Hats

Despite being adorable in this picture, Ian hates hats.

Hats have become a major source of entertainment for Anja lately, however. It started when she found her winter and mittens at Children's Place about a month ago. They are purple and pink and have owls on them (see previous blog entry). She loves to put them on and play hide and seek or try to scare people by pulling the hat over her eyes and running up to them and yelling "Hoot! Hoot!" It is rather entertaining. A hoot, if you will.

She also went with me to a high school swim meet a few weeks ago. She wore her owl hat, of course. We watched the diving and a few swim events and she was absolutely mesmerized. Although she's seen my swim caps before, she was fascinated by the fact that the girls were all wearing matching caps, but they all had letters on them (their last names). Add to that the fact that these girls were all swimming underwater, some even without goggles (!), she was suddenly a huge fan of the idea.

On our way home, Anja informed me (didn't ask, just informed) that she would wear her pink goggles to her next swim lesson and go underwater. Great, I thought. Now if only we hadn't lost her goggles over a month prior.

After a run to Target the next day where I learned from an employee restocking the golfing supplies that they don't sell swimming supplies year round since it's a summer activity (chew on that for a second), I decided to forget about it. I mean, really, it's not like she would remember that she wanted to wear them, anyway. There were still several days before her lessons anyway.

Then on Monday, the day of her lessons, I remembered who our daughter was. Not only would she remember that she wanted her goggles in order to be like the big girls, but that her goggles were a certain shade of "medium pink."

On the way to the mall after work on Monday, I remembered that there was one of those fancy schmanzy swim schools on my way home. You know, the kind with water that's warm enough so that the instructors can't tell that they just swam into a kid's pee? So I popped in and struck gold. Not only did they have the exact pair of goggles, medium shade of pink and all, that we had purchased the first time around, but they also had funny swim caps for kids. I found one that I thought Anja would approve of and took it home, expecting a "No way, Mommy!" when it came time to put it on.

I was wrong. She loves it!

Now, instead of screaming and crying at the thought of going underwater, she proudly wears her kitty swim cap and goes underwater free of will. With, or without, those goggles.

Sleep Rituals

Earlier this week, my friend Dan blogged about the rituals that young kids have that are so specific, unless you're the parent, you have no chance. The details he shared about his own daughter made me giggle, so I thought I should write down what our kids do so I can embarrass them later.

About 3 weeks ago, Ian would go to sleep then wake up about 3 hours later. He'd nurse, then go back to sleep. Rinse and repeat. Finally fed up, I took him in to the doctor to make sure he was perfectly healthy before beginning sleep training. While there, I mentioned our sleep issues to the doctor. She mentioned that Mommy was no longer allowed to get up to comfort him in the night and that only a bottle of water should be allowed if he was actually thirsty. She quickly became my new best friend. We started that night. I was banished (gloriously) to the extra bed in the basement where you can hear absolutely nothing. After one horrible night, Ian adapted quickly. With only a few nights of minor regression since then, he's been sleeping 10-12 hours at a time. The only ritual he needs is food or milk sometime shortly before bed time and put him down drowsy. Other than that, he could care less.

On the other hand, when it comes to Anja's rituals, some things are seemingly easy. Jammies, book, hygiene, bed. Simple formula. Then the details start to come into play:

Book: One long or 2 short. Books that are downstairs must be read on the couch. Books found upstairs are to be read in her room. Unless it's her 4 book set of Curious George. That is read on our bed and is either 2 or all 4 of the books. She must pick the order and put them back in the box. Also, she wants to hold whichever book you will be reading or have already read while you read the other. And if you're reading Curious George and the Rocket Ship, she must turn the book and read "Blast off!" at the appropriate time. Oh, and if she only gets 1 book, you can bet that she'll want a story once she's tucked in. The story must be told by Mommy and is almost always Snow White and Princess Anja go to the park.

Hygiene: Brush hair. Simple. We must use her pink princess brush or blue comb or pink comb. But you must brush her hair while she's brushing her teeth. She gets to pick her toothbrush and gets it wet. Then we put on the My Little Pony toothpaste and she "brushes." Once we finish brushing her hair, she picks out a different toothbrush for us to use to actually brush her teeth.

Bedtime: Then it's tucking in time. This must be accomplished by Mommy. She must have her kitty and kitty's blanket. Also, Mickey, puppy, and penguin. God help you if she's hidden them. Especially the penguin. She only sleeps with one, but has around a dozen penguins in her room. Once tucked in, the door must be left open "little bits."

Bedtime v.2, 3, and 4: Approximately 5 minutes after tucking her in, you will likely here little footsteps approaching the stairs. She will come out of her room with her Kitty and Kitty blanket in hand and stand or plop down at the top of the stairs until you notice her existence. She will not usually speak, just stand/sit there quietly. Luckily, she's a heavy breather. At this point, she informs us that there are Scaries in her room. We must then escort her back to her room, tuck her back in, wave our arms around while saying "Get away, get away, get away!" and then put a spell on the door to keep out the Scaries by waving our arms up and down (only once) while saying abracadabra. Then say good night, close the door "little bits" and leave.

5-10 minutes later, she'll appear again. This time is for a variety of reasons. Now the threats begin. 1st threat, we'll close the door. If she appears again, we put the toddler lock back on the inside of her door. At some point in time, she'll fall asleep.

Anja is definitely one of those kids with rituals, but the rituals only need to take place if she's at our house. So when you start fighting over who is going to get her for an overnight, might I suggest your place?

Flyin' High

Updates on Ian:

- He is a total ham.

- He is definitely, definitely a Mama's boy.

- He now says Mama and Dada. He started saying Dada about a week ago.

- He loves food. A lot.

- He started being able to feed himself some finger foods, like puffs, earlier this week. This is huge, considering how much he loves food.

- He is a giggly, giggly, giggly little boy.

- With his bottom 2 teeth fully in, he decided to go for the gusto and go for 4 top teeth as once. Despite this, he is still a happy, giggly little man.

- Anja is his hero and can make him laugh or stop crying at any given time. Simply hearing ABCs from her will make him stop crying within seconds.

Updates on Anja:

- She is becoming quite the dare devil. Please note the pictures above. One of her favorite activities these days is jumping. She calls it flying. Any location will do, but the stairs are her favorite. Especially if she is wearing, well, something abnormal. Or nothing at all.

- Sassiness comes in spades with this girl.

- She loves classes of any type. Right now she is in dance class with Miss Gwen, swim lessons with Miss Paulette, and preschool with Miss Courtney and Miss Sandy.

- Forts are another favorite hobby. Luckily, she's learned how to build them herself.

- She is a great big sister and a wonderful little lady 95% of the time. The other 5%, well, she's a preschooler. That's allowed. And no matter what she just did, a simple "I love you so much, Mommy!" will melt my heart.

- She still talks a mile a minute, has a vocabulary of a 5 year old (just ask her doctor), and is incredibly bright. Sometimes freakishly bright.

- Speaking of freakishly bright, she's into learning German! She is upping her vocabulary daily and is excited for our trip to Germany this summer.

Vintage

Today I was trying to decide on holiday outfits for the kiddos. I decided on a simple outfit for Ian because, well, he's wiggly. And for Anja, I didn't really want to spend money on a fancy dress she'd only wear once. So instead, I dug out this dress and Anja fell in love.

Meet my Doppelgänger - Anja.

So I'll be taking it to the dry cleaners today to see if the dress that I wore when I was younger can be cleaned up enough to become Anja's dress. Of course, it was my favorite dress for years and has spent about 25 years in my parents' attic, so there's no guarantee.

Did you do the math yet?

I'm 33.

I wore that dress for years.

(That's an issue by itself.)

It's been in storage for about 25 years.

Yup - there it clicked.

I wore that when I was around 6 years old.

It fits Anja now.

Sigh.

***Update: The dress came out great from the cleaners. Upon seeing it hanging up at home, Anja promptly exclaimed, "Oooh! My dress! I'm going to wear it when I marry Rowan!" I could handle that.

Photo Shoots

Friday was picture day at preschool. I'm very curious to see how the photographer was able to capture 20 3 year olds in a group shot. I'm even more curious as to what kind of smile Anja gave the stranger.

Yesterday we decided to take the kids to a pumpkin patch. As should have been expected, Ian promptly feel asleep in the car. Leaving the boys to hang out in the car, Anja and I headed out to the patch. For the first time in a while, Anja was interested in having her picture taken, quickly suggesting several locations where I could take her picture. After several pictures, we discovered the corn maze. Thankfully, the maze came complete with emergency escape routes for 3 year olds who think they've gotten lost after rounding the first corner, but refuse to go back the way they came. After an excited return to the pumpkin patch, Anja decided that tripping over the vines wasn't worth it and picked out a pumpkin for herself and one for Ian (both from the stack of already washed pumpkins basically arranged for taking pictures). We quickly paid and headed back to join the boys in the car.

And after a last minute shopping adventure yesterday, we had a family photo shoot today. A photographer that Dan's brother and his family use was having a special, so we signed up for a family shoot, thinking we could get Ian's 6 month pictures and Anja's 3 year pictures all done at the same time. The photographer was great, but it really was more of a family shoot and we didn't get many shots of the kids on their own. That combined with the outrageous prices for prints that we discovered after the shoot, I decided to attempt a few at-home shots of Ian. I figure, if he's actually 7 months today, we really shouldn't wait any longer for his 6 month pictures! So here's a random sampling:

Goofy

We are a family of goofs. But you probably already knew that.

Ask Anja if she's goofy and she'll still respond, "Noooo! BOPPA's Goofy, silly goose!"

That never gets old.

But we now have another ham in the family.

Ian likes nothing better than a good belly laugh. In particular, he loves to be tickled (including the inside of his belly button for some reason) and frequently, even looking at Anja is enough to set him off. It's no wonder that his pediatrician commented that he is one of the happiest babies she's ever seen.
Those pictures were while we were waiting for the pediatrician to show up. He was such a giggly little guy that the nurse thought it was a well check visit. It wasn't. He has another ear infection. Those pictures are of a sick little guy, but you'd never know it.

But in addition to being a goofy little guy (and a sick one), he's also most definitely a mama's boy. Mommy out of the room? Tears. Mommy in the room? Giggles. And his latest trick? Yup, that's right. His first word is officially Mama! Anja said Daddy first, so it's now equal.

And for added goofiness, we are planning our first trip to Disney World this February. I haven't been since I was 9, so this is probably most exciting for Anja and me. She is obsessed with Mickey, Minnie, the princesses and the whole gang. We are waiting to tell her about going to Mickey's house until we are much closer to the date. Potentially the day before. Any suggestions on how to tell her where we're going? I fully intend on telling her while she's wearing a pull-up, just in case she's really excited!

Third

This is Anja right now. Yes, she is wearing pants. No, she is not wearing a shirt. It wasn't removed due to warm weather or even toddler tantrums. Her last outfit is covered in puke.

This morning was a regular morning for us. Kids slept fine, but got up early. Then we went to Nana and Boppa's house to pick up some toys from when I was growing up. Anja played with her cousins for about an hour.

Then all hell broke loose.

Anja complained about her ear hurting and was crying uncontrollably. Behind her ear was red, dry and tender to the touch and she was tired and asked to go to bed. So we put some ointment on it and took her up for a nap. After 30 minutes of all out sobbing, we noticed she now had a rash and it covered a large portion of the back of her head. We gave her some Benadryl and packed the kids into the car and headed out. About a mile from my parents' house, she puked. Everywhere. We bee lined it for a closer urgent care as she continued to puke and complain about the stench.

Thankfully, there was no one else at this urgent care, so we got in right away. And the diagnosis? Heat rash and double ear infection.

Again.

Three weeks ago she received penicillin for strep throat. It didn't work.

Two weeks ago she was put on a 10 day course of amoxycillin for strep, double ear infection and double eye infection.

Today she received a different shot AND will be on a 5 day course of Azithromycin. Hopefully the third time's the charm.

*Note: I wrote this from my phone while waiting for Dan to pick up Anja's prescription. I lead a glamorous life. Try not be so jealous.