No Longer the Always Perfect Little Angel

By Carmen

Up until recently Tyler and I thought we had the perfect child.  We would often hear other parents complain about their toddler’s  almost daily tantrums.  We knew Annley would start having little tantrums but figured they would be few and far between and wouldn’t last long.

Boy were we wrong.  We are to the  Little Miss Bossy and daily tantrum stage now. There are days where she is like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.   Those are the days where it takes every ounce of patience in my body to not lose it. Th0se are the days where I know the minute I say the words “no” or “not right now” Annley will start screaming and flailing about for 15-20 mins sometimes even a good 40 mins.

The first time this happened I thought something was horribly wrong with her.  She wanted to be held but she didn’t want to be held.  She wanted to rock and she didn’t want to rock.  Nothing would console her.  It wasn’t until an hour after the outburst I thought back to what triggered it.  She had asked to watch “Little Mermaid” and I said “no”.  When I realized that’s what it had been over I was half mad at myself and thought it was a little funny that it didn’t click in my mind what the problem was.

Now, she goes to time out for some alone time and whenever she decides to calm down I talk to her about her outburst and then we cuddle for a few minutes.

The fact that she talks so well is a blessing because she can tell us what she wants. It’s also annoying because she can tell what she doesn’t want and what she isn’t going to do.

Finally Free

By Carmen

We have been trying to get Annley to go to nursery now for 2 months with no success.  Our Sundays usually consisted of lots of tears and drama.

This Sunday started out very much the same but Tyler and I agreed not to come to the rescue this week.

I left her screaming “MOMMY” “MOMMY” which was sad but she survived. The Sister in nursery said assured me that she would come get me if Annley couldn’t “handle it”.

All during Relief Society I kept waiting for someone to bring Annley to me but no one came.  I was pleasantly surprised.  I went to check on her during Sunday School and found her sitting at the table with the other children coloring.

She made it through all of nursery by herself for the first time ever.  I couldn’t believe how happy I was.  Hopefully we won’t have anymore problems taking her to nursery.

It was the most pleasant Sunday Tyler and I have had in over a year.  We made it through with only one minor embarrassing incident.  During the closing prayer Annley was watching Allie, a friend from nursery and she yelled out as clear as a bell “Allie, sit down”.

Catching up

By Carmen

So I’ve really been slacking on posting lately.  Life has been pretty hectic the last couple of weeks so here is a quick look at what we’ve been up to. There are a lot of pictures from different things we’ve been up to the last 2 weeks.

First was our trip to the Pumpkin Patch.  Annley loved it.  I’m not sure what she enjoyed most;

The horse

The Goats

 

Or the Pumpkins

or the pumpkins

 

A few days later we went Nana, Elyse, Annley and I went for a drive from through the upstate (SC) up to Saluda, NC.  I love taking this drive during the fall.  The mountains are beautiful this time of year.

First we stopped to eat at Aunt Sue’s, a restaurant not far from table rock.

Then we trespassed on private property to get some pictures of Table Rock.

  

What would be a scenic drive without a waterfall?

Our next stop was to a bridge that was built in 1820 and was the only route between where ever the bridge is and Asheville.  We walked down part of the trail.  It was Annley’s favorite part of the trip.  It is pretty hard to get pictures of Annley smiling so I had to post these too (I figured it was relevant since she was on the trail).

 

The next couple of pictures are from my favorite view of the drive.

 

HALLOWEEN

This year Annley was Alice from “Alice in Wonderland”.  One of Annley’s cousins was Alice last year so we were able to borrow a costume.  She loved the dress.  She also loved all the Halloween decorations and candy.

 

  

 

Now we are in the process of painting and fixing up the house.  Tyler sent me to Georgia to stay with my parents for a few days while Tyler and Lori primed the walls in the house for us.  While we were there Annley was able to spend more one on one time with her grandpa than usual.