One Year Old!

Annalyn officially celebrated her first birthday on Wednesday. She doesn't seem big enough to be a year old. I still see her as my little baby but she is most definitely growing up and learning new things every day. I sure have enjoyed this last year with her. It fascinates me how much babies change and grow in just a year. Look how much Annalyn has changed. Here she is at 0, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months.

Here are some fun facts about Annalyn at 12 months. 

Height: 28 1/2 in (21%) She started out tall but now it looks like she is going to be short. 

Weight: 19lb5oz (40%)

Teeth: 3. Two on the bottom, one on the top

Favorite Foods: She will eat almost anything. She loves anything sweet especially fruits and candy. She especially loves Brynlee's sippy cups and that makes Brynlee really mad.

Favorite Word: Mama

Other Things she says: Dada, mom, mo (more), bah (the sound a chicken makes; bawk), look, and what. If I want her to say something she will not say it but she gabbers a lot. She still likes to growl and blow raspberries.
Things she can do: Wave, clap, give high fives, and blow kisses. 

Walking: She can stand without any help and she can take four or five steps, she would just rather crawl. She is in such a huge hurry to get where she wants to go that she tries to go super fast and falls. I can't get her to practice walking very often either. If she isn't in the right mood, she isn't going to walk.
Sleeping: She would take three naps if I would let her but I have been making her only take two longer ones and putting her to bed around 7:30 when Brynlee goes to sleep. Her morning nap is about an hour long and the afternoon naps last for almost two hours.
Favorite Things to Do: Annalyn loves to look out the window. She can climb on the couch herself and then she can look out there. It scares me when she is up there like that. Her favorite thing to watch is the chickens. Annalyn also loves to go outside. I can't wait unti the days are warmer so we can play out there more. She loves to play with Brynlee and play with her baby dolls.

Annalyn loves to get into things like the dishwasher and the kitchen cupboards. When she does something she knows she shouldn't do she looks at us and gives us a huge grin before she does it. Most of the time she listens to us when we tell her to stop but it does make her mad. When we take things away from her she has started to cry and throw herself to the ground super dramatically. She is easily distracted out of a temper tantrum so they don't last long. 

Annalyn loves to play with things that are in some kind of a container. She loves to climb in the container and take things out and put them back in. If I want her to play with her toys, I just have to put them in a box and then she is all over it. She also loves her pacifier. When she wants something she reaches, points, and grunts until we give it to her. I have been trying to get her to say please but she just looks at me, smiles, and grunts.

Annanly has a calm and sweet personality. I think she is going to be shy. She likes to stay close to me no matter where we are and if someone looks at her she smiles and then hides her head. Oh how I love her little smile. I love that she smiles all the time. It is so easy to get her to laugh or give me a big grin. She is really ticklish and has the best laugh. She is such a fun baby. I love her so much.

Another Brynlee Update

Here is Brynlee's 2 year and 9 month update. I kept debating whether or not I would do another update for her now or if I should just wait until she turns three. I have done a lot more updates for Annalyn than I ever did for Brynlee so I figured it couldn't hurt.

Age - 33 Months
Weight - 31 lbs
Height - 3ft 1 and 1/2 in.   
Shoe Size - 9 
Clothes size - 4T 
Favorite Color - Pink
Favorite Outfits - dresses or pink or purple pants
Favorite Food - Macaroni and cheese 
Favorite Movies - Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Charlotte's Web (the old version)
Favorite Shows- Sophia the First (She called her Tortilla), Curious George, and Doc McStuffins. She watches all of these on my Ipad. 
Favorite Books - Fancy Nancy (she calls it Fency Wency), and Pinkalicious.

Brynlee is constantly amazing me with the things she can do and what she knows. She has a good memory. She is good with names and remembering where things are. She can count to thirteen and I once heard her count as high as 16 without any errors. She can recognize the letter B and knows that it stands for Brynlee. We were playing a game with numbers the other day and she handed me the cards and correctly identified all of the numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6. I had no idea she could do that. I don't know if she could do it again but I was impressed. She can also draw a person pretty well. She always draws a head with two eyes, a mouth, a nose, and some crazy hair.  


Brynlee loves to play with her dolls and her barbies. Lately she has been having sleepovers with them in the living room. She loves to get out all of the blankets and make a bed for them. She isn't the mom of any of these babies though. I told Brynlee she was a good little mommy to her baby doll and she was quick to tell me that she wasn't a mom, she was just Brynlee and I was mommy. The baby doll's mom was at a metting. Apparently Brynlee just babysits all of these dolls. Brynlee also loves to play with her kitchen stuff. Especially when real water is involved. She could spend hours lining up all of the cups and filling them with water. 


Brynlee is really starting to be a little girly girl. She loves jewelry, sparkles, dresses, and fancy shoes. She doesn't like to get dirty either. Joel tried to hug her after work the other day and Brynlee was really concerned that he would get her dirty so she would only hug his back where he looked clean. She isn't my fearless little bug collector anymore. She loves holding the chickens still but those bugs scare her. 


One day Brynlee walked up to Joel and said "Dad do you want to see me look gorgeous?"
"You do look gorgeous," He told her. 
"Not yet" Brynlee said, "first I have to get my shoes on. As soon as Brynlee had her red sparkly shoes on she walked up to her dad and said. "All right dad, now you can see me look gorgeous." I think she is pretty gorgeous myself and I hope she never loses that self confidence.  

Brynlee is very independent. She does things all on her own without asking. If she is hungry and wants a bowl of cereal she will pull up a chair to get a bowl, push the chair over so she can get down the cereal, pour her some cereal, and then pour some milk. 

 

Brynlee only takes a nap on the occasional day when she steals Annalyn's soother and hides with it in her bed. I wish she would take one everyday. She thinks she needs to drink out of a sippy cup for every meal since Annalyn gets to. For several weeks she had a really bad cough and she kept waking up at night wanting a drink. We started giving her a sippy cup full of water before bed to prevent her from waking us up. Now she doesn't think she can go to bed without one. She loves to spray my windows with her water bottle and pretend to clean them. She also loves playing with Annalyn but she can't stand it when Anna messes up her stuff. She also loves playing with her parents and sitting on our laps. Brynlee is so much fun. She makes life crazy but I wouldn't have it any other way. I love you Brynlee. 

Holy Cow!

The other day I was busy getting ready to leave the house so we could go to Zumba. We were all dressed and almost ready to leave out the door. I quickly brushed my teeth and when I came back into the living room I found Annalyn sitting on the floor with one of the gel pack things that go in the dishwasher. Apparently she bit into it because it was all over her face and her clothes. "Oh my goodness" I said as I took the dishwasher tablet away from Annalyn and ran to get a cloth so I could wash her off.

As I was leaving Brynlee walked into the room, took one look at Annalyn and exclaimed, "Holy Cow!" (I have never heard her say that before. Now she says it a lot.) Brynlee was carrying the rest of my dishwasher tablets in an applesauce container. I keep them locked up under the sink but she figured out how to open it. She looked at Annalyn and told her "Girly girl, you aren't supposed to bite them with your teeth."

I washed Annalyn off and then asked Brynlee, "Did you give that to Annalyn?"
"I was just sharing one with her," she told me.

Brynlee is just such a good big sister. I changed Annalyn and cleaned up the carpet. Luckily I don't think Annalyn actually ate any of the soap. She just bit into it and got it all over. We were late for zumba at that point but we eventually made it out the door. It was just another busy morning at our house.

Our February Adventures

February was a good month. The weather warmed up and all the snow finally melted. We were able to play outside a few times. Annalyn loves it outside. She is totally fascinated with the chickens and wants to chase them so badly. There are usually at least three chickens that jump over the fence everyday and they have left chicken poop all over our yard (not to mention all the dog poop from the neighbor dogs) so I really didn't want her crawling around out there. We still found plenty of things to do outside.

Brynlee has been begging to go swimming outside all month. Even though it is warm it is not that warm. I filled up the tub for them one day and let them go swimming in the bathtub. They loved that. At least Brynlee did. Annalyn cried most of the time. Sometimes she loves the bath but on other days she cries during the whole bath.

I love having my sister Heather live close by. We spent several days hanging out with her and her little boy Jakobee, plus the little boy she babysits. She started coming to the library with us on Thursdays which has been lots of fun. We also took the kids to Jumpin Jungle one day. It's a fun place with all of these bouncy houses, and the kids loved it. Annalyn was in heaven while we were there. She could not stop laughing. We also took the kids to Jabbers where they could play. This was the first time that Annalyn was big enough to play with the toys and she had so much fun. Brynlee had fun too. At one point while we were there I looked and Brynlee had found some mom and she was holding her hand and dragging all over the place trying to get her to find a green cup. Several of the other kids there got a drink and Brynlee really wanted one but I told her they were too much money. Brynlee found someone who had a drink and asked them if they would give her some money. I finally gave in and told her she could have one if she gave me some of the money from her piggy bank when we got home. She was so excited about the drink but she was not happy when I took her money.

My mom and dad and my sister Heather all have a birthday this month. My sister Heather and I took my dad out to lunch for his birthday. We went to Sizzler. Everyone got the salad bar except for my dad. At one point Heather and I both got up to get something and my dad was left with all four kids. We teased him that the real reason we took him out was so he could be our babysitter. For my mom's birthday we made her some cupcakes and surprised her by cleaning and decorating the house. We all hid and surprised her when she got home from work. We made a cookie cake for Heather's birthday.

For Valentine's Day Joel and I decided to surprise Brynlee with a treasure hunt. We bought a balloon for both of the girls and we got them some candy and Brynlee got some necklaces. Joel also surprised me with some new jewelry. I made Joel some cupcakes and tried to surprise him with them. I hid them in the oven the day before Valentine's Day thinking he wouldn't look in there. As soon as he got home from work he opened the oven door and found them. Brynlee also told her dad about the cupcakes so he would have found out anyways. It is hard to keep a surprise around here.

When Brynlee woke up on Valentine's Day we had to show her where the first clue was. It was a picture that I drew of the TV. Brynlee couldn't really tell what it was. I am not really an artist. Eventually Brynlee found the next clue, a picture of the fridge, which led her under her bed. From there Brynlee had to look in mom and dad's closet where she found her surprises. She loved her Valentine's gifts and she still talks about the balloons she found in our closet. They are still blown up big.

Later that day Joel came home for lunch and took us all out to a pizza buffet place; after we went to the library. We had heart shaped pancakes for dinner and we put the kids to bed at 7 so we could have an at home date. It was a fun day. I am glad we got to incorporate the kids into the celebrations and make it an exciting day for them too.

Later this month Annanly got sick with a fever. She was sick for three days. We had to miss the library so I sent my dad there with Brynlee. I took Annalyn to the doctor but she thought it was just a fever without a cause. Brynlee has also had a cold and a really bad cough. One day she was coughing and I was feeding the baby when she walked up to me and told me she was coughing too much. She then proceeded to throw up all over my pants. I mean, it was bad. My pants were covered in throw-up. It was all I could do just to move the baby out of the line of fire. As soon as Brynlee had stopped puking she started bawling because she had gotten a tiny bit of throw-up on her shirt. I told her it was all right. She got some on me too. As soon as she looked at my pants she really lost it and started crying even more while exclaiming that my pants were all yucky. I got us both new clothes and then made dinner. I threw my pants in the bathtub so when Joel came home and wanted to take a bath he volunteered to wash them off for me. He really regretted it when he saw how bad they were. I love him for cleaning them anyways.

In other news, I think Joel is getting a raise at work. He finished Heather's salon and had the final inspection on Grandma's shed. We are excited and hopeful that he will now have time to work on all of the projects that are piling up around our house. We got to go to the temple last weekend for the first time in over a year. We had a great time and now have a goal to try and go once a month. Now that Annalyn is bigger we can leave her more easily. We just have to find people to watch her and Brynlee.

Annalyn took her first steps the day after she turned 11 months but she would still rather crawl. She is capable of walking, she is just not that interested right now. Brynlee has been as busy as always and I have fun trying to keep up with her. Life is good and I am very grateful for my little family.

The Joys of Raising a 2 Year Old

      With Brynlee I have discovered that Two is such a fun age. This is the age when the personality really comes out and the ability to communicate is so much better. Brynlee really has such a fun and busy personality. I love getting to spend my days playing with her. And I really don't want to forget what she was like at this age. I have been jotting down several of these stories about her that I don't want to forget but somehow my paper got ripped out and drawn all over. So I am going to record what I wrote down in a better spot; right here on my blog.

      My daughter has done lots of crazy things in her day. If you have read my blog before you will know about how she has covered herself with toothpaste and permanent marker. She has covered the baby with Desitin and she poured half a box of rice cereal in Annalyn's crib. Not to mention the formula she poured on our pizza and the countless other messes she has made.

      Brynlee loves to line things up and pour water into things. She has poured hot chocolate all over a batch of cookies and she poured cinnamon all over the scrambled eggs we were going to have for breakfast one morning. She took a screwdriver and pushed it through the nipples of all Annalyn's bottles. She has poured her own milk all by herself on several occasions and recently she even got ahold of some nail polish and she painted her own fingernails without any help. One day I caught her with an oven mitt on, trying to get our food out of the oven for me. She thinks she is just so helpful. On another occasion she filled up the dishwasher with all of the clean dishes that I had just put away. She is just one busy girl.

     I love listening to my daughter talk. She says the funniest things and she talks all the time. Here are some of the words she says and the way she says them, along with some of my favorite phrases that she says all the time.


WORDS
 Mah-mu-roni and cheese (Macaroni and cheese)
Annawyn (Annalyn)
Farkles (Sparkles)
Frinkly (wrinkly)
Frinkles (Sprinkles)

PHRASES
"That's my favorite kind"
"I don't want that one. That one is not my favorite kind."
"My wants to do it"
"I do it all myself"
"Just a minute" (this one she says all the time whenever I ask her to do something)
"Oh No, It flewed away"
"Seelly mom" (silly mom)
"You seelly weelly" (You silly willy)
"You're my best friend Ever" (I love it when she says this to me)

CONVERSATIONS 
     Brynlee loves to tell me what to say. Especially when we are playing a game. She tries to tell me where to stand and everything. When we are eating she likes to hold up her food and she asks me something like this; "Is this one a horse? Say No Mom. Is this one a frog? Say no. Is this one a lion? Say yes mom." I don't really get the game but is keeps her happy.

We also have conversations like this one.
B: "Oh no, there is a hippo coming into our house. You have to say no to the hippo mom."
Me: "No"
B: "Say it louder."
M: "No"
B: "Louder"
M: "NO"
 B: "LOUDER."
 There are hippos, lions, monsters, and owls that come into our house all the time and scare Brynlee. Although, the girl ones and the baby ones are nice. Brynlee likes to pretend she is carrying them around the house in her hand and she is constantly having me "pap" (pet) her baby hippos.

      The other day Brynlee was playing with her toys on her little trampoline. She colored all over it with an orange marker a few weeks ago. She came and told me,
"Brynlee wrote all over my trampoline. I am so Upset. I am so upset with Brynlee."
 One time she also said to me,
"Look at this mess mom, look at this big mess."
" I see it," I said "who made this big mess?"
"Brynlee did, She in big trouble. She need a go to a time out."

STORIES
      It was really windy outside the other day. Brynlee stepped outside and said,
"I have an idea mom. I have an idea to stop the wind."
"Really?" I asked. "What is your idea?"
Brynlee stood there all serious, boldly stuck out her hand and yelled "STOP" as loud as she could. It was a great idea but it didn't seem to stop the wind.

      We were at my sister Heather's house the other day when Brynlee walked up to her and said, "Heather, I don't like to see you naked." No, she has never seen my sister naked so I have no idea what she was talking about. She is just obsessed with things that are naked and she talks about being naked all the time. Whenever she changes she has to make sure everyone around her has their eyes closed so they don't see her naked.

      The last time I took Annalyn in for a check up I had to take Brynlee with me. They had me take off Annalyn's clothes and Brynlee told the nurse, "I don't like to see Anna naked." The nurse just laughed and assured Brynlee that we could leave Annalyn's diaper on. As soon as the doctor walked in Brynlee told her "You need a get me a sucker." Luckily the doctor just laughed and told Brynlee she could get one when we were done. As soon as Brynlee got it she then demanded that the doctor open it for her.

      Brynlee loves the movie Cinderella. She watches that movie all the time. The other day she grabbed a washcloth, got it wet and started scrubbing my kitchen floor while she was singing; "Sing sweet night a girl, sing sweet nigh a girl, ah ah ah ah ah." (If you don't know what that is from you need to watch Cinderella)

      Brynlee likes going to Zumba with me so she can exercise. Lately I have had to hold Annalyn several times and this makes Brynlee really jealous. I try to hold Brynlee for at least part of a song but that is just not good enough for Brynlee most days. One day she was mad that I wouldn't hold her so she went up the lady (Sis. Hellewell) next to me and got her to hold her. Now every time  Sister Hellewell is there Brynlee tries to be held by her.

      One day we were at Zumba and both of the girls were playing in the gym when I looked over and saw the baby put something in her mouth. I went over and found it was some kind of a mint. I asked Brynlee where Annalyn got it from and she said "I gave it to her because I didn't like it." When I asked Brynlee where she got it from she marched over to a purse that was sitting on a chair and pulled out a tin of Altoids. She stole it from someone's purse. We had a long talk about asking before taking things.

      We went to Walmart a few weeks ago and I had both of the girls by myself. Brynlee was not that excited about sitting in the back but I promised her some gum if she would be good. Luckily she was good because Annalyn kept trying to get out of the cart. I got some sprinkles so we could make a birthday cake for my mom and I gave them to Brynlee to set in the back of the cart. It was getting kind of crowed back there because we had to buy several things. Brynlee brought her purse with her so I checked it before we left to make sure she didn't hide anything in there and then we got Brynlee some gum and headed home. The next day when we got in the car Brynlee picked up her purse, opened it, and pulled out the sprinkles that were hidden in a little side compartment. I realized right away that we didn't pay for those sprinkles. The next time we went to Walmart we bought some more sprinkles and I had the cashier scan them twice so we could pay for the ones we stole. We have got to get her away from this life of crime.

I was doing the laundry one day and hanging up my clothes when I noticed that one of my shirts had a big cut mark down the back and several little ones on it. Someone took a pair of scissors to it. I questioned Brynlee.
"Brynlee do you know what happened to my shirt?"
"Yes."(said with a huge grin)
"Did you cut my shirt?"
"Yes, I did."
I still have no idea how she found the scissors.

On Friday Brynlee got out all of my pitchers, pots, and pans and she filled several of them up with water and lined them all along the kitchen. I made her stop and put everything away and she did. Then when I went to make dinner that night I grabbed a pan out of the drawer and water went everywhere. Brynlee didn't bother to dump out the water. She just put them away with the water still in it.

My dad and my little brother, Josh, watched Brynlee for me the other day. When I went to get Brynlee from their house she was crying. Apparently she told Josh she was tired and wanted to take a nap and he believed her. He turned on a movie for her and set her up in the spare bedroom my parents use for foster kids. When Josh went to check on her she had changed into a way too big pair of pajamas and she was trying to put on some pink panties that she found in there. Josh made her change and clean up the big mess she made. This in when I got there and Brynlee was still mad that Josh wouldn't let her wear those pink panties. I reinforced the decision Josh made. Brynlee didn't need to wear those panties. The next think I knew Brynlee was in the bathroom sitting on the foor right next to the spot where she had peed. She had a huge grin on her face and she looked at me and said "I need some new pink panties mom." She didn't get them. I had some spare ones in my bag.

My dad told me he had a long day with Brynlee because he forgot how busy little kids can be. She kept getting into the pantry and playing with the spices and she covered the dog's tail in hand sanitizer.

Yeah, this girl is constantly making me laugh and I sure do love her. There are plenty more stories I could write but I will save them for another post. This one is long enough.

My 11 Month Old

Little Annalyn really has been a joy to have in our family. I couldn't imagine life without her. She is so busy these days and fun to be around. She has such a great little personality. She is fairly easygoing but she is also good at letting us know when we want something.

She plays great with Brynlee. Sometimes I think Brynlee is being too rough and Annalyn is just laughing like crazy. Annalyn loves to be held and cuddled, especially if I am holding Brynlee; but she doesn't like to stick around for long. When she is done being held she just hurls herself down. I think I am going to drop her on her head every time. She just has no fear.

Annalyn is so close to walking. She walks along everything and will go from different pieces of furniture if they are close. She can also stand on her own for several minutes. As soon as I try to get her to walk, she takes one step and then falls to the ground and crawls. When she wants to do it she will. She is a really fast crawler so for now she doesn't really need to walk. She really likes to walk while she holds onto my hand and she can walk well with only one of my hands for support.

Annalyn loves stuffed animals and baby dolls. She loves to hold and cuddle them. She also loves to be outside where she can watch the chickens. When she sees something she wants she reaches out her little hand and then opens and closes her little fist. If I don't get it right away she hollers at me and grunts until I she gets what she wants.

Annalyn can say mama and dada. She says mama all the time which makes me so happy. She can also sign "more" but only if she wants to. She wont usually do it when I tell her to. We are working on please but she would rather reach and holler until she gets what she wants. She makes all kinds of sounds all the time. I really think she says, what and look sometimes. Whenever I look at her she goes "wha." I think she is trying to say "what?" but who can really tell?

 Annalyn loves her soother, eating food, balloons, play doh (she likes to eat it), books, and playing with Brynlee. She loves to crawl into containers. She doesn't like getting her diaper changed or wearing hats, headbands, or shoes. She sometimes keeps them on for a little while but most of the time she takes them right off. She sometimes loves to take a bath but on some days she cries the whole time. I took the girls to JumpTime and Anna had a blast jumping on all of the bouncy stuff. She laughed the whole time. It was so fun. She sleeps good most of the time, I just wish she would sleep in a little more. I am not liking waking up at 5:30 or 6 am every day. She just has so much to do she can't sleep any longer I guess. I sure do love this little girl.

Brynlee's First Haircut

Brynlee got her first haircut on Tuesday. At least, she got a trim. My sister Heather evened out the back of Brynlee's hair. I did get a few pictures to document the event. Brynlee almost has enough hair for me to cut her some bangs. I was talking to my sister Heather about how she almost needed her bangs cut and she suggested that we give the back of Brynlee's hair a trim so that it would look more even and a little bit healthier. It took us a while to convince Brynlee that this was a good idea. Now that my sister Heather has a salon at her house it was quick and easy for her to sit Brynlee in the chair and trim her hair.

When Brynlee was done with her haircut she insisted that Heather put it in a pony tail. She was actually pretty good during the whole thing. Luckily it didn't take Heather that long and Brynlee had fun making funny faces in the mirror. She was also excited to get a sucker from Aunt Heather. Now she just need to grow her bangs a little bit longer so we can give them a trim too.