Pack N Play Escapee

Have you seen my daughter today because she may be missing from her pack-n-play?

This afternoon during naptime at Granny's house, Annabelle climbed out of her pack-n-play for the very first time.

Thank goodness I was standing right there next to her because some of Granny's Cherished Teddies may have become Broken Teddies if she had escaped without me knowing.

I'm afraid that Annabelle's crib days are limited! Just another bedtime battle to fight! Aaarrggh!

Puppy Chow

I started a new Thanksgiving tradition last year for Annabelle's second Thanksgiving, and we continued the tradition again this year. I've struggled with trying to be the "perfect" mommy, housewife, daughter, daughter-in-law and friend since Annabelle was born. Probably because I felt like I lost my identity after Annabelle was born since I was no longer the "pet" at work. And, yes, as childish as it sounds, I was once referred to as one of the partner's "pets" years ago before we even moved to Tennessee. It really hurt my feelings then until I realized just how childish those thirty something year olds were being.

So, as I said, I've struggled to be the "perfect" everything else since Annabelle was born. Have I mentioned that I have failed miserably? Have I also mentioned that I am slowly getting over it and coming to the realization that I am my own self? I am slowly starting to realize that maybe cooking and cleaning is not my forte, but just as Annabelle is better at some things than other toddlers and other toddlers are better at other things, I myself also have my own strengths and weaknesses.

Based on the above, I finally saw the light last year and decided that I wasn't going to compete any more to make the favorite dish for Granny's because frankly, I never did win! And if you know me, you know how much I really HATE to lose anything! So, last year, I used the KISS motto. Keep it short sweetie!

I took Puppy Chow to Granny's house for Thanksgiving last year which is a mixture of butter, chocolate chips, peanut butter, Crispix cereal and powdered sugar. And would you believe it was a hit!?!? Score!

So, once again, I decided to make another helping of Puppy Chow. And this year, Annabelle got to help! Here we are making a very large helping of Puppy Chow on Thanksgiving shortly before lunch.

This year, Annabelle loved the chocolate chips more than anything, and she wouldn't stop eating the chocolate chips after we had dumped them into the bowl. We finally had to take the bowl away from her because we were afraid that she was going to eat all of the chocolate chips.

Here she is with a pile of chocolate chips stored in her mouth like a chipmunk. Do you see what I mean about her eating all of the chocolate chips? She loves chocolate!

And here she is licking the peanut butter off of her hand because she attempted to steal another chocolate chip before the bowl was confiscated. Great picture, don't you think?!?! I'm not sure if I took it or if hubby took it.

And, then, she used her chocolate covered spoon that had been used to stir the melted chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter to clean off the powdered sugar I had spilled on the counter. It was hilarious to watch as she kept going back for more and more powdered sugar even though there wasn't much left on the counter.

Verdict: Once again, everyone loved the puppy chow! Score again for Mommy and Annabelle!

I think Annabelle actually liked the puppy chow more than anyone as she kept asking for "Puppy Tow" pronounced more like "towel" with the "el" missing. On our last day at Granny's, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, she grabbed the container with the remaining puppy chow bits and pieces and took it to Granny, who was in the back of the house, for her to get Annabelle yet another helping.

Another time on Saturday at Granny's, I caught her sitting on the floor with the puppy chow container in hand. I just wish I had grabbed the camera!

And I wondered why the child wouldn't nap at all on the Friday after Thanksgiving! Do you think she possibly had a little too much puppy chow?

Santa Claus' Whistle

Annabelle is still not real fond of the mall Santa Claus. She loves seeing pictures of Santa Claus in books, online and on television, but the thought of actually sitting in Santa Claus' lap has just recently in the last month brought on near meltdowns and tears.

So, for lunch today, Grandmama, Granddaddy, Annabelle and Mommy drove over to Northlake Mall for lunch. As soon as we walked into the mall, Annabelle said, "Ont go see San-ta Cause." I told her we could go and see Santa Claus as soon as we finished eating our lunch.

And we did go see Santa Claus. Of course, Annabelle kept her distance once again. I asked her yet again if she wanted to sit in Santa Claus' lap, and she said, "Nooo." So, this year I didn't (and haven't) forced the issue.

Santa Claus pulled out a toy whistle he had in his sleigh and offered it to Annabelle. She didn't hesitate long (if even at all). She snuck quickly over to Santa, grabbed that whistle, and then turned around and walked away. And, here is a picture of the prized Santa Claus whistle.



She reminded me quite a bit about how she quickly took the necklace from the Easter Bunny back in March. She wanted nothing to do with the Easter Bunny, but she sure wanted his necklace!

She did speak to Santa Claus from a distance though. I told Annabelle to tell Santa Claus what she wanted for Christmas, and she looked at Santa from behind the rope to enter (after she had gotten her prized whistle) and said, "Baby Attie." I told her that he couldn't hear her, so she'd try to yell out (more like whisper out) a little louder each time.

Translation: Baby Doll. Annabelle refers to all baby dolls as "Baby Atties" since she has one baby doll named Baby Adie after Miss Kelley's little girl, Adie.

I guess "Santa" will be buying Annabelle a baby doll for Christmas again this year. Like she doesn't already have enough!

She held on to her prized whistle all day. She even wanted to take it to nap with her, but I told her that it needed to stay outside of the crib. When asked who gave her that whistle, she would say, "San-ta Cause" with a "yes" nod of her head and a smile on her face.

Do you think that just maybe she'll always have the same love for Santa Claus as she does now?

Dank Apple Juice Furst

Annabelle and I were reading "The Gingerbread Man" together this morning. As I pointed out pictures and asked Annabelle, "What is this?," she said, "Dank Apple Juice Furst Mommy."

Translation: Drink Apple Juice First Mommy.

Then, she would proceed to take a very long sip of apple juice from her sipee cup. When she was finished drinking, she would answer my question instantly. "Scarecow." "Fox." Etc.

It cracked me up as it took her longer and more energy to say "Dank Apple Juice Furst Mommy" than it did to just name the object. This went on during the entire book, and I laughed every single time she did it.

She's obviously learning her way of controlling the situation, and she's pretty good at it!

Santa Pajamas

This afternoon, we met up with Uncle Matt, Aunt Meredith and Cousins Adam and Molly for a Christmas photo shoot at McDaniel Farm Park in Duluth, Georgia. We had planned to meet at 4:30 p.m., and naturally, Annabelle fell asleep for her afternoon nap at 3:00 p.m. after laying in the crib for an hour. So, I woke her up at 3:45 to get her dressed.

She was quite a grump, and she cried until we offered her animal crackers and Daddy brought her the new Scratch and Sniff books he bought for her from Target while gone to Minneapolis this past week. So, we thought she'd wake up by the time we got to the park. Boy were we wrong!

She wanted nothing to do with holding her cousins hands or even walking for that matter. "Hold you Mama! Hold you Mama!" was all I heard as I tried to snap pictures of Adam and Molly.

By the time we walked halfway around the trail only to realize that we couldn't access the front porch to the heritage house, Annabelle was literally shivering. It was 47 degree F! And, we had coats on absolutely no one as we were hoping to capture some great shots in their Christmas attire.

After dinner at our house (white chili and broccoli cheese cornbread muffins), we took one more shot at getting a great picture with the cousins together in Christmas pajamas. Once again, Annabelle did not crack a smile! Well, maybe one smile, but it didn't last long enough.

She was so quiet all evening, and she didn't open up to her jolly, talkative self until after Uncle Matt, Aunt Meredith, Adam and Molly had left for the evening.

After everyone had left, I decided to change Annabelle out of her Christmas pajamas. My theory is that "it isn't even Thanksgiving yet," as I told hubby. Annabelle obviously had other plans, but her Mommy won this time!

As I was attempting to change her, she pulled down on the pajama shirt, and said, "NO! San-ta Cause!" Apparently, her Daddy had told her earlier that she had on her "Santa Claus" pajamas, and she didn't want to take them off!

Of course, I'm not quite sure why since she is currently afraid of Santa Claus, and I don't suspect we are going to get a Santa Claus picture this year.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from this evening:

Pumpkin Mask or Paper Plate?

If you are not a Mommy, the following picture is probably just a paper plate with scribbles on the back. However, if you are a Mommy, you know that the first picture is truly a beautiful piece of artwork, and your heart would ache at the even simple thought of disposing of the "artwork" because it has your child's mark. Your child's mark which will change every day as new concepts are learned. A mark that will never be the same again. It is just another sign that your "baby" is growing up. If only they could stay little forever. However, if they did, we as Mommies and Daddies would miss out on so many more joys to come!

On Halloween, I decided that Annabelle and I needed to be artistic, and we needed to celebrate the holiday. So, I quickly found instructions to create a pumpkin mask using a paper plate. I was out of plain white paper plates, so we settled for "Happy Birthday" plates from hubby's 30th birthday party, and we instead used the back of the plates to design our own jack-o-lanterns.

I left the laptop open to the web page with the sample of the pumpkin mask we were designing so that Annabelle could design her pumpkin mask accordingly. Following is Annabelle's try at her pumpkin mask.

She later decided that she wanted to help me color my pumpkin mask after I finished cutting out the eyes, nose and mouth. However, she wanted nothing to do with wearing it as she told me that it "hurt me." At a playgroup on Monday, she had pulled the elastic string on a mask she was wearing (with pumpkins for the eyes), and she struck her face hard enough to leave a raised line where the elastic string had hit. So, I think she made the connection between the two masks. Here is Mommy and Annabelle's version of the pumpkin mask. I cut out the eyes, nose and mouth and started with the coloring, but she finished coloring, and she even helped me punch some holes on the sides to hold the orange string to make it a mask.

On Halloween, we drove over to her Daddy's office so that some of his coworkers could see Annabelle dressed up as Piglet for Halloween. I asked her before we left if she wanted to take the finished pumpkin mask to show Daddy. She didn't let me forget it either when we arrived. As I was getting her out of her car seat, she grabbed the pumpkin mask and said, "Show Dattie, show Dattie." So, we carried the pumpkin mask with the eyes, nose and mouth cut out to "show Dattie."

This weekend, Annabelle decided she wanted to use her pumpkin mask plate to eat her lunch or dinner or whatever meal we were eating. Once she finished eating, her Daddy told her that he was going to take her plate and throw it away. She said, "NO!" Then, she proceeded to turn it over to show him her artwork. How dare he even think about throwing away her artwork!

So, after a weekend of "cleaning house," I decided it was time to throw away the greasy plate that Annabelle considers to be her prized artwork. I don't think she'll miss it in the morning. However, I personally do feel like I am letting go of a piece of my baby.

If only I could keep every piece of "artwork" that Annabelle designs! Everything she has scribbled on is artwork in her Mommy's eyes!