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.

Stuttering

My vibrant and very intelligent 3.5 year old has started stuttering lately. It is pretty much the first word of a sentence. Mainly when she begins the sentence with you or we. I was getting a little concerned about this especially when my father in law pointed it out.

I was talking to a friend of mine about it and she said the same thing happened with her nephew. The parents checked with a teacher of Psychology and were told it is a phase they sometimes go through. Of course, being the computer guru that I am I had to check it out. I found numerous websites pointing out that this happened to their children and that is completely normal. I had no idea that this could possibly happen. They say if your child does this to not interrupt them and to listen carefully to them. The phase should last no longer than a few months.

I can't tell y'all how relieved I was to read that. I was feeling like I was doing something terribly wrong. For her to go from speaking perfectly clear to stuttering I thought something traumatic had to have occurred. No, that isn't the case it is another phase; another sign that she is growing and learning. Apparently her mind is working so fast that is hard for her mouth to keep up with it sometimes. Now my husband and I just have to remember to not try to rush her or make her take her time. Just let her go with the flow and work it out for herself.

Did your little one go through this phase? If so how long did it last?

Where did my baby go?

We walked into the building and there was complete chaos. Anna doesn't do well with chaos. It makes her nervous. She was nervous anyway because we were out of our element. Anna didn't hide behind me and she didn't cling to me. She stood in front of me watching all of the other children playing and talking. She watched them go to different play stations and do different things. I talked with the Director while she stood there in awe. Her one request before we went in was to see babies. The Director was more than happy to take us back. Anna looked at all of the babies and didn't say a lot. We finished up and left. As we walk out the door Anna complains. "Mommy, I want to go back! I want to see the babies again." My only thoughts were you are MY baby you are to young to go to school. And yet that is exactly what we were there for. We were there to see what kind of program they had and see what we needed to do to enroll her.

I can't believe my baby is going to go to school come August or September whenever they start. I kept thinking back to the day Anna was born. When she was still inside me. The truth is she is growing up. A fact she likes to share almost daily. She is not that same baby that would nurse for hours at a time or that would look around so very alert from the very beginning. She is not the toddler that depended on me to help her walk or eat or translate for her. She is a beautiful little girl that is getting ready for school. She is her own person with her own little personality.

Relationships with your baby are ever changing. So many different phases. Forever changing and growing personalities. It all creates a relationship that is never the same. Every day it is different. Anna keeps me on my toes every single day and I love it. I loved being her Mommy when she was a baby, even though I was exhausted. I loved being her Mommy when she was a toddler, even though she was not sure if she depended on me or herself. I love being her Mommy now, even though she isn't my baby anymore.

So do any of you have a good way to deal with the preschool blues?

Phases

It is funny how our little ones go through phases. You have the "shoulder slug" stage when they are new borns. All they do is rest on your shoulder, between eating and pooping that is. Then you have the "I want to learn everything I can" stage. This is when they are learning to sit up and crawl etc. Then you have the "I do it myself" stage. Of course this is the stage in life when they realize that most of the stuff that you have been doing for them can be done BY them. This is a very long stage or it was/is for me. Every stage has something wonderful about it and they all have something not so great about it. We are in a new phase now, we are reverting back to the shoulder slug, ok so not really lol. We are going to the "Mommy, hold me" phase. She wants to be attached to my hip at any given moment. Paticularly when I need to get something done lol. I am not sure exactly how this stage came about. Part of me likes it because I miss that baby part so much some days. Part of me hates it because I have gotten very comfortable with the fact that I can have 2 hands to do stuff even if they are diverted on occassion. I know that this phase will be short lived so I am just going to try to enjoy every moment of it, like I have with all of the others.

Tell me, what phase are you going through with your little one? What phase will I have coming up in the near future? If you don't have a little one yet which one do you think you will enjoy the most? or which one do you think you will like the least?