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.

Awkward Sibling Pic, v. 11

Well, my kids have (mostly) figured out that the gabbles go on your eyes, not above them. And have (mostly) figured out that no one calls them gabbles but our family.

This is a framer, yes?

Everyday Sweets

I was all set to write about yesterday, today, and tomorrow, but it turns out I don't have very many interesting things to say (I barely remember what I did yesterday.... grocery shopping? yeah, that's the stuff of a great blog post -- and I have no real plans tomorrow, maybe we will go to a park with a carousel and ride it?) EXCEPT that I did try a new masters swimming class thing at my gym this morning. I worked hard and it was really fun. Maybe I will have more thrilling things to say about that at some point but for today: giant smiley.

And  with nothing else exciting to report, look at these sweet things that happened this week.

When Mark took the big kids to tee-ball on Tuesday, Charlotte and I lazed on my bed and talked and snuggled and took selfies and oh man she is still just... delightful.

All my babies, thumbs in mouths, watching Mister Rogers per our Saturday evening tradition. You know, just average everyday things that make your mommy stop in her tracks and melt a little.

Whoa. I HAVE THREE KIDS. Sometimes it just hits me all funny and I'm a little in awe and then I smile a lot.

Who Wore it Best: Pigtail Edition

{It has been A WEEK and I don't feel like thinking or blogging about any of it, so we are doing this instead.}

Charlotte has reached a new special girly milestone: baby's first pigtails!

Besides suddenly looking waaaay older, which isn't my favorite, her sweet little hair was adorable in those wispy piggy tails, and I LOVED IT.

However, other people (*ahem*) smiled a little, proclaimed her cute enough I guess, but hmmmm odd, and then got all nostalgic about Anneliese's pigtails. Talking something or other about how apparently, Anneliese's curls made the cutest pigtails ever. And precious and lovely though Charlotte may be, if it came down to a Who Wore it Best contest -- curls beat wisps, so Anneliese would win every time.

WELL. That sounds worth exploring.

So, at the risk of setting up our daughters for a future as Kardashian-types, we are pitting them against each other now in a high-stakes hair fashion contest. To keep it fair, instead of a pic of Anneliese's first pigtails (which were a bit younger than Charlotte's), I chose a picture of her at the same age Charlotte is now (two years plus two months).

So. Who wore the pigtails better?

(Winner gets extra parental love. HAHAHAAAOMG SIMMER DOWN I AM KIDDING. Winner gets extra trust fund money to pay for therapy. STILL KIDDING. Probably. No seriously, who wins, wisps or curls?)

Tiny Dancer

So, here is a cute thing that Anneliese has been doing:

DANCE.

She started this summer in a creative movement class at a random chiropractic studio in North Raleigh, just to find a "camp" thing to try, and she really liked it. So this fall, we started her in real dance lessons.

Remember Mark's very first ASP trip? His work group co-leader was this lovely gal from our church named Hillary, who has since opened up a dance school, so she is now Ms Hillary and is Anneliese's teacher and Anneliese loooooves her.

getting fitted for her first ballet shoes

We thought Anneliese would mostly love dance for the shoes (tap and ballet) and the outfits, and don't get me wrong, she totally does. But she also is good at the dancing. What.

She forgot her shoes that day,
but these are the best pics I have remembered to take.

Like, she listens well and copies the movements and remembers the order to do them, and it all feels very foreign to me, since I never did dance as a child and it always seemed like something other people do. To see my kid doing great at it is... weird. And awesome.

(This is Mark and I feel about taekwondo too.)

Charlotte is actually the danciest of all our kids, but she isn't quiiiite old enough to take classes yet. Although she watches through the window and dances along better than I would think she can.

Big sisters have all the fun, don't they Booler?

So, yeah. Dance. It's a thing that is happening.

VCS: Kindergarten Zebras

Hey while I am catching up on blogging I should totally tell about our VCS week even though it was almost a month ago. (Our church calls it VCS instead of VBS because we can't just... name things like everyone else. I'd give you ten more examples but I'm already bored of talking about it so just take my word for it.)

So, VCS. The popular thing (at least among my own lovely circle of internet friends) seems to be using vbs weeks for a break in the summer where the kids are covered and at-home parents get to relax at home in the sweet sweet air conditioning. And I will do that! I have big plans for that! When they are all old enough to go. But for now, the girls aren't (yes, even Anneliese, who is just a few months shy of four but is still "a two" as far as the school year is concerned) so I figure these are good years to throw myself into the volunteering effort since there are nurseries for the littlest ones whose parents are there helping. 

I have done a variety of helps over the past few years (food, nurseries, music, etc) but this year I wanted to teach (for some reason?) (oh right because I love five-year-olds #fiveforever) so I took on a class of kindergartners (including Nathan! they gave us the option to teach our own kids or not, and I thought with him it'd be fine, and it was) with my sweet friend Jeanine -- who besides being really good at karaoke, which is a skill only sometimes useful at vcs, is a preschool teacher by trade. Because I am no dummy when it comes to picking people to work with. She is smart. And fun. And can whip out an art project or game faster than I can stand there slack-jawed and try to fumble for the camera to capture her craft time wizardry.

I digress.

So, teaching. It was lovely. The curriculum (about a world's fair, teaching a "neighborly" trait every day with a scripture story to go with it, and a neighbor country to learn about alongside) seemed random to me at first but then came together beautifully.

And our class was crazydorable:

We had a great youth helper too!

 

neighborly kids -- washing each other's feet and role-playing the good Samaritan

a craft of Japanese cherry blossoms, and making ourselves
into zebras from Zimbabwe -- there were lots of kindergartners,
but our class was the only class of zebras!

special snack on the last day

I am told frequently (like, whenever I go out in public with all three of my kids) how alike they look. I guess when they're wearing the same clothes, I can kind of see it?

Anyway yeah VCS. That was fun.

Awkward Sibling Pic, v7.0

Guess who loves bathtime, and guess who doesn't love sharing bathtime with their splashy baby sister.

I can honestly say I am sad I ordered Christmas cards before I found this picture.

Apparently They Went to the Park

One of my favorite things continues to be finding pictures Mark took on his phone or our camera of stuff I didn't even know happened.

Wait, favorite? Okay, favorite. Let's say favorite.

(Yes, I know this is basically proof of terrible communication. But we're going with yay! fun! surprising! instead. Just go with it.)

Anneliese pushed Charlotte in a swing! Adorable!

Anneliese climbed a jungle gym by herself! Adorable!

Anneliese road a boat a Pullen Park! Adorable!

Anneliese road a giraffe on the carousel at Pullen Park! Adora... wait. Daddy is spending money on rides and treats that Mommy always says no to. Hmmm.

Okay Daddy, let's smile to ourselves about being spoiled a little bit today. Oh and ride the train. Mommy doesn't need to know.

Adorable.

Awesome not Awkward

True story: when I saw the kids sitting on the floor together, I busted out a camera mostly hoping for something hilariously awkward I could laugh about on the internet. (Look what blogging has done to me.) (Yes, I am blaming blogging for it.)

But then they all looked right at the camera. And smiled. And sat still. And were sweet.

And it turns out awesome is just as good as awkward. Maybe better. Maybe.

Sunday Sibling Moments

We've been a little Anneliese-heavy in these parts this week, but in case you forgot about them, there are other awesome people who live in this house too.

Mark took this one post-bathtime:

Charlotte is channeling her Uncle Brad with that hairdo.

And I took this one of Daddy too. Because it's cute when he pretends he's playing legos just for the kids.

Can you see the snaggletooth in these pics? Yep, thought so.

And there is a dose of easy sweetness this corner of the internet has been needing. My family is sometimes really good for that kind of thing.

You're welcome.

(Me too.)

Awkward Sibling Pic, v6.0

It's been too many months since I posted awkward pictures of my children on the internet and made fun of them. Let's remedy that.

I found this little gem in our photo file after Mark spent an afternoon (what I can only assume was a hot and muggy afternoon) playing with the kiddos outside.

Sweet Nathan, you have no idea the craptastic nonsense going on just over your shoulder. Do you.

Anneliese, no shirt, sweaty mullet. (She announced to us the other day that she was a hot mess. Why yes. That you are. #typisch) She cares not for things of fashion, only that she gets to hold her sister.

Only Charlotte looks properly horrified.

A Sibling (Lego) Love Moment

Sometimes, in the midst of the chaos and the whining and the feeding and the juggling of three tiny growing creatures with their own individual and varying needs, in the midst of feeling guilty about time and attention for all of them, while simultaneously arguing with myself that my time and attention isn't the be-all-end-all, and that siblings, while attention-stealing, truly are a gift, sometimes in the midst of that, I have a moment of clarity about how wonderful it all really is.

And then things feel happy and uncomplicated. I like those moments.

Charlotte: Starting Solids Right

Last week we started Charlotte on solid* food. It was as smooth as it could have been, far far smoother than with Nathan or Anneliese, so I have decided to gift the interwebz with my third-time (read: professional) mompinion on how to start solids the right way, in five simple steps.

Brace yourself, brilliance ahead.

First, wait until baby is eight months old. I cannot stress this enough. The baby food stage is a pain (we've been over this before, right?) and those first "fun" bites quickly descend into decidedly less adorable screamy lengthy messy meals. I thought maybe there was just a two-month learning curve for babies to learn to eat fast and eat neatly. Nope. We've skipped the messy curve altogether, it seems. Delay it as long as you can. (Plus you want to make her really want it. #momoftheyear)

Second, skip the fancy high chair. (Or even the non-fancy high chair.) Any good third baby will tell you that one  all-purpose pink foam seat for eating and bathing and beaching and relaxing is just fine.

Third, start with a food baby will like. Plenty of fruits and veggies are just as easily digestible (or easier!) than that dumb rice and oat cereal that tastes so gross. Why would you feed your baby something you wouldn't eat? (Also it will constipate them. True story.) Do you want baby to hate the idea of solids? Okay then. Charlotte had apples. Huge win. We'll do prunes, and carrots/squash/yellow veggies next, then green veggies, then fruits. Babies can eventually get their cereal (and they do need it, it will be one of their only/best sources of iron) mixed in with things that taste good. Babies will take to solids better if what you give them tastes good. It's really fancy science, I know, but try to stick with me here.

Fourth, everybody gets a turn! Even let big brother and big sister help feed bites. (Why do work they're thrilled to do? That's why you had the other two kids, right?) Plus it's precious.

Bonus points if you can convince all helpers (including but not pictured: Daddy) that opening your mouth as you hope for baby's to open is totally necessary.

Fifth, have enough people on hand to get lots of pictures. From lots of angles. Capture your happy food-eating big girl baby while trying not to cry about how fast she's growing up. *sobs*

This is my official super easy patented (okay not patented) method for starting solids in a way that laughs in the face of other messy tearful alternatives. You're welcome.

*for you non-parents, solid here means not milk. it doesn't actually mean solid.

Sister, Sister

Just a quick early-morning post for anyone else who's up super early on a Friday and in need of some heart-melting.

Every time I look at this it gets even better. *swoon*

(Brought to you by Another Nathan's perfect cameraphone timing.)

Bright-Eyed Sisters

Today's minute of Mommy Lovedrunk is brought to you by my sweet daughters, both of whom manage to smile with their eyes (and light up my life in the process).

It makes them seem curious and engaged. Between Charlotte's wide-eyed long lashes, and Anneliese's sparkly eye shine, it's hard not to meet their gaze and be happy when they're happy. 

Plus, who could resist just one more picture of babies holding babies?

Babies Holding Babies

Nathan and Anneliese both spend a lot of time begging to hold Charlotte. They love it.  Every time we take a few minutes and sit down and let them (and then bust out the camera, of course), I think it's going to turn into another in a series of Awkward Sibling Photos.

But seeing two kids who are so joyful at being big siblings, and a baby who just takes it all in stride, like being adored is the most natural thing in the world...

...well I just don't have much to poke fun of about that.  It just seems sweet and happy to me instead.  Awkward sibling hilarity and snark will have to wait for another week when they aren't being so beautiful and sincere.

Charlotte's Tummy Time

Charlotte is doing great these days.

Well, that's only mostly true.  The real truth is that she's apparently colicky.  We've never been through this (so much for the assumption that third babies are easier, since the parents are theoretically smarter) so we're in new territory and we're kind of exhausted. 

I'll restate: other than the evenings of impossible-to-soothe fussing, Charlotte is doing great.

She spends several spells a day on the floor of the bonus room, practicing tummy time.  Her head and neck are so much stronger already! 

These days, we're doing it mostly on the boppy, so she can have her head up high enough to look around her.  Stretches the time before the inevitable tummy-time freakout by at least double.

And she frequently has Nathan or Anneliese or both crowding around her, making silly faces and noises, which keeps her distracted from the fact that, like all babies, she actually hates tummy time. 

But who wouldn't tolerate a few minutes on the floor, when you have this kind of fun happening around you?  I mean really.

Ok after posting these pictures of all my children sprawled out on the floor, I realize I should be pretending to the internet that I vacuum more than I actually do.  So, here goes: Hi y'all.  I vacuum.  All the time.  So often that I definitely never forget where we keep the vacuum cleaner.

Ahem.

Anyway.  Tummy time.  Siblings.  Sweet fun win.

Meeting Baby Sister

Nathan and Anneliese came home today!  After ten days with grandparents, they're finally back.  And we're so glad!  Even as we were enjoying an easy(ish) quiet(ish) week with just Charlotte, Mark and I missed our big kids like crazy.

They were both very excited to meet their new baby sister. 

Nathan kept asking us is that Charlotte? as if he wasn't sure this is the baby we've been waiting on, this is the baby that's no longer inside mommy's tummy (and he definitely didn't know what to make of my no-longer-pregnant status... he kept touching my belly and asking why Charlotte's not in there anymore)!  He even got to hold her. Charlotte was less than thrilled, which worried Nathan a bit. But he did just fine. :) 

Anneliese was far more interested in her baby sister than I thought she'd be.  She kept saying baby, baby, and wanting to play with her (even when we wanted her to do other things... like eat lunch... and take a nap).  She must have hugged her and kissed her a hundred times over the course of the afternoon.

And... she shared Hattie with Charlotte!  I'm pretty sure that in her toddler love language, that's the sweetest most selfless little gesture Anneliese could have made. 

Yes, I cried a little.  (Regardless of the fact that she totally took Hattie back ten minutes later when she needed some soothing of her own.  Whatevs.  It was still sweet and awesome.)

For a while, Anneliese was so mesmerized by Charlotte that she pulled up Nathan's extra car booster seat and plopped down in front of the baby swing and just stared at her.  Like she was settling in for a good show or something.  :)

After their naps, both kids gave Charlotte the birthday present they made for her at Build-a-Bear a few weeks ago... Kate the puppy.  I couldn't believe it, but Charlotte actually seemed to like it.  She buried her face into its fur, gnawed at it a little, and then dozed off with her head resting on its head.  Made me laugh. 

And afterwards, any time I got up and took Charlotte somewhere without Kate, Nathan (who is already an expert on his new sister, of course) would rush up to me and put it in my lap and tell me Charlotte needs this! 

So now all my babies are happily sleeping under one roof.  Even though the littlest one will surely be awake in the next hour, this still makes me unspeakably happy.  Yes, juggling three will be hard, maybe harder than I'm wise enough to realize right now, but that's still how I want it -- all three of them, at home, with me.