Where I come from

I realized yesterday that everyone likes to know where they come from. Not just the people around them but how they acted and what they were like as a smaller child. Anna is already curious about her life as a baby. So this is for my Anna!

Where Anna came from:

Anna came from 2 parents that loved her so much before she was ever born. We were on pins and needles just waiting to make sure she would be ok because she was so very small. She wasn't growing very well in me and now I realize it was just because she was anxious to get out and see the world and be a HUGE part of it. As a baby she didn't sleep much. She would catch a few short naps but only if I were holding her. Or to be more accurate if I nursed her. She was a champion nurser lol. She started growing in leaps and bounds after she was out in the world. Her size never held her back though. She was trying to roll over at a young age and sitting up pretty young too. I would have to go back and check my notes to see exactly when. Anna never liked tv as a baby. Baby Einstein did absolutely NOTHING for her. Even now at almost 4 I am doing good to get her to watch 30 minutes for me to get something done without her under me lol. She loved to swing! Except she didn't like going front to back she preferred side to side. She wouldn't sleep in her crib until she was 4 months old at which point she started sleeping through the night! At 7 months we went on a fabulous vacation to Holden Beach where she decided that sleeping through the night was totally over rated! Her first belly laugh was 4.5 months old. We were watching White Christmas, a movie that I loved and will cherish even more now!

As Anna has been growing she has gone through a number of phases. Some that I would like to forget and others that I will hold on to too get me through the tough ones ;) She went through the NO phase! Everything was NO even if she really meant yes. She is still going through a phase where she hits. If she gets mad or is not getting her way she strikes out. She is a Drama Queen and has been since she was a baby. She started posing for pictures when she was old enough to realize what a camera was. She turns everything into a HUGE deal. Which can be good if it is something like a picnic and a movie. Not so great if she bumps her toe and her world crumbles!

I expected most of these things though cause she is so much like me. She picks through her food to see if there is something gross in there. She laughs with her whole body and soul. She feels other peoples pain so deeply that she will cry for them. She loves to snuggle but also likes to have her space. She also has a lot of her Daddy in her. She likes to scare people and play tricks on them. She moves very slow (sometimes) making sure everything is JUST so! She likes a variety of different foods. She doesn't like to be touched after 10:00 PM lol. She loves to put things together and take things apart. She has to have things done a certain way and she hates it if you change it up on her. For example, we have assigned seating at the table, we have to go a certain way into the grocery store etc.

She is a quirky little kid and I love discovering these things about her. She loves to help clean house and do laundry! Maybe we can keep her that way lol. Her favorite chore is wiping tables and stuff. Anything with spray!!! She loves her babies and takes very good care of them. She will be a great Mommy one day! She feeds them, changes there diaper, rocks them and plays with them. She even selects a lucky one to ride in the car with us where ever we are going. She hates to leave them in when we go to the store but I make her leave it. I am afraid if we left it somewhere the world would come to an end as we know it. Remember DRAMA QUEEN!!!

She loves swimming and is a little fish. She is doing extraordinary with it, she can swim the width of the pool without help, do flips under the water and swim down to touch the bottom of the pool with her fingertips. She loves to have picnics in the living room and watch a movie. She loves sitting out in our driveway and waving at people as they go by. I don't think she realizes how much joy she brings to the people driving by. I can see most of them looking tired after a long day and then they see her waving with such a cute smile and their faces brighten up and most of them wave back or honk the horn. She loves to ride her bike and climb things. She loves to play with her very good friends. She has so many now I never imagined she would have so many friends. She tends to get shy with new people but she is breaking away from that a little at the time. She loves getting her nails done and her hair too. She enjoys getting in the car and going as long as we don't have to drive to long. She likes to pretend like she is driving the car. Her favorite thing to do at the park is swing! She would swing for hours if you would stand there and push her lol. She is starting to learn how to do it herself but knows it is much easier if someone does it for her lol.

She doesn't like big crowds, she doesn't like putting away her toys (I think it is because she is thinking I am just going to get them back out later), she doesn't like bug bites, she doesn't like sitting still for to long, she doesn't like having to get a bath until she gets in (she loves it after she gets in), she doesn't like missing things, she doesn't like not being able to do something one of her friends can do.

She loves pretty much all fruits, she loves chips, plain or with salsa and sour cream or dips. she loves hot stuff, she loves sweets, she loves granola bars but her favorite snack is goldfish! Her favorite meal is chicken and pasta or either ham. She doesn't like broccoli, she doesn't like raisins, she doesn't like well I can't think of anything else at the moment.

Right now we are facing the 3-4 year old attitude. Sometimes I am trying so hard not to laugh when she gets it going. She just gets this look on her face and some of the things that come out of her mouth. Other times I just want to hang her up by her toe nails lol.

She is a delightful little girl and I am so blessed that God brought her to my life.

Timy Talk Tuesday

I wish I had been writing stuff down. The stuff that comes out of Anna's mouth is not stuff I would ever dream up. Here are a few things that have just stuck with me.

* Last night we were flipping through the channels on tv and I said "TV stinks!" Next thing I know she is up smelling the tv lol. She turned to me and said "Which TV, Mom?"

* One Wednesday night on the way to church we saw the prettiest rainbow. We were talking about what it means etc. and she said "Mom, do you think rainbows get wet or do they stay dry?" She stumped me! Anyone know the answer to that one?

* Anna is all about swimming these days. We typically go to our community pool that has a specific opening and closing time. This past weekend we went to my aunt's house. They have a pool at there house. Saturday night we had a party and everyone got out of the pool for a while during the party. She looked out there at dusk and said "Hey Mama, is the pool closing now?" She was totally excited when she found out that it wasn't, that it NEVER closed!!!

For more Tiny Talk go HERE!

Mother's Day Video

This is the video I created for church! Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!!!

Starting the Summer off Right!!!

Dancing with Anna!

Being a Mom is so confusing sometimes. It is like a confusing dance (I have never been a good dancer!) that is ever changing! They are growing and changing and we are growing and changing as parents as well. This means that things will be different from one day to the next.

Anna and I have been feeling growing pains lately. That struggle for power. The I am a big girl and I want to do it myself. I try to give where I can and stand firm where I need too. On the flip side of that sometimes I seem to push her to hard. But then I wonder if it is to hard or if it is necessary. See a confusing dance! Y'all tell me I am not alone on the dance floor! Tell me that we will survive and make it to the next step!

Prayer and Angels

Last Wednesday night our preacher talked about prayer. How there is a right spirit that you need to pray with to have God really hear you. I mean we could pray all day long for a Jaguar and well that is not going to be at the top of God's priority list ya know. It reminded me of the time that Chris and I spent at Ridgecrest. Our transportation was Chris's OLD truck. It was a great truck but well it was old. One day we left Ridgecrest to go to Ashville to eat or something and we had a problem. I can't remember if we prayed together but I know I was praying. Praying that 1) we could make it somewhere 2) we could find someone that could help us! We barely got out of Ridgecrest and we coasted up to a couple of old guys hanging out selling veggies and fruits. They checked out the truck and told us just what we needed and then went to get it for us. They said they were out there ALL the time but Chris and I never saw them before or after! They were a Godsend. An answer to our prayers! They didn't even let us pay them for the part and we were pretty broke so that was another Godsend. Our very own angels!!!

Prayers are answered every day. Yes, no or not now those are the answers that we get. We don't always have such a wonderful story to tell. They may be answered by a friend calling when we need someone or a positive pregnancy test that you have been waiting so anxiously for or by a new job that you needed or wanted desperately. Whatever it is you can be sure that God had His hand in it. Sometimes I like to do things with/for Anna and make her think that she has done it all by herself I like to think God is the same way. He decides when we are ready for something and then He will make it happen and often times we forget to thank Him because we think we did it ourselves!

Thank you God for always being in charge of my world! Thank you for all of the blessings you bestow on me! Thank you for loving me enough to forgive me of ALL my sins and helping me repair my life!

Whirlwind weekend!

What a great weekend! Friday night I lounged around and watched Ghost Whisperer all by myself. No interruptions, no chatting through it. I really didn't know how to handle it but I soaked it up lol. Chris entertained Anna to give me a break since I have this cold. He was wonderful!!!

Saturday I got some more down time while Anna helped her Daddy do some yard work in the morning. I took a nice LONG hot shower! Which is pretty much unheard of for me lol. After lunch we got ready and headed downtown to the Sidewalk Chalk Festival. It was great fun. We have some super talented people out there. My idea of drawing with chalk is a smiley face lol. Anna was just excited to watch all the people and the dogs! She also got her face painted and did a craft and played some games! She had a great time and so did we. After a while we decided we were hot and we walked down to a pizza place that is So yummy but we don't go often because it is downtown. We enjoyed a leisure dinner because we knew that we didn't want to get back to the park to fast. Chris got a glimpse of the future while we were there. It seemed like girls were coming out of the wood work. There was a girl scout troop there and a teenager having a party. There fear of the future was palpable coming off Chris lol. The chattering and giggling, the silliness and LOUDNESS shook him to the core lol. It excited me and brought back so many memories! He said something about her not being that silly and I had to remind him how silly I was. I think he blocked it out or either I hid it from him because I wanted to impress him lol. Anyway, as soon as Chris could make his escape we were out of there and we walked back to the park. We settled in on a blanket we took and a chair for Chris and Anna's stroller and proceeded to wait for a movie to start. I know isn't that crazy a movie in the park! Anna was all excited - "We are watching a movie OUTSIDE!" She anxiously waited for it to start not running around like the other ones but focusing intently on the screen trying to will the movie to start! We got there kinda early but we got perfect seats. We were towards the front right beside the speakers. I was worried it would be to loud but it was perfect! Finding Nemo was the feature film and Anna loves that movie! She enjoyed the whole movie and ate her left over pizza during it so she even got to have a picnic lol.

Sunday of course is our church day! I made a hard decision last week. I decided I would step down from choir for a while. I am moving Anna up to children's church and out of the nursery. They typically do that at 4 but I need to do something to help prepare Anna for preschool and I was thinking this would be a good place to start. It hurts me because I love to sing and be a part of the worship like that but as always Anna comes first! The way our church does it is the kids get to stay through the first half of the service which is the music part and then they go to children's church afterwards while we have a sermon. Anna is so funny about who she will sit with I didn't want to just throw her out there with someone. Therefore, until she is a little more comfortable with this change I will sit with her. Honestly though after this Sunday I don't think it will be to long. I think she will sit with her friend McKenzie even if it is with an adult she doesn't know well. It was a relief when she held McKenzie's hand (McKenzie is 6 yrs old) and ran out of the church giggling and excited! We all took a nap that afternoon and it was kind of nice not having to worry about waking her up to get to choir practice! I always hated that part cause on Sunday she goes down for nap so late that it is usually a challenge letting her get enough sleep and still make it to choir on time.

So that was our very full weekend. Honestly, though this weekend really did make me appreciate where I live. To have so much to do that is family oriented is a great thing!