Mr. Brown

Annie recently received a new Dr. Seuss book from her grandma. She quite enjoys it.

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

I feel that in Annie's current stage of life I either think she is the cutest thing on the planet or a terror. Tonight I thought she was the cutest thing on the planet. She spent most of dinner singing Happy Birthday to all of us, telling us about how yummy the pizza was, or just smiling a HUGE smile at us.

I adore the moments that she's playful! She's getting so fun! She loves to talk in full sentences. Here are a couple of quick examples. The other day we dropped Brad off at school, and on our way home, at about 8:00 am, from the back of the car she all of the sudden said, "Mommy, I need chocolate!" I couldn't agree more. I always need chocolate in the morning. And then yesterday before church she put on one of my hats, slung my purse over her shoulder and pranced by us saying, "Bye Mommy. Bye Daddy. I go store." I love it! She was so proper about the whole thing.

Last night, however, she was a terror. We've recently switched to the 1:00 block for church, and it's a disaster. She normally sleeps every day from almost precisely 1:00 until 3:00. On the way home from church (at 4:00) she cried and cried. We put her to bed promptly, but had to wake her up before she was ready so that she'd sleep later. She refused to eat almost everything we offered at dinner. She'd beg for something and then when we'd do it for her/give it to her, she would reject it (often by throwing it) and ask for the opposite. We finally had her in a happy place by about 7:30 - just 30 minutes before bedtime.

Happy MLK day!

A very happy MLK, Jr. day to everyone out there! Brad and I both have relatives that refuse to celebrate this holiday (for various reasons, don't fret, they are not members of the KKK), but we both love it! I love to think about how far America has come in the pursuit of civil rights for everyone. I know we're not perfect by a long shot, but it's GREAT to live in a country where we are making progress!

We had a fantastic day! Brad had the day off school, but not studying. He got up super early, so that he'd be done in the early afternoon and he made several cameos throughout the morning. Annie and I started off the day by making Stephen's Best Darn Waffles (Brad's dad's special recipe). And darn, they were good! We then headed over to the library for Bubblemania (thanks to Katie for the great suggestion). The library brought in this crazy Syracuse professor that does all sorts of tricks with bubbles to entertain a roomful of kids. The man was amazing with bubbles-I kid you not, we saw a cube-shaped bubble. Annie liked it for a little while and then wanted to leave to play in the discovery room there.

After Annie's nap, we took Annie on her very first sledding excursion. She loved it, especially that she got to go fast with Daddy (who is her current favorite person in the world).

She also particularly enjoyed getting chased down the hill by a dog. Brad swears the dog jumped on the sled with them for a minute. It was pretty funny to watch.

For my birthday in September, my friend Ashley gave me a subscription to America's Test Kitchen's magazine. We decided to try an onion-mustard pork recipe out tonight. After we finished Brad exclaimed, "That has got to be one of the best pork dishes I've ever eaten!" Thanks Ash!

To finish off the evening, we had possibly our most successful family night ever. Annie learned to identify the prophet, sing "Follow the Prophet" (we're pretty sure nursery helped her with that, so thanks), and use the up key on the computer. We even read a verse of scripture to top it all off. Annie also gave us a performance of "The ABC Song" for our activity.

Such a great day . . . If only Brad got to be home every day!

Chillaxin'

The other morning I needed to mop, so I let Annie watch Lion King (her current fav). She'd been asking me to help her get her glasses on all morning and I'd done so several times. Right before I started mopping I looked over to find that she'd settled herself right in on the couch for a good movie.

"No, Annie do it."

This is the most common phrase in our house right now. When I step back and think about it, I'm grateful that my nearly-two year old wants to be independent. That should help immensely when James arrives. However, most of the time I feel somewhat impatient with Annie wanting to put on her own socks and shoes, zip her own jacket, and do her own hair.

The picture attached (or that will be shortly attached) is not our best picture ever, but she wanted to be the one taking the picture, not the one in the picture. Incidentally, the only way I got her to hold still for it was by bribing her with chocolate.

P.S. When we were in Utah we went to the temple one morning and my sister-in-law, Brooke, watched Annie. When we got home Brooke told me, "MaryAnne, she's just like you. She wandered around the house saying, 'Cookie? Chocolate?'" Dang - that is just like me . . . sad that my in-laws have noticed my sweet tooth.

Romantic Getaway v. Family Vacation

A few months ago Brad's parents listened to some spiel (sp?) about Doubletree hotels and earned a free night's stay. However, it turns out there are no Doubletrees in Utah, so over the break they asked us if we'd like to have a night away when when we got back to Rochester. Of course we were game - a romantic getaway sounded great to both of us.

I kept thinking I'd think of the perfect person to ask to baby-sit for us, but it turns out most of our friends here live in two bedroom apartments, just like we do, and have no room for a second or third child, so I would have felt bad putting someone out like that. Also, Annie didn't have the best sleeping record for the last month, so I was hesitant to ask any of our friends to deal with an uncooperative child. Thus, I had to make the mental switch of thinking of this as a romantic getaway to a family vacation.

The family vacation turned out to be SO much fun! The hotel had a pool, which Annie LOVED. She was so, so cute! I feel so bad I didn't bring my camera. She couldn't stop saying, "I swimming. I swimming." Brad was so good with her. He helped her kick her legs and "pull water" with her arms. She did pretty well blowing bubbles as well. She wasn't the greatest sleeper because she was in the same room as us, but once we all got settled, she did fine.

The morning was fantastic and relaxed. We exercised in the workout room. The treadmill was so nice - it made me feel like I could run forever. I'm trying to be safe, so I only ran 3 miles, but it felt so good. We went for another dip in the pool as well. Annie was at least as excited about swimming in the morning as she had been the night before. And we topped off the morning with these fantastic bagels from a Jewish bagel place. I never knew that bagels were a Jewish specialty, but one of Brad's teachers (who is Jewish) only ever buys bagels from Jews because he swears they know how to make them better. In any case, if you're ever in Rochester, Brownstein's is the place to get your bagels. They were delicious!

All in all, I'm really glad things worked out like they did. Yay for family vacations!