These are a Few of Her Favorite Things

Annaliese is a very curious, independent little girl. She repeatedly likes to open the island cabinets and dig out the pots and pans.




When not in the kitchen opening up cabinets, she loves to open the door to the entertainment center. I used to pack stuff away in there, but she keeps getting taller and is able to reach it all.


She has also taken away control of the spoon from us. We still scoop the food on for her, but she does everything else. The first few times she'd flip the spoon over in her mouth, but now she's a pro at it.



This isn't one of her favorite things, but I've finally had time to do a bit sewing, which is one of my favorite things. Here's a peek at my latest project, which, like nearly every project I do, wasn't done by the deadline. When am I going to learn to start sooner?

Perfect Patient

From all accounts, Annaliese was a perfect patient today during her surgery to get tubes in her ears. We left home bright and early at 7. I'm usually just crawling out of bed at that time, but not today. After quickly dropping Ian off at preschool, we headed to Children's Hospital. Shortly after, we met Sue our nurse and changed Annaliese into her hospital sleeper (she was too small for their gowns).


They gave us the run down of how things would go that day, and then we headed to the play room to kill time. There were two other boys in there, both older than her, and they seemed to flock to us when we got in there. They followed Annaliese wherever she went. She spent her time between the drums and the keyboard, which makes the percussionist in me hopeful for the future.


Sue called us back to the room and administered Annaliese some dopamine to help ease the fear of separation. She said it could knock her out or make her giggly. Instead, it made her very chatty and lovey. She liked to pretend her pop bead was a phone, putting it up to her ear an saying, "Hello" followed by lots more babble we don't understand yet. As Dr. Edmunds came in to get her for surgery, Annaliese gave her a kiss. If this is any indication as to what may happen when she has alcohol in her system, then we'll really need to watch out with how easily she shares kisses.



About forty minutes later, she was back in our room. Dr. Edmunds said she was a very good baby. Never cried at all. Was giving lots of kisses to of all them back in surgery. Even the surgical nurse who came in later talked about what a sweetheart and snuggler she was. She also returned with a bear she got to keep.


The biggest thing we had to deal with after the surgery was her hunger. She hadn't eaten since supper the night before (16 hours ago) and so was very hungry. The little bit of diluted juice they gave her wasn't enough to tide her over, but they were fearful of nausea if they gave her too much. Eventually her crying won out and she got more to drink and animal crackers to eat.

The dot was to indicate Dr. Edmunds had come in and checked her out before the surgery. There was a bit of drainage from her ear; some fluid was blending in with the ear drum and they couldn't see it until they were in there.

We had to wait awhile to leave, as they had to continually get her blood pressure and heart rate before they'd discharge us. I really just wanted to get her home and snuggle with her.


When we got home, though, she wasn't in a snugly mood. You really wouldn't even had known she had surgery today the way she was playing and crawling around. She even stood for a bit without holding on to anything, which is a new occurrence (our theory is she was a bit behind in this skill because all the ear problems were throwing off her equilibrium). Before we had left the hospital, the nurses gave her a birthday balloon and she found a way to get tangled up in it.


And tonight, following a 4.5 hour nap, she was nothing but a happy girl all night long. She loved the toast, grapes, and ham balls she got for her birthday supper, and ended the night crawling around the living room getting into everything Ian was trying to keep away from her.


So all-in-all, not a great way to spend one's birthday, but hopefully it will make this following year even more enjoyable for her than her first year, or hopefully at least a lot healthier.

Happy FIRST Birthday Annaliese!

Baby girl turns one today. A year goes so fast; how in the world can she be that old!? I mean, I just brought her home yesterday, right?


And to be honest, I'm a bit sad by this milestone, she's my baby and want her to stay that. But she's such a big girl, too.

She's my big girl who cruises the furniture and pushes her stroller around the house.

She's my big girl who loves to eat toast, fruit, sweet potatoes, and yogurt.

She's my big girl who loves to play with her brother's toys, pushing the fire truck back and forth, playing with the football, and trying to put the helmets on the firemen.

She's my big girl who loves to play with the magnets on the fridge.

She's my big girl who scrunches up her nose when she's really happy.

She's my big girl whose curiosity leads her to get into everything- kitchen cabinets, clothes baskets, and quilt fabric.

She's my big girl who loves to climb the stairs, then turn around and smile at us to see if we're following her.



HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL (had to say it once more). You bring joy and laughter to our lives daily. Our family is so much more complete with you in it.

Doc Appointment

Annaliese had a doctor's appointment today, a combined one-year well baby with a pre-op appointment. Bright and early tomorrow, her first birthday, she gets tubes put into her ears (I know, wonderful birthday present). At her appointment today, she was once again congested. She also hadn't gained much weight since her last appointment and she's off her curve. Granted it's still the 53rd percentile, but she used to be in the 70s. The pediatrician is hoping that the tubes will make her feel better, and then hopefully she'll pick back up weight wise and stuff. Probably doesn't help that the antibiotics give her lots of diarrhea... Her height measurement was right along the curve at 29.5 inches (67%ile).

The birthday party yesterday must have worn them out because they both took three hour naps. They may have slept all night if we had left them. Ian had refused to take a nap, though he clearly needed one. So we just left him in his room under the guise he needed quiet time. Went in three hours later and found him not asleep in his bed, but in his reading nook:

Another Omaha Birthday Party

Only this time, it was for Annaliese. Baby girl turns ONE on Tuesday. How can it be already?! We're having her big birthday back in Iowa in a few weeks, but we had one today with our Omaha friends. Be prepared, this post if very heavy in pictures (since the last few posts have been about Ian, she deserves to have some pictures posted).

Today was really all about the cake. But really, isn't every first birthday about the cake? She was pretty excited to see it on the table, but when we scooted it closer to her, she turned to Darrin and was crying.


It may look like just a normal cake with white frosting, but oh, the inside is so neat! The cake and frosting together had 5.25 cups sugar, 2 pounds butter, 19 eggs, and 6 colors gel food coloring. All to make this:


The pieces were so big, so Ian and Annaliese shared one. She wasn't very big on it, though. We put the plate in front of her, and she just put her thumb in her mouth. I tried to entice her by putting some in her mouth, but she didn't care.


I tried to get her to touch it, but she started to fuss. All that was going through my head was that I had another Ian, who didn't eat his cake and hated having his hands messy until his cake last week.


So finally we pulled out a fork and fed it to her. She'd love the bites from the fork, but not enough to dig in on her own. She just wanted us to feed her. We weren't going to spend the whole time feeding her, there was cake for us to eat (and she really doesn't NEED the cake), so she just sat with her thumb in her mouth.


But much to my joy, while we were eating, she started to dig in!!


And she ate her piece all gone. I think she may have eaten more than Ian.


She is going to be the cutest dressed girl this spring in the outfits she got from Marlena & Noah, and Sara.



And we've got some new books to read at bedtime, and toys to play with before. One of the books she got was about a chameleon and Ian said, "Hey, that's a chameleon. They start off green but change colors." They must have learned about it at preschool, because we've never discussed them before. And my face in the picture, that's my bewilderment face looking towards Darrin, asking, "Where in the world did he learn this?"




We try to do pictures of the three kiddos a lot when we get together, but it's been awhile. It's definitely getting harder; all the kids are mobile now. We started them off on their bellies, but they'd crawl away (well, Ian stayed put the whole time). So on to their backs, but then the rolling would start. Here's the best shots we got.

He Calls Himself...

HERO-MAN!

And, he uses a Packer sword (okay, really it's a golf club...)

The Birthday Party was "Buzz"ing (edited)

Ian's 4th birthday party was Saturday and it was a blast. Our parents came for the weekend, and were joined by Marlena, Noah, Walter, Elise (their niece), Sara, Meeghan and Alexa. I think everyone had a great time.

Ian was a ladies' man during the lunch . We had pizza (take-and-bake from Hy-Vee), fruit salad, and lettuce salad.



That was followed by the presents. Ian would say, "Whooooaaaa!" for almost each present he opened, and the "Whoa!" increased in volume and length the farther into opening presents we got. Here are a few we got decent pictures of:





I wish we had a front shot of this one. It captured the "WHOA!" on his face.




Then it was on to the cake. I was so proud of myself for how this cake turned out. I got my inspiration from here. It was my first time making and working with fondant. I made marshmallow fondant. It was lots of fun to play with and create, but I was not a big fan of the taste. The bed was made in a loaf pan, with a dozen Buzz and Woody cupcakes to go with it. The head board was chocolate we melted and let cool. It was a group effort with my mom and mother-in-law frosting and decorating along the way. Ian dictated the placement of all the characters around the cake.


Ian did his shy face while we sang to him. And then he blew them out... or at least tried to.


After a few attempts like that, we switched positions.


And he tried again... but it didn't quite work.


He was finally able to get them out, but it took quite a few huffs and puffs. Which is surprising, if you knew how often he pretended to be the big, bad wolf blowing down the pigs' houses.



Cake was followed by playing with the toys. Buzz was first, after the 20 minute wait it took for Darrin to get it out of the box and twist-ties.


And while Ian was playing with Buzz, Alexa and Elise had fun playing with the characters from the cake and the fondant blocks.


We played Candy Land, but with the Toy Story characters instead.


There were many, many trips to the bathroom to run the Sheriff from the movie "Cars" under the water to watch him change colors.


He enjoyed playing with his K'nex tractor after it was built for him. It's since been taken apart and made into an airplane. I'm pretty sure the people that came with it are already driving his CAT excavator in the basement.

And the toy playing continued for the rest of the weekend. It's a three-day weekend for all of us thanks to President's Day. Right now he has his K'Nex, Toy Story coloring pages, and Toy Story magnets out on the dining room table. He's playing with the characters from the cake, along with Buzz and all the cars from "Cars" on the steps. The living room is covered with his gears set and fire station. And the basement, well, I think he has every possible toy covering the floor down there. Definitely going to be a night for picking up before bed. But the mess is worth it. He's having a blast and it's so fun to watch and listen to him pretend.

Post Edit: Just wanted to add that I ordered the characters for the cake online through Disney.com.