Future Engineer

Or perhaps a future blaster!

Last week, Annabelle grabbed my digital card reader with a Compact Flash Card still in it. Before I even realized it, she had pulled out the Compact Flash Card and literally opened the digital card reader so that the guts were exposed.

I grabbed it from her immediately, and put it back together again. It worked fine until last night, and then it started geeking out on me.

Now, as I was trying to make a backup of some digital pictures to look at them to design our Christmas card, it started to slowly die. The light signaling that it was plugged in grew dimmer and dimmer, and it smelled like it was going to catch on fire. I tried it again several times until I finally decided I didn't want to take the chance of losing all of my pictures still on the card.

I guess that is one reason not to buy a smaller and cheaper version of some things. I'm going to need to buy another one very soon as I used that thing almost daily! Perhaps Santa will bring me a much nicer one! Hint, hint Grandmama and Granddaddy!

Kissee, Kissee!

How do little girls learn so fast that princesses must kiss boys? None of the other toys kiss, so why the princesses?

While decorating the Christmas tree this evening, Annabelle found a Hallmark box with a "pincess" ornament in it. She ran over to me, and said, "Pincess Mommy, Pincess!" I opened the box for her, and I told her that her Granny (hubby's Grandmother) bought her this Cinderella ornament last year for Christmas 2007. Fortunately, I was good last year and the year before about including the gift tag in the box so she will always remember where her soon-to-be broken ornaments came from.

Well, this ornament also became a toy, along with the Charlie Brown and Pooh Bear/Piglet ornaments.

She had not been playing with it very long before I realized that Cinderella was kissing everyone! Charlie Brown, Linus, Snoopy, Pooh Bear, Piglet and Lucy! Hopefully the Lucy thing will be a short phase.

So, guess who once again grabbed the camera! I actually managed to get a few good shots with her lips pursed for a good kiss.

I had to laugh as I remember playing Barbie's with my good friend and next door neighbor growing up. She had a Barbie dollhouse, which I loved. And, Barbie and Ken were always smooching! Well, they did more than smooching, but I didn't realize what they were actually doing at the time. I just thought that the bodies should always twist and turn when they kissed. Where on earth did I learn for Barbie and Ken to smooch that way?

Hubby said, "Wow! Cinderella gets around!" after he saw that she had kissed everyone including Lucy.

Oh my, I fear my life with this child in 10 short years!

Cheese!

After I pulled out the Hallmark Charlie Brown ornaments this evening, Annabelle was not interested in anything else. She wanted to play with her new found toys, which I suspect will be broken before Christmas 2008 is over. Good thing they were not a gift from someone else, and as a result, sentimental.

So, at one point in the evening, she moved them all to the dining room table, one by one. After they were all lined up in a row, she stood back and said, "Cheese!" She obviously had prepared them for a photo shoot, so I, of course, grabbed the camera. She, of course, insisted that she needed her camera as well which had been placed aside on the kitchen counter out of little arm's reach after the last photo shoot earlier in the evening (as you can read in a blog entry below).

And, her Daddy was kind enough to teach her to use the camera. Perhaps I should have bought that $50 Fisher Price children's digital camera I saw at Wal-Mart on Tuesday. I'll be sure and post some of Annabelle's pictures from her photo shoots in another blog entry. I first need to figure out how to download them from the camera since they aren't on a memory card.

Bossy?

We started decorating the tree this evening with ornaments. We started the tree decorating project on Saturday when we purchased the tree and put it up in its stand. On Monday night, we put the lights on the tree. On Tuesday night, I was busy Christmas shopping. And, on Wednesday night, I felt miserable. So, finally, on Thursday night, we started decorating the tree with ornaments. However, we didn't finish as we started closer to 8:20 p.m., and by 9:30 p.m., we decided that maybe Annabelle should go to bed for the evening. She wasn't in a bad mood, but a girl (especially this girl) needs her beauty sleep!

So, here is literally the first picture from the tree decorating project this evening. Who do you think had her say in this project? Let me give you a hint, it was NOT her Mommy!

I honestly don't remember who she was sassing at the moment, but it obviously was not her Daddy because he seems oblivious to her bossiness (in this picture). Perhaps she was sassing the kitty cats?

For those of you who think Annabelle is so sweet, innocent AND quiet, please think again!

Happy Earthday to Nonnie!

Trust me, I don't understand the logic either behind her fun (as you'll see in the pictures below), but I do know she meant to say, "Happy Birthday Nonnie!" But, again, that still leaves me puzzled as Nonnie's birthday was back in June,

But, here is the story for a few good laughs. I was cleaning the kitchen this evening, and Annabelle was busy playing by herself in the living room/dining room. If a two year old is happy and content, don't bother them, right?!?! Well, I start to hear chairs moving around. So, I decided to go and see what Annabelle was doing. Here is a picture of what I found, except the child was not sitting on the chairs when I first found her.

But, she had rearranged all of my dining room chairs (except for that last one which she requested my help on). Keep in mind, the dining room chairs are not normally arranged side by side to close off the dining room from the living room completely. Normally, they are pushed in underneath the dining room table, you know, where dining room chairs are supposed to go. And, I don't think I've ever lined the chairs up in this fashion.

So, after I helped Annabelle move the last dining room chair into place at the end of the row, closest to the camera in this picture, I said, "What are you doing Annabelle? Are you having a party?" Without any hesitation at all, she said, "Happy Earthday to Nonnie!" I couldn't help but laugh. Nonnie's birthday is not until June (and it is December)!

Shortly thereafter, as I was taking pictures of Annabelle moving back and forth across the chairs on her bottom, Annabelle's Daddy walked in. He didn't say much (besides the usual). I said, "By the way, I did not arrange these chairs like this." He said, "You didn't?" very surprised. He seemed to get a kick out of it as well especially after he finally understood that Annabelle was saying happy birthday to Nonnie.

If you cannot tell already, Annabelle loves her Nonnie!

Future Professional Photographer

Do you think maybe I am a little obsessed with the camera? It has become my new found hobby since I had Annabelle, and I love to play around with the camera to try and capture the best shot. Well, now I have a follower. And, this time, she grabbed my workable Kodak camera instead of her toy camera that her Daddy bought her a few months ago.

But, since it wasn't my Canon 30D, I didn't freak out, and I let her play with it, knowing that she could drop it at any time and completely destroy the only camera I have that is small enough to stuff in an already overstuffed diaper bag. I did, however, remove the memory card that was already in there as I didn't want her to drop the camera and cause the memory card to completely self decompose. That sounds crazy, I know, but hubby dropped the camera one day recently, and we actually lost some pictures off of the memory card.

So, while she was actually attempting to take a picture of one of our cats, Jezebel, I grabbed our Canon 30D and captured my own shots of her. Besides the fingers completely covering the lens on most shots, I think she's set to make millions one day being a professional photographer. What do you think?

Keeping Her Baby Dolls Warm

This is how I found Annabelle's Baby Adie (on the left) when I went in to get her up from her crib this morning. It probably means nothing to any of you, but the hat on Baby Adie actually goes on the baby doll on the right. It was quite funny to me because when I left Annabelle last night, Baby Adie was laying down next to her. But, apparently, this morning, she propped Baby Adie up and then placed the other baby doll's hat on her head. Too cute! I can totally picture her doing this too. She loves caring for her baby dolls.

Baby Adie has been her favorite baby doll for awhile now, but just this week, she has become quite attached to the other baby doll (on the right). Grandmama and Granddaddy gave Annabelle the other baby doll (on the right) for Christmas last year. Baby Adie (on the left) was a Goodwill find by Grandmama, and Annabelle decided that Baby Adie needed to come home with us, so we brought her home from Grandmama and Granddaddy's house awhile ago.


Annabelle obviously realized that Mommy needed some good rest this morning (I've been feeling a little under the weather since Tuesday evening) as she must have been playing for a little while before she said, "Get up Mommy, Get up!"

I got her up around 9:15 a.m., and she went to sleep last night at 8:00 p.m. after not taking her afternoon nap at all yesterday. I am afraid (and happy) that the afternoon naps may be ending soon. Afraid, because I use that time when we're home to catch up on things around the house such as dishes, laundry and bills. Happy, because I long for the day where I don't feel like I have to make it back home by 1:30 or 2:00 to get Annabelle down for her nap. Hmmm...kinda makes me think twice about ever trying for a second child. Naptimes have always been such a hassle with this child from Day 1 (home from the hospital)!

I used to just let her sleep in the car or stroller if we were out and about because I've never felt that I should restrict my life to a child's nap schedule, but when I want her to fall asleep in the car, she rarely will any more. It used to be that she'd always fall asleep in the car, and then she wouldn't take her afternoon nap at all after sleeping for only 15 minutes in the car. So, I used to do everything in my power to keep her awake (which, by the way, I used to think was "mean" when other moms did it).

And, until yesterday, if she didn't have her afternoon nap, she was a complete terror from about 5:00 p.m. on with screaming, crying and head on the floor fits, until we finally got her to bed for the evening. You know, the usual two year old tantrums, except constant and never-ending from 5:00 p.m. until bedtime. Nothing would make her happy!

So, it is now 3:37 p.m. I left her for naptime at 3:09 p.m., and she is still chattering away!