It's the Little Things

I am positive I'm not the first, nor the last, mother to express a desire to remember and capture all the 'little things' (expressions, vocal tones, mannerisms, etc.) that my kids do in day to day life at this stage. There are so many moments that melt my heart on a daily basis as we simply go about our routine. Here are a few of Anabelle's most recent... which will probably change next month, so I'm enjoying them while I can =) Oliver definitely has his moments, but for this post, we will focus on little Miss Anabelle.

Anabelle has a few 'token' phrases/words she uses constantly. First off, whenever we call Adam, the first thing she'll say to him (no matter what question he has asked her) is "Daddy, TRAIN!!" or "Daddy, choo choo!" While we usually can follow her thought process, we do not know why she does this. It must be an inside joke (with herself). She also often likes to follow that statement with "BUGS!" Now that one we know is b/c the gym we play at has those stink bugs that she is weary of. But why we need to think of those constantly, I do not know.

Whenever Oliver closes his eyes for longer than 30 seconds, Anabelle is on top of it saying, "Oliber speeping night-night da-bed." No, he doesn't have to actually be in bed, just sleeping somewhere. It's really cute. If he opens his eyes again, she'll excitedly shout, "Oliver, AWAKE!"

If you give her your full attention or look into her eyes, 95% of the time she will giggle.

We have a discolored spot on the wall by the couch which is a result of Anabelle's 'nose on the wall' time outs. When she is sent to put her nose on the wall, about half the time I will catch her with her nose there and her mouth open as she licks the wall. Guh-ross. But kinda funny at night when I'm cleaning up and look over to see a very distinct spot on the wall, marking our attempts at discipline that day.

Adam had the foresight to train her on this one, which I love. Shortly after she was able to communicate, when asked, "Who loves you?" She'd smile and quickly respond, "Daddy." She still does this and I hope she'll continue to respond that way all her life, because that fact certainly won't change.

When in the car, the moment the sun hits her eyes -or legs for that matter- she demands, "Glasses!" I pass back her sunglasses and she nonchalantly unfolds them and puts them on. And occasionally, she'll sport them at night. Or, if there is a bright light in our house, she'll say, "Briiiight... GLASSES!" Our little diva.

She has two blankees whose existence are crucial to maintaining the peace around here. She calls one "Cow blankee" not because it's actually a cow colored pattern, but because it was named before she learned "leopard." And her other pink blankee she usually refers to as "More Blankee" as it's the one I try to leave in the crib so it doesn't get dirty as we drag it around town. Some mornings I'll get her and try to leave the room with just "Cow blankee" and as we leave the room she'll squeal, "More blankee!!" I'm pretty sure that's how the pink blankee got its name.

My mom's 'grandma name' is Lolli. However, Anabelle couldn't say the "li" sound for awhile, so Lolli became, 'La La." And she very purposefully exaggerates her tongue movement when pronouncing it. Our niece, Isabel, calls Lolli "Aw-yee" and we find it humorous that both of them can be together and calling Lolli different names, yet neither one questions the other or adapts their name pronunciation =) Nor do they seem to notice or care that all the adults refer to her as Lolli. To each her own, I guess!

Whenever crossing the Severn or Naval Academy bridge (which is usually at least once a day), AB joyfully says, "Hi, Bridge!" and then "Mommy, me blue swimmingshirt" (which is how she says "swimming suit" of course.) I've tried to get her to imagine wearing a pink or red or yellow 'swimming shirt' but no, it has to be blue.

When praying at night, she likes to repeat after me and will say the highlights of my prayer (ie, if praying, "Please be with our family and friends" she'll repeat with a satisfied smile, 'Please family friends." One week I prayed angels around her room, and now she always remembers that and even if I forget, she'll point around the room on her own and say, "Angels room."

I remember recently when she had her bad ear infections she was miserable and laying around sucking her fingers. I came over to snuggle her and give her Blankee. I said, "Here Anabelle, blankee will help." And she looked at me, cozied up in my lap and started trying to stick her blankee in her ear. Poor dear! It was so precious, but unfortunately I'm thinking blankee didn't do much to help those infections. Anyway, just today we were driving in the car and it was near nap time. Anabelle was sucking her fingers and then violently sneezed. She started weeping and I realized she had bit her fingers when sneezing. I was driving, so had to quickly figure something out to help her. I grabbed one of those squeezable fruit packets on the go (her favorite treat) and said, "Here Anabelle, do you want this? It will help." She tearfully agreed and I opened it and passed it back to her. She was quiet and a moment later I looked back at her and she was holding her hands out palms down, and pouring the snack on her fingers -- apparently hoping the treat was able to heal anything it touched. I love it and her honest intentions made up for the obvious mess that was made =)

And lastly, speaking of messes, this girl cannot handle them! (So yes, she obviously is my daughter - ha!) She'll see the tiniest of lint on the ground or crumb on her highchair tray and demand, "Mommy ged-dit!" (ie, get it) What has been cracking Adam & I up is her uncanny ability to find hair too. Of course, I'm at that lovely post-having-baby stage in life where you get to lose all your hair. So yes, in her defense, my hair does seem to show up all over the house. But she treats it like it's lethal poison or something... she'll cringe and become immovable and say, "Mommy's hair!" until I come and remove it from the premises. The funny thing is that even when we are out and about, if she finds a hair somewhere, or even a small thread, she'll cringe, 'Mommy's hair!!" Thanks a lot AB, I'll try not to take that personally.

P.S. I do have a fun video of Anabelle saying a few of these things, but of course, it won't attach at the moment. I'll work on that, and hopefully you can see some of these things in action soon.