A girly nature lovers day!

A two mile hike, lunch outside, and a shopping trip - made for a great day this week :)

Yes, Annie hiked all this on her own.

As I took this picture I though...oh yeah, guaranteed successful nap today! (wrong, I got a whole 20 minutes in the car, if that).

Annie pointing out the tree bark, saying tree, and signing tree...

Hiked all two miles on her own two feet - I brought a baby carrier thinking I'd let her get started, and carry her the rest of the way, but she hiked 99% of it herself (with LOTS of stairs included).

Our trip to Ulta for some make up went like this:  "Annie, put that down, no don't touch that, no don't touch that either, no that doesn't go in your mouth...oh dear, what have you done?"  She obviously tried on some lipstick (multiple times, and that was with me constantly hovering and stopping her...)  She told me "mommy, ipstick!  sooo pretty!"  Hard to be mad ;)

25 Months

The past few weeks have been full of fun - a trip to the county fair, a day at the zoo, some bridesmaid dress shopping and a few other day trips.  One of Annie's birthday presents from us was to see Signing Time live in Peoria this past weekend, so she had a chance to be up close and personal with Rachel Coleman and Hopkins.  She was pretty excited to see "Rachel and Hopkins" and especially excited to see all the "kids" that packed the auditorium with her.  We purchased a new signing time book at the show, and I was so proud of her at dinner afterward, she got out her new book, and flipped through it, reading, signing and saying each word like a champ.  Tables around us were gawking and asking "how old is she, she can read?!"  Of course ;)

Annie's also added a few new words and phrases to her repertoire.  One I just discovered is "holdjya"...I must obviously say "do you want me to hold ya?" pretty often, because she's sped that up and turned it into "holdjya" and uses it as a verb.  She'll stop walking and stand there with her arms out and say "Mommy holdjya".  She also will grab my face with her hands and say "look at me mom"...usually followed by a hug or a smooch -- pretty sweet.  She's still good at passing out back scratches and mini massages - but she likes to request them in return as well.  She knows what she wants, I'll scratch her back for her, and she'll say, "Mom, two hands...ok, now two hands massage".   Aaaand, she sings now.  She's taken a real liking to the musical "Annie" and will actually sit in awe for nearly two hours watching it - and usually spends the next few days asking us to sing "Annie songs".  Of course she also sings her favorite signing time songs on her own - I'll catch her mumbling to herself and realize, she's singing entire verses of songs!

At the county fair.

No dairy...but cow kisses are ok!

Annie's first carnival ride - we had to make a few extra trips down the big slide.

Who needs a suit?  We passed the spray park at the zoo, unprepared...Annie looked at me, pointed to the kids playing in the water and said "ooks awesome!" (looks awesome).  I said, Annie, we didn't bring a swimmie or a towel.  She looked back at the pile of kids playing in their clothes and gave me a little shrug -- so in we went :)

Off to the post office!  Annie helping Mommy keep up with all of the new family packets for the Galactosemia Foundation Outreach Team.

Waiting for  Signing Time show to start.

Annie waving to Rachel and Hopkins from her seat in the balcony.

A little star struck!  Annie was all smiles and a real chatty cathy while we were in line to get her picture with Rachel...once we got up there, she was speechless ;)

Relaxing in Grandpa's chair after a big day.



Just a little light reading before bed ;)



Summer

So much is happening lately, it seems hard to keep up!  I'm definitely missing some events on the ol' blog these days -- but here are a few photos from this week:

Some Grammy-time before Aunt Shannon's bridal shower.

Buying Sand for the new sandbox.

Farmer Annie's new tractor - helping to build the new sandbox.

Farmer Annie and her shovel, helping Dad dig a sandbox hole.

Farmer Annie has gone to bed, Dad finished the sandbox :)

Annabelle's 2nd Birthday Today!

Wow, two years ago today...well, let's just say a lot has changed since then! (saving us all one of my 10 page novels ;)

Today has been such a fun day!  As soon as Annabelle woke up this morning, we measured her height on the wall upstairs.  She grew SO much, impossible to believe she was nearly half her size this time last year!  Then we had a breakfast of some "birthday eggs":

After that we packed up and headed to the Arboretum to enjoy the children's garden and playground there:

After a mini-nap in the car, we stopped for lunch.  The first EVER lunch that I have ever gone somewhere, empty handed and ordered food for Annie and myself.  You momma's that think nothing of sharing what you're eating or the easy night swinging through a drive-thru...you have NO IDEA...how cool this was.  It was like we were tourists in a restaurant.  I made double sure everything was safe, and then Annie and I shared a burger and fries at "Meat Heads" (still a fan by the way, super awesome about dietary issues, and super yummy fries...)  Anyway, keeping with the tourist theme...I was snapping pictures left and right of my two year old eating fries in a restaurant...simple pleasures for us...

We topped off our travels with a stop at Toys R Us...where Annie pretty much picked out the store.  But ended up leaving with a giant Whinnie the Pooh ball (and some Elmo Shampoo, Elmo underpants, and Elmo placemats...)

When we got home we found MORE presents, a box from Grandpa Fitz & Grammy Nancy, flowers from Grammy Fitz and a tricycle from Daddy! 

And oh, the cupcake!  Last year, we had to entice Annie to get into her cupcake...break off a piece, let her taste the frosting...this year, I made the mistake of letting her know I was even MAKING cupcakes.  It's all I heard about.  For dinner I said, will you please eat a little avocado and pizza?  "nope, all done, cupcake".  I said, Annie, if you have room for a cupcake, you can eat dinner.  I even went so far as to offer up a whole different meal to her.  "Annie, if you eat a little chicken and noodle, you can have your cupcake."  "nope, all done, all done....cupcake."  -- After our usual stand-off...a battle of stubborn wits, Annie ate a teeeeny weeeeeny nibble of a broccoli floret, and then she got her cake.

Happy 2nd birthday Anniebelle - we love you sooooo much!

Happy 4th of July!

 What a perfect summer weekend!  Warm and Sunny, with a lot of Annie-firsts to keep things exciting!

Eating just shucked corn while taking a break from the sprinker.

One of our many bike rides since getting the bike trailer.  We've biked to breakfast, the park, the bar, the next few towns...always having a great time!

Annie's first popsicle.

A visit with baby Ethan.

Annie naming plants downtown (coneflower and liatris here ;).

Patriotic pool time.

Annie's first watermellon.

Best shot of Dad & Chris with the two wiggle worms (Annie & Joey)

Coming up on the big 2...

I can't believe...this time last year, I was still making Annie baby food, and we were wondering if she would EVER walk, or if she would EVER talk....

At 23 months, Annie is off to a busy start this summer.  She LOVES going to the park and thinks nothing of climbing up nearly any stair or ladder and heading for the biggest slide she can find.  She usually narrates the entire visit with "Annie big slide!"  "Go go go!"  "Yay Annie!" "Annie swing" --  and an always social, "Hi Kids!" to anyone shorter than Mom & Dad.

Her vocabulary and speech picked up around 18 months, but lately it has just exploded!  Some of the things she's started saying to me regularly:

"Need hug"  "Pick up Annie"

"Scratch back"

(not her, no, she wants you to turn around, and she'll scratch YOUR back...pretty sweet deal.)

"No Milk" and "No Cheese" and "No Ice Cream"

(music to my ears...she really is paying attention!)

"Sorbet is good"

"Avie (cousin Ava) & Annie drink same"

(meaning they both drink formula vs. milk)

"Great Grammy sleeping there"

(with the loss of so many great grandma's this year, came many cemetery trips...now whenever Annie sees a cemetery, she tells me that's where Great Grammy is sleeping.)

"Peas, bike ride! Bike Ride!"

(we have a new bike trailer and have been going out almost every day on our bikes, Annie LOVES it)

"Peas, cook!, Peas see!" -

Annie loves cooking, and wants to be up on the counter to watch whatever is going on in the kitchen.

"Thank you Grammy, Thank you Bonnie" -

Annie remembers who gives her things.  If she's playing with a book that Aunt Bonnie gave her, she'll say "thank you bonnie" while she picks it up...or if she sees a picture of herself eating cake that Grandma made for her, she'll say "thank you Grammy"  Such manners! (and memory!)

"Peas, roses"

(means she wants to play ring-around-the-rosey)

"Read a boogame"

(read a book to me)

"peas, Signingtimdotcom"

(she says it really fast, but that's "Signing Time dot com" ;) She's wants to watch Signing Time)  (Can we get a little commercial credit please?)

*peas = please

She's also started singing little bits and pieces from songs she knows and has been doing a lot of dancing :)  We actually have conversations now, and she's no longer just pointing out things she recognizes, but telling me what she wants to do, or how she feels.  It's incredible, incredibly fun! :)

Happy Father's Day

Annie & the greatest Daddy ever!
We love you!