Packing for Nonnie's House

Annabelle spent the weekend with my parents so that hubby and I could work on purging the amount of junk and papers we have acquired during our 9 years of marriage to make room for the new baby. We are basically turning our current "office" which is technically a third bedroom into Annabelle's big girl room.

Originally, Annabelle was supposed to spend Friday night with my parents and Saturday night with her Nonnie. Nonnie already had plans to keep Annabelle's cousins, Adam and Molly, on Saturday night, so Annabelle was especially excited.

Unfortunately, Molly turned up sick, and Uncle Matt and Aunt Meredith were kind enough to call us to let us know. I try to keep our distance from germs whenever possible, but especially since I've been pregnant since I seem to catch anything that walks. And, I absolutely refuse to get the swine flu or flu shot!

So, we opted for Annabelle to just spend another night with my parents.

It sounded like she didn't put up too much of a fuss about it, and she even told me that she didn't spend the night with Nonnie because "Ma-wee was sick."

But, she has not forgotten the promise to visit Nonnie again soon. All I heard all day was, "Are we going to Nonnie's house?" "When are we going to Nonnie's house?"

This evening, she proceeded to pack for Nonnie's house even though hubby and I both told her that it would be awhile before we visited Nonnie again. But, it didn't stop her for putting her belongings at the door to take with us to Nonnie's house. "I take this to Nonnie's house," she'd say. "Let me go put it by da door."

After I got her down for the evening, I walked into the living room and looked down next to the front door to find this: her deflated Garfield balloon that she got on her 3rd birthday, her "Ganny" baby doll given to her from Granny for Christmas 2008, painted hand prints and footprints from when she was 7 months old, a Tetris handheld game, a metal heart box full of candy and her most recent tracings and cut outs of her hand prints.

I couldn't help but smile and laugh. It is the little things that make you smile the most, and unfortunately, it is the little things that we too often forget.

Pity Toe Nails

Nonnie started a tradition the year that I was pregnant with Annabelle. For Mother's Day, she treats me, Aunt Meredith and herself to a day at the nail salon. And, believe me, it is a treat because it is the only day that I ever treat myself to a pedicure! And, pedicures are awesome!

When I got back home, I showed Annabelle my french pedicure. I then asked her if she would like to have her toe nails painted one day. Her response, "Yes, purple." Big surprise, right?

So, since Saturday, whenever Annabelle looks down at my freshly painted toe nails, she says, "Ooh, pity toe nails Mommy!"

Then, sometimes, she'll proceed into a conversation about how she wants her toe nails painted, purple! This afternoon, she told me that Nonnie was going to paint her toe nails purple. Hold it one minute child! Mommy gets first dibs on painting those toe nails! Nonnie can paint them next time!

Story Time with Nonnie

Isn't this sweet?



As I was in the midst of taking this second picture, Annabelle had taken her sipee cup out of her mouth to request "Teddy and Paci!" when she realized that she had neither. Otherwise, I guess all of the cousins are all in their bedtime routine element.

We spent the weekend with Nonnie, and Uncle Matt, Aunt Meredith, Adam and Molly also stayed on Friday night. Unfortunately, we didn't arrive until closer to 8:00 p.m. because hubby had to work later than usual (for a Friday night), and we ate dinner at home (in the interest of money). So, the kiddos didn't get much time together Friday night, but they sure did enjoy story time with Nonnie.

I think she read to them for a good hour straight! I doubt any of them, Annabelle included, gets an hour worth of story time before bedtime every night, so it was definitely a treat for all of them.

We didn't hear a peep from any of them until Annabelle hollered out in pain. She had apparently stuck her finger on the light bulb in the light shade right behind her. Bless her heart! And, it always seems to hurt a lot more when you are really tired. She had not had a nap all day, so that burn really sent her over the edge.

Nonnie doctored it with some aloe. Poor little girl just held her little hurt pointer finger out with the aloe on for 15 minutes or so until she finally decided that she wanted to have it washed off.

But, despite the burnt finger, Annabelle had a blast at Nonnie's house!