baby name

In case I haven't told you yet, the baby's name will definitely be Annabelle Shannon. Of course, that is assuming she's a girl--a friend from church had a baby last week and they had predicted the wrong sex. You never really know until the baby is in your arms!

Bekah and Granmommy

Moving along

Annabelle is growing, growing, growing. All the measurements are where they should be and everything seems to be going fine. I had a wonderful baby shower a couple of weeks ago and got some things I wanted and never bought when Rebekah was a baby. We also got lots of adorable baby clothes and bibs, and there seemed to be a theme of yellow giraffes! The best part about it was celebrating with my friends. I've been so busy and I'm not taking any time off work, so it was nice to stop and just do baby things for a while.

Valentine's Day

We celebrated Valentine's Day (a little early) with a special cake that I came up with. I attempted to make a Twix cake because that is Shannon's favorite candy bar. I used my Betty Crocker Bake 'n' Fill pan set and baked a chocolate cake in the dome pan and the filler pan. I put caramel and chopped Twix bars between the layers and topped it with Cool Whip and more chopped Twix. It was muy tasty, and as you can see from the picture, Rebekah was quite pleased.

There were just a couple of elements that I hadn't thought through. I thought of several different kinds of caramel to use and settled on melting caramel candies to make the filling. It was very gooey but it didn't leak out of the cake. But topping it with Cool Whip meant that I had to store it in the refrigerator. The first slices of cake were fine, but the next day, the caramel was really tough to
eat. Next time I'll use a different kind of caramel--and there will be a next time. This cake is yummy!

Rebekah thinks that Valentine's Day is the best thing ever because she had a party at church, cake at home, and a party at school. She has been going through all of her valentines and wishing everyone Happy Valentine's Day all week long. But she also thinks that she got a birthday cake for Valentine's Day. Anything with icing is a birthday cake to her!

Shannon gave me some daisies in a pot (I always like plants rather than cut flowers) and some Hershey's extra dark chocolate. There is a ton of chocolate in our house right now, but I haven't come close to being tired of it yet (especially since Annabelle is helping me eat it!).

Annabelle update

I had a doctor's appointment on Monday and everything looks great. I gained a little more weight and a lot more belly, but all the measurements are right on target. We have made some progress in the middle name department--she might just be named Annabelle Shannon. But don't go monogramming anything just yet. We're definitely set on Annabelle, but the middle name still might change. Rebekah doesn't like Annabelle Shannon. She thinks her sister should be named Annabelle Girl, and she has started telling everyone that. I bought Rebekah an Easter dress this week, but I don't think we'll save it for Easter. I fully intend Annabelle to be here by Easter, so we probably won't be at church. And if you do see me at church on Easter Sunday, I'll probably be a very grouchy pregnant lady.

Our little terror...uh, I mean sweetheart

Wow! Has Rebekah been a handful lately! I don't know what's going on, but I hope she snaps out of it quick. Here are some high points of the past week:

• We went to a friend's church to see her baby baptized, and Rebekah threw a massive fit--make that three massive fits. She has pretty much outgrown the temper tantrums, but they have made a resurgence lately. The problem was that she really wanted to be in the sanctuary with everyone else, but she is just not old enough to sit still for that long. So when she started making noise and crawling down the aisles, I took her out. Which prompted the screaming fit. And my total embarrassment because we were in the front row with our friends because of the baptism, and I had to walk past the whole congregation with the screaming child. We pretty much missed the baptism.
  
• She wants to be fed like a baby. She refused to eat lunch at school one day because she wanted her teacher to feed her.
• She has not had a potty accident in weeks, until yesterday. I had to pick her up early from school because she had TWO accidents in one hour and had no more clothes to change into. Later that night she peed all over the living room floor. And I mean all over. She literally ran in a circle around the room while she peed.
• Same night, she was taking a bath and filled up her bath cup and dumped water all over me outside the tub. She has never done that before.
• Tuesday morning she woke me up, and I got out of bed and walked past her to the bathroom, thinking she would follow me. She stayed in my room and cried. I went back to check on her and she wouldn't tell me what was wrong or let me hold her. Finally she said, "I thought you didn't want me." How sad! Usually I follow her to the bathroom, and she got all upset when I left first. She told me that she wanted me to get back in bed, and I thought she wanted to lie down together. No. After I got in bed, she "woke me up" again so that we could start our morning routine the right way--we just had to start over from the beginning. And everything was okay after that.
• She has been waking up crying three or four times at night. Last night there was a monster in her room, and I had to say, "Yar!" and scare it away. ("Yar" is her version of a roar, and it is effective for scaring away any number of unpleasant imaginary visitors. And she has a lot of imaginary visitors.)

That's enough for now--you get the point. Something is troubling our little girl this week, but we haven't figured out what. I've been trying to balance discipline with extra hugs and kisses so hopefully she will feel better but also realize that she can't just misbehave and throw fits because she feels like it. Not easy, but that's life with a toddler (and probably a preview of her teen years!).

Speaking of babies

(and aren't I always speaking of babies?)

Our new baby niece, Kyra Lynn, was born last week to Shannon's sister Mikka and her husband Chris. And, of course, big brother Kade. Yea! But we won't get to see her or Juran and Randi's little Grace for awhile, since I'm very much pregnant and an eight hour drive away. That's why we love digital cameras.

Baby crafts

There are more and more babies all the time! Last year, among my friends and family, there were five new babies, and this year there will be at least five more, not even counting Annabelle. So this week I have been sewing after Rebekah goes to bed at night. It's nice to have a sewing machine now--I can make crafty gifts much more quickly than some of my other hobbies. I actually started crocheting a pair of booties for Annabelle while I was sitting at the hospital waiting on Dad's surgery. I hope I finish them by April, but I can't make any promises. Those little buggers take a long time.

Here's what I've made:

I'm of the opinion that you can't buy a decent baby blanket--they're all too small or too heavy--so I like to give homemade baby blankets as gifts. That also lets me pick out fun patterns and colors. So there are four blankets for four babies coming between now and May. I've already made one for Annabelle, but she'll probably get another one. I don't think that Rebekah is willing to share hers.

I also made this, which came out of my own imagination:

It's a lovey. It's a square of about 11 inches, with bunny ears on one corner and two tails on the another. It doesn't really look like anything, but I think a baby would like it because it is easy to hold in tiny fingers, and it has the fun little pieces on the corners to chew on. And it's safe for a baby to sleep with. And you can throw it in the washing machine. It's a good way to use some scrap fabric. I didn't make one of these for Annabelle, but I probably will later.

Bekah also got a valance in the yellow Care Bear print to go on one of her windows. It doesn't match the valance on the other window, which is a blue Care Bear print, but she picked it out herself. At least we're consistent with the Care Bears. Which is why Annabelle needs new crib bedding. I think big sister's Care Bears are off limits for the new baby.

big week

We had an eventful week. My schedule for school is thrown off because of the ice storm, but things are starting to settle into a routine with the class I'm teaching. I'm teaching Advanced Composition this semester, and it is a combination of on-campus meetings and online activities. When the baby comes in April, it will be totally online, and I'll finish teaching from home. The online part was convenient this week, too, because I had to be out of town on Wednesday and Thursday for Dad's surgery. It was a long and stressful day, but he did fine and is back home now. Rebekah and Shannon had a couple of days with just the two of them, which doesn't happen very often. I think they had fun, but we were all ready to be back together. Yesterday we went to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch and Rebekah played there for three hours. I thought she would never get tired, but after we finally left she fell asleep on the way home and didn't wake up until almost 6:00 p.m. (which made bedtime much later, but she was still up at 6:30 this morning--sheesh!). We got a cute picture at the photo booth that I thought Shannon would like to have at work, but Rebekah wants to hang it in her room. I wonder if she'll be that possessive when Annabelle comes. They will share a room, so there may be some drama in that area.

Rebekah spells her name

Rebekah has started spelling her name aloud. Her version of it is R-B-T-E-A-A-H. She is very proud.

Waiting out the ice...and Rebekah gets mean

Rebekah and I have been stuck inside for the past two days waiting out (actually, waiting for) an ice storm. They kept saying it was coming, and sleet finally arrived this afternoon. I have trouble taking this seriously as an ice storm after the massive--I don't think catastrophic is an overstatement--storm of 2001 (back up in North TX and South AR--not down here). I will never forget lying in bed at my parents' house, no electricity, so no heat and no sound but the cracking and falling of trees all around us. Scary. This is nothing, so I'm just annoyed that it has interrupted my plans. I hope it will all clear by tomorrow and we can go to school.

Rebekah is bored and tired of having just Mommy to play with (Daddy's at work, but we're counting the minutes until he comes home). She has been pretty good, considering. But earlier today she was mean to me, I think just to see what I would do. Cause she's bored. She wouldn't get dressed, so I just let it go and turned on the TV.
She turned it off and said, "You can never never never watch T.V."
I said, "I can watch T.V. in my room."
She ran to the hall door, put her hands across it, and said, "No you can't. I closed the gate." She followed this with her weird noise she makes when she wants to yell at me but doesn't know what words to use.
I could tell that if I continued to respond, she would just get worse, so I just looked away and stopped talking to her. Then she came back to me and started to sing. You see, lately she makes up songs about the things around her. Usually they are to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," but sometimes they are just a random tune. Today was random. Here's how it went:

I love my Mommy
My Mommy is not very nice
My Mommy is nice but I am not very nice to my Mommy
I turn off the TV so she can't watch it
And I close the gate.

Charming, right? Well, that supported my idea that she was just bored and trying to stir things up. After she was done staging her little musical drama, she put on her clothes and was back to normal. That's Rebekah.

Curious--delurk

I'm just wondering who checks both of my blogs. If you got here from the other place (which will remain linkless) please comment to satisfy my curiosity. Thanks!

Baby Face

On Monday I had another good doctor's appointment. Last month I had gained NINE POUNDS in four weeks, which had me expecting a 60-pound pregnancy, but this month just three pounds. I'm bigger now than I was at this point in my first pregnancy, which is normal, and I'm also more uncomfortable. I bought this to hold the belly up for me and hopefully help the hip pain I've already got. Annabelle has really put me through the ringer these six months, and I'm sure she has more in store all the way to April.

At the appointment, I asked for another ultrasound, just to see her again and because at our last ultrasound she was wiggling and kicking so much, it was hard to tell the gender. Again, she was very wiggly, but she still appears to be a girl. I got a good look at her face and could see a lot of details like lips and eyelids. The still picture isn't as good as when she was moving, but you can still make out her little face.

New Year's resolution

Shannon's giving me a hard time for blogging, so now I'm going to give him a hard time on the blog.
I asked him yesterday if he made a New Year's resolution, and he said it is to get in shape. For BOTH of us to get in shape. I don't make New Year's resolutions, but apparently he makes them for both of us. And who tells their six-month-pregnant wife to get in shape? Really now.

So not three seconds ago he walks in the door from a late night run to the store. What's in his bag at 10:22 p.m.? Two large bags of chips, a pint of chocolate ice cream, and two Twix bars. No, two candy cars does not mean he intends to share. Those are all HIS snacks. Yeah. That's right.

Rebekah's greatest hits

Rebekah doesn't go back to preschool until tomorrow, so we're still just hanging out and playing with our new toys. Today, Rebekah had a recording session--she LOVES hearing her own voice! She made tons of recordings, starting with songs, then just random words so she could hear herself talk. Let's see if she'll sit still long enough to let me post them.

ABC song
The Barney Song
Mary Had a Little Lamb
The Monkey Song
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

And for more fun:

Big laugh
Another big laugh

Go ahead--try to listen without giggling. Bet you can't do it!

Sarah's big belly

Annabelle is certainly making herself known these days and Rebekah has started talking to her every day. Today Rebekah was leaning against my belly, and Annabelle gave her a big kick. Rebekah responded by talking to her through my belly button, which apparently serves as a microphone, and giving her a kiss.

Calling the Hogs

Well, you've heard about it, but now you can see it. Even though Arkansas lost the bowl game, Rebekah had high spirits and kept trying to cheer up her Daddy, who was not too happy. She even stood in front of the TV and called the Hogs to "make the team feel better." Too cute. Hopefully this video will work--it's the first time I've tried it.

Christmas

We're back home now recovering from all the Christmas excitement. Whew! We traveled first to Hooks for Christmas morning, then to Kingsland, then back to Texas to Paris, then finally home. We really enjoyed seeing everyone, and we were pleasantly surprised to see Aunt Jane after quite a long time. We missed Juran and Randi, but they had a good reason for staying up in Van Buren--bringing baby Grace into the world! Congratulations!

Rebekah made a big haul (of course) and our next purchase will be a large toy box! The Christmas toys are still in the living room, but that's okay--even if we had a place to put them, she would get them all out pretty soon. The big hits since we got home have been the Weeble castle from Nana and Pop-Pop and the Play-doh table from Granmommy and Pop-Pop. She has played with both of them for hours, and that's a lot for a two-year-old's attention span! She already misses her cousins and wishes they were here to play with her.

Shannon has a ton of Superman to watch. He got DVDs of Superman Returns and all the seasons of Smallville. Apparently the love of Superman is genetic--Rebekah has asked to watch Superman every day. I got a beautiful necklace from Shannon and a digital camera from Mom and Dad, so I will be able to share photos more quickly now. All in all, we made out well and had a great time visiting all the family. We're working on plans for summer when we meet our two new nieces if we haven't met them already and will also have our new addition to introduce to everyone.

Happy New Year, everyone, and we love you!

"pedal, pedal, pedal"

Rebekah pedalled her tricycle yesterday! She usually pushes it along with her feet, but now she can pedal. She was so proud that she had to call her grandparents and YELL into the phone, "I pedalled my bicycle all by myself!" (She doesn't say tricycle--everything from a big wheel to a motorcycle is a bicycle.) And thanks to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, she says, "Pedal, pedal, pedal. Pedal, pedal pedal." (Those of you with preschoolers addicted to Playhouse Disney know what I'm talking about.)

She's starting to talk about her baby sister more and more, usually in a good way. One day last week, she hid behind the Christmas tree and said, "I don't want a new baby to come to my house anymore" (also suspiciously similar to something she saw on Disney). But in the same week she climbed on my lap, hugged my big belly (oh, yes, it is getting big) and said, "I love you, baby. I love you, Annabelle." I have explained to her that the baby is hers, too, not just Mommy's and Daddy's. She'll be making a lot of adjustments, especially since the girls will share a room, but hopefully she will be enjoy being a big sister. Until Annabelle gets big enough to steal her toys!

P.S. I love saying "the girls"--such a happy idea to have two little girls in our home soon. And it also reminds me of our family trips to the Shepherd of the Hills in Branson--"What would Sarah and the girls say?" Remember that, anybody?

"I don't cry at church"

Rebekah has finally decided that church is a pretty fun place to be. While we were getting ready this week, she said "I paint at church! I jump and bounce at church! I don't cry at church!" Of course, for most people, church is not the place for painting and jumping and bouncing (and I often end up crying at church myself, especially since I've been pregnant), but for a two-year-old, that's what happens, and she's pretty happy about it.

I've also gotten a little more involved by working in the nursery. This week I took care of the babies for an hour and then went to Sunday School. Actually doing some work there makes me feel more like I belong. And of course I love babies, so how could I refuse?