Anneliese at Almost Seven

Okay so there are golden birthdays, but is there such a thing as a golden due date? If so, this is Anneliese's. It's October 7th again, and she's almost 7!

Anneliese these days is made up of big feelings, rainbows, chapter books, dolls and doll dress-ups, spaghetti, coconut, craft projects, an odd blend of sassy and compliant responsibility, a head of loose teeth (though not enough missing for her taste), running, swimming, dancing, Olympics, creativity, bright smarts, and one of the funniest kindest hearts I've ever known. She's into girl strength and also silly girlishness. She's a beautiful singer. She loves school and sleeping late. She does cartwheels the way some people talk with their hands. She's the object of affection and attention from both her siblings. She is our middlest, and she is beloved.

I can't believe it was seven years ago she was inside me and we only knew her as Beanie, the awaited baby daughter I was so excited to finally have.

Once in a while, something your heart has huge hopes for, turns out to be exactly as good as you'd hoped. For me, being Anneliese's mom is one of those things.

I love you, little Beanie. Happy due date.

Anneliese, Almost Six

Last week in Anneliese's kindergarten class, she was the "owl of the week" (because just being student of the week is so last millenium?) and she got to ("got to") make a collage and bring a stuffed toy home and write in a journal about it, and also answer a questionnaire about herself.

One of the prompts was to name a dream she has for herself one day. Her answer? "See a rainbow." When I pointed out that she has indeed seen a rainbow before already, she said "Yes! And it was a dream come true!"

So, that's basically all you need to know about Anneliese and her delightful little heart these days.

But here is some more anyway:

She is reading, more and more. She is writing, more and more. Suddenly the world seems hers for the taking. (Hashtag: literacy, amiright?) She sings and dances and makes funny facial expressions and talks with her hands.

She plays with her American Girl doll and her baby doll and chats about Shopkins and Pokemon. She can build lego sets now, with only a little help from big brother. She can fix her own food and find her own tv show and she has her own email address, which she uses to send very important emails covering important topics such as I LOVE YOU and also I LOVE PARSNIPS and also HI BYE LOVE ANNELIESE, but with far fewer correctly spelled words than that there.

She remains obsessed with rainbows. And wearing as many colors as possible. In another of her school projects, she did a collage (why so many collages, teachers of America? whyyyy) or list type thing of her favorites -- naming her favorite color as a rainbow and her favorite animal as a unicorn.

She will not fit into someone else's fill in the blank, NO SHE WILL NOT. (In the most delightful way possible.)

And she is trying very hard to seem grown up, and to grow up, and to be taken seriously, while also clinging tight to a few vestiges of babyhood: her thumb, and Hattie, and dress-ups.

Anneliese seems to approach the world with the assumption that the world is out to delight her. And, therefore, it usually does. I think this is a good way to live. I think I would like to be more like her when I grow up.

I can't believe six years ago tonight she was still inside me, and now here she is, a bright-eyed funny smiling little kindergarten human, making the world better because she is in it. She is everything.

Happy due date, Beanie. We love you always.

Anneliese at Almost Five

It's October 7th again, and I don't need any stinking timehop notifications to remind me it's Anneliese's due date. Baby Beanie! Who was due on this day, five years ago. FIVE.

I can't believe she's almost five.

I know from experience that five is an awesome age, and while the passing of time is always a little sad, and I will miss her babyhood, mostly I am excited to see what five brings for her. She has grown up so much in the last year. She's gone from a kid just pulling out of toddlerhood, into a... little lady. It is so cool to see. She's a bright spot in any day - happy, joyful, friendly. Delightful, basically.

Amongst our three, she seems like an extrovert, but out in the wild compared to the general population, decidedly less so. She's not shy, but she's not the most outgoing in a crowd either. She's friendly and chatty and easy to talk to.

She loves to swing, and play dress-up, and have books read to her, and dance. She hates being cold. She loves bright colors, as many as possible at the same time. She's never seen a rainbow anything that didn't thrill her.

She attaches to people and craves their love and wants to be with them. She and Nathan remain almost inseparable when they're home, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. There was a hurtful exchange of words last week that shook them both up (me too!) but even that, they've come right back from. I can't believe that five years ago right now, Nathan didn't even know her yet. His life, like all of ours, is so much better because she is in it.

I think, actually, that Nathan and Charlotte and Ali might each name Anneliese as their favorite -- she's a real middle child in that way. She adores them all and is happy to be the in-demand playmate, bouncing between trains and princesses and snuggles and dinosaurs and coloring.

When she does want to be alone (unusual, but it happens) she wants to sit on the deck and look at the sky and the pool. Or swing as high as she can, while singing a song at the top of her lungs. Or lie on our shoulders and close her eyes and suck her thumb. Or paint a picture in neon colors, covering the whole page til there's not any white.

She remains ever loyal to Hattie, who is more flat and less green every year, yet as loved as ever. I made Anneliese a friendship bracelet in June and she requested a matching one for Hattie, and now they both have rainbow bracelets they wear all the time. Yes, still. My four-year-old has been wearing one single bracelet for almost five months. And hasn't lost it. Which, considering the rate she loses everything else under the sun (on my gravestone: ANNELIESE WHERE ARE YOUR SHOES), is pretty unbelievable.

She is incredibly helpful at home (especially with Ali, much more than she ever was with Charlotte... maybe just an age thing?) - fetching things and soothing tears and zipping jackets and putting socks on toddlers. She loves helping. Her teachers at preschool tell me she's the same way there.

You'd think this would mean she's great at cleaning up, but no. NO. NOPE. She leaves a trail of mess behind her wherever she goes, somehow shedding stickers and glitter and feathers and toys that she must pull out of thin air, just to drop on the ground. Some days she literally leaves rainbows in her wake.

She'd rather roll around in a mess giggling than clean up, when it comes time. Well, until the giggles turn to sobs. Cleaning up usually ends in sobs. The effort she will put into not cleaning up seems so much harder than just... cleaning up. I don't get it.

Like every other almost-five-year-old in America, she loves Frozen. She also likes to watch Daniel Tiger and My Little Pony, and she loves the Olivia books. She likes nature magazines and she pores over the American Girl Doll catalog any time it comes in the mail (how can this be starting already?? curses, CURSES to whoever got us on that list).

Her love affair with cottage cheese seems to be over, which makes me sad, even though it's gross and I can't fault her for finally realizing that. But it was her first favorite food! These days she loves hot dogs and bananas and yogurt and mac and cheese, and -- her very favorite food in the world -- Daddy's spaghetti.

She sometimes says really profound things without knowing it: I was sad when that didn't happen, but it's okay because it felt good to hope for it.

Whoa.

She feels her feelings, big, all of them. Sometimes that means she hurts, and it's hard to watch, but mostly I'm really glad she's like that. I'm wired the same way. I get it. It's a curse but mostly a blessing.

She asks every Friday to have a sleepover with Nathan, and we always say yes. She asks every night to be tucked in one extra time. She asks every night for us to leave the hall light on til we go to bed. She tells us every night, still, for years now -- love you night night, like it's all one phrase, like a good-night is always connected to love you. We all say it that way now. She's a good influence on us.

Happy due date, Anneliese. You delight us every day with your kindness and your sweet heart and the joyful way you love people. You are a ray of sunshine to those of us who get to be around you. It's tempting to believe I love you so much that I couldn't possibly love you more, but I know I will again tomorrow. You keep chasing those rainbows, little lady.

Cute or Creepy? And Other New Things

It was clown day in Charlotte's class at preschool. I have no idea what that means, or why it happened, but when I picked her up she looked like this, which was in turns adorable and then somewhat creepy.

I couldn't decide, actually: cute or creepy? And then I came back from some errands, and I saw her in her bedroom window, and I decided DEFINITELY CREEPY.

(I know Miranda agrees.)

Okay now I feel like I have to post something legitimately adorable to make up for sharing that picture, so you aren't left with Clown Charlotte nightmares and never want to read blog posts about her again. So. Here is Sunday's instagram of her, taking a shower (which no longer involves crying!) (and is therefore really freaking precious):

Hmmm what else is new today? I got new headbands for the gym (outlet shopping! yay!) and besides being way more bright and fun than the random Goody ones from Target I have used for years, they are also soft and comfortable and stay put (with my usual bobby pin method) and hold way more stray bang pieces back.

I can only post this picture because I somehow did a great job covering the bald spot behind my ear, which is no joke. Anyway, Adidas headbands. RECOMMEND.

Also Anneliese has started in a new round of swim lessons.

Mark and I both took her (he happened to be off work and the other kids are at school/church on Tuesday mornings, and I blew off grocery shopping since I wanted to come and I was sort of in slow motion anyway) and it was a fun odd thing to be out alone with just our middlest baby. Fun and odd and lovely.

Mark and Erin: preventing middle child syndrome since 2011!

Snow Day Bakers

Last week, by the fourth day off of school, we were getting sick of the snow and looked for some indoor entertainment. So, cue giant messy baking project. (Who am I anymore?)

Okay first - look at these two adorable little bakers, and everyone stop and close your eyes and say a little prayer that they will always be the bestest of friends that they are now.

I am serious. Pray and hope for them, please. I am mommy sentimental, and these two together make so happy it almost aches.

In my mind, this one below was an outtake, blurry with closed eyes and all, but I couldn't quite make myself delete it. Feels like some kind of Moment. Oh my happy babies.

Okay so anyway we made some peanut butter cookie batter, and cut them into all sorts of shapes like dinosaurs and stars and letters and airplanes and snowflakes and punctuation.

We burned some of them. We ate some of them. And we were busy for hours.

Ten Lighter Things

Well, here are some happy things from last week:

1.) Anneliese got a bracelet craft kit for her birthday (amongst other craft kits, including a picture frame kit, which she bejeweled and bedazzled and bestickered, then insisted on using to display the came-with-the-frame cat, of course) so now we are all proud owners of sticker-covered glitter bracelets. Nathan and Charlotte love wearing theirs. Anneliese loves that they love it. This totally seems like the kind of middle-kid thing Ashley would have done as a child too.

2.) Charlotte has perked up considerably.

3.) Yellow belt!

4.) Last week, Another Nathan was out of town so I snuck over to his house and took a real! live! bath! (oh how I miss the awesome bathtub in our old house) (I didn't sneak really, I had his full permission of course) and read my book and got a little drunk on the quiet. I took a picture but then decided it was maybe too intimate to post. Not because I have any issues with my bare toes in bubbly water, but because posting a pic from someone else's bathroom seems violating. Then everyone would know what kind of shampoo he uses! That ish is personal! (It's Dove for men.) Anyway it was lovely perfect indulgent alone time. You should all get friends with empty houses, and then get them to give you the keys. (And then blog about their shampoo.)

5.) Anneliese is now the proud owner of rainbow leg warmers, which she wears almost constantly, often taking off her pants to put them on. You know, to keep her legs warm. (She will not hear a word of actual reason about this. Whatever.)

6.) Nathan got off the bus today doing this:

(For you non-locals, that is the sign for NC State's Wolfpack, and also the sign that his Raleigh upbringing is catching up to his Clemson blood, something that Marky is not super thrilled about but I find a little amusing.) (And by amusing, I mean go, go Paladins!)

7.) Speaking of Clemson, or orange, or making their Daddy proud, or something -- I got Anneliese a new jacket, since the one I was planning for her to wear all winter is at least four inches too short in the sleeves (am a super smart mom over here), and she chose this orange color which it turns out I love almost as much as Mark does.

8.) The cooler weather means Bowden is super snuggly and I do not hate it at all.

9.) We went somewhere last week (flu shot? maybe? I can't remember) and somehow Charlotte ended up with armfuls of stuffed animals, mostly Nathan's (in case that isn't obvious), and she would not put them down. Carried them around for hours.

Waaaaaait this actually might have been the day before she got super sick. Should the sudden insatiable need for snuggles have been a clue? Hmmmmm.

10.) Nathan likes the leg warmers too. Although Anneliese will only ever let him borrow one at any given time. One. Seems reasonable.

(Bonus points for me, for a sleeping-Marky picture.)

Renovation, Days 23-27

This weekend was a strange combination of feeling great about how much progress we're making.... and feeling completely overwhelmed by how much work still needs to be done, how much it's costing us, and how we've spent money in a few short weeks that took us years to save.  It's both scary and exciting.  I think I might or might not be too pregnant (or just generally emotionally volatile) to handle this kind of project gracefully.

But.  It will get done.  It will get paid for and it will get done.

Here's Mark painting the trim in our downstairs half-bath.  I think he looks even hotter than normal when he's working on our new house. ;)

Nick, working on the same bathroom.  I am ashamed to say *I* took this picture, not Nathan, although it looks like it was done with the mad photography skillz of a three-year-old: 

Our new bay window for the bonus room is finally in!  I love it and it makes me oh so happy!  Now who wants to make me a cushion for the window seat bench?

Another Nathan is either doing touchups or yelling at me to not take his picture.  It's one of those.  Maybe a little of both.

Somehow I hadn't been making many lists for the renovation itself, but I finally remedied that... and I am so much calmer and feeling better about what all needs to get done and when/how it's going to happen.  Yes, I took pictures of my lists.  Roll your eyes if you must.

Master bath color samples.  *Sigh*  Yes, I'm at it again.  I picked none of these three, for the record.

Nathan and Anneliese have gotten very good at entertaining themselves if we need to work some while they're awake.  Some days are easier than others.  This is one of the good days, playing together in Anneliese's huge new room (yes, we're giving our middle child the biggest bedroom -- somewhere out there, Ashley is hip-hip-horraying):

In just a few weeks (because it *will* get done) we will be living here!  Wow.

Three

Happy New Year!  Looks like 2011 will be another banner year for the Goettsch family!

Your daily Anneliese: going public

Yes, you've seen (most of) this picture before.  :)