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.

 

Roughing It

By Carmen

Nana, Annley and I went to the ward campout last weekend while Tyler and Papa stayed home enjoying the luxuries of life.

I realized how much I have forgotten about camping once we got there.  Thank goodness Nana was there to show me the ropes.

I think Annley had more fun than anyone.

She played in the dirt the majority of the time we were setting up camp.

Brother Leckie caught a small Brim (fish) and brought it to Annley to see.  She was very excited to see it and she wanted to hold it (it was on a rope) she just didn’t want to touch it.

There was a swing for her to swing on.

There were rabbits and a dog for her to pet.

Kids for her to watch and play with.

And plenty of room for her to run free without having to constantly be told to “wait” or to “stop”.

We bundled up Saturday morning and walked to the ward breakfast while I ate.  Nana and Annley went exploring. Then Annley splashed in every mud puddle she could find.

She was exhausted by the time we left.

All in all we had a wonderful time.

Butterfly

By Carmen

Nana and I felt like these pictures deserved a post of their own.

The first day we were camping I found a butterfly on the way back from the bathroom so I took it to Annley.

 

By the way, the butterfly had recently died when I found it so it did not suffer at the hands of my toddler.

Cookie Touch

By Carmen

Nana and Papa went to Disney world with Tyler’s sister and her family. They brought back a couple of souvenirs for Annley. One of which was a giant lollipop. As soon as Annley saw it she grabbed it and said very excitedly “cookie touch”.

Cookie touch is a segment in one of the episodes of Sesame Street that Annley watched. During this segment a cookie fairy gives cookie monster the gift of turning whatever he touches into a cookie.

Do you see a resemblance between the two wands?

Here is Annley having some Cookie Touch fun.

Two Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

By Carmen

Most of you have probably guessed by the simple fact that we changed the title of our blog that are having another baby.

The due date is April 6, 2010.  We are very excited.

I am now 14 weeks pregnant and the morning sickness (which is part of the reason I haven’t been writing much lately) is finally starting to ease up.

We decided to get a little creative with announcing this pregnancy to family.

I bought Annley this t-shirt. 

The shirt was a little too big so I let her wear it as a pajama shirt.  She wore it to my parent’s house but when we arrived, Dustin was the only one home.  He never even noticed what it said so I changed her clothes before we met up with my mom.

I had to tell my family separately because we weren’t going to be going to be together for the rest of the week and I knew there was no way I’d be able to hide it with as bad as my morning sickness was.

We put the shirt on Annley and walked to my grand-parents’ house.  Papa was out of town for a basketball tournament so Nana and my cousin Macy were the only ones there.

It took my Nana about 20 mins before she saw what was on the shirt.  She very randomly and excitedly gasped “really?”

Everyone was pretty much expecting an announcement sometime soon and weren’t really all that surprised.

Tyler will be posting how he announced it to his side of the family soon (I hope).