a funny story

We spent the beginning of the week up in Cooperstown, NY watching my nephew play baseball. The games were great… I was amazed at how well 12 year olds play. It was better than a lot of major league games I have seen.

Anyway. Our niece came up with her brother and we were lucky enough to have her stay with us while we were there.  Annie was over the moon to have Morgan there. I think she may have even slightly usurped the position of favorite person ever which is currently held by our cousin Cillian who is over from Ireland.

My niece is 12 and wants to be a vet when she grows up.

The following conversation had me in stitches.

M to A:  What do you want to be when you grow up?

A:  A veterinarian

M: Me too

A:  No. You can be my nurse.

She was so matter of fact about it , it was hilarious. Nothing like a 3 year old to put you in your place.

The kids will be back in Jersey for 2 weeks the middle of next month. Can’t wait for more cousin time.

Annie and her “nurse” Morgan

Three

I can’t believe my little noodle is three!

Some of her favorite things at 3

– favorite colors pink and red

– favorite foods : chicken, broccoli, yogurt, all fruit

– favorite characters : Sweet Sweet petunia ( veggie tales) Minnie Mouse, Stuffy ( dragon from Doc McStuffins) and Belle and Tiana from Disney

– best friend : Carley

– favorite animals: zaboos ( ring tailed lemurs) , elephants, and sloths.

– wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up.

– I asked her who she was going to marry and she told me ” no one. I am going to be a racecar driver with a pink racecar”

– she  is potty trained and loves princess underwear.

-She goes to gymnastics and loves the tumble track, bars and doing forward rolls. She will be starting preschool there in a couple of weeks.

-She still can’t say the word hospital. (Mommy works at the hoss – table)  and calls Doritoes ” burrito chips”  so cute!

-Very very busy all the time. Would rather be moving and bouncing more than sitting.

– still off the chart on height and weight for her age. Wearing a size 5 clothes and a 9 1/2 shoe.

– very social. Runs to kids on the play ground and asks them if they will play with her. Loves to take kids by the hand to go play with her.

– Loves hugs and kisses and being nomnomnomed when she is wrapped in her towel (I’m a burrito! Eat me up)

Lovely and full of life. I love this little girl!

 

a new backyard

My daughter has a lot of energy. I have parents ask me ” does she wake up in the morning like this?”. The answer is yes, she does. Even as a newborn she never wanted to sleep, preferring instead to be up… moving… vocal. We are always searching for ways to wear her down. ( never out.. that just doesn’t happen) Play ground have always been great for us. She is a girl who loves to climb, swing, jump, and run. Unfortunately there aren’t any playgrounds closer than a 10 minute drive for us – and that is to a small not so much to do playground.

So we decided on a backyard makeover for this summer. Phase one is now done! The problem with living on the top of a mountain is we have no flat area in our yard.  Luckily we have a friend whose dad does excavation in the side. We were able to make a play area for a third of the cost that hiring a landscaper would have been. So we were able to do this…

Our new play area

Coming soon will be the bigger sandbox, the pool, the balance beam and some other fun activities.

A beautiful Day

We spent Saturday at the Bronx Zoo. It was so beautiful. The weather was perfect 78 with a nice breeze. Annie was having good behavior all day. A nice break from the terrible twos almost threes breakdowns that pop up out of no where.

We have been having a lot of discussions on behavior. It is actually to the point where she will ask me ” mommy… am I having good behavior?” I guess that means that talk happens A LOT. Hopefully it is making a difference.

Anyway… back to the zoo….

hanging in a birds nest

checking out the alligator

We got to see all of Annies current favorites including zebras, giraffes and emus. Yes… emus. My kid has odd taste in animals. She even told me she wants to go to Australia to get a pet emu for her Aunt Jen. Not so sure how Aunt Jen would like that.

Can you hear me now?

WordPress keps eating my text and moving my pictures . I am trying to fix it. Then they break it worse.

Happy Easter

How do I get so behind?

Too much going on and I get behind again!

All is going okay here. This nice weather has been so great. Lots of time at the playground. We have started looking for a playset for our yard for this year. My goodness are those things expensive!  We think we have decided on one but are putting another week into looking before we finalize. Lots of places have good sales going on til April 1st so we are still on the hunt.

March is always a busy month for our family celebrating being Irish. We attend a beautiful mass and a St Pats parade that we march in as a family.

Annie at mass

After Mass we moved to the parade line up. Annie got to pet one of the horses that was pulling the WF stagecoach. I think it was the high point of her day.

Annie got to make an Irish bear at build a bear for the parade day. ( she also has the annual Irish bear they put out – but that one stays home with all the ones she has from the year I was pregnant with her on) She loves her bear and took her along for the whole day.

Moira the bear

Annie even brought her bear up to the altar after mass so she could show her bear to God.  Unfortunately the fresh air and early wake up meant Annie spent most of the parade like this…

After the parade we went to a local Irish resturant for lunch and live music. Annie has decided she wants to play the bagpipes. Carol is still pushing her for the drums.

Now back to enjoying this beautiful weather!

Scary night

Saturday night I woke up to the sound of Annie struggling for breath. It was a terrible sound and you could see her stomach sucking in as she struggled.

I called a nurse friend in the ER who could hear her over the phone and told me to ” get her sweet little Annie into the ER now”.

Of course as soon as we got out into the cold air her breathing cleared up…. yup she has a bad case of croup.

Annie was the most cooperative little patient. For a few months now she has been telling everyone she is going to be a doctor when she gets big. For Christmas she got a toy doctor kit and it is by far the most played with toy she received.

She did everything the doctor asked of her, at the end of the exam she didn’t want to leave. Luckily we got right in and out since it was 3am on a Saturday. It helps to work in the ER and know all the staff.

Since then her croup has added to itself in a full-blown cold. She has a deep cough, bad sinus drainage, sore throat, tummy ache and fever.

Not very fun in our house right now. My little drama llama becomes a million times more dramatic when she doesn’t feel good. We alternate being super sweet and cuddly with some epic meltdowns.

Hopefully she will have a quick recovery.

On another note… she has developed a new way of saying mommy and mama. I am not sure how to put it phonetically, but it is sort of a Mooo -my mooooma with a kind of british twist to it. It is really funny.

The other thing going on is she asks me every day if we can go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Minnesota. Oh how I wish we could sweet girl…. oh how I wish we could.  I miss them too.

goodbye 2011…

I’m not too sad to see you go. There were a lot of hard things this last year. We lost two Aunts to cancer – my Aunt Myrt and Scoops Aunt Donna. My dad and another Aunt diagnosed with cancer ( colon and ovarian) and another uncle who had a heart attack (  but is thankfully doing okay).  After my dads surgery , he had a bowel obstruction and remained hospitalized nearly a week. We lost our sweet boy Murphy back in March. We survived an earthquake and a hurricane in the same month. Carol’s moms house flooded and still there is no end in sight to getting the house back to normal. We had to replace our furnace, water heater and stove. I was sick enough with a respiratory problem I ended up in the emergency room for breathing treatments, and I spent 6 weeks out of work with a broken arm.  My best friend spent another year fighting with the court and social services for her kids rights.

Not a banner year for us.

There were many good parts as well.  We had our new dogs Marley and Toby join our family. In August Annie’s little cousin Emily was born. We got to spend time with our niece and nephews.  We got to spend time with Melissa’s family and my family back in Minnesota. My dad’s cancer was caught early and they think they removed it all. Mom’s health continues to be okay – I will never forget the year we almost lost her at Christmas. I am now so very very thankful for every holiday we get to share with her.

I have high hopes for 2012. I feel like good things need to come our way. Stay tuned for our further adventures.

the best present under our tree

Annie and Emily Christmas Eve

AAARGH!!!

Okay……

Anyone else with wordpress? It is eating half of each post – combining all my pictures into one. I am not happy. Everytime I make a post half of it disappears when I post it – go back in and poof…. it is all gone.

 

I am tired of it.

any suggestions where to go?

Getting ready for christmas part 2

I’ve been trying to do some Christmas crafts with Annie this year. I am so loving her getting excited for Christmas. We made some salt dough ornaments for our tree. It was a lot of fun. Annie especially loved playing in the flour and squishing the dough. She helped cut them out, then we let them dry and a couple of days later we painted them.

Ignore her hair and jammies. Easier to do crafts early in the morning before bathing and getting dressed. Makes clean up so much easier.

 

Annies handprint

 

 

 

making a modern art printpretty tree.