On the Move

It's been a very gradual process, but Anna is full-on walking now! It seemed that every day she walked just a little farther, then 2 days ago, she was walking more than she was crawling.


Timid steps just 3 days ago... (video)

And then today, tripping over her blanket and talking to her brother while he's in the bathroom - we're classy over here! (video)

Anna Update

Last weekend, after confirming that Katy and David both had strep throat, we had four kids on antibiotics at once!! Yikes.  Everyone is feeling well at the moment, but of course they are, they're all on meds. I hope it sticks this time.

Everyone keeps asking if Anna is walking yet. Well....kind of. Several times a day, she takes a few steps, it started as 1, then 3, now she'll take 5-7 steps at once. But she hasn't gone across the room and figured out how to be fast. So for now. crawling is still her main mode of transport. But there are so many developments at this age.

She's down to one nap, which would be fine, except that PM kindergarten means that she has a very specific window for napping. So we've had some tired days trying to figure that out (she really wants to go down before 1:00, but if I put her down early, she's not awake yet when I have to take David to school. If I wait until 1, I'm waking her up on the other end of kindergarten. It will work itself out eventually.)

She's going through that stage where she wants to be held about 85% of her waking hours. And it's not just a preference, she insists. (Believe me, I try every avenue I can think of to put her down for a spell). I know it's developmental, because my blog archives confirm that each of my one year olds did this for a period of time. But how quickly I forget how draining it is! Everyday, performing all my daily tasks with a squirmy demanding toddler on my hip: preparing, serving, and cleaning up 3 meals a day for 6 people, trying to pick up the toys that the tornado of children leave all over the house, dressing and pottying my 3 year old (this is my favorite, by the way. Do you know that we have been full time acting-like-we-are-potty-trained for 14 months now, and he has not ever, not ONCE, said "I have to got potty" and taken himself just to pee. He will do that when he has to poop, but for pee? I force him to go every 2-3 hours, and if I forget, he has an accident. I'm past the point of thinking I did something to cause this - I think we've put in our time on this one.)

But Anna is at that super sweet, super cute, learning-like-it's-her-job age. She constantly does things that surprise me (like pick up a hairbrush and start swiping her hair). Recently we have discovered that she LOVES to "color." She will sit on your lap at the table with crayon and make very faint swipes on white paper forever. And she picks purple first - favorite color? The other day I handed her her blankie and I think she said "thank you" - it had the right intonation anyway. She seems to have a pretty strong will  - she is always trying to grab our phones, and when we put it out of her reach, she lets us know how she feels about it. Once Brian handed her his phone, and she was swiping it with her fingers, like she knew that's what you were supposed to do! It scares me how much technology these babies are exposed to at such a young age.

The other day I got her hair cut for the first time. It's one of those things that I don't expect anyone else to notice or be able to tell a difference, but I really like it and it was bugging me before. So before and afters...

It was getting scruffy and mullet-like along the bottom...

After (doing another favorite activity - emptying the recycling bin)

See how it looks like a little bob in the back? I think it will grow in more nicely now.

In the future, let's just cancel January

So we made it through January, in which we did NOT get back to our regularly scheduled program after Christmas, because we had 4 school days cancelled for extreme cold, 2 no school days for holidays and professional development, one 2 hour delay for snow, and my family added in a few sick days for various kids. In addition to school, all the bad weather and illness has led to cancellations for Awana, Upward, playdates, social gatherings, etc. Anna had pink eye and an ear infection last week and is congested this week. Luke is home from Tuesday school today with a fever (he's only been there ONCE since Christmas), and all the local weather experts are saying there will be no school tomorrow because a storm is coming through tonight. We have not had one normal week in....almost 2 months? We were supposed to have life group last week and five out of six families had at least one member sick. WILL THIS WINTER EVER END????

But somehow, we're still keeping busy. Girl Scouts is time consuming with cookie sales, meetings, and field trips (we went roller skating on one of the days it was 30 below zero - the parents were happy to have something to do out of the house). February is my busiest month with PTA responsibilities, with a Box Tops drive and Scholarship committee. And also...

Anna is WEANED. Let's let that sink in for a minute - after 8 years of almost continuous pregnancy or nursing, I am a free agent. All kinds of emotions about that. Katy, for one, is thrilled, because she's been wanting to give Anna bottles for a year.

Anna was completely ready and is happy with the arrangement. It's amazing all the equipment that goes along with nursing that I'm piling up: nursing bras, nursing pillow, nursing pads, milk storage bags, breast pump, etc. Done.

When Grandpa and Grandma Sue asked what to get Anna for her birthday, I said that she had a lot of blank wall space in her room. They got her this beautiful tree wall decal. The kids had a blast helping us put up the flower stickers on the branches.

Grammy and Papa John came for a visit to see Upward, and they took the kids to Mongolian BBQ one night while I was hosting my Recipe Exchange (group of school moms who exchange recipes and cooking ideas - fun!).  The kids talked about eating at this restaurant for days afterward, they loved the foil helmets.

And they thought it was so fun to make their own "recipes" and then watch it being cooked.

Most of you who read here already saw this on Facebook, but I wanted to put it here so I have it saved in journal fashion:
 In 2000: I wrote a thesis for my Master's.
2002: My adviser asked if I would revise the thesis into a chapter for a textbook he was putting together.
2002-2005: I wrote many revisions.
2006: I was informed that my chapter was cut from the textbook for length.
2008: He passed my chapter to another editor who was interested in it for her textbook, but this one "would take awhile."
2009: New editor brought in another author to update the content (wise).
2013: I was informed that the textbook went to print. I looked at it on Amazon just for kicks.
2014: My hard copy arrived in the mail. 14 years later, after I haven't practiced in the field for 6 years, I'm a published author. AND...they spelled my name wrong.  

(not including the picture of the chapter since it has my last name...even if it's spelled incorrectly...)