Saturday, January 30, 2010

She bops!

Annie has being telling us now for a while when she has a poop. Not really sure when it started, a few months ago at least. It is helpful, since I don't need to figure out when she needs changing, although she doesn't do it every time, so sometimes I still get a little surprise :)

Maybe a month or two ago, we tried to teach her the word poop, and for her, it comes out bop. So, when she poops or pee-pees, she says "bop", and then we change her. She likes to tell us when Roxie goes out to "bop", or when Angel has a furball on the floor, she also calls that "bop". Unfortunately, for a while, she also called her paci a "bop", too, so that was a little confusing- LOL!

She is also a super helper now and gets me a diaper and her wipes when she has a bop, and then we change her. It is quite convenient! A few times I think she has actually told me before she bops, but I never really believe her...so we don't try to visit her new potty, although I guess I really should start doing that.

But today, while I was finishing putting the dishes in the dishwasher after dinner, she was walking around, doing her own thing, and I could see her over the counter. She walked over to the diapers, took one out, took out a pack of wipes, walked over to an empty place on the floor, laid down and started trying to take down her pants, and said "bop"!!! And sure enough, there was a mess in her pants waiting to be changed!!!

I think I should motivate myself to start this potty training thing, huh? Maybe she will potty train herself like Riley did!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

NAH- now with wheezing!

So, remember when I said that both girls were relatively healthy at the moment...well, even as I was writing that, Annie was getting sick, again....and by Tuesday morning she was feeling icky, and got sent home from school with a fever. I had the forethought to call for a ped appt for the next morning, and I am glad I did, because then her cough got worse and hacking and she starting wheezing, again.

So, I took her in yesterday and the ped listened to her lungs and said she was definitely wheezing so they gave her a breathing treatment in the office and then sent us home with steroids and instructions to do the treatments every 4-6 hours....and said she either had walking pneumonia or RSV or some other virus

I think she is feeling better, now- she seems to be breathing better and sleeping better. Although last night she slept without coughing, she cried out a few times in the night- not sure if the steroids are making her feel bad- I know they are certainly making her grumpy! I am now regretting being happy about her learning new words because everything is NAH- her word for NO!!! Very early this morning- like 5 am- she was yelling NAH....I went in and rubbed her back for a little while, and then returned to bed to lay there and compose blog posts in my head and think about everything I had to do at work today :(

Wondering now if I will EVER, EVER, sleep through the night again.....

Monday, January 25, 2010

More words

Forgot a few words that Annie can (sort of) say:
No
Fish
Hi
Milk
Juice
Bear
Up
Bath
Bird

Really, with most of them I am probably the only one who knows what she is saying, and mostly she repeats me, although with some of them she says them on her own...I am glad I did this because it makes me feel better about what she really does say....

An Annie update

My little Annie is growing by leaps and bounds lately. Since moving into the Toddler Room at school, I have really seen a difference in her. She is definitely now a toddler and no longer my little baby....here are a few things she is working on:

*Talking! Finally, finally, I think she is starting to understand that she needs to SPEAK to get things! She is starting to make different articulations, and has a few words now, instead of just "more"! So far, she can say Mama, Dada, more, dog, cat, shoes, fish, bark, socks (although this sounds like shoes, but I know what she means). She can also make the sounds for monkey, horse, dog (bark), cow and chicken. Although many of these words and sounds are recognizable to only me :)

*She can walk down the stairs holding my hand and walk up- sort of.

*She is drinking from a regular cup at school- no more sippy cups- at school, at least

*She is a hand-washing pro. When we get to school, I take off her coat and we walk in the classroom- she goes right to the sink and starts to do it all by herself. She LOVES to wash her hands.

*She is starting to put together puzzles- sort of. I sat down with her this weekend and we worked on a few new puzzles from Grandma and Grandpa Buckley and she can recognize where the pieces are supposed to go- she can't quite get them there yet, but she knows them. And she can identify pretty much every animal and lots of other pictures in certain books.

*She LOVES, LOVES, LOVES certain books and wants to read them over and over and over. I think I wrote about that before. Right now her favorite book is Where is Elmo's Blanket? It is a book with little doors that you need to open....if we only read that book repeatedly all night she would be happy!

*She can eat an entire peanut butter and jelly sandwich by herself, and she has sweet tooth, like her mama!

*She has occasionally let me put her hair up in a pony tail- it sticks straight up! She usually wants it up when she sees Riley getting her hair done. When I put it up, she walks over the mirror to look at herself! And she loves to take a bath and have her hair washed. The only way I can get her dressed after the bath (since she also loves to be naked) is to tell her that we need to blow dry her hair!

*She likes to sit on her new potty, but nothing has come out yet :)

*She still loves her big sister, but sometimes gets upset with Riley when she wants to hug her too much or does something she doesn't like. Then she screeches at the top of her lungs. She does this with the dog, too!

*She is starting to like watching TV- I know it is bad, but it buys me precious minutes of peace! So far, she enjoys Sesame Street, Yo Gabba Gabba and the Wiggles. Yesterday was a rainy, miserable day so we watched the Wiggle CD and I think she made us watch the Monkey Dance about a million times....every time it ended she would point to the remote and say "ah, ah, ah, oh, oh, oh" (that is what a monkey says!).....

Ok- that is all I can think of right now....my little babe is growing up!

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Weekly recap

So, no one else got sick- yay- and aside from some lingering coughing from both girls from some mystery long-term cold, we are all relatively healthy. Now, if only we can stay that way!

We had a busy week- Monday was a holiday, which meant no work for me and no school for the girls. We didn't really do much- it was a really nice day, so we played outside and I made a honey wheat and pumpkin bread with my new mixer!

On Friday I went to "Muffins with Moms" at Riley's school, which was great fun. The cafeteria was packed, and then I walked her to class and talked to her teacher quickly. For those who follow my Twitter feed, you know that Riley will be starting to visit the 1st grade classroom on Monday for their reading lessons. She met the teacher this week and saw the classroom, and I can't wait to hear how it goes. We finally received her MAP testing scores, and I really do not know how to interpret them, or compare, but it does say she scored above average in both reading and math, so that is good!

Today we went to Riley's basketball game- she cheered- we left and went right to Laney's birthday party at the gymnastics gym. It was fun- although we weren't there for too long and missed most of the gymnastics.

Another busy week awaits me next week (they are all busy at this point), and then Sophie and Karen come for a visit- we are so excited!! I can't wait to see Sophie and Annie play together.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Arizona

I left my babies for 2 whole nights over the weekend! That is the longest I have left Annie, and I have only left Riley for three nights one time! I had a work trip to Arizona, and left early Friday morning, so Todd had the girls Friday night and then Grams and Gramps had them Saturday night. Unfortunately, it was a rough weekend for the Hildebrand girls- Riley wasn't feeling weel the night before I left, so Todd brought her into school a little late...she made it the whole day, but was sick Friday night.

But, she seemed fine by Saturday morning, and they all went to her 2nd basketball game (I missed it- sad!), and then Saturday night, Annie was sick with Grams and Gramps....by the time I got home on Sunday, they were both fine. But....I guess Gramps was sick, and now Todd is sick in bed....hoping it has made the rounds and no one else gets it.

But, we all survived...some of us a little worse for wear....but we did it! Todd and I are trying to plan a trip to Las Vegas in March- me for work, and then he might come out a few days later....hoping that Grams and Gramps aren't too shell shocked and will take the girls again for us!!!

Friday, January 15, 2010

Someone please tell me this is just a phase...

Annie has been *such* a grump lately...I really don't know what to do with her anymore. She is grumpy in the morning when I don't sit down with her at breakfast....she cries when Todd drops her off at school....she whines and grumps on the way home from school....she throws a fit when we get Riley, sometimes I have to carry her out of Riley's school screaming....she hates when I have to make dinner- she pulls at my legs and wants no one but me.....she screams and cries when I put her in her highchair for dinner and refuses to eat if she is not sitting on my lap. It seems the only time she is happy is when she is upstairs playing or in her bath!

She is driving me and Todd slowly crazy....seriously, CRAZY.....and then she looks at me and walks up to me and gives me a big, wet, sloppy kiss....and for a moment (just a few seconds) I forget all of the screaming and crying....

(temporarily, of course, because then she is screaming and crying about something else.....)

Monday, January 11, 2010

New pj's

Riley and Annie modeling some new pj's from Nannie and Poppie after their baths:




Sunday, January 10, 2010

Rah Rah

Saturday was the first basketball game for Upwards...Riley had a great time cheering for the teams!! Games are at 9am, 10am and 11am, and her's was the first, of course, but we made it in time and Annie behaved herself, sort of, and watched the game, sort of! Luckily, there is a room to the side of the gym, so she spent some time climbing the steps and walking on a little stage, but she was good for the most part.













Riley did great- they are so cute, and so are the little b-ball players....enjoy the photos. I have some video, too, that I will try to get uploaded tonight if the laptop co-operates!


Thursday, January 7, 2010

Cheerleading

Did I tell you that Riley is now a cheerleader? No? Yup- she started a few weeks ago, and knows a few cheers now. She received her uniform last week- it is orange and deep blue (she calls it purple) and very cute....she even got pom-poms and a megaphone, which Riley and Annie have both enjoyed over the week! She has practice on Monday nights, although this week her coach was sick, so she has practice tonight instead. Her first game is Saturday- stay tuned for pictures and video!!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

What happened to my baby?

So, Annie has officially moved to the Toddler Room at school. They told us that she would be slowly transitioning in January, so I assumed that meant that she would spend some time in there each day starting the first week, and maybe by the end of the week, stay the whole day. Well, when Todd dropped her off on Monday morning, I guess all of the new babies who were taking her place arrived at the same time and the teachers were a little overwhelmed...and at the same time, there were no kids in the toddler room, so it just made sense to have Annie just start the day in there....and then she never left!

Luckily, she was somewhat familiar with the teachers in the Toddler Room already because she had been playing on the big kids playground for a few months. Todd said the first day, she went right in and started playing and didn't really even realize he had left. The second day, it was a little more traumatic- she cried a bit and wasn't too happy with him!

I was mostly worried about her sleeping- in the baby room she slept in a crib- here, she needed to sleep on a mat! But, I asked the first day and they said she had no problem- she went right to sleep...although she did wake earlier than the kids usually do- seems she only slept about 45 minutes....yep, that is my Annie! Today they told me she slept better- about 90 minutes, so she is getting it!

Now our only problem is the grumpies....she is so tired at the end of the day, she grumps the whole way home...throws a fit in the cafeteria when I pick up Riley....grumps through dinner and generally is driving.me.crazy!!!! But, hopefully this is temporary and will abate as she gets used to everything....please, please, please get better soon :)

Monday, January 4, 2010

Christmas Eve

I spent much of the day baking and cooking and Todd spent the day cleaning :) We met Grams and Gramps and Mimi and Papa at church for 4 o'clock mass (Donnie- if you are reading this- we went to church!!!)...and then everyone came over afterwards for appetizers. As usual, I made WAY too much food...we just finished the last of it this weekend!

Riley and Annie opened their new pajamas, and then they opened a book from Nannie and Poppie that they recorded for the girls- Twas the Night Before Christmas, which has now been played over and over and over, until they almost broke it and then I had to take the batteries out!

Annie was pooped, so I put her to bed, and Todd and Riley set out some milk and homemade and decorated by Riley cookies and then we all went off to bed to dream about sugar plums.....



Friday, January 1, 2010

Snow!

A few weeks ago, we actually had a bit of snow here in South Carolina...by a bit I mean about an inch at our house! But, Gramps and Gramps live about 20 minutes further north, and they got about three inches. We happened to be cleaning the house that day, so when Grams asked the girls and I to come up and play, I quickly packed them up and left Todd to the cleaning (he does a much better job than I do, and it is much easier without me and the girls around anyway!!)....we had a good time...Annie was a little unsure at first, but she had a ball. As you can see, we had to improvise a bit with the sled, but it worked just as well!!




Goodbye 2009...

It has been a good year at the Hildebrand's....Riley graduated from one school and started kindergarten....Annie did a lot of growing! She is now a walking, talking toddler with her own opinions....Todd lost a job and got a new one....I started off the year with a new official promotion, and while it has not been the best year for us at the college, we are starting the new year on a good class (hopefully) and lots of momentum....

I wish you all, my three loyal readers, a very Happy New Year....from our home to yours.....