For Annie’s 4th birthday we started the celebration at Five Guy’s Burgers. We all wolfed down our burgers and fries in anticipation of yummy cake to be served at home. I had already pre-baked and frosted the base of the cake earlier in the day, but Daddy and Annie put the finishing touches on it together. A tiara was the main theme since Annie is such a cute princess. The cake was promptly eaten, and then it was time for opening presents. Rather than wrap a bunch of gifts, I decided to fill up Annie’s brand new Tinkerbell backpack with the goodies in all the various pockets. Consider it a “back-to-school” sort of theme. Annie soon discovered in the pockets/pouches that she received a princess jacket, birthday t-shirt, headphones, box of chalks for the rarely used chalkboard, Barbie Princess coloring book, drawing pad, Thumbelina cartoon dvd, and LeapPad learning system. I’m especially excited about the LeapPad thingy (Annie doesn’t know it yet, but she is, too.) because it aids in the learning of reading/writing/math skills/etc. {I hope that it will help keep her busy on our upcoming plane trip. It has an outlet for earphones; hence, the reason for headphones as a gift. I also got Mimi a pair of headphones, so she can watch the DVD player on the plane. I wonder if I will get a moment of peace.} Anyway, Annie seemed to really enjoy her birthday and all the gifts she received. She also got some money from Grandma Indiana and Grandpa Minnesota and an envelope of goodies from Grandma Minnesota (which we forgot to give her–we’ll have another celebration the next day), and birthday cards from anuts and uncles. Thanks so much for thinking of her. When you get a chance, take a look at the pictures from the “event” on the memories page under “Annie’s B-day 2007“.

Today is the day my little, princess turns 4. She has been reminding everyone daily since she heard us slip up again and mention it. I’m very proud of the human being I’ve created. Annie is making so much progress in her kid skills, education, and sense of humor (a must in this household). I will post pictures after her birthday “party” tonight. It will only be the four of us, but we’ll party just the same. All day today Annie has been carrying around a pink, gift bag that she found in a closet. In it is an assortment of objects that she’s going to use to decorate her party and bake her cake. The bag has accompanied us everywhere including Office Depot.

Not one to leave anyone out, I’ll mention Mimi as well. Her little personality is so cute. She’s adopted the crossed-dressed crocodile as her baby. Mimi shows no prejudice in her love for others. Various letters from the alphabet are finally starting to inhabit her memory. Now instead of every letter being “E”, “H” is also making appearances. But seriously, Mimi does seem to be making lots of progress in this area. Oh, she also did something that I thought was cute. She brought over her empty snack baggy and proclaimed with much glee, “Mommy, I ate my snack all gone!” I don’t know why I thought this was so adorable, but I immediately picked her up gave her big hugs and kisses. Of course, Mimi was up for it, too:~)

Annie has a new, favorite song and is asking to hear it constantly. It’s called “Toast” by Heywood Banks. However, sometimes her little brain gets mixed up and she requests, “Bread”. This song was a favorite of Mike’s when he was younger, and I about died when it came on XM Kids a few weeks ago. I immediately hit the record button. Now each time we’re in the car Annie begs to hear it over and over. When bread is part of meal, Annie also makes sure to ask for toast and then adds, “YEAH, TOAST!” Just thought I’d share since I’m hearing about it persistently around here (this isn’t as good as the radio version, but it’s acceptable).

In other news, Annie has been greeting me each morning with items she plans to pack for the trip. All these items will, of course, fit into her Dora backpack.You don’t have to remind me that we were silly to slip up and tell Annie about the upcoming trip.

Help me! My husband is trying to kill me! The other day Mike was talking to our German neighbor who happened to invite us on a little adventure on Columbus Day Weekend. Apparently, he, his girlfriend, and her kids have taken a liking to taking bike trips with camping in between. The place they like to go has 185 miles worth of trails. So what I heard from this: biking all day, camping at night, 185 miles. And, Mike thinks this is a great idea. Evidently, in the almost 10 years of marriage Mike really doesn’t know me that well. I can barely bike to/from our house to the neighborhood park. I’ll let you know what the verdict ends up being.

Last month I co-hosted a baby shower for Trang. I was in charge of the cake, favors, decorations. The theme was nautical since Trang is having a boy and has decorated the nursery this way. Here are a couple of pictures of my craftiness (Mike helped with the cake, Trang made the origami boats for the cake):

Last weekend we attended Geo’s birthday party (a friend from Mike’s work). The girls were invited as well, and they had a blast running around with the other kids all night. The event was catered by Guapo’s fajitas. It was wonderful! Of course, cake was involved as well. YUM! I was assigned to be photographer for a bit. Here a few pictures from the festivities:

This is what I was greeted with one morning. Annie was proudly showing me how she dressed up her “baby”. The croc minus the dress was a gift from Uncle Tiger. What comes to my mind is how is this crocodile feeling? He looks embarrassed and maybe even confused. Should I even refer to him as a male anymore? Annie is all about being girly and making everything around her girly. This poor thing had no way of escaping it. Sorry, Uncle Tiger, for defaming what represents Louisiana: gruff and tuff crocodiles.

We were in the car the other day listening to a mix disk that is a combination of mommy and kid songs. While c.d. was transitioning from “Ladybug Picnic” to “Starlight” by Muse Annie exclaimed, “I like this song!” I aked for clarification, “‘Ladybug Picnic’?” “NO! This one,” Annie corrected me. How is it possible that an almost 4-year-old prefers grownup music to silly kids’ stuff? Maybe I should avoid having her listen to my music anymore. She’s growing up way too fast.

Is it just Annie or do other kids her age talk non-stop? I made a meal for a family from church who just had a baby the other day. While cooking it I happened to mention that part of the meal was a new family with a baby. So there it began, the endless questioning. Below are just some of the actual questions thrown my way, most likely asked more than one time. Now keep in mind, I’ve never seen or heard anything about this baby.

1. What’s the baby’s name?
2. Is it a boy or a girl?
3. What color is his hair?
4. What color is the baby’s house?
5. What color is the baby’s car?
6. What is the baby’s mommy’s name?
7. What is the baby’s daddy’s name?
8. What color are his eyes?
9. Does he look like his mommy or daddy?
10. Does he have a garage at his house? {Yes, she really asked this question.}

After either attempting to answer or avoid answering her incessant questions I finally told her not to ask anymore questions regarding the baby? Did she stop? Are you kidding me!!

Apparently, Mimi has developed a phobia for bugs. The other day while in the backyard Mimi started screaming as if she were being attacked by pack of hungry wolves. I run over to see what’s happening. A mosquito had landed on her. Yes, that was it. Granted, I despise mosquito bites as much as getting a paper cut, but her reaction was a bit much. Other than that, Mimi is quite a cute kid. The other day I caught her during naptime in the playroom being quiet as a church mouse. The little sneak. I’ve also been working on teaching her the letters. So far everything is “E” to Mimi. I try not to compare her to Annie who already knew all her letters by her 2nd birthday, but it’s hard to not get a teensy bit frustrated. It will happen one day, I know.

How could I put together such a cute collage of Mimi and then not do the same for Annie? So I did. While Mimi was up to her knees in Clifford the Big Red Dog I snuck outside with Annie to take a few snaps of her. Surprisingly, Mimi never caught on to our disappearance, and I was able to get some fun pictures of Annie. I’ve already ordered both collages to display on easels along with a few other pictures. Mike also keeps complaining that he has no recent pictures of his family displayed in his office. Apparently, only having the free family portrait we got done at the Jacksonville Fire Department wasn’t cutting it anymore, especially due to the fact that his wife is a photographer. I figured I better order some pictures for him, too.

I’ve been busy around here working on web design stuff (www.twinpapers.com). This site will always be a work in progress since there are so many products with constant additions. We would like to eventually change the way the products are displayed (not just by vendor like now) and to also have a shopping cart function where customers can actually pay directly on the site. Right now that is beyond my skill set, but I’m getting there. I’ve got the occasional photo shoot every so often. Actually, 3 photo shoots are scheduled on my calendar. Getting busy with work isn’t a priority though because my girlies come first.

We took Annie to the doctor last week because we think she may have asthma. This incessant cough plagues her daily either usually right at bedtime or after some strenuous activity. It was hard to tell what was really going on since we all had a cough that lasted for weeks (I also had the flu a few weeks ago–ugh). But Annie’s cough has been going on since the beginning of the summer. So for now the doctor has Annie trying a rescue inhaler for a few weeks. If it seems to do the trick then they’ll put her on something more permanent and preventative. Poor Annie! I hate to think of her having this problem and to always have to take a medicine to keep it under control. Keep her in your prayers.

Can I just tell you how frustrated I am with Mimi? She absolutely refuses to put on/take off her own clothes or shoes. I’ve been trying to teach her how to do this, but it’s nearly impossible. Any tips on how to instruct a toddler on dressing skills. I never had to do this Annie because she was alreay a fashion maven by 18 months. Which is normal: for a kid to teach themselves or for a parent to have to teach their kid how to get dressed?

We’ll be heading up to Minnesota in a just over a week. Unfortunately, Annie got wind of it which means she asked about our trip on an hourly basis. She’s since been banned from mentioning it unless we bring it up. I don’t know if we’ll ever learn to not talk about future events more than just hours before. It will be fun to see Mike’s family soon. I’m also excited to go to the State Fair. Mike is very jealous; he was even tempted to get a ticket for the weekend just to go to the Fair. It’s a no go though.

For those who were doubting my ability to update the site more than once a week…I told you I could do it:0

How did this happen?!? My baby is not a baby anymore. After putting on her little handkerchief, it occurred to me that I am longer a mother of babies. My children are now girls. I don’t know if I can even categorize Mimi as a toddler anymore (except that she has a few milestones yet to accomplish: potty-training, sleeping in a big girl bed, etc.). She can run almost as well as Annie. She can talk pretty dang good for her age. And while playing with an 18-month-old the other day, Mimi looked like a giant. I swear all this happened overnight because she was my baby just yesterday. It just can’t be:(

Ok, I’d like you to do something for me. Take a really hot shower, the hottest you can handle, for a good half hour. When you’re done with that take a blow dryer and run it front of your face for about 5 minutes or until you can’t stand it anymore. Now you know what I have felt like for the past few days here. I wouldn’t normally complain, but this is what it feels like in most of my house, too. We have window air conditioner units, so we only turn on the ones for the rooms in which we’re spending time (you should’ve seen our electric bills last summer when we just ran all the a/c units all day long). Going from a cool room to another part of the house is almost torture for me these days. I’m in a perpetual moist state…I feel icky!

Things are finally back to normal around here. We’re back on schedule, but it’s so dang hot to really enjoy the rest of the summer. I decided last week to take a bike ride with the girls down to the park. By the time we got there I was drenched in sweat. Of course, the girls were up for running around and expecting me to keep up with them. What was I thinking?!? Having a pool has been a blessing though. Each day we spend at least a half hour in there. Speaking of which, Annie’s getting quite good at paddling around with her water wings. Mimi, on the other hand, is still pretty reluctant to swim on the noodle or with water wings. She’s still young though, so we’re not worried.

Annie has yet to run out of things to say. She does crack me up a lot, so I can’t completely complain. Any toy commercials that come on t.v. usually illicit the question from Annie, “Can I have that?” My usual response is, “No!” However, I must have said, “We’re not getting that because it’s junk,” at one time or another. After asking me if she could have something and with my usual response being no, she asked me, “Is it junk?” It was very hard to keep a straight face after that. I’m sure that having a set of funny parents helps her have a strong funny bone (okay, Mike is funny, and I like to think I am sometimes). One thing that does drive me nuts about Annie is that she is easily distracted and fulfills tasks at a snail’s pace. Eating meals, getting dressed, cleaning up toys seem to take an eternity for her. As a way to speed her up a bit I started “racing” her to do things. For instance, when she’s getting dressed and I’m getting Mimi dressed I’ll say that Mimi and I are going to win. This method has seemed to work but has backfired a little, too. Now Annie is racing Mimi or me to do all sorts of things, and then she’ll declare she’s the winner with much vigor. I have to remind her that it’s not so nice to taunt her victory like that. Did I create a competitive monster?

Mimi has her fair share of quirks, too. She can now easily climb in and out of her crib and does so each morning after naps. I know it’s time to get her a bed, but I’m dragging my feet for several reasons. The girls have been having a blast as it is with Mimi in a crib; can you imagine if they are both free to roam? I also want to try to get the same bed that Annie has. However, it was a special order from an unfinished furniture shop in NC, and we handpainted Annie’s bed. I’m just not up to searching for the same bed and taking on the project of painting a bed. Mimi is still in no hurry to get potty-trained. I make sure she sits on the toilet at least once a day, but she usually fights the idea. The other day I asked her if she needed to go potty. Her response was (while pointing at me with a stern look on her face), “NO, Mommy!” I’m certainly not going to get her to go potty with that attitude. Mimi’s speech and vocabulary improve each day. It’s so nice to be able to communicate with my kids easily. Mimi even knows how to count to ten in Spanish (thanks, Dora). “Ayudame!” is another phrase spoken by her frequently (it means “help me” in Spanish, thanks again to Dora). She and Annie like to pretend they need to be rescued. Mimi tries to make sure she’s bi-lingual when playing. Mimi’s showing signs of being a chatty Cathy like Annie, but Annie definitely dominates most “conversations”. Having a big sister is such a blessing to Mimi. She loves Annie so much and doesn’t want to do much of anything without her.