Super Shopper

If ever there comes a time when one of us wins one of those contests where you run through a store and put in as much merchandise in a short period of time so you can win the merchandise, I'm picking Annabelle. Hands down that girl can run her way around a store and throw tons of items into your basket before you even realize what you've gotten.

After lunch today I suggested to Granddaddy that since Annabelle didn't have to be in her bed for a nap before 3:00 we could run by the Dollar Tree and maybe pick up a potato masher to add to her growing kitchen supplies she has to play with. She and I were to get out and leave Granddady to do his thing...most likely sleep...while we checked out the 50% off Christmas things and her potato masher.

As soon as we get in the front door, she starts shopping. We were both attracted to the 50% Christmas goodies. I was looking for some little round cookie tins that I had seen earlier in the season. I figured they would make great gift giving boxes for those I give money or gift cards to, and we could still eat the cookies.

Imagine my surprise when I found a few of them still there! I got all I saw, turned to see something else and then my eye caught another box on the other side of the cart filled with more of them. What luck. Last year I had gotten some gift card boxes at a store for .50 each and had gotten a few then and later wished that I had gotten more of them. I always find uses for them to put my little trinkets such as my stamped and colored pictures, etc. so I knew I could use them. I bought all they had (that I saw), so I'm good to go for another year, and they are so, so cute.

There was only one with a penguin on it, so I'll be stashing him away. I'll let Annabelle choose tomorrow from a bear sitting under a tree and a snowman sliding down hill on his sled. I'm not putting my penguin in there. He's too cute and I'm too selfish.

Her Mommy called me a little while ago and wanted to know if we talked about eating chocolate chip cookies. I laughed and told her I had bought some cookie tins with some chocolate chip cookies and I don't remember whether I had told her what was in them or not, but I'm guessing I did, because I usually talk to her about everything and anything I do. I told her to tell her she could eat one at my house tomorrow, since she's coming over to see us then.

Back to the shopping. Then we hit the other part of the store in search of the potato masher. But first we had to go through the toy section and she sees a watering can that's like one I have at my house. She grabs it up, keeps guard over it, because she's buying it, you know and tells me "Grandmomma and Granddaddy have one at their house!" Then a book caught her eye. That had to be in her shopping cart. After finding many other things and sneaking them back into their designated spot we finally moved on to the area where we should have found the potato masher. Of course, as luck would have it there was no potato masher. But we did find a really neat-looking lime green spatula with a small one on one end and a larger one on the other and that looked like it belonged in Annabelle's kitchen, along with a little blue silicon teddy bear cake pan and a few of her favorite stickers. Oh, and she didn't want just one spatula she needed two. I gues it was so I would have one and she would have one. Everything needed to be in duplicate, stickers and all.

I finally convinced her we didn't need but one set of stickers, one spatula, one cake pan and one M & M knockoff filled candy cane.

She's pretty good, but one of these days I may still pull out that child restrainer that's lurking in my back seat. Her mommy wouldn't let me use it before because she thought it looked like her child would be on a leash like a dog. Well, I may need it it I take her off shopping again.

That wild, wild Cowgirl...

I've given Mommy a chance to write about this and she hasn't, so I'm stealing her thunder here, but it's necessary in order to write my blog today. Annabelle's Daddy made her the most beautiful, unbelievable old-fashioned looking rocky horse. It is large in size so she can not only grow into it but she can use it later as she gets older. It is so nice that I suggested he needs to make sure it becomes a part of the Christmas decorations for years to come, at least until Annabelle hauls it off to her house for her Christmas decorations with lots of wonderful memories.

She has liked to get onto the horse as long as one of us picks her up and puts her onto the horse, lets her ride for a while then she's "done" and wants to get down.

Today was a different story. To begin with she did her usual routine, but this afternoon she decided she really wanted to ride her rocky horse...without any assistance from either Granddaddy or me. She mutters a few words along the lines of, "I get it." and heads off to the office area of the house. I can read that little mind! I knew exactly where she was headed and why. I hear the sound of something being pushed across the kitchen floor, then the dining room floor and suddenly she appears...pushing the kitty cats play house which she calls her stool.

She pushed it close to the horse and then decided she knew how to mount that horse.
She tried first by slinging her little left leg over the top and after we told her she would be headed in the wrong direction, she dismounted and tried again, the right way. It was almost as if she had done this before, but she hadn't. It didn't take but a couple of times for her to figure out which way she was supposed to mount it.

She would rock a few times then say, "Done." and she was off of the horse only to get right back on him. She realized I was taking pictures and wanted me to let her see the pictures before she got back on again, but she was off and on, off an on. So many times that she finally was able to get down from the horse on the opposite side which had no stool to help her.

It doesn't take her long before she has things figured out. I love watching her little mind work as she figures things out.

And, I had gotten a digital voice recorder for Christmas. It holds many, many megabytes of memory and will practically forever before you download it to you compute to save.

Annabelle or one of the three boys is always saying something cute and I don't always have pen and paper handy when they say or do something so terribly cute and I forget a lot of really neat things I would love to remember. This is to help me because I can hang it around my neck and even keep it running for hours or as long as the battery lasts.

I decided to keep it on today while we were with Annabelle. All went well for a long time, then after many hours I decided to test it to see how well it was picking up her little voice. She heard her sweet voice on it and I'm sure she recognized it because later she noticed it was around my neck still and I asked her to talk to me. She just looked at it and shook her head at first. She knew what I wanted her to talk for.

Granddaddy, as technically endowed as he is, kept asking me why the red light was on. Well, duh, Granddaddy, clue her in on why the red light is on. She's a pretty smart little girl, you know, and I'm sure she's figured that one out.

It will be fun to listen to her little voice over and over again when she's not here near us.

I'm enjoying my gift, but I had to invest in a very bright, loud-colored strap to put around my neck. It's very compact and if I didn't have the strap on I might not find it again, once I put it down. So far so good.

Remember the days when

you found homemade things to entertain yourself? Today I emptied a box of salt and remembered the fun I had when my kids were growing up and I made little peep shows for them. It was usually shapes of stars, circles, etc. something very simple and easy. I used an old fashioned ice pick to make mine. The kids would look through the salt-pouring hole and see their own little version of the punched out star, etc.

I made the old standard star by drawing off a star cookie cutter (we were using those today to cut out some cookie dough for sampling) then punching around the star with the ice pick.

Annabelle thought that was pretty cool when she got a chance to peek through the hole. I tried to show her how to close one eye and keep one open. That's still a little difficult for her, so we put our hand over one eye and peeked in. Later when I was looking through the hole, she stopped me and showed me how to put my hand over my eye so I could see the star. I had shown her to do it that way and that was the only way to do it.

Sometimes simple is so much fun.

Remaining bits and pieces of the day

As we were heading to Golden Corral for lunch today, Miss Annabelle was carrying on a conversation with herself in the back seat. She was looking at one of the little books that was left in the car for her to read as we traveled from one place to the other and to entertain her.

From the backseat I hear, "Dat cos' too much!" Now where in the world did she hear that from? I wonder! Yes, Mommy, she did say it. I questioned her about it and she broke out into a grin and thought it was soo funny.

She asked where we were going and I told her we were going to eat at Golden Corral, and asked if that suited her to go there. She hesitated a moment and then said, "Ummm,no, let's go that McDonald's that has bebe dolls." It's hard explaining to a two-year old that McDonald's has long gone past the 'bebe doll' stage...for now at least. She was still not really happy, but it was too late. The decision was already made for her.

Once in the restaurant she decided she had a few ants in her pants and couldn't stay on her knees turned face forward for very long. I kept reminding her she needed to sit on her knees and turn around. Finally, I used the same trick I used last time on her at home when I had caught her off guard. "One, two..." to which she continued, "FREE!" It had apparently only taken that one time to make a believer out of her...or not. Each time I would start with the one,two she could complete it. I dropped that angle and started tapping the bottom of the chair to let her know her bottom belonged there. What does she do? She taps the bottom of the chair before I can! Oh, she's a mess, she is! Finally, and I didn't say this to her earlier, this came from home apparently, she says, "GET IN THAT SEAT! GET IN YOUR SEAT!"

Earlier she had completely turned around in the chair and had her little legs swinging from the back of the seat. She wiggled so much she just slid right out of the chair, heading backwards, of course. I was going to let her sweat a few minutes before I rescued her, but she panicked and started to cry. Then I thought I would release her by getting her to continue to move through the back of the chair until she was freed. Boy, was I surprised! I had her turn her head so she could get out. Her head wouldn't go through and I was the one who was panicking. I was afraid we would have to call the fire department to get her loose. With a little help from Granddaddy we managed to maneuver her back up into the chair so she could get free.
She was a little better after that scare. That's when she started standing on the bottom rung of the chair.

We made a deal that she would eat a little more of her lunch before she got the ice cream. She had spotted the ice cream machine as soon as we were seated and really wanted to start the meal off with that. She probably had some premonition that she might get hung up in that chair and not get loose, or something. She wanted to eat dessert first, just in case...

She had to go with me to choose her ice cream in a cone (orange flavored, as usual) and then we went back to the table for Granddaddy to watch her while I got my dessert. She kept dripping the ice cream because she didn't want to eat the cone along with the ice cream. I told her we were dripping our ice cream. She looked at me and said, "Grandmomma not dripping, me dripping!" She had a point.

So I suggested she use a spoon to dip the ice cream out and that maybe it would be less messy that way. She liked that idea. Then somehow the spoon got caught in the cone and when she finally got it loose, much to her surprise and mine, the ice cream flew from the spoon,splashing over on me and then over onto the top of her little head, filling her hair with orange ice cream. It was so funny to me and once she realized how funny it was she couldn't stop giggling, either. But then it became a game to try to repeat the exact way she had done it by accident the first time. Then we had to put a stop to it. It wouldn't have been too funny if she had flipped it over to the people on the other side or behind us.

One time I saw her just grinning and turned to find out what she found so entertaining. A young black guy was talking to her and smiling. She loved it. She had made a new friend. She waved at him. She flirted back with him. She was a riot to watch. When he and his friends left she waved bye bye to him.

Earlier she had concentrated her efforts on a woman who had come in with a baby in a car carrier. She is such a drama queen. As soon as she saw the baby she started acting like she was a baby and pretending to cry. As I've said before, she's a mess.
She watched until they finally left and let me know they were leaving. Pretend crying all over again.

She was not in a mood for a nap this afternoon, but then again naptime was about over when we got back after such a busy morning this morning. Finally I suggested Granddaddy hold her for a while and just let her rest her eyes or little body for a while, not really go to sleep because at that time it was almost 5:00 and I knew she wouldn't be worth anything by bedtime if she got too much sleep.

She jumped up, grabbed the remote control to the t.v. and decided she would turn the music on so she could listen to it while Granddaddy held her. They've done this before so she knew the routine. She runs around to the side of Granddaddy's chair, points the remote towards the t.v. and gets the satellite to turn on. She couldn't quite figure out the routine for the t.v. so she sought Granddaddy's help. But she was ready for her music.

She slept for about 30-40 minutes and woke up on her own. She was in a pretty good mood considering she had so little sleep.

Later in the evening we were still listening to the music on t.v. and the song, "We Three Kings of Orient Are". She turned immediately and looked at the television and said, "Baby Jesus! Baby Jesus!" She has a Fisher Price Little People Manger set her Mommy and Daddy gave her for an early Christmas present and she loves it. She remembered those three kings had something to do with Baby Jesus. I love this sweet and innocent age. They pick up on so many things and their little minds are going in so many directions. And she's so smart.

I forgot to mention that earlier in the day after she had gone potty, I told her I would give her the chocolate she earns for using the potty. She shakes her little head in a "No" manner and puckers up her little lips and makes the sound of a kiss. She remembered that I had given her a chocolate kiss for her treat before. And she held me to them all day long. That and 'teetsy rolls' are some of her favorite.

It's been a very fun day with that little girl. I'm sure she was about as worn out as Granddaddy and I when she left, but we really enjoyed the day, anyway.

Cookie Dough making time

So, today is cookie dough making time. It's best for the dough to be made in advance so that the heat from little hands and big hands don't make it all hot and runny, so since we are to be making Christmas Cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve we must have the dough ready. That, and we need to make sure the dough is even fit to make cookies with.

We brought Annabelle back over to our house and started our cookie dough making. This was a recipe I had gotten off the internet claiming we would never use another recipe in our life-time, so I was up for the challenge. It has a half-pound of pure butter in it so it certainly should be scrumptious as it clogs our veins. But most cookie recipes call for at least 1/2 cup of shortening so that shouldn't be a real big problem. It's just that it's pure butter. Then again, they say pure butter is better for us than all that other stuff, right.

We pulled out all the goodies that were to go into the cookies, along with the old 1980's version (Oops, I can't believe I thought it was a 1980's mixer, it was really bought in the late 1960's, around 1969/1970 because Santa brought it to me for Christmas not long after we moved into the house two of my grandbabies were born while living there. Anyway, it was prior to 1971-72, so moving the time frame around a bit I know it was somewhere between 1969-1972, but most likely the earlier dates. It was the time when Avocado Green and Harvest Gold were just coming into style in kitchen wares and after all-white appliances Avocado Green looked very trendy and appealing to me, and I had to have that color instead of white. Huh, what was I thinking; now I would chose the trusty old white, hands down in appliances as well as bathroom fixtures, etc., but then I am getting a little off track here with dating this thing, just trying to be accurate as I can. And I know, this whole interjection would have driving my English teachers completely bonkers and me, too, were I trying to be so grammatically, properly worded, etc. correct, but I'm NOT!) of the trusty old Kitchen Aid heavy duty mixer than hasn't seen use for sometime since the big kids left home. I could tell it was really excited about once again being used for cake or cookie making, despite the brush-burning smell I encountered when I tried to use it on low speed. But it kept chugging along. The old Kitchen Aid had prepared many, many, many cakes, breads, cookies, etc. for two prior children during the years since it had come to live at my house. It continued to be faithful through that batch cookies for a sweet little girl's contribution to Santa on Christmas Eve.

I had not let the butter set out long enough, so I did have a little problem getting it to mix with the sugar in short time, but we worked through that. We came to the eggs. Somehow eggs just attract trouble with us. Annabelle wanted to crack the eggs herself and without my help. She saw me try to crack them on the table. That didn't work because it was a a flimsy work table I had set up so she could help without a lot of trouble. Then she wanted to crack them on the side of the dish. I wasn't quite quick enough. She cracked it and opened it with her little fingers before I could stop her, then a few bits of eggshell flew into the broken egg. At least most of it hit the bowl this time. There was a small amount of egg white that got on the floor and possibly my pants, but there's no time for cleaning that up when you've got an octopus working with you, so I left it on the floor for the moment. The second egg went without much trouble.

She helped with measure and mix telling me from time to time that I had her fork. The spoon was Grandmomma's. The fork was hers. Or the 1 cup measurer was mine and the 1/4 one was hers. She tried to keep me straight. She was giving the job of pouring the flavorings into the sugar/butter mixture and the salt, baking powder and baking soda into the flour mixture then stirring that with her fork.

Next she was given the task of using her 1/4 cup measurer to add the flour to the sugar/butter mixture. But, not before we had a taste test. Of the plain flour. She decided she needed test-taste a spoon, and I mean a soup spoon-sized serving, of plain flour, no sugar added. She had no problem with eating plain flour. I know of no real health problem from kids or anyone for that matter eating plain, plain flour. But, Granddaddy had a major problem with it. So much so that while he was discipling her for it, he failed to get the absolutely cutest picture of the whole cookie-dough making time!

Now anyone who knows me, knows that I just can't tolerate eating after anyone, and little kids are especially included in that. However, lately I've come to the conclusion that it's going to be cooked and those germs will be cooked out in the end, besides her hands had been thoroughly cleaned right down to her nails being scrubbed, 100% clean. That's another story.

Anyway, this was to be a funtime for her to make cookies and just enjoy herself, so I sat back and let her do it. It was a little harder for Granddaddy. I told Annabelle's Mommy that Granddaddy never could have stood staying home with them because he constantly finds something to tell them they cannot do. I say, if it isn't harmful to one of them or me, let it be a fairly good learning time, so I don't care if the flour gets dropped on the floor with the egg white or if a spoonful of flour goes into their mouth. Just don't miss getting the cute pictures for goodness sakes.

Then when she finally got down to business adding the 1/4 cup amounts of flour into the butter/sugar/eggs, she accidently turned loose of the measuring cup and down it flew into the batter. Luckily I was there and cut the mixer off before it did any damage to the mixer, but we got a picture. Now that was cute.

I had bought her a little pink apron and chef's hat which I forgot to put on her until we had done a lot of work on the cookie dough, but I did get it on her at last and she looked cute until she decided she had enough of that silly apron and hat. "Apron off! Hat off!" So be it.

We finished our cookie dough and she wanted to lick the big, big spatula. Mommy lets her. So I let her, too. Granddaddy was a bit put out because he thought she should just have had a little of it and not the whole spatula. I'm pretty good at cleaning a beater so there wasn't that much left, but she worked on it the best she could. I put the rest of the dough into another bowl, cleaned the mixer bowl out really good and then gave the rest to Granddaddy, who complained again. Later I looked over and there was Granddaddy fighting with Annabelle trying to keep her from licking his bowl. Those two! Really. Oh, and earlier he had even dared fuss at her for trying to sneak a little sample from the top side of the bowl!

Later I looked down and there was a Hansel and Gretel stream of flour from the table to the refrigerator. Don't know what she was looking for there. Also, the camera had flour on it and Granddaddy's chair arm also was covered. But she's really a pretty neat little cook.

After eating out (we had to let the dough set in the refrigerator at least two hours before rolling it out. Got to harden that butter again, you know) we came back and I sneaked a small ball of it from outside and rolled it out into a nice sized star and a couple of small hearts so we could sample. This was a new recipe you know, so I had to make sure it was going to work. I put it on parchment paper and cooked it in the toaster oven at 400 for about 5 minutes. It was perfect. At least for me. Not too brown, but just right on the bottom and top,both.

This may be a keeper recipe. We'll see after we use it on Wednesday for Santa's cookies. It's much easier to work with than our usual store-bought stuff.

Now, do I dare try this with the three little grandsons when we see them on Christmas Eve. I'm thinking, "Let's not be too stupid and do it from scratch with six little hands going at it, but maybe make the dough up in advance and take it and let them help roll them out and cut them." Or just forget the whole thing? I'll run it by their Mommy before we mess up her house too much.

And the cookies had a delightful taste, if I didn't already say that. We may do it all over again another day. Just not Christmas Eve. Not from scratch.

Since Granddaddy was sound asleep with The Little Princess while I was writing this up, the pictures didn't get downloaded from the camera. Maybe another day when I've nothing else to do. And maybe the pumpkin pie ones will go on someday, too.

Somebody's awake right now waiting for me to go 'pay' with them, so off I go.

I'm a grandmomma again!

My daughter-in-law called this morning all excited. I'm a grandmomma again and she couldn't wait to share the great news with me. This time it's a little girl. After three boys she's finally got a little girl.

The boys and their daddy are so excited they could hardly stand themselves. They have been planning this for quite a while and their dream is finally coming true.

Her name is Sophie. The boys got together and came up with the name for her. She's a precious little white Bison puppy which weighs only two pounds. Probably will weigh a total of around 5-6 pounds. Daddy is allergic to every kind of dog or cat, so after much research they finally found this one. The lady didn't want to part with her to begin with, but after much begging, pleading, crying and just downright not taking no for an answer, the woman finally told them she would part with the puppy. It was the only one left in the litter and she had planned to keep her, but finally did give in. The owner lived in Tennessee and today was the only time she could get back with them this week, so they met in Dalton and got her.

They were on their way back home with her when my DIL called with her good news. Beautiful Blue Eyes (3 years old) was sitting in the back seat holding her gently. Mom said Sophie had jumped up and put her little feet onto James' chest immediately. She really wanted to go home with him.

Can't wait to see how well she adjusts to her new home and they to her. They will be crate training her to make it easier on everybody. I'm sure it will go well; they have plenty of space to put her in their new home.

So, congratulations to all of the new family members. Welcome, Sophie. Can't wait to see you Christmas Eve. Just don't plan to make too much trips to spend the night with Grandmomma; she's busy with the other little folks most days now.

Two peas but not from the same pod...

For lunch yesterday, I had fixed a casserole that contained asparagus and english peas. It was quick and I could open a can of black-eyed peas and cut off some of my already cooked roast beef and get us out the door without too much delay. We had some last-minute shopping and some grocery shopping, so that was pretty crucial.

Annabelle was contemplating whether she really wanted to consume the casserole with english peas or eat any of the black-eyed peas or whether she was going to eat any of them, and she said, "Two peas, Grandmomma!" and pointed first to the green peas then to the black-eyed peas. Her Mommy was half watching and listening to Annabelle, but she did hear her say "Two peas." Mommy thought Annabelle was falling back a bit on her counting skills and made a comment along those lines. Annabelle was right. Mommy was wrong. There were two kinds of peas. She wasn't counting the peas on her plate. She was pointing out that there were two kinds of peas.

Last week when we kept her she had gotten up to eleven in her counting. All on her own and without any coaxing from me. Mommy apparently didn't know she could count that high because she thought she was only up to eight. But it was eleven last week. I heard her. Maybe Mommy stops at eight when she's around her, so she doesn't know she's up to eleven?

Let her do it herself...

I've probably blogged about a similar thing that happened earlier, but because I had it on my mind, I thought I would include the most current edition of it. When I put Annabelle down for her nap on Wednesday, I assured her I would come in and get her and we would play some more, so after she had finally gone to sleep and slept awhile, I made good on my word and went in and woke her. She woke up in a pretty good mood even though it wasn't a long nap.

Naturally, just because she's Annabelle, we had to remove everything from the crib. Bunny, Dolly, two snuggle blankies, regular blanket, pacifiers, books, any extra toys she couldn't live without, etc. No wonder she couldn't sleep. She had no room! One of the pacifiers was missing. Her favorite orange one. Must be the only orange one they can find because earlier in the week Mommy had told me to be sure not to misplace that orange one because that was her very favorite.

I asked her where it was. She pointed under the crib. She got down out of my arms, wallowed all over her tummy and starter the search for her paci. "Dare it is!" she proclaims happily. Right there under her bed where she had apparently thrown it. "Me get it," she says as she jumps up off her tummy and heads to her bedroom closet. The door was sticking at the top a little but she kept trying to get it loose. It wouldn't open, so she looks up at me and says, "You get it, Grandmomma!" I pulled and tugged until I finally opened it.

She looked inside and grabbed the Swiffer and went straight to her bed to rescue her precious paci. I know she's done this before when she lost something under the changing table months and months ago, but this was the first time I've seen her do it in a long time. Then she returned the Swiffer to its place and went about her business.

And as an additional little funny that she does...when she can't get something out of her bed she will hold it in her hand all the way until she gets to the tippy top of the rail, then she throws it down where it inevitably will drop onto her head. At least she gets it out without asking anybody for help, even if it does cause a bit of pain as she releases the item onto her head. Funny, funny little girl.

She watches everything her Mommy does and tells on her quite frequently. But then again, she snitches on Grandmomma and Granddaddy sometimes, too. I guess we had better be very careful what we say and do in front of her.

She's well-trained...sometimes

Annabelle, her cousins, aunt, uncle and Nonnie had baked cookies over the week-end, along with Mommy and Daddy. They did a very good job on their cookie-making and their decorations were beautiful!

Somehow Mommy had left the decorations out on the table, you know the kind...all those cute little teensy round green/red/white thingies; the colored sugars, and other fun things. About four, five or more little bottles of them.

Well Annabelle decided she wanted to move them from the dining room table to the living room sofa. (Thank goodness this was not under my watch, but her mother's.) She dropped them a few times. Some went into the waiting bag that hadn't been unpacked from Monday's visit with Grandmomma and Granddaddy, when we thought she might be spending the night. Some went onto the sofa. Some went onto--where ever.

Somehow she had managed to hold on to one of the little containers, and I'm guessing she was attempting to unscrew the lid when suddenly all those teensy, round, green/red/white thingies scattered everywhere, and I mean everywhere. Before any of us knew what had happened we had a nice pile of them all over the carpet.

I said, "Well, this looks like this calls for some heavy duty vacuuming!" Mommy had already gone off to the other room to pull out the heavy duty cleaner and what do I see? Sweet Annabelle immediately grabbed her Elmo vacuum cleaner and began her own cleaning. Mommy was just a bit too slow. Annabelle was on the job before Mommy could haul that big, heavy thing from the closet.

I have to say, I'm amazed at how her Mommy manages to maintain such composure and control over the disasters that happen with an inquisitive two-year old. Mommy wasn't at all upset and she didn't fuss at her; she just went about cleaning the mess up. After Annabelle had done her own vacuuming. Mommy truly has the patience of Job. And in my unbiased opinion, she's a darn (that's d-a-r-n) good Mommy. Annabelle, you are truly one lucky little girl, because you can make some more messes, sometimes. And in a quick little hurry, too.

There are times when it would be much easier for Mommy just to clean, cook, etc. all by herself, but she patiently waits for her sweet little independent daughter to get things in place so she can assist Mommy. Grandmomma's still trying to remember how important it is to have Annabelle's help, but I think she's getting a little better at it most days. Annabelle certainly teaches us patience.

Now, what is it that stay-at-home Mommies do all day? Watch soaps, eat chocolates, gossip on the phone all day, visit with their friends for cocktails? Oh that's right, that's all they do. I remember those days now, myself! Ah yes, carefree, nothing to do days!

Oh, the imagination of a two-year old...

Sometimes I wonder where it comes from at such an early age. They just seem to have built-in qualities that just can't wait to burst forth.

As Annabelle and I were playing earlier today she showed another quite imaginative quality I couldn't believe in a two-year old. We were squished between an over-sized, misplaced by a big Christmas tree, recliner with a bunch of things between us. I was trying to maintain a little control over that two-year old,trying to keep her from tripping forward over some of the hundred or so toys she had strewn on the floor. Little Octopus, that's just one of my names for her, was hitting me in the head with a few of those arms and somehow she ended up sprawled out with Baby Addie on the floor, underneath her little body. Then she realized as she tried to move, that Baby Addie would rock back and forth, back and forth and she could move her body when she stretched her arms and legs out and Baby Addie would keep her off the floor. Out of that sweet little mouth came, "See me, Grandmomma? I'm a butterfly!" She has another word for butterfly that doesn't come out exactly that way, but it's so close you know she's saying butterfly. Mommy will have to write how it sounds when she says it.

Yes, my sweet baby, you are just that. You are a little butterfly, and I love watching you change day by day into newer, more beautiful things. My sweet little butterfly! I love watching you flit from here to there, exploring, learning, living. What will you discover tomorrow? I'm so glad I'm able to be a part of your life and watching your changes, hearing your funny expressions. You wear me out sometimes, but I wouldn't want it any other way!

She reorganizes and rearranges

After dinner tonight, Annabelle's Mommy asked if she wanted to help her open the mail. They had several Christmas cards and Annabelle likes to be a part of the great openings.

After checking each of them out, she walks across the room and into the living room and returns to take me by the hand. "Come see, Grandmomma!" I figured she just wanted to "pay" with me, but usually she says she wants to pay. I went with her and found she had added the Christmas card from our friends in Florida to the book shelf where she had earlier displayed her Christmas card from Santa. She had covered Santa's card with our friend's Christmas card. She apparently decided she would claim that card for display at least for the moment.

I'm not sure if she's trying to cover Santa's face or just what her thinking was, but she certainly was re-organizing and re-arranging what she had decided was hers.

And she was proud of her display.

She keeps me laughing...

Annabelle's Mommy was supposed to go to work this morning, but she called and said she really didn't feel up to it. We left the conversation at that. Then I thought about it...why shouldn't Annabelle spend the day with Granddaddy and Grandmomma and maybe give Mommy some needed rest, so after running it by Granddaddy he thought the same thing I did, so I called Mommy back and made arrangements to pick her up.

Oh, and Mommy decided she was feeling better by the time we got there, so she did go into work after all and put in long hours after I had warned her she needed to take this time to be able to relax, but you know how we mothers are. We think we can do it all, sometimes.

I also suggested she put in some pajamas just in case Annabelle would agree to spend the night. Without her and knowing it was without her. So when we picked her up and headed back home all was arranged to perhaps keep her for the day and night.

Annabelle was a little later getting up this morning. I think she had gotten up earlier, but Mommy had put her back down and she had managed to go back to sleep, so I figured there would be no nap today for her. I was right. She wanted nothing to do with taking a nap, though she did agree to go lie down in the Pack 'N Play. She was tired by 3:30. I warned her she had to stay in the bed because she's been climbing out the last time or two. She agreed sweetly. We had already read all of our books, but of course we had to sing some songs that I had forgotten about. We had to sing about Jesus; Hush Little Baby; Up on the House Top; and I think we sang Away in the Manager and another one or two. I finally left the room. Then she started fussing. I had forgotten her juice. Trip back in for that. Still more fussing, a little silence, then "Grandmomma, need to go poopy, Grandmomma, need to go poopy." Of course, I jumped up and went in. Too late, already had poopied, but STILL had to sit on the potty to poopy. And she's a long sitter. She's actually a procrastinator who will use anything as an excuse to stay out of bed. Finally after probably 10-15 minutes of her grabbing my hands to "get down to doing her business" and after I threatened to leave her, she finally called an end to it, but she did tee-tee in the potty and earned her chocolates which today were not M & M's but Peppermint Patties, Chocolate Kisses or "Teetsy Rolls". Anyway there was no need to force the nap issue this late in the game, so she didn't get her nap today.

Here are a few of the funnies that happened today:
I've noticed even last time she was here, but more so today, she seems to be using her pen/pencil and seems to be concentrating on making smaller marks as well as the broader strokes. I have a lap desk that her Mommy got from her "Big Sister" when she was in college. It really came in handy when I broke my arm a few years ago when they were living in Knoxville, and before Little Bit came along.

She found that desk and on the back side which I had covered with contact paper which had leaves and flowers on it, she proceeded to try to write over the small
and leaves on it. She called me over and said, "See my picture, Grandmomma?" and insisted I sit and watch her as she performed her great work of art on my board which had no paper on it! But she was just too cute and busy concentrating on her work that I couldn't fuss at her for it. As a footnote: I'm sure she's going to be writing her name in full the next time I see her on Wednesday! She's a bright little girl, I tell you!

She recently got a Little People's Manager Scene which she apparently loves very much. (I really wanted to get it to keep at my house, but her Mommy thought it would be fun to play with, so she wouldn't let me get it. I guess we didn't both need one, but it sure looks like lots of fun!)

She brought over to our house her Baby Jesus, Joseph and Mary. She used my Little People and brought them up to Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus. I heard her say, "Hey dare, Baby Jesus!" as each Little Person was brought to meet Baby Jesus. Now that was the sweetest thing you could hope to witness from a little child. She said it so fast that it sounded like, "Howdy, Baby Jesus", but it wasn't really that. She loves her Manager and especially Baby Jesus, Joseph and Mary. They had to accompany her to the nap she didn't have today. I finally was able to sneak them back into her bag so we could make sure they found their way back to her house. I love to see her play-acting and talking with her little toy people.

Also, Nonnie has been on her mind all day today. I'm sure she's on it every day, but she really carried on her conversations with her today. One time she grabbed the house phone (it was dead as a door knob, thank goodness)put it to her ear and got her Nonnie on the phone. "Hey, dare, Nonnie. Um hum, um hum." then she passed it on to me. "Talk to Nonnie," I was instructed and if I failed to talk to her at any point when she was watching she reminded me of it. Then she went over to where we keep the five million remote controls and picked up one of the "'Mote controls", put it to her ear, then added the telephone to the other ear and said, "Two Nonnies!"
She squished each phone to her face until those little lips pushed out. Where was the camera? Of course, she moves from one thing to the other so fast I would have missed the real "her" trying to get to the camera way too late, so I settled for real life for once. It was just too precious to miss.

When I mentioned that I needed to fix dinner tonight, she ran to the dining room door and pushed against it. It was fastened so she couldn't get in. She kept saying, "Gonna help Grandmomma, gonna help Grandmomma," over and over. I asked her what she was trying to do and she said it again then I realized she was trying to get to the stool she stands on to help Grandmomma.

When I realized she wanted to help me fix her Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip sandwich, I suggested she could help me by sitting in her high chair and she could help me spread the peanut butter on the bread and then add the chips. At first she pushed the high chair over to the counter and then started to get into it. I told her we could add her tray and I would let her help me that way. She climbed in and together we spread her peanut butter with a knife and I gave her some chips to finish putting on her sandwich. She added most of them, although she did eat some.

Earlier I had asked her Mommy if she let her put the chips on her sandwich to which Mommy replied very strongly, "NO!" When questioned why she said because she would eat more chips than went onto the sandwich. I don't understand the problem. Once the chips are gone, either way they go to the same place!

Anyway, Annabelle knows how to spread peanut butter on her sandwich and for the second time, both with Grandmomma, she's added her own chocolate chips to her sandwich.

But before climbing into her chair, of course, she had to protest just a bit before she gave in and then after I was putting the top on the chair she became quite animated holding that little head in a certain position and those little hands went up shaking around, fingers straight out as she began telling me in her determined little way, "No tee-tee, No poo poo." just as if she had made up her mind she would not ask to get down to tee-tee or poo poo this time. That's become sort of a habit with her. She has to run to the potty right in the middle of eating. I think it's just her excuse for getting down. She watches and when she sees Grandmomma is done eating, that's her que. The other two will be sitting there until the cows come home if she has to wait for them to finish eating, although, I have to say she can sometimes run them a race for long-time eating except when she really wants to get down and play.

As Granddaddy and I were eating our meal I mentioned I needed to bathe her, wash her hair and get her into her pajamas after we ate. She was ready to go as soon as she heard that. She wanted that bath and she would stop eating for that bath. She finally ate all she wanted, got down and headed out saying, "Bath, Grandmomma." I talked her into waiting until I had finished and then we would run her bath water and get her bath. She played around with her toys until we finally got her into the tub.

Granddaddy came to the rescue again and dried that long hair for me, but not before she went into a mini-melt down because after she got out of the tub and got back into the den she realized she hadn't gotten any of her favorite candy for tee-teeing in the potty, so it was a rush back to the potty. She came back into the den with those little lips pursed out and giving a smooching sound. She wanted her chocolate kiss for going potty. She's a mess, that Granddaughter of ours.

She had already made up her mind she wanted to go back to her house to spend the night tonight. She said, "Mommy and Daddy's house, not Grandmomma and Granddaddy's."
I don't want her to feel she has to stay her if she doesn't want to because that will just make for three miserable people added to the other one at the other house, so I started calling and e-mailing her Mommy with the news that we would be coming home for Annabelle to get her sleep there.

Her Mommy is having a hard time talking above a whisper, so she's not a lot of fun to talk to. I feel like I need to whisper, too. Annabelle's Daddy should have been out of town last week and in town this week. Bad planning. Just think of all the peace and quiet he would have had this week!

So after bath, diapering, drying her hair and dressing, she was ready to go home with all her goodies. She kept talking about seeing her "Mommy, and Daddy, too." She really wanted to see her Daddy, too. I kept telling her Daddy wouldn't be there tonight when she got home, but I'm not sure she really believed it. But at least she was going home to see one of the people she loves with all her heart.

Granddaddy wanted to ride around in the area to let her see some more Christmas lights before she left. She loves those Christmas lights and wanted to find more along the way. That's a difficult job since there aren't many lights along the expressway that count for Christmas lights. She did see a big Santa on a billboard drinking a Coca Cola. She was really excited about that.

Finally at home, I don't know who was happiest to see whom. Her Mommy met us at the car like she hadn't seen her in months and I think Annabelle was equally happy.
Maybe another time she'll feel more like spending time away. She's been lots of fun and I'm sure there are other things I'll remember later that were fun to experience being the Grandmomma of a little Princess.

I love their artwork

This is just an update on my thoughts that have happened while I was too lazy to blog:

Annabelle is learning to use colored pencils. I let her use mine one time and that was probably a big mistake because the next time I offered her some crayons,she refused them saying, "No, no, Grandmomma's colors." So, I had to let her borrow mine until I could round up a set of cheaper ones for her to use.

As another random thought: When she used my colored pencils she was very careful to make sure all the points were pointing in the right direction when she put them back into their trays. I thought that was rather interesting.

On November 19 she drew a masterpiece for me and on the same day we took her to McDaniel Park to romp in the leaves before the weather turned too cold for her to enjoy the outdoors. I decided to use her masterpiece as a background for my card I made along with her pictures from the day. You can't throw away beautiful artwork when it's right in front of your eyes, now can you, really?

She did several other masterpieces as a matter of fact and I was both amused and surprised when she looked down at one of her pictures and said, "Football, Grandmomma!" And indeed she had drawn a football, really, no kidding. Alright, she had made the pencil move around into an oval shape and it was her football, but what's amazing is that she actually recognized that shape and called it a football. She's been watching way too many Tennessee football games with her Daddy!

Then in another drawing she drew a bunny rabbit. We named that picture "The Accidental Bunny", because I'm pretty sure it was an accident that a bunny popped out of that picture. But she liked the name and she saw the bunny (OK, after I pointed the bunny out to her) she had drawn and I think even she was amazed at her talents on that one.

I love seeing her creative side coming out. I so hope she will have lots of abilities in the art side of her. Not so much that she thinks she has to do nothing but art, but enough that she can find it as a stress-reliever.

When I think about her drawing her football I am reminded of the way we did art in my much younger years of school. We would take our crayon and draw ovals and circles all connecting each other then we would go back and color in each of those circles and ovals whatever color we wanted. That was so much fun. I may have to try doing that again, myself.

The three grandsons are also very talented. I love how their Mom framed each piece and stuck their artwork around the dining room for us all to enjoy Thanksgiving. I would love to have a copy of their works for Christmas. I would be perfectly satisfied with that for my Christmas. Even the little three-year old is a budding artist. Money can't buy simple beauty.

The eight-year old drew a beautiful picture when he was maybe five of fish in a fish bowl. It is truly beautiful. I've tried to talk his Mom out of that picture forever, but she won't part with it. And I don't blame her. It's is over-sized and she bought a huge frame and mounted it to hang in his bathroom after she framed it. Hmmm, I've noticed it hasn't been hung in his bathroom since they've moved back home. Hope it didn't get lost!

The eight-year old is a whiz at designing his own Lego machines or whatever he likes to call them. They are tedious and he spends much time just trying to figure out how he wants one changed or another created. He did this as young as five or six years old and he only gets better. Everything goes well until baby brother loves them so much he takes them apart. I consider him a genius, but then I consider all four of them geniuses, and I'm really not prejudiced...not one bit. They're just...geniuses...

Baby brother has even used his little brain to put together his own versions of things that shoot at other things. And everything does. It's just a little boy thing and being the baby of three boys doesn't hurt, I suppose, when it comes to building and creating. You have to pick up a few pointers here and there.

I don't know if he's dismantling big brother's creations or if he's getting them from the community pile, but he's pretty good and even had to help me put mine back together after a part or two fell off.

I do love seeing all the grandchildren's creative side shine.

Stay home with Grandmomma

This morning Mommy needed to get out and check with Santa Claus on some things she wanted him to bring Annabelle for Christmas. She and Granddaddy left Annabelle and me home to "pay". Many, many hours later Mommy called and said they needed to come by the house and get her car (they had gone in our car to begin with) and asked if we would like to go back with them when they went out again. I told her we would see. So I asked Annabelle if she wanted to go with Mommy and Granddaddy when they came back and she said, "No, stay here and play with Grandmommy". So, I called her Mommy and told her we wouldn't be going so they wouldn't interupt our play when they returned for her car.

They decided not to come back for her car and then discovered that something they had purchased would not fit in my car so she would still have to come back here.
Now, this was a good while later, so I decided I would fix Annabelle a bite to eat before we left with Mommy. (Granddaddy was standing guard over the over-sized, already purchased item at the store.)

Annabelle decided she wanted to be a little independent today and took her time getting into the high chair. After waiting and giving her a chance to get it out of her system, I knew we didn't have a lot of time left, so I started counting...One, two, and before I could get the rest of it out, she completed it for me...free! At that point I picked her up and placed her into the high chair. She was totally unprepared for that move and in shock for a minute, then she wanted to "do it myself". I informed her she had waited too long and Grandmomma needed her help. She finally settled down and she was fed a little before Mommy got there.

Just as an addition to where she is in her life skills...her way of counting now is is: one...two...free...fourfivesix. I love her counting. She amazes me with the things she comes out with now. Each day she changes and adds so much more to her vocabulary that we had no idea she even knew. We just look at each other and say, "Where did that come from?" She knows a "Schurch" AKA as a Church when she passes one and she knows it has a "stipple" AKA as a steeple on top.

She helps Granddaddy drive by telling him, "Go, Grandaddy!" when the light is green and occasionally I think she sees the wrong light and tells him to go when it's really red, but most of the time she tells him right. Then it's "Stop, Granddaddy!" for most red lights. Her Mommy asks her, "Who's driving, Annabelle?" She doesn't let that bother her one bit, though.

She's been doing these things for a while, but I'm just now getting them recorded since I've been so slack on blogging lately.

Also, when you ask her what her name is, she says "DannabelleGraceGraceKing" in her sweetest little voice. That's an awfully long name for such a tiny little girl.

Back to the original thoughts...we did go back with Mommy and then came back to eat left-overs here after all. Granddaddy lost out on his eating out meal. After left-overs we all headed out for Mommy and Grandmommy to check on some things with the hopes that Annabelle would fall asleep in the carseat so we could kill two birds with one stone. She didn't until after we had gotten out of the car and left her with Granddaddy, then he said it was a very short nap. She pleaded to go home. She was one tired little girl by the time we got back to Grandmomma and Granddaddy's house. We fed her her dinner and then they went home to find Daddy.

And she had spent good times with Grandmomma while Mommy and Daddy were out shopping for half the day. I guess she knew what it would be like if she chose to go with Mommy. She would never get back home in time to play with Grandmomma.

She apparently didn't want to leave Grandmomma's house. I guess things are boring around place. Mommy hadn't gotten up the road very far when she called me to listen on the cell phone all the racket in the back of the car. She was really screaming. One would have thought she was being beaten. She didn't want to go home! Now, I know that sounds like she doesn't have a good Mommy or Daddy, but she really does. I have to say it does make me happy for her to be happy when she comes...enough so that she doesn't want to leave. Don't feel bad about it, Mommy, she really does love you and if she needed you both of you would be first in her life and not us. It's just another step in her independence and you don't want her there with you forever, trust me on that. No matter how much you love her. Someday she has to go. These are still her baby steps.

The Great Bunkin' Pies

Today was filled with lots of things to keep us all busy and tired. We ate lunch with my sister and brother-in-law. Upon seeing my brother-in-law, apparently Annabelle associates his beard with Santa Claus. She's seen him hundreds of times, but since this is the season for Santa she's not taking chances on anybody with a beard.

So, it was "Grandmomma had to hold her" at lunch. It's very diffcult to eat lunch with a child's head above your own. You can't see around to see your food, you can't see over to see your food, so you just wiggle from side to side and change from your preferred right hand to your next to useless left hand to find the food on your plate. But we managed.

On the way back home we decided we needed some good old fresh Krispy Kreme donuts.
Later she would have her first bite of a donut. She only gets good old junk food when she comes to Grandmomma and Granddaddy's. She's in heaven here, that's for sure.

Oh, did I mention...today was apparently not going to be a nap-time day for her. I put her into her room after reading her two books and all the other routine things she does and I left the door opened just a hair so I could check on her. I stood at the door for a good while just watching her to see what she would do because her Mommy had already warned me she had escaped from the Pack-and-Play over the Thanksgiving holidays at Granny's house.

She whimpered and fussed, pulled her shoes off the bed (boy, can those arms stretch), but she didn't try to get out, so I left her for a while and listened on the monitor. I don't know how long it had been, but she was still "tee-tee potty, Gradmomma", etc. so I thought I better make sure she was indeed still in her bed.
I got up to the door and ready to peek in and what am I greeted with? A sweet little girl ready to make her escape from not just the bed, but the entire room! I don't know who was most surprised, her or me. It was a bit of a shock. Anyway, no amount of holdig, cuddling, loving, or music playing would get her to go to sleep. Finally, I told Granddaddy we would go about some errands we had to do and hopefully she would't go to sleep since it was already getting late.

As luck would have it, just after finishing our errands and as we got almost home she zonked out on us. I saw her close her eyes and warned her. She just smiled that sleepy smile and went sound asleep. She slept for a total of maybe 20-30 minutes while Granddaddy sat in the car with her after we got home. She woke herself by almost strangling and then she was in a foul mood for a while. That's what you get when you don't get your nap out. And Grandmomma was feeling a little foul moody, too, because she didn't get a chance to get her nap out because Annabelle couldn't sleep in her room today!

Earlier,I had told her that after her nap we would bake some pumpkin pies because she loved the pies I had made earlier and they were disappearing fast. It was probably close to 6:30 or 7:00 before we finally started them.

First I assembled all the ingredients on a small table that was closer to her size. I didn't want her falling off the stool and dragging the pumpkin pie bowl down on top of her and wasting all that good old pumpkin pie stuff.

She found the two eggs that were to go into the pumpkin and took one of them and tried to crack it on her head, ever so gently. I asked her what she was doing and she said, "Mommy does it". Hmmm. So Mommy cracks her eggs on her own head or on Annabelle's head? Then she picks the other up and does the same thing. She didn't really break them, just tapped them on her head.

Then she realized the mixing bowl would make a perfect hat for her little head, so onto the top of her head she plops the mixing bowl. So, Grandmomma had to stop and re-wash and dry the mixing bowl which had been on her precious, sweet little head before we could continue on.

I felt like an octopus, or maybe it was she was the octopus because she had more arms than I did. She was re-arranging everything, so they would be ready for us to continue our pie-making.

Next I let her help me measure the ingredients...the sugar was dipped from the sugar container using a small measure cup and put into the 1 cup measuring cup. She spilled very little sugar, but enough that we had to stop and clean it up. And she did get some on her shoes which made them very slippery. Keep following me on this bit of information.

Then it was time to add the eggs...Annabelle grabs both eggs, one in each hand and starts to run to the other end of the table to help crack them into the bowl. Now remember the sugar on her shoes? Yep, she not only slipped on the sugary shoes, she also hit the leg of the table. Down goes baby, an egg in each hand, ker-plop. I don't know if she held onto them and squeezed them or if they hit the floor but there were two eggs on the floor with a sweet little girl totally confused about what had happened. I laughed and laughed and told her it was just fine. She didn't cry. She was perfectly happy once she realized all was OK. Then I cleaned up the big mess after Granddaddy got pictures, naturally!

Two more eggs out of the refrigerator to complete the pie and we were on our way once again in the making of pumpkin pie.

Then she helped me open the pumpkin can and add the spices to the sugar then the pumpkin.

We stirred and stirred and stirred to get it all ready for the canned milk. She stirred while I poured that in a little at a time.

And, of course, the pie crusts had to be pierced with a fork before we could pour the pie filling into them. She's a good pie crust piercer!

The only thing she didn't really work on with me was pouring the heavy bowl of pumpkin mixture into the pie crust. I may sound to you a little nutty for letting a 25-month old help me bake pumpkin pies, but I'm not completely crazy. Cleaning up the eggs was enough of a mess for me. And she didn't really complain. She knew she couldn't do that, so I finished the pies, put them into the oven...alone...set the timer and then it was off to bathtime before the pies came out and Mommy came home.

You don't rush bathtime with this child either. She operates on her own time frame. If there's no real need for rushing you're better off just to go with the flow and let her enjoy herself, and we did.

But time was running short and two pies were getting ready to come out of the oven, so when I finally convinced her we needed to call an end to bathtime, Granddaddy's help was enlisted for the hair drying. That is my least favorite job. Her hair is sooo long and it takes forever to get her to sit still long enough to comb and dry it. Granddaddy did a really good job, though. He put her into a revolving chair and then he could turn her when she turned.

The pies came out beautifully, except for a hot-spot Grandmomma managed to get on one of them. After almost two years you would think that I would have mastered that stove wouldn't you. But not really. Guess that shows show much I don't cook.

Mommy came home, finally, before Annabelle's bedtime and she was greeted at the door by the scrumpuous smell of delicious "bunkin' pie" baked by Annabelle and Grandmomma and photographed compliments of Granddaddy.

It was a fun-filled day for all. That baby can bake a good pumpkin pie. She's practicing to follow in the foot steps of her Daddy's Granny. She has a reputation of being an excellent cook and Annabelle is going to give her a run for her money one day. Granny K. probably won't mind it at all, I suspect!

She made it through the night

Annabelle made it through the night spending her first night alone with Grandmomma and Granddaddy. I carried the baby monitor into our room so I could hear her if she needed us during the night. Not a lot of noises calling for help...only noises of sweet, baby sounds...baby sounds of snoring. Yep, she snores part of the night and she makes her little hmmmm noises as she sleeps and snores. Those are the sweetest noises though there are times I worry about her sleeping like that.I worry she is having problems breathing, but she always seems to do alright in spite of the silly sounds I hear.

I even let her Mommy hear over the cell phone, her sweet sounds after Mommy got back to her home tonight. I'm sure it only made her more sad and miss Annabelle even more. That's what we mothers do you know. There is no doubt in my mind she won't get any sleep tonight. It's something only mothers can understand. Daddies can sleep through anything...Mommies are always listening for the sounds that they are needed. And it's something you never really out grow. You still wake up in the middle of the night and wonder if they're alright, even if they are thirty or thirty-four or older.

She did sleep just fine through the night and as I was checking our e-mails, etc. on the computer this morning, I heard that sweet little voice calling me. She was standing in the bed waiting for someone to come and rescue her.

I told her that Mommy had already gone to work. She was satisfied with that, but around breakfast time she heard a noise outside, her little face lit up and said, "Mommy's home!" She was so excited. I told her Mommy would be very late coming home tonight and still during the day something would remind her of Mommy and she'd think she was at home.

She was satisfied with staying with us, although really, Mommy had gotten her down last night, late though it was. It would probably have been much more difficult if Mommy hadn't put her down because last night she thought it was just like many other night for her. She went to bed and woke up at Grandmomma and Granddaddys and that was fine with her. There's a lot to be said about being content. That makes Grandmomma happy when the Grandchild is happy.

Oh my darling, Clementine...

For breakfast this morning I thought it would be a great idea for Annabelle to learn something new...how to peel her own Clementine orange. She apparently thought it was a good idea,too, because she jumped right in and worked on that Clementine and patiently peeled the whole thing with very little help from Grandmomma. I know this will make her Mommy really proud of Annabelle and Grandmomma, both. She's always talking about how she can't get her out of the house on time. This should make it easier. Now all she has to do is hand her the Clementine and let her peel it herself while she is finishing breakfast. Sounds like she's continuing on her road to independence to me.

She worked so long and so hard peeling each little tiny piece from her Clementine. I keep hearing her say something like "baby orange",but Mommy thinks it's her version of Clementine.

Anyway, as she peeled each little section, it would go up to her nose and she would enjoy the smell from the fruit before she cast it aside. Piece by piece until she finally finished, then onto splitting it into sections. She got quite good at peeling those Clementines and she needed very little help from me once she worked on it for a while. Very smart little girl.

I think it teaches her patience, good eye-hand coordination and it uses her fine motor skills as she peels away each piece.

She did enjoy herself. Won't Mommy be surprised?

I don't miss those days at all

When we were keeping Annabelle today I realized I don't miss those days of potty training at all. Not at all! She's good and she tries very hard. There are few accidents, but it's still the constant having to be aware of the potty training that makes it so hard. That's one nice thing about it...she remembers most times when I forget.

One time this morning I tried to get her to "hurry, hurry, hurry, run, run, run,"to make sure she made it to the bathroom in time once she said she needed to go. The bathroom was only one door away from her room, so she decided she would do it the hard, slow way. She shimmied like a snake, all the way down flat on her tummy, crawling along inch by inch. Giggle, giggle, giggle! It was a fun game she was playing. Actually, I think Mommy uses her that way as a dust mop and then she blames me when she gets home and finds her clothes all dirty.

She made it there without wetting herself, so I guess she knew how much time she had. But she was a funny little creature creeping along.

When we decided to go to eat (we couldn't decide whether it would be eat out or bring in since it was so very cold this morning, but staying in the house with a little one for a while, guess why we chose to go out?)she was ready, once I managed to tackle her to change her clothes, put on the shoes that matched her outfit, just to please her mommy, get her juice cup ready and everything else that taking her out entails. Then, as we were getting ready to leave the house, we realized Mommy in her efficiency had locked the dead bolt on the lock and locked us in. Good thing we had a key, huh?

In the car and fastened in only to find out somebody had forgotten Teddy. No amount of persuading would make her leave Teddy at home. She needed him even though she knew he had to stay in the car. So back into the house Granddaddy went looking for Teddy.

As luck would have it the girl at the cafeteria parked us directly facing a giant mirror. You can imagine how much fun that was! As soon as we sat down, Annabelle, after picking her seat next to the mirror, immediately started entertaining the little girl in the mirror, which she correctly identitied as, "Me! Me! Me!" and of course, "Granddaddy and Grandmomma!)

Another thing I realized I don't miss...Those days when the little ones outgrow the high chairs provided by the restaurants. They should at least make them big enough to accomodate a child until they are well into their teen years. At least. Well, she's outgrown hers at the ripe old age of two, whether physically or mentally, and she wants to sit in her own chair on her "knees! Sit on my knees!"

That would have been well and good except for one thing. She didn't stay on her knees and certainly didn't understand Grandmomma and Granddaddy's language when they told her to "sit on your bottom, Annabelle,"and after playing around with the mirror, her food, chewing on the chairs and table and just plain getting down on the floor, she began to be a handful! Ya think?

Mommy will be very interested to know that Annabelle had her first taste of liver today. Gag again, Mommy. Just as good as buttermilk, only Granddaddy will eat that. Granddaddy gave her a piece and she actually ate it without any ugly faces, melodramatics or anything. When Granddaddy asked her if she wanted more, she turned to me and said, "Yeah, Grandmomma's!" So Grandmomma shared. But from Annabelle's plate not Grandmomma's. Of course she didn't eat any more of the liver, but she didn't turn her nose up at it either.

Suddenly the urge to go "tee tee potty" hit her and you don't wait when she signals, so off she and I ran, right through the sign that says, "stay with your party until your check is paid." Off to the family potty. It was in use. Back around the corner to the smaller crowded one. Thank goodness it was vacant at the moment. Have to line the toliet with toliet paper. Not an easy job with a little two-year old who has decided she wants to fall back on some previous lifetime memories from when she probably lived in the '60's where she had been quite the professional limp noodle protester. Try putting toliet paper on the toliet when you have one falling through your arms, time and time again! Finally I parked her little hiney over on the diaper bag I had brought just in case I needed it for back up. That lasted about a second until she looked over and spotted the lady in the stall next to us with beautiful black heels on. I don't remember exactly what her words were, but she was trying to get me to look at that lady and her shoes. She was so very fascinated. And she was creaating a scene. Then it was up again and slinking through my arms as I tried to place her once more on the potty. This happened a time or two before I finally coralled the little wild colt and she kept her panties dry until she could finally use the potty. Amazing the will power she had after all we went through from the time she told me she had to go until she had the chance to go.

I asked her if she knew what Grandmomma would have done to her mommy when her mommy was a little girl if she hadn't cooperated with me. She didn't, but was very interested in finding out. She said, "Mommy? My Mommy?" "Yes," I told her. I then told her I would have turned her around and spanked her little bottom. She was completely oblivious! She didn't know what that meant, obviously! So I turned her around and asked her if she wanted me to show her? "Ye-ah", she says enthusiastically with a big smile on her face. I turned her back around and gave her three swift paddles to her rear side. (Oh, Mommy, it didn't hurt her! She had her Pull-up on and she was perfectly protected. She even thought it was funny. Um huh!)

So then was time for the ritual of flushing the toliet. Would you believe they didn't have a handle, they had a step petal which is more difficult for her than a handle. So we made the best of it, and I turned her away and flushed it then turned her back around so she thought she did it all by herself! You do what you have to do.

And it is always so much fun to wash and dry hands when you have no step stool and there's only one of you or in our case, two of you. So, we washed our hands and dried them while the other two ladies watched amused at our progress. One of them even said she and I were so cute together. I couldn't disagree with that. Nor could I disagree with them when they said what a cutie she was. Because she is.

Back to the table where she announced a few minutes later in her sweet little voice, "Tee tee, potty, Granddaddy, tee tee, potty!"

Finally after she finished I decided maybe I better just hold her instead of taking a chance on her crashing through the mirror and hurting one of us. She watched a little girl who was almost three named Serenity sit quietly, using her best manners as she ate with her mother. In her own chair. On her bottom. Face forward. She had a perfect name. Serenity. That kid was definitely abnormal. She sat throughout the whole meal and I barely heard a word from her. Probably couldn't talk. Probably couldn't walk. Probably couldn't move. She was definitely not normal. Very quiet. Very serene. But she was a little cutie, almost as cute as ours...just almost. Ours had a name too. It was "Mexican jumping beans"!

Annabelle had a good nap and I got her up to play a while before Mommy came home. Everything is, "Read a book!" She loves you to read books to her. This time she asked for her dolly, Attie. She has Attie and baby Attie, which sometimes comes out as "Baby Daddy". Anyway, Attie and Teddy were called into duty. They were to sit in the rocking chair while Annabelle read books to them. Would she pick a small book for them to ready together. Nooo! It had to be one of the biggest books Mommy keeps stored out of her reach in her storage cabinet. So, she pulls that book out that's bigger than she is, turns the opened book with the pictures and words towards her baby and Teddy and begins to read to them as the book flips and flops all over the place. And it was turned with the words in the right position, as usual. It didn't matter to her that the book flipped and flopped, she finished that one and went on to another one.

We played with her new toys she got for her birthday. A little cooking set of muffins with shapes and cookies in a cookie jar with numbers on both the back of the cookie and the dots that looked like M & M's on the front to teach them counting. She's pretty good at trying to count with you and she's doing good once she realized there were shapes on the bottom of the muffins. And then there were the ice cream cones with eight different colors of ice cream scoops that fit on each cone. We played with stacking all eight of the colors on one ice cream cone and tryed to keep them from falling off by trying to balance them. It wasn't easy, either. Those things are heavy on one ice cream cone. She does enjoy that little set. And so did I. It was fun indeed.

Later this afternoon she tried her acrobatic exercises. She would try standing on her head, get her feet and those long little legs as far up as she could. I was worried she would break her neck, but she hadn't when we left.

When her Daddy drove up, she started saying, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy" and ran over to the window to see him when he got out of his truck. Then she met him at the door. That had to be one of the sweetest things. She was so happy to see her daddy.

Then she had to show Daddy her acrobatic achievements. She would fall over to her side, get back up and try again, until finally she managed to do a complete roll over all by herself! She wasn't frightened at all. She just got back up, giggling as hard as she could and tried again and again. I'm not sure she didn't surprise herself when she did it.

We left the two of them along to spend quality time together while Mommy was finally on her way home. I was sure she had gotten lost!

When we finally got home, I collapsed on the sofa and took a good, quick 1 1/2 to 2 hour nap before dragging myself back to bed for the night. If only she slept as well as I did after our play day, her Mommy had some quiet time. But I doubt it. She's like the Energizer Bunny. She just keeps going and going and going. But I love her!

Just in case Mommy doesn't post

I know Mommy has lots of things on her mind and it's difficult to remember to post everything she tells me so I'm going to cover a thing or two here. Mommy can correct or tell it her way when she wants; I just wanted to remember it here in "her space".

(1) One recent week end outing they passed a place and Annabelle started saying,
"Gandmomma, Ganddaddy!" Smart aleck Daddy said he looked around to see old people, but didn't see any. Then Mommy realized they were near a Captain D's, Granddaddy's favorite fish place. She has accompanied us on many trips especially on Wednesdays to Captain D's. Who says she's too young to read?

(2)Annabelle is potty training. The other day she ran to the bathroom and Mommy heard the water running. I'm not sure if she followed her shortly after she heard the water or not, but shortly afterwards Little Princess ran back to her with her "sticker book" for recording her progress in her potty training. She proudly handed the sticker book back to Mommy and said, "Washed book, Mommy, washed book!" Mommy patiently took a sticker book that Annabelle had indeed washed in the sink, but thank goodness it wasn't ruined by water. She had dropped it onto the floor into a drop of tea that had spilled on the floor and it got on her sticker book. Sometimes raising an independent child has its rewards. She took care of the dirty book without Mommy's help.

(3)Mommy tells her to be sure not to wet her panties because it will make the little Princess on her panties cry. Really there is at least a Snow White on them, not just princesses, but Mommy sticks to the princess thing. One day she rushed to the potty, pulled her panties down and started her "wahhh, wahhh," thing she does to imitate crying. (Have I mentioned how she's such a little drama queen or in her case princess?) Mommy told her she hadn't wet her panties, but she insisted she had and after checking again Mommy noticed she had indeed barely gotten them damp with a tinkle on the way to the bathroom. She had made the little princess on her panties cry! But, she is just learning, so Mommy has to cut her a little slack every now and then. She's getting there. And there will most likely be setbacks along the way. There always are, but it's really no big deal. I'll bet she doesn't start to school in diapers! Especially if Mommy home-schools her and doesn't start her to public school or private school until she's in high school! At least I hope not.

(4) The sticker book for potty training. I must comment on that sticker book! It is more detailed than any first born child's baby book. It is crammed with little stickers, big stickers, tiny stickers, stickers of all sizes depending on whether or not she's done her first job or her second job. Beside each of those little/big stickers is in neat little print the date, the time and what was accomplished along with other details that might describe the circumstances involved with that particular accomplishment. And Annabelle was only responsible for adding the stickers, not the writing, I'm pretty sure. I'm also pretty sure Mommy won't be covering this in her blog. And she wonders why her child is so strange in some ways! I wonder, too!

(5) When we were together last, Mommy was pretty diligent about checking to make sure Annabelle reminded her she needed to go potty by reminding her to remind her. When Annabelle finally decided she might need to go, Mommy left the restaurant table and over her shoulder she remembered to invite me to go with them. I did just in case she needed my help. The next time Mommy thought she needed to go, which was about five minutes later, they left the table without me. I guess Mommy thought I knew I was supposed to go, but it was not for long without me, because Annabelle turned and over her little shoulder she remembered to invite me to go with them, since Mommy had forgotten to invite me. "Grandmomma, too, Grandmomma,too!"

Anyway, I'm proud to say that Mommy being well taught by her own mother, pulled the paper from the toliet roller and patiently placed it onto the toliet seat while Little Princess waited, and waited, and waited . The first trip she was able to get her onto the toliet seat with the paper intact, but the second trip she was not as successful because Annabelle had to be removed from the toliet for readjustments here and there, thus squirming so much the carefully placed paper fell into the toliet. That's where Grandmomma came in handy, I guess. I replaced the paper that had quickly absorbed the water almost to the top of the toliet seat.

Why is it that a potty-training child has to touch everything nasty in a public restroom. You can pick a handicapped stall with plenty of room, but inevitable those little hands will manage to touch unsanitary toliet seats (and hang onto them as though they are going to fall in, even when they aren't even on the toliet!) They don't do that at home. Just when they are in the nastiest of places.

And to add the final touches to using the potty...Mommy holds her up so she can...
flush the toliet with her foot. Just like Mommy's been taught all her life. It makes a Momma proud, I tell you. You can never start too soon.

The fun part for Annabelle, of course, is washing her hands. That's probably why she wanted to put her hands all over the toliet. Just to ensure a good handwashing in case we hadn't planned that part of the trip. Yeah, like we'd forget that!

I'll pretty much guess this incident will also be one of those things Mommy won't be including in her blog so I'll make sure I cover it. And she can't erase what I put in my blog!

(6) One more thing...Mommy is always walking out of my house with whatever fun thing I've bought recently (mental note to self: stop showing her the cool stuff I get!) and the latest things she walked out with were: All my cool foam stickers I had bought to use at MY HOUSE when Annabelle has pottied here. Mommy wanted some of them but she needed something to put them in, thus I had to part with a new little container I had bought for Annabelle to put her snack in at my house so she could carry around her own cool little container. This one was a Halloween theme since it's near Halloween. Mommy wanted me to put some of the stickers into the container while she did something else. I did. It wasn't enough stickers to suit Mommy so she has to finish filling the jar with MY stickers! Then she remembered she had seen something in my bathroom she wanted. "Do you happen to have another one of those little things you hang Annabelle's hand towel from? I could use one of those to put her towel at her level at my house, too." Well, I just happened to have one left that I kept over the tub to hang a wet wash cloth on to dry. Little Princess loves to play with it in the tub when she takes a bath, so I gave it up to her since she would be using it at her house.

Then her Mommy called and said the first time she put Annabelle's towel at her level
like at our house, she said, "Ut oh, ut oh! Grandmomma and Granddaddy's house!" She realized it belonged at our house instead of hers and didn't realize her Mommy had asked me for it. I guess she thought it just got mixed in accidently with their other stuff. It was for you Little Princess, just for you. Enjoy!

She's her Grandmomma's baby girl...

She is truly my baby girl, or at least she's got a lot of me in her (poor baby) and definitely got a double dose of her great-grandmama in her. In quite a few ways. It always amazes me how many ways she is like her.

While she was visiting with us today I decided it was time for her to test her taste pallete on a very little appreciated delicious gourmet delight. Buttermilk. I totally expected her to turn those cute little lips down at me, but after the first reaction, she actually loved it. Spoonful by spoonful I fed her the delicacy, 1/4 cup at a time until she had consumed at least 1/2 cupful. She called it butter-bilk.
I'm so glad I could be the first to introduce her to the world of wonderful foods.
Somewhere I had failed miserably with her mommy. She sat in the corner with awful looks on her face like I was poisoning her child. She didn't really expect her to drink it like she did and she was repulsed by the thought.

Buttermilk was one of two things that kept me alive during my first pregnancy with my son. That and apples. I know, it sounds repulsive even to me and just the sounds of it would probably make most people want to throw up. But it really did help keep something (it)and the apple on my stomach for many months. Somehow it also kept me nourished through those long months of throwing up. I was one of the lucky ones who threw up all nine months at least at one point during the day. Later days definitely got easier, but still always that one time, at least.

It certainly didn't seem to have an ill effect on my son. He turned out just fine, as far as I know. So, if and when you ever have a baby and suffer so much throwing up like your Grandmomma, little Princess, just remember, try Buttermilk and apples.
It certainly can't hurt.

Some people just don't know what they've missed! You're just going another form of rebellion, Little Princess, when you drink that buttermilk. Mommy doesn't like it, so you do. Keep up the good work. She deserves it!

Happy Birthday, Little Princess

We say it all the time...how did the time fly by so fast? We watch first one little one add another year to their life span and then another add one until we finally end up with a bunch of little kids who've grown into big 8-year olds, or six-year olds, or almost three-year olds and then the baby of the family turns into a two-year old! And we really can't imagine where the time went.

Today Annabelle, the baby, the favorite granddaughter in the family turned two! Two! It was only yesterday we held her for the very first time, finally, after being isolated from her during her hospital stay because of problems at birth. Some memories(the isolation) are best replaced by happier memories (finally holding her and just watching her as she slept and breathed, worried about those ugly bruises that were left on her tiny little head and hands and feet from all the IV's that were necessary to bring her to full recovery.)

The first pictures we made of her at home showed those ugly marks splotching that sweet, beautiful little face. Granddaddy suggested he could remove them with our photo program. He meant well, he really did, but I guess I took issue a little more than I should have. How dare he suggest removing her battle scars! She had earned them; she had fought through them, and neither we nor she should ignore or admit those struggles she had gone through those first hours and days of her life. She will, of course, never remember them. God mercifully made sure her little memory won't retain that pain. We will probably never forget them, but she did endure them and they are nothing short of being her true battle scars she earned at her birth. It shows her she's a real trooper. She's a fighter. She's a winner. Maybe someday when she looks back on those thousands of pictures we made of her those pictures will remind her that she was a winner, a fighter, a survivor and if she has something else even more traumatic to face in her future,those bruises will remind her of her beginnings and that she can do anything she has to endure in the life ahead of her because she had those survivor instincts very early on in her lie. Yes, those bruises had to remain in her pictures. They couldn't and wouldn't be photo-shopped out.

This morning I didn't wake up until about 6:30. That's right,I slept right through the moment of the anniversary of her birth at 6:12 a.m. It wasn't that way two years ago. Earlier that day two years ago, we were all gathered together, Granddaddy, Nonnie, Uncle Matt, waiting for news of her arrival. The time passed by much too slowly until her Daddy finally, finally came off the elevator (we were watching the doors to the back of the maternity ward, but I think he had just come down from visiting his new little girl, so he surprised us/me.)

It was a while after that 6:12 a.m.arrival before we got to see her because she did have her breathing problems, etc. but thank goodness we didn't know she was already here for all that time. You don't worry when you don't know. Well, that's not true, because when it's your daughter going through that pain and misery, you do worry. You can't help it. It's inborn..

It was the happiest of times when her daddy told us all the details and we were on our way to focus our eyes on the most beautiful little girl ever born, with the exception of her mother.

Fast forward, and I do mean fast forward, two years and we are still looking at the most beautiful little girl ever born, equal with her mommy.

She has grown so much in so many ways during that time. This year she's a sure-footed little angel who flies around from place to place as opposed to the wobbly little legs that propelled her forward in an uncertain manner last year. She's finally using her language skills to express herself. She's much like her mommy years earlier. Annabelle's Granddaddy would ask her mommy when she was going to talk. She would sit silently, watching, listening, observing while Annabelle's Granddaddy, Grandmomma and her Uncle monopolized all conversations. Her Mommy finally let all those stored-up words go and we haven't been able to stop her since. I have no doubts Annabelle has followed her footsteps. Now she's really expressing those emotions, saying her thoughts and exerting her independence. Watch out, Mommy and Daddy, you're about to enter a world you have never dreamed of before. But it's a good world and you'll enjoy every second. You'll be so amazed at each new little phase she goes through. Enjoy it.

A lot of my blogs in the past have covered the little things she's accomplished except for the times I've been too lazy so I won't go back and cover too much of the past. Today, however, was a wonderful day of watching our little one as she moves forward.

I know her mommy will cover this in a future blog, so I won't go into too much detail about her cake she shared with us today. I will just tell you it was a chocolate chip cookie cake with a horse on it. Mom can tell the rest.

We all met at the local small, but very active airport, for her birthday party. Daddy had already gone earlier and set up the tables under the pavillion. Mommy and Annabelle met him there earlier. Granddaddy and I had met my sister and brother-in-law so they could follow us to the party. We'd been there at least once or twice before so we were not exactly sure how to get there, but we made it without any false turns. Mommy called just as we were getting out of the car. She had parked in another lot, which was closer, but we did get there without any problems. They still were later than we were getting over to the picnic pavillion!

The first words I heard Annabelle say were, "Pay, Mommy. I wanna pay!) And she did. She loved playing on that playground with her cousins and friends for quite a while until it was time for opening her presents and eating her cookie cake. (I hope I got enough pictures!) She didn't get a single present that wasn't a very favorite with her. She got a piano (I think I heard her daddy say he was glad he wasn't going to be in town next week), a baby doll, a tube of Little People, which she loves her Little People, some books, another dolly, a pink pig flashlight(for those camping out trips she loves with Mommy and Daddy) with a cute pair of pants with candy corn on them and a top, a dolly stroller, and something else I'm not sure of because I didn't see it close up, and I'm sure I've left something out, but she loved every single thing she got!

It was back to the playground for the little ones while we visited. Then it was time to end the party and to go find something to eat. Granddaddy, Uncle Ken, Aunt Kate, Carter, Charlie, James, Mommy, Daddy and I headed over to the local Methodist Church which was having their annual bar-b-que. It's been a tradition for us to eat there most years when we remember it, though since Granddaddy has retired it's easier to forget unless Mommy and Daddy remind us or we see signs advertising it when we're down that way. Granddaddy used to get annual tickets every year from a couple of his patrons, but once he retired that stopped. Now tickets are $8.00 each this year. Up from last year and the year before. But they still have quite a bit of business. It was delicious and surprisingly, thanks to Aunt Kate and the boys, we were all able to sit together even with such a crowd. That was truly a miracle.

We now have something to help us remember when the bar-b-ques are because they are usually held on Annabelle's birthday week end. Now that's a tradition.

After eating and fellowship the kids all played on the church playground. Annabelle and James played on the younger aged one because the bigger one was over-crowded. As soon as she hit the playground she lined up all the riding toys in a semi-circle and followed another kid around waiting until he jumped off the one he was riding. He didn't, so she didn't recover that vehicle. She's such a good little organizer. That will come in handy someday...maybe.

It was good to finally be able to spend some more time with our son and his family. We've known their plans to return to the area since they left two years ago for the great cold northern state. It was a time to gain experience he could never get without making the move. It was great business experience for him, the kids, and for Kate. They all enjoyed their time there, but it is also good to know he's home again. There are few things that trouble a mother, or mother-in-law for that matter than worrying about a child who is away from home, on airplane flights, etc. especially in this day and age of so much terror. We try not to think about those things. For now, it's one down. One to go.

Anyway, Happy Birthday little Angel. In this world with all its' instability you have made our world more stable and much happier beginning at the first moment we knew you were on the way. Even before your birth, when your Uncle called and broke the news to us they would be leaving and (how dare they?) take your cousins with them, you were planned to help us survive the rough times. Looking forward to you coming made it a little easier to accept their move. We've had a good time and enjoy every minute of your life with us.

We love you.
Grandmomma and Granddaddy

Let the celebrations begin

Two-year old love long birthday celebrations, so tonight we begin them. I'm sure that Mom, Dad and Annabelle have been celebrating for most of the week, or at least preparing for it, but we had the close family celebration tonight with Annabelle, Mommy, Daddy Nonnie, Granddaddy and me.

Mommy and Annabelle began the celebration by baking a delicious and beautiful cake. I thought Mommy was going to make a small one for Annabelle like she did last year, but she decided to make one big one all pretty and decorated for the family gathering. It had a cute little teddy bear, a dolly and a choo choo train, all representing some of her favorite things during the year.

Mommy had told me the night before that she had let her help frost the cake and apparently she loved the icing. She pre-warned me there might be a few cake licks underneath the frosting. Maybe I could have a lapse of memory between then and the time we eat the cake.

So, we loaded up the goodies for Annabelle, the all important camera and whatever else I had been asked to bring then we stopped by Costco to pick up the picture Mommy had phoned in earlier (When I went in to pick the order up they told me a large order was being processed and it would be probably 30-40 minutes before it would be ready. Mommy checked to see the due time and it was consistent so I opted to wait. Then Mommy called about twenty minutes later and said e-mail told her the order was processed, so I didn't have to wait so long after all.) Mommy had re-worked Annabelle's birthday invitations into a 12 X 12 scrapbooking page and changed the sentiment on it to reflect her thoughts about Annabelle's second birthday. Don't ask how much time or how much money that one page would be worth because based on her Mommy's hourly wage and the time she spent, Little Annabelle has a masterpiece worth more than a lot of famous painting. Her mother is such a perfectionist and nothing pleases her. And she wonders where her daughter gets it. Look in the mirror, Mommy.

On the road again...Then on a rainy night we finally headed down to see Annabelle. There were several accidents along the way and the radio said it would take a long time before the police could get out to investigate any accidents. That was some incentive to be more careful!) Maybe that's why we were delayed by the pictures. You can never underestimate the words of God. There had to be a reason other than just to irritate a grandmomma who was ready to see her sweet girl.

When we arrived Little Princess was still asleep from her afternoon nap. Very unusual because it was after 6:00. She never sleeps that late in the afternoon. But then again, dinner wasn't ready either. I guess she sensed it and decided to catch some extra snoozes.

Finally she awoke and Nonnie went in to get her up and dress her for the party. There sat a sweet little angel like you seldom see sitting quietly while Nonnie to ok her to potty, changed her clothes and Mommy prepared for battle while combing her hair. Oops, where did our usual fighting child go. Mommy combed her hair without a single whimper,a rare to never occurance, Nonnie and Daddy buttoned every button on that long dress and there must have been 80 buttons, while she sat quietly. I can't tell you the number of times I've had to chase a flying child around the house just to fast a shirt with two buttons on it, or comb that hair. But she was transformed.
Really transformed.

When dinner was ready Mommy tried to get her to sit in her booster seat. Nope, that wasn't happening even though she could barely see over the table top. She insisted on sitting "right cheer" in her chosen seat at the end of the table.

We enjoyed our meal of what Mommy has now dubbed as our traditional family meal of Lasagna, salad, rolls to be followed by special girl's birthday cake. Daddy told Mommy that lasagna recipe was a keeper, not to let it get lost. Nonnie claimed it was her secret recipe and not Mommy's. Grandmomma assured everybody it was indeed her very special recipe she falls back on when she needs a good easy dinner. She's been using it the longest and the mostest. Stouffer's will be cutting checks to each of us shortly for letting them use our secret recipes in their frozen boxes! I'm expecting the biggest check. I need it now, so I can invest it and lose some more money! I haven't contributed enough to the economy lately.

While waiting for our dinner to digest and before moving on to the cake, Annabelle opened her presents. She did enjoy digging around in the big bags pulling out her goodies and she seemed to love everything she got. She got a travel bag of several puzzles, which she didn't have a problem putting together, a Fisher-Price toy, I think it was a Pet Shop, some books, a set for making cupcakes, ice cream, etc., a Fisher-Price camping set (she likes camping), a couple of Cherished Teddies collectibles and her yearly birthday Precious Moments collectible, and probably other stuff I've forgotten. The kid could start a toy store with all of the stash, but that's a different story.

After the toys were unwrapped and removed from their packages we were ready to tackle the cake. This time she chose to sit in her high chair. She very seldom uses it anymore, but for some reason this was the spot she chose this time. Maybe she remembers last year and that's where she celebrated with her cake? She is pretty smart and has a great memory, so I wouldn't put it past her to remember that.

Mommy brought on the cake, lit the candles and put it in front of her. She loved that cake. She dibbled and dabbled and blew spit all over the cake while she tried time and again to blow those candles out, over and over. She put her mark on all sides of the cake by dipping her little finger into the pretty pink border around the tip and sharing with first Mommy, then Daddy, then Nonnie and lastly Granddaddy. She did finally offer me so, but she knows I'm a bit picky about eating and drinking after anyone, even sweet little baby girls.

Mommy graciously offered to cut my slice from the other side of the cake, but how was I to know that wasn't the side she had licked the night before? So, I gave me and told her I would eat a piece off the same side the others ate from.

Now, if I get deathly ill or die from some germs contracted from that birthday cake...well, you know what I'm saying.

It was a delightful evening with a very delightful young lady. Thanks for letting us be a part of your pre-birthday celebration.