ABCZ

I just love these pictures. The title says it all. Other than the fact that they were taken at 9pm.



We were at my nephew Anthony's birthday party a few weeks ago. It was Tracy's BRILLIANT idea to do a CIRCUS - in her HOUSE! (I say that sincerely, as a mom who would love to some day plan a party as cool for Anna, and SARCASTICALLY as the girl who spent the evening with her hair and body covered in blue cotton candy). The kids had a BLAST. But pizza and games and toys and the cotton candy machine and the ice cream. Oy vey. Sugar high. As one of Anthony's dorkier, but very cute, little friends confided in me, "THIS is why you don't give kids cotton candy before bed time." Such wise, wise words from a 7 year old.

Anyway - the party rocked. Tracy gets mom of the year award. Here are a few of my fav pics. We're going up to visit this weekend and Anna is already SUPEr excited, because she loves her Aunt Tracy. Should be fun! But NO COTTON CANDY!!!!

Every night before bed, we say prayers together. We either say The Lord's Prayer or the "Night Night" prayer (Now I lay me down to sleep....). Anna has decided that SAYING prayers is boring, and that she preferrs to SING her prayers. She makes up her own tune and melody as she goes along. It's different every time. It's adorable. I'm glad that she's enjoying prayer. It's a great thing.

We're trying a new "go to bed" scheme. In an effort to wean Anna from the 3 hour process of sips of water, 'help' going potty, needing a new Kleenex, losing a lovie, needing new covers, etc... She gets a sticker if we don't have to go back into her room after we tuck her in - 5 stickers gets her a new movie (Her first 'pick' was Diego). It was actually working good for about 45 minutes, then we hear,

"MY HAND IS STUCK!!!"
We are already trying to suppress the giggles when we look at eachother. "What you said?" - we're both thinking. We try to ignore.

"MY HAND IS STUCK!!!"
Curtis calls out, "OK - get it unstuck and go to sleep, sweetie."
"I CAN'T GET IT UNSTUCK. It's *REALLY* STUCK!!"

Curtis goes to investigate. I can hear bits and pieces over the monitor - mostly muffled because Curtis is trying not to crack up, and because the sound quality from the baby monitor is poor when I am rolling on the floor laughing hysterically (but quietly, mind you) peeing my pants.

I hear something like....

"It's stuck....can't. Sparkle's Hello Kitty panties....really stuck. OUCH! My hand hurts!" WTF?!

Turns out, she had her hand in the 'hanger loop' of her Sparkle pony's (the one we made with Anthony & Aunt Tracy at the Build a Bear place) Hello Kitty panties. Why do Hello Kitty panties for a horse have a hanger loop? Million dollar question, I guess. Anyway - she had twisted and twisted it until it was cutting off circulation in her wrist. Curtis actually had to stand her up to get it undone. He was laughing so hard when he came out. Hey - you gotta give the girl points for creativity. If she is going to lure us into her room, at least she used original material.

Anna and I have both had the stomach flu this week (or the "flu fly" as she calls it - her variation of "flu bug"). Yuck. But even feeling yucky, we've had a few laughs.

This morning, she asked me for eskimo kisses (OK), then butterfly kisses (OK). Then she said, "How do cows kiss?" Hmmmm....good question. So, we made up a cow kiss (which constitutes touching noses and then mooing at your kissing target at very close range) and later a bird kiss (kind of like an eskimo kiss, but you rub foreheads).

Just now, she called to me from her room (where she is supposed to be sleeping) "Is it time to get up from my nap yet?" When I said no, she yelled back, "YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING!!!"

Funny girl, this one.

Home again, home again. *sigh* We are so, unbelievably, incredibly, flippin' glad to be home again. Yikes. What a trip. We spent the last week in St. Louis visiting Curtis' 80 year old German grandmother (Oma) and his garndfather who just went into a nursing home this month. And, while we both absolutely love her to death...our stay was 6 1/2 days too long. When I have regained my sense of humor about the situation, I'll write more. If I were to write now, you'd all think horrible things of a lovely lady. Really, we've just run out of patience and amusement for the week. Right now we're both tired and mentally exhausted, (although very pleased with our little Angel who was an awesome traveler) - and we want sleep (in a bed that does NOT have a bar across our back, or that our feet hang of off, in the basement). It's SOOOO good to be home!!!

Today, while we were driving, we'd been talking about stories and books. And, out of the blue, Anna said, "Mommy, tell me how much I love you and Daddy." I melted a little, thinking that she must have taken our bedtime "Guess How Much I Love You" story to heart.

"All the way to the moon....and back?" I asked, smiling at Curtis.

"No. I don't love you THAT much." (This was quickly followed by the usual, "HEY! What are you both laughing at?!")

You may, or may not know, that my sweetie and I met because we share a love of shooting. We both shot competitively in college. We have both done a bit of hunting (I usually just go along for the ride) but mostly we target shoot.

So, today, our baby girl shot her first gun. At 3 flippin' years old. Even as much of an enthusiast as I am, I balked a little. I think even *I* was 5 years old when I started shooting. It was a spur of the moment thing, but she had so much fun. She jumped up and down and said, "I learned to shoot a BABY GUN!" We had to explain that it was a "BB" gun, not a "Baby" gun.

We were visiting Curtis' parents. They live in a very affluent neighborhood, and their house backs up to forested open space on a hill. The deer come down routinely and eat all of the flowers in the garden beds. So, they have always had a BB gun in the wash room to scare away the deer. Curtis was plinking away this afternoon, and he asked Anna, "Do you want to try?" (For the record, there were NO deer today, just cans. I don't want her shooting *at* anything for a VERY long time to come - if ever.) She was so excited. She really just stood between his knees and after he aimed, she pulled the trigger with him. It was very cute. She doesn't generally like loud noises, so I've wondered if she would ever be interested in shooting, like we are. My little brother never has been, until very recently (he's 16 now). If she's not, that's fine, but it's kind of a family thing to pass on. But, paranoid Safety Officer that I am, we spent the rest of the afternoon drilling gun safety. I am a certified firearms instructor, and so we are going to be spending a LOT of time on this from now on. All of our guns are safe - but you never know what they might come across somewhere else.

Anyway - a milestone today. And a cute "Daddy & Daughter" moment. She'll probably be a better shot than EITHER of us are.

*For what it's worth*
I hope no one is appalled or offended at the content of this post. I know that "guns" are an emotionally charged issue for a lot of people, myself included. For us it is about a hobby and a sport that has been shared and passed down for a number of generations. It's something very special that I share with my Dad, my husband, and is a part of some of my fondest memories growing up. I respect other people's opinions, and never push my own on them. If you ask me, I'll tell you what I think. But I don't think I've ever told someone that felt differently that they were wrong to feel that way. To each his own.

...laughing today.

I said to Anna, in a playful voice, "What's up?!" She replied, "THE SKY!!" (I know this is a common 'joke' - but neither of us ever says it, so it cracked us up.) Curtis asked, "Where did you learn that?" Anna said, "In college."

This morning, Anna was playing dress up in her Barbie Princess clothes (her favorite thing to do lately). She put it on and said, "Do you like it? I got it on sale." We both started laughing again. She said, "Ask me where I got it on sale. (We complied, and the she said...) ...IN COLLEGE!"

Such a funny girl. I'm not ready for college yet. Pre-school in the fall is going to challenge enough!

We finally got the city to accept our addition plans for review today (after some fancy footwork by yours truly). It was cute...Anna actually carried the whole big role of plans in all by herself, and put them up on the counter. And we made a special request that they approve "Pink" for Anna's new room. Now, we wait for the first set of comments and hope for no BIG surprises! Keep your fingers crossed!!!

Look what my friends sent me....Just because. I feel so incredibly loved right now. I can't even say how touched I am. I am so blessed to have such wonderful people in my life. Thank you, thank you, thank you - from the bottom of my heart. You made me cry today - but every day that I look at my beautiful lamp for years to come, I'll smile when I think of you guys.