Saturday, July 27, 2013

Busy Yesterday

I had a day off of work yesterday and it was a busy day!

I started the day off at 6:30am for a quick 3 mile run.

Then I had to wake everyone up to go to the dentist for the girls.

Annika was good again.  She cried a tiny bit during her cleaning but I think it was because she had a hard time understanding the woman cleaning her teeth.  She had a bit of an accent and Annika kept looking at me and asking "what did she say??"


We didn't get a picture of Annabel because it took both of us to hold her down.  She was not happy to have someone looking at her teeth, at all.

Both girls have an overbite, more than normal.  Josh asked how they got it and the dentist laughed and said it was hereditary usually, me.  Oops, poor girls might need braces like I had!

After that we drove to downtown Sarasota for lunch.  We used to go to the restaurant we went to every week, before having the girls.  This was Annabel's second time there and maybe the fourth time for Annika.



After eating some pizza we walked around a bit because we were still too early to go to Annabel's check up at the doctor.  Annika and I went into a little kitchen store and bought some new cookie cutters for when we make graham crackers, a dinosaur, a cat and the letter A.

Annabel had her 18 month check up, a little late since she's 19 months now.  She's 24 pounds and 33 1/2 inches tall, which puts her in the 25th percentile for weight and 85th percentile for height.

Annabel has failed the standard for speech for 18 months old.  We now have a list we're keeping in our kitchen where we have to write down every single word she clearly says until the end of November.  As long as she reaches 50 words she's fine, if she doesn't reach it she'll go for testing.  The doctor talked to  her some and he feels that she does have a hearing problem since she responds with a muffled voice that sounds slightly like what we're saying.  We've noticed it too and actually two people from my work noticed it too.  So she has till November until we start testing to see what's going on.  Other than that she was perfect, she screamed a bit during her exam but everything else looked good!

After that we went to our old neighbor's house.  We miss them so much!  They recently got kittens so the girls went crazy playing with the kitties!  Annika was good with them but the two times they tried to get Annabel to hold one of the kitties she put her arm around the poor kitty's neck and almost choked it!

Then we finally got to pick up our car from the body shop.  I dropped it off on Monday and it had been a long 5 days in a tiny rental car!

We left home yesterday at 9:30am and this was at 6pm right as we were on our street.


Annika was worn out!!  Annabel stayed awake because I didn't have a towel to balance out her car seat after we picked up our car.  I can't get her rear facing properly unless I have a towel so she got to sit forward facing for the ride and loved it.  I did turn her back around today though, I'd like to keep her rear facing until she's at least 2 years old.

Now today Annika and I are relaxing while Annabel is napping!  No plans at all today after our busy day yesterday!




Friday, July 26, 2013

Pinterest Obsessed

Is anyone else crazy Pinterest Obsessed??

Food, that is the biggest one for me right now.  I've had to expand on my "foods to try board" to include a "breakfast" board, a "desserts" board, a "vegan" board, a "snacks" board and a "foods for Josh" board (that's where I pin crap I think he'll like but that I have no interest in).

My current favorite food board, breakfast!

Here are some I want to try to make soon:

http://thesweet-toothlife.blogspot.com/2013/03/lemon-blueberry-cottage-cheese-muffins.html

http://www.cookingclassy.com/2012/12/45-minute-cinnamon-rolls-from-scratch/

http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/baked-french-toast-muffins/

http://minimalistbaker.com/chocolate-chip-oatmeal-cookie-pancakes/

Also some snacks I'd like to make for the girls some weekend soon:

http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2012/10/01/healthy-pop-tarts/ (by the way we love this blog and her desserts!  So many yummy vegan desserts on there, so you can eat the cookie dough without worrying about eating raw eggs!)

http://www.vegangela.com/2011/11/15/puffed-quinoa-peanut-butter-balls/

http://www.ifood.tv/recipe/italian-herb-baked-spinach-chips-recipe-healthy-snack-idea?crlt.pid=camp.zBqqogSQl595

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Well Behaved Girls

Sunday I went to church with the girls.  Josh had already planned to play golf a few weeks back and I wanted to continue going so I went alone with the girls.

Something was up with Annabel this last weekend.  Maybe teething or just typical separation anxiety that we never had with Annika.  I was afraid of leaving her in the church nursery but she ran off to play with toys right away.

No one paged me but I guess Annabel insisted on being held the entire time.  Every time someone tried to put her down she'd reach for them to hold her.  She's been doing this at home too lately so trying to get anything done is impossible.  Just see yesterday's picture, she's always at the kitchen counter now trying to "help".

Anyway, when I picked up the girls they told me about Annabel but said that the girls were the most well behaved and polite girls they had ever had in the nursery.  It's always good to hear that and I assume they're talking about Annika with the politeness since Annabel doesn't talk.  I'm always glad to hear that Annika is being polite with strangers because sometimes at home she can be a little rude!  Or like Monday after dance class when she refused to say bye to her friends because she hates saying good-bye to people (just like her momma!).

So glad that we have good girls, I hope we're able to keep it that way for a long while.


Tuesday, July 23, 2013

The Country

We've moved to the country.  Well, sort of.  When you tell people the city we live in they always say "all the way out there???"  It's not THAT far from things.  I can get to Wal-Mart in 20 minutes and Target in 25.  We also have an outlet mall 5 minutes away!  See, not that far away.

But if you drive in the other direction from things you end up in the country.




Josh's friend from work lives only 5 minutes from us on a horse farm.  There are over 20 horses on his property.

Josh's friend's step-daughter asked if Annika wanted to ride.  They have a therapy horse that they use for disabled children to ride on.  She promised that the horse wa very gentile and Josh agreed to let her ride.  Annika has actually been on a horse before when she was 18 months old at my aunt's house in Arizona but she doesn't remember that at all.


They didn't get a chance to put a saddle on so she rode without one.  Had I known she was going to ride I would have put long pants on her and sneakers.  Poor girl had horse hair all over her legs!


She was having a ball.  She told me she had to hold on very tight to the hair.



Annabel checked out the horses too.  We were going to see if she wanted to ride but she wouldn't let us go to get on the horse.  She was a bit clingy this last weekend for some reason.


Annika LOVES horses.


Annabel, not so much.  I tried!



Monday, July 22, 2013

Painting Time

I'm trying to get the girls to do more arts and crafts, stuff they would be doing if they actually went to daycare or school.

Painting is so messy but they both have fun doing it.  After a swim at the pool I brought them home and let them paint.  They can get all the washable water paints on their bathing suits because it'll rinse right off!

The girls with Bo, he always photo bombs pictures.



Little Annabel, it was her first time painting and she loved it.


Annika was hard at work.


Annabel decided to do some face painting.


Annika decided to be her usual goofball self!




Sunday, July 21, 2013

Making Friends

While living in our old townhouse we managed to make friends with only a few people.  Josh made friends with two older guys that he still plays golf with sometimes and our best friend that lived next door and her two kids.

Lucky for us our best friend has next week off from work and I just so happen to have 3 days off (just for fun, I had too many vacation hours saved up and needed to use them).  She's coming over with her two kids (13 year old boy, 14 year old girl, we love them like they're our kids!) to hang out all day and swim at our pool.  And we'll probably shop.  We always shop!

So far since we've moved out here we've been invited to dinner at 2 different family's homes.  Exciting!  We went to dinner two weeks ago at a couple's house that have a 2 1/2 year old little boy. The girls had a great time there.

Next weekend we have plans to have dinner with Annika's friend's parents.  Their daughter is only 4 months younger than Annika and they have a 2 year old son.  Annika loves their daughter.  She's super shy and I worry that Annika bullies her but I've stepped back because I know that their daughter needs to learn to say no to Annika on her own.  Still, before we go over there I plan on having a little chat with Annika about being nice, sharing and not being bossy the entire time we're there.

Now I guess I'll have to learn how to cook for a larger group of people than just us so we can invite people over for dinner too!  Eekkk!!!  At least I am offering to bring over desserts since I'm much better at baking than cooking!

I'm hoping to meet some of the families at the church we're going to.  Josh isn't able to go with me this morning so I'm taking the girls alone.  He was asked to play golf with his boss and didn't want to pass it up.  I think we'll probably go a few more times and as long as we really enjoy it still we'll join.  They have so many activities for kids and I look forward to signing Annika up for Wednesday nights. We need her to be in some more structured activities so she'll be ready for preschool next year.

We've never had many friends but I do look forward to making some new ones and making some friends with kids the same ages as the girls is going to be even better!  They'll all grow up together in our neighborhood!

Saturday, July 20, 2013

My Sweet Shy Girl

Next Friday we have Annabel's 18 month check up (even though she turns 19 months on Monday).  Our doctor told us she needs to be speaking 3 clear words, not just words we can understand but words easily understandable by anyone.

We have a dada and FINALLY on Monday she called me momma (I almost cried, I've been waiting 18 months for it!!).

But words??  Nope.  We have lots of "ugh ugh ugh" and "dat dat dat".

Comparing Annika to Annabel is like comparing apples to oranges though.  So while the doctor can say that Annika said 3 words by 10 months we can't say that Annabel not saying 3 words by 19 months isn't normal for her.

Annika was in daycare from 11 weeks until 13 months old.

Annabel has never been to daycare or played with children her own age.

Annika had our undivided attention for the first 25 months of her life.

Annabel has gone out with me alone twice and rarely gets total one on one time with us.

Annika liked to read books and sat still for us to read them to her.

Annabel is a worm and refuses to stay still making reading almost impossible.

Annika has always been very outgoing.  The child could have a conversation with anyone.

Annabel used to cry if strangers approached her or talked to her.  She is getting a little better with this lately though.

In our opinon Annabel is fine.  We're going to ask our doctor that instead of coming back in at 2 years old (which is her next check up she's due for) if we can re-evaluate her speech in 3 months and if she's still not talking we'll do further testing.  He wants her to have a hearing test but the child can hear.  She can follow directions, complex directions even.

But for now we're just going to say she's our sweet shy girl.





Friday, July 19, 2013

Slipping and Sliding

We bought the girls a slip and slide!  It's our first summer with a back yard!






As you can see most of the time was spent in the little pool at the end of the slide.





Thursday, July 18, 2013

Hurry Up

The other day someone on Facebook posted a life changing article.  Let me just say I never "share" posts on Facebook or even read them but this one caught my eye.

The Day I Stopped Saying 'Hurry Up'

Wow.

If you haven't read it yet do it.  I cried.

I am a total Type A.  I have to be in control.  I am always in a hurry.  I am a perfectionist.  I hate being late or being slow or wasting time.

I cannot even begin to tell you how many times a day I tell the girls to hurry up or that we don't have time to do something.

I do not want to be a bully.

There have been times where I get so upset over the girls messing around and taking to long to do something that I yell at them and just last week Annika said to "don't scream at me momma, it's not nice".

So not only was that something that stopped me in my tracks reading this article the next day has really set me up for some changes.

I will not rush the girls.  Instead we will take our time together, because it's time together and eventually these girls are going to grow up and will move away and I'll be sad for all those times I rushed them instead of sitting back and enjoying every single second with them.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Last Weekend

Quick catch up post with what we did last weekend!

Josh played golf Saturday morning so the girls and I went to a community yard sale.  It is not easy at all to navigate yard sales with two children that have to be in car seats.  We only got out for 3 sales (luckily two were next door to each other) and as I drove by I looked for either lots of pink stuff or a little girl in the driveway, assuming that then they'd have little girl stuff to buy.  I got a pair of hot pink mary jane shoes for Annabel for 50 cents and a little wooden step stool for Annika for $1.  She tells me that she is going to clean it up and paint it pink.

Then we did our weekly outing to TJ Maxx.  We just had one open the weekend after we moved here and we check it out a lot.  We bought a bag of chips (the girls both like to try the unique chips and snacks they have there) and Annika got a new dress for $7!  I've been eyeing that dress for a few weeks now and kept waiting for them to mark it down.  I tried that with a dress I wanted but it sold out instead of ever going on clearance, now I've learned my lesson!

When Josh got home I was feeling lazy and we're extremely limited with places to eat around here.  I am not a fan of Applebees at all but we went out anyway.  I don't think we had been to one together in at least 4-5 years.  Actually the last time I went to one would have been with my parents and Annika when she was a baby and I was still on meteorite leave!

I did have some pretty cute dates for dinner though.


Sunday morning we woke up early and went to church for the first time ever as a family of 4!  Annika has been to a church service twice, once in Sarasota when we lived there and once to Josh's old church in Ocala when we were visiting the area.  Josh grew up in a Church of Christ and I grew up Southern Baptist.  I picked a baptist church not far from us that had a website showing they do a lot of children's activities which is what I'm really interested in.  We loved the church.  People were nice, not pushy at all and they showed us the nursery when we got there.  No one tried to force us to use the nursery for the girls but it was hard to pass up when we saw how much fun the girls were having with the toys and the two nice ladies in there.  Plus they had pagers!  If there were any issues they would page us, we had no issues at all though.  I was surprised because it was the first time we've ever left Annabel with strangers.  I'm sure it helped that she had Annika with her though.  Josh got up to check on them once and was a little sad that Annabel didn't even seem to care that he came to see her!

Josh and I enjoyed the service and we're going back next week.  We want to go a few more weeks before we decide to join or not.  Just that one service seems to have pulled me from a long funk I've been in (hence the blog absence and sudden come back this week!).  I felt like I was making my parents proud by going back to church.  My dad always used to tell Josh that the reason he felt like I never caused trouble growing up was because every single Sunday we went to church.

After church we were supposed to have big water party down at our neighborhood's clubhouse but it rained.  SURPRISE!!  It's rained at least 30 days in a row here, maybe even more.  So instead of the party we cleaned out our garage and can now comfortably get our car into the garage with plenty of space to walk around it!  We'll never get two cars in our two car garage though because of our lawn equipment but at least it looks good now.



Monday, July 15, 2013

Museum Time

Two weekends ago we went to a museum in the city just south of us.  It's actually the city I grew up in so I went on many field trips to this museum.


The girls both liked seeing all the displays around the museum, most of which are about Florida history.






She was trying to imitate the alligator.



There is also the oldest manatee in captivity there.  When I was younger there was just the one manatee there and he was in a little above ground tank thing.  Now he's in an actual aquarium with two other rescued manatees.  During the feedings they throw food into the tank for the rescued manatees to eat but the 65 year old (his b-day is this weekend) manatee has to be hand fed.  Back when I was little we all got to hand him lettuce, they don't do that anymore but we did get to watch him eat.




Annika on the steps leading out of the manatee feeding area.


The girls with Josh.  This was a replica of the type of houses the Spanish built in Florida when they first arrived here.  There was this fountain in the courtyard.  When I was in high school one of the clubs I was in had their awards ceremony around this fountain.



Annabel was such a good girl.  I know a lot of the stuff wasn't too interesting for her, although, she yelled and pointed the entire time we watched the manatee eat.


She's such a little cutie!


We had a great time and now we're going to try to do all the museums and aquariums in our area over the next few months.