totally indignant tone of voice] But cleaning the van is YOUR responsibility! Not Grandma's!
{B&C cracking up now...}
C: You're right. That IS our responsibility. We should do it more often, but it is nice of Grandma to help us sometimes.
A: Then why do you let Grandma do it? It is NOT her responsibility!
B: Well, cleaning your room is YOUR responsibility, but you always have help from me to clean your room, right?
{Flustered pause...}
A: OK, listen. We are not talking about MY responsibilities here. We are talking about YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES. THAT is what we are talking about!

I felt so chastised.... What a crack up.

Ahh shhhhhmitt. Remember the fire sprinkler drama here? Or maybe I was so swamped and stressed by that that I didn't post much about it back then. Anyway - we had a HUGE pain in the ass trying to get our new water meter installed and passed on the inspection, as required for our fire sprinklers in the house. It was FINALLY done a few months ago, and we had a HUGE sigh or relief.

Well.....fast forward to yesterday. I got a letter from the city asking us to have a free 'water saver' inspection, due to a large increase in our water consumption this month. We went from our average of 8k gallons per month, to 24k in September. I went out and checked the water meter box, and it is full of water. We're going to have to tear up the entire sidewalk, have it fixed and repoured. Freaking SPRINKLERS!!!!

Yeah!!! This has been such a long time coming. About 15 months 25 days and 9 hours....roughly. We are finally getting the new flooring put in. They started today. This is so exciting. No more cutting our feet on sub floor, staples, nails, etc. No more paint splatters and blobs of drywall littering the floor. No more living in ONE room at a time. YIPEE!!!!

We decided on a commercial grade laminate product, in a mahogany stained maple tone. It has a handscraped finish, with grain texture, and is designed for commercial/retail use, so hopefully it will hold up well. Here are a few pics from the first day of installation.

BEFORE: The appliances don't actually go on that wall - they are just moved out of the way for the flooring. The dishwasher goes to the left of the sink, and the fridge and stove go on the opposite side of the room, just before the pantry.

IN PROGRESS:


END OF DAY ONE:

In our devotional last night, there were pictures of several kinds of birds. Anna proudly informed us that she could tell us where each of them lives.

The flamingo lives near the water.
The owl lives in a tree.
The parrot...he lives with a pirate.

* These pics are actually from Marine World - I was negligent and didn't take any at the game this time.

So, we already have a budding Giants baseball fan here! We went to Friday night's game (...And saw Barry hit HR #758! Whoo hoo!) and had a blast. Mom, Alisa, Anna and I took the ferry over from Larkspur (Curtis walked there from his office and then we all took the ferry home from the game). It delivers you right to the gate in the park, so no parking woes or 5 mile walks. Awesome. Plus a fun (if a little chilly) boat ride. Anna and Grandma spent the whole ride over sitting at the edge, while Grandma taught Anna some nautical terms. Anna seems to love the water, just like her Grandma and Great Grandma Pettit.

At one point during the game, Curtis kept trying to ask Anna something about her day. She seemed to be ignoring him, then finally she turned to him exasperated and said, "Daddy, could you PLEASE stop talking. I am TRYING to watch the Giants game here!"

Both of my loves have kept me smiling all day today. I am so lucky, and blessed.

Curtis hid clues and notes all around the house for me today, with one leading to the next and times to open them. It's like having a whole day of smiles and warm fuzzies planned out for me. I married the most wonderful man in the world. He truly is one of a kind. (Which reminds me of an old 'line', which does not apply here - but still makes me laugh: "You know, when they made you, they broke the mold. Rumor has it they beat the hell out of the mold maker too.") But I digress....

Anna keeps hugging me and jumping on me and telling me "Happy HAPPY Birthday Mommy! I love you SO much! You're the best Mommy I could EVER ask for!" Just melts me... Then, to "Anna" it up, she has also told me:

"Mommy, since it is YOUR birthday today, you can make yourself ANY kind of birthday cake that you want!"

When I told her that Grandma and Alisa were bringing us ice cream sundaes for dessert instead, she said, "Oh. Well, I was hoping for brownies or cupcakes instead."

We finally finished up the majority of the 'detail' stuff on Anna's room this weekend...thanks to LOTS of help from Aunt Tracy, Grammy Debbie, Grandma & Alisa. We added toy storage, filled some of the corner shelves, built the closet system, moved her clothes up, hung most of the 'art' work, added her flower night light and painted the leaves on it, hung blinds and curtains, put her name on the wall, etc., etc. Here are some pics. The good news...she LOVES the whole thing. Totally, without question, worth it.

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

It's long....but worth it. Her reaction was priceless. I am so happy. :)

As a public service, I'd like to make this announcement, to educate the public and help counsel those who may be considering this option now, or in the future:

DON'T have hemhorroid surgery if you can help it. It is NOT fun. At...all. Not even a little bit.

So, unfortunately, I speak from first hand experience now. And have been out of commission for the past several weeks (months now?). But, I'm slowly getting back in the swing of things, and I'll try to update our blog with some of the many adventures or remodeling and Anna funnies that have happened over the past few months.

This has been a long held belief of mine. :)

For example, if you were running a weather forecasting center, and you predicted that today's high would be, ohhhhh say, 79 degrees. And then the day's temperature actually climbed to nearly 90 degrees, would you continue to display your screw-up all day...or would you update your "High Temp" to correct the faux pas. They could program it to show the forecasted high, if it hasn't been exceeded...or the ACTUAL high if it has been. That CAN'T be that hard?!

Then again, I am the one who keeps making plans by the forecast that isn't smart enough to correct itself with real data, OR get the temperaure within 10 degrees of accuracy. Now who's stupid... hahaha

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Ahhhh....as those funky 60's (???) guys sang...this is The Sound of Silence.


We finally bit the bullet and bought Rigby a no-bark collar. You know...the ones like a little mini-electric chair strapped securely to their necks that zaps them each time they bark? Yup - that's the one. The decision was made for me when Curtis and Anna left me here alone for a bit after my surgery to go run an errand. Rigby barked non-freaking-stop for an hour. And since I couldn't get up, and it hurt to yell, I just had to sit there and listen to him. But, I was not completely helpless. I did have our laptop. And PetSmart.com. And the blessed UPS man.

So, that was 6 days ago, and the time that elapsed between ordering it and it arriving made my resolve soften some. Until he started again this morning. Yeah, that did it. "Heeeeeeeere Rigby! Mommy bought you a new collar!!"

He was suspiciously quiet all morning. Maybe because Anna wasn't here? We were both waiting for it. *I* was dreading it. I kept feeding him cookies and snuggling him because I felt guilty. (But then when I thought he might bark, I kept dumping him off of my lap for fear of him shocking the crap out of ME when he DID bark.) Curtis, on the other hand. He was positively gleeful all day, just waiting for it. I swear, the man giggled. His eyes lit up every time a school kid walked by or the UPS man pulled up. But no....quiet all day.

Then...Anna came home. He leaped off of my lap (thank goodness), ran for the door, and the sound that followed went something like "Woof! Woo -- YARP! (silence)" I felt bad for a moment, then marveled at the silence while he just stood and watched her come in the door, put her stuff down and run to see us.

Silence. Amazing.

Some of you probably think we're cruel. If you know me, you know that our dogs are love beyond reason. But Rigby, he needed it. And I love it. And it's QUIET. *sigh* I think I'm going to invest in the remote control one for annoying visitors.

This is getting long - but I'll close with one bit of irony from when I ordered the collar. I was $.01 short on my order total to qualify for a $10off coupon, so I was looking for something little to add to the order. I added a little dog collar on clearance. I didn't realize, until after I was done, the collar I had selected said, "WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!" all the way around it. Now that's funny.

Since I am out of commission with my surgery here, you're missing soooo many great photo ops that no one else thinks about. Like, Anna dancing aroun our bedroom with my inflatable doughnut around her neck, pretending it's a princess crown. That pretty much says it all.

Then there is this oldie but goodie. It was when we were 'drying out my two cabbage patch kids for Anna after years of storage and a good bath. You can consider it a re-enactment of the surgical positioning that I endured. Good times....

We have been discussing with Anna that it is not OK to say 'Oh My God". Oh my "gosh" or "goodness" is OK, but not the other.

So, apparently she took it to heart. Tonight when we started bedtime prayers, she began, "Dear Gosh...."

Oops! Clarification is in order, I guess. As soon as we stop laughing.


--------------------------------------------

Anna is getting over an ear infection, and has had some wax in her ear. She tells us when it is there, and if she needs help getting it out. So, today she and Curtis had the following conversation:

A: I have wack in my ear.
C" It's actually called 'wax'.
A: No it's not silly! It's wack.
C: No, sweetie. The stuff in your ears in called "WAX".
A: No Daddy. There is just one piece in there, so it is called wack. There isn't more than one piece. If there were more than one, THEN you'd call it wacks.

Damn....she's pretty good.

We spent the day at the beach with our friends during our trip to Disneyland. There are some things that you just gotta love about living in California, despite the traffic, politics, high cost of living and real estate woes. This is one of them.

I love my two sweethearts.

These two are so stinkin' cute together. They are both such sweet kids, and they have SO much fun. I wish we lived closer to the Sconyers'. Maybe someday we'll be inlaws.... hahaha

While on our trip to southern California, we went to have a little visit with Curtis' Aunt Dorothy. It was so nice to see her. We don't get to go down there often (Anna & I), although Curtis has seen her fairly regularly when he is working down there. She wasn't feeling well enough for us to take her out to dinner, but we visited in her room for a bit. She thrilled Anna with a new little teddy bear and a cute little pink bird that was sitting on its own bird house.

We miss you, Aunt Dorothy!

Despite her current intentions of becoming a Veterinarian and Firefighter, I think Anna is headed for a career in couples therapy. She seems to want us to have more long and involved talks with each other...at least when it suits her. hahaha We were driving home from Disneyland (more pics of that to follow eventually) and we had the following conversation:

A: I can't hear my movie. Will you please turn it up?
B: No, Daddy is listening to the radio, so he can stay awake while he drives. But you can use your headphones.
A: Nooooo....I don't want to use my headphones anymore. Can you turn the movie sound on instead.
B: No sweetie. We need Daddy's music on so that he will stay awake.
(pause)
A: I have an idea! Mommy, you could just TALK to Daddy a lot, so that he will stay awake, and then you can turn on my movie instead of the radio.
C: (laughing) Oh no! Not talking!
A: *sigh* Daddy, please let Mommy talk to you. It would be really good. She wants to talk to you, so you should let her!

Such a funny girl. She definitely thinks all of these things through completely. What a crack up.

We're on the road to DISNEYLAND! Yeah!!! We got to spend the day today with our good friends the Sconyers. Gorgeous day!!!

Make your own | Click to play

"Mommy, when I am a grown up, and I marry Daddy, can I have a married picture like the married picture of YOU and Daddy when you got married?" Awww....our little Priness has already found the best Prince Charming ever...her own Daddy. She has great taste.

After I commented to her that she is going to be a great big sister, while she was taking care of her new 'Baby Alive'... She said, "Actually, I am going to be a great grown up, because I won't pick my nose." WTF? Curtis and I totally failed in our attempts not to laugh outloud at that.

Singing a song from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, but not QUITE enunciating all of the words correctly: "Shake shake shake, shake shake shake, shake your PEENUS!!!" Now, it's about an elephant, and I believe that the word is supposed to be PEANUTS, but judging by the chuckles we got from passerbys in Lowes, I don't think that's what it sounded like to everyone else. And Curtis didn't help matters by replying, "Ya know, if you shake it more than twice...."

We should count ourselves lucky that SO FAR the addition has gone smoothly. Now, a few hiccups. Like trying to get the plumbing done. We have a friend of a friend doing most of the plumbing. And, while he is the nicest guy in the world, and really knows his stuff - I think he is WAY overcommitted and it's hard to get him to show up. So, while we are VERY appreciateive of his help...it's also a little frustrating.

Last night, after showing up at 10pm, 2.5 months late (yes, I meant MONTHS), to install the tub 48 hours before it HAD to be done so the drywall can start, and waking up Anna in the process, he determined that there is a problem with the tub, and that we would need to try to return it (5 months after purchase and with NO packagine left) and buy a new one, and install it ourselves sometime the next night after Curtis gets home from work. If we were going to do it ourselves, why did we have to wait FIVE FREAKING MONTHS!!?? *sigh* Oh well....we're getting closer.

On the upside, if we CAN get the tub installed tonight, drywall starts tomorrow morning at 8! Whoo hoo!!!

...or easily embarassed, anyway.

This weekend, Anna was adoring a sweet little baby of a 'friend' of ours (as she does anywhere she sees one now), and happened to see her nursing. Her face went from smiles and soft cooing to shock and alarm, and then she exclaimed,

SHE'S EATING YOUR BOOBIE!!!!

How soon they forget.

The fiberglass dust, that is. Insulation Inspection - PASSED! Wooot!!!

The best part is that someone ELSE did that. It only took one guy half a day, but I SWEAR we'd have been there all weekend with a whole crew, and then Curtis would have had to listen to me bitch about how much I hate the feeling of fiberglass on me for daaaays after that. So - money well spent. It was actually CHEAPER to have them install it, than it would have been for us to buy it and do it ourselves (because their material cost is so much lower).

So - drywall gets loaded into the house on Weds and work starts on Friday. YIPEE!!!

"Thank you God for the lights in our house that make it so bright and beautiful and keep all the scary shadows away."

Soooo cute. The other night Anna couldn't fall back asleep after she came and got in bed with us. She told me that she was just keeping her eyes opened in case there were any scary shadows, so she'd see them. She didn't seem worried or scared, just matter of fact.

I told her that Mommy & Daddy were there to do that for her, and we'd always take care of her. Not buying.

I told her that no matter where she was, God was always watching her and had angels to take care of her every second of every day. Not buying.

Finally, I told her that Rigby was watching. And I reminded her that during the day, he barks at EVERY little sound, motion or movement within 100 yards of our house. (Damned dog.) And I told her that he watches out at night too, but since there are no scary things, he is not barking. To demonstrate my point, I very softly snapped my finger once. Like magic - Rigby appeared from whatever soft spot he was snuggled in sleeping and jumped up on the bed and curled up between us and licked her face.

She giggled and then went to sleep. I guess he's not TOTALLY useless.

One of my favorite things at the end of each day is our good night prayers. It's so sweet to hear the 'evolution' of Anna's prayers as she grows up. We went from 'Now I lay me down to sleep..." to The Lord's Prayer, and now we say individual prayers.

First of all, there is an important order of events. We each get to pray ONCE. Daddy goes first, Mommy goes second and Anna goes third. We know it's our turn when Anna points to us. And the order is because with our hands folded for prayer, Daddy's hands are biggest, Mommy's are medium and Anna's are smallest. I can recite that from memory because Anna RE-explains it to us each night, like we're slow children who need explicit instructions. (Perhaps we are?)

So, when it's Anna's turn, she started off praying "Please help XYZ to feel better." The XYZ of that list included anyone that we had thought of during the day or was sick. And once you were on the list, you STAYED on the list. Just before we moved to our next phase, the list went something like this:

"Please help Mommy, Daddy, Oma, Pa, Grandma, Michael, Riktor, Mariah and Kodi to feeeel better. Is that everyone? Ok, yeah, I guess that's everyone. AAAAmen."

Then, it recently got truncated to, "Please help everyone who is sick to feel better, whenever they need it."

And now, to "Please help everyone who is sick to feel better, whenever you feel like it."

She has also stared adding a few original thoughts, which Curtis and I always peek through our closed eyes at eachother to smile about how sweet she is. Some of my recent favorites:

"Please help our flowers that we planted to grow just a littttttle bit faster."
"Thank you for letting me win my fish."
"Thank you for cute lovies so that I can take good care of them."
"Thank you for Rigby because I love him soooo much."
"Thank you, God, for watering our flowers with the rain today. But we *were* watering them ourselves."

I love that she prays. One of the things that *I* pray for is that she will have a good relationship with God. I am thankful that my parents taught me that God is a friend, not some far removed "being" to be only feared. I hope that for her too.

DECORATING!!! Anna's room is the priority, so that we can get her moved in ASAP. So, today we picked the bed spread for her room, to match her exacting specifications. Keep in mind, I knew enough to narrow the field to things that I could work with before I showed her the choices, though. See - I'm slow, but I'm learning. So...this is what she picked.

And, it gets better. I cringed when I saw the place that sells it, because it's expensive. But I told myself it's just "one" thing and that it would be worth it to base the room from. When I went online to buy it - it was in the clearance section - 50% off! Whoo hoo!!! Score! Now there are some things that we CAN'T avoid, and some we can. So, the bed spread, at least, will be adorable. And as for the battles that I have NOT picked...Pink Walls...here we come!

I'm so damned happy I can't even tell you. I'm doing a HAPPY DANCE!!! (Be glad you're not here. It's not pretty. My husband and I are both afflicted with a severe case of white boy disease and have NO rhythm. We hope that Anna will escape unscathed.... but I digress.....)

HAPPY DANCE!!!!

So, we passed our close-in inspection. That was the framing, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, fire sprinkler, structural issues, etc., etc., etc. "The BIG One." DONE. So, now, we have the go ahead to install the insulation. We were going to do that ourselves, because the money is all but gone. But our drywall guy (a great find, thank you, Marci) suggested that we get a bid from a place in town that does a huge volume. So, we thought, what the heck. Their bid for materials and installation is less than we had budgeted for materials ONLY. SOLD! Then, after that, the drywall guys come. There are two (rare) peices that someone else is doing, so I am SO excited!!!! We're going to have the HOUSE back soon! Like....in a matter of WEEKS probably. WHOOPEE!!!!!

Last night I had Bunko, so Anna and Curtis had a daddy/daughter date. He made salmon (also known as "pink beef" - because Anna will eat anything if you call it a steak) and potato pancakes for them. She had never had potato pancakes before. She tasted them and then said,

"These are delicious. Daddy - YOU ARE A GENIUS!!!"

How can you resist that. Oh - did I mention that they were Mickey Mouse shaped potato pancakes? What a great Daddy.

This is the third day in a row I dragged my ass to the gym. Surely that means the end of the world is near?

My baby boy Kodi has been having a ROUGH time lately. First, he got au aural hematoma (which is a fancy word for a broken blood vessel in her ear flap). It made his whole ear blow up like a big puffy pillow the size of a softball. It was awful We tried to wait it out, but it was getting worse, so they had to do surgery to repair it.

Well - the surgery involves making an incision from top to bottom on the underside of his ear to drain the fluid, then they shave both sides of his ear and suture it together like a quilt, to keep the sides together so it doesn't "blow up" again. Ugh. They were unable to keep a dressing on it, so I had to bring him home half drugged and bleeding like a stuck pig. They wanted to keep him there for the afternoon, so it wouldn't be messy, but there was no WAY I was leaving him to sit in a kennel by himself all day. So, we came home and he slept with his head in my lap for the next 9 hours. It took about 24 hours, but the bleeding stopped, and that is doing better.

Then...this weekend, he began having seizures. In hind sight, we realize that he had the first one on Friday night (we thought he was having a dream). Then on Saturday morning, he had two within about 10 minutes. We took him in, and were lucky enough to get in with our regular vet (who ROCKS). The vet hopes that this is just due to stress and is a temporary thing, so he is on anti-seizure meds for 20 days, then we'll see.

It's funny, we were joking about the seizures causing brain damage and wondering how you would even TELL if a mastiff had brain damage. :) They act like they do most of the time anyway. But now, on these drugs, he really DOES act out of it. It's funny and sad at the same time. My big lug.....we've been doing lots of snuggling lately. I hope he feels better soon. I bought him a new monkey to suck on, so that has been maing him happy. He's worth it.