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Remembering my almost three-year old back when she was just an almost-two year old.

This is at her early birthday celebration with family in Atlanta.

Christmas festivities and another early-birthday celebration.

This year, Daddy's taking her on a lunch date, we're taking her to Build-a-Bear and Grandma and Grandpa are taking her out to eat and to ride the train and carousel at the mall.

Happy early-birthday to my almost three-year-old.

Heard at our House

Eden talks all the time.

I'm not exaggerating.

When she's not asking questions, she's just talking about her surroundings.  When she's not doing either of those, she's talking to Arielle or "reading" a book out loud.  When she's not doing any of those things, this is what she does.

This was after she had finished her lunch and was drinking some water.  Arielle was playing by herself and I was checking my mail.
I hear her creating a story/dialogue with herself.  And, trust me, it was much much longer, I just didn't start trying to transcribe it until the end.
There are some randomly inserted nonsense words when she couldn't think of any English words to say at that second
and it should be read without pauses.
I hesitate to add punctuation because it sure didn't sound like it had any.

"She said, 'I wanna cookie.'  Momma said, 'Sure you wanna cookie a shush?'  She said 'No, no, nonono no messes, messes. That right. Momma said no messes in here.'
And the dialogue stops. but the talking continues...
"Round, round she was going to the carnibal. Round to a rush too.
Now singing:
"run away, run away, run away."
 Talking:
"Look.  here's a booger shasass.  It hurt me.  Drink, drink. Uh oh, we're drinking closer away."
 Random noises made with lips and mouth...


Chuck says schizophrenics must have two-year-old brain patterns.  I would be inclined to agree.

What I wonder is...
When I am giving her a big, important, serious talk about something or other that she has done or sharing or being kind... is that what is going on in her head the whole time?
I bet so.
arg.


Newsflash!  After Eden woke up from her nap and was eating snack, she started to do the same thing again, but informed me that the bunny rabbits on her shirt were talking to each other.  Makes much more sense now.

All I Want for Christmas

is the beautiful family I already have.

I'm just too proud not to tell you that you must admire my triple victory roll hair-do.  Click on the pic above for a good look.  I was trying to be authentically 40's since we were going with a mid-century, Norman Rockwell feel.  I was so happy my hair cooperated with me for the photo shoot.

I absolutely love it when I can actually see the image that I imagined become a reality.  My friend Jana of Happy Times Photography made it happen for us.  

This one is probably my favorite, although not the one I chose for our Christmas cards.  (I wouldn't want to give that away!)

The Invisible One

A friend of mine, Amy Norris, who has a beautiful and funky clothing line for kids and a down-to-earth-blog about her mom adventures, posted a link to another blog that I just had to repost.

Here it is.


And my addendum is my constant struggle to "seek ye first..."

Heard at our House

Chuck was putting Eden to bed while on vacation at the beach.
She had woken us up the night before specifically calling for him, which is a rarity even though he puts her to bed every night.  It's Mommy she usually calls for.
She had called him the night before only to say that she wanted to see the ocean.  So, Chuck was putting her to bed as usual, but trying to explain to her/convince her not to call him and wake him up in the middle of the night.  He was explaining that Daddy likes to sleep.  Then he paused.

"Well, Daddy has woken Mommy up in the middle of the night sometimes." (He talks in his sleep, sometimes to me.... and sometimes he sits up as well.)
"I guess you waking me up is just my just desserts for waking Mommy up.  But still don't call us in the middle of the night and wake Mommy up.  I don't know what Mommy did to deserve being woken up.  I guess that just comes along with being Mommy."

All this was explained to Eden, but overheard by me.  And I thought it was very sweet.  In a way.

Pictures of Birthday Festivities

Birthday Girl

Happy Birthday to my sweet, special girl who has made our family bigger and better.  This first year made me remember why I don't like infants and why I really love babies from about 9-12 months.  I might have another one if they would pop out about 9 months old.
Here's to you Arielle; the baby of the family, the little sister that is helping to teach Eden the meaning of love, the sweet face that makes me realize that I need to give BOTH of my girls a chance to enjoy being kids a little more, the inquisitive eyes that can talk to me so clearly even though you are already saying some words.  Here's to my baby, my (probably) last baby, my Elly Belly, my snuggle bunny, my roly-poly one-year-old.