Birthday Joy

Yesterday was my birthday (I'm 34...crazy!) and I had a perfectly lovely day. I awoke to flowers, tea, chocolate and a massage in bed. (If I were insanely wealthy, I would hire someone to wake me up with a massage every morning...it was that good! No, wait. I would send Michiel to massage school and make him quit his job so HE could give me a massage every morning. I might have to pay him though.)

Here's a picture of me on my birthday...no kids, just me:

I went out to breakfast with my dad and kids, then later out to dinner with Michiel, sans kids. It was all marvelous, as a birthday should be.

At one point during the day Alexander said to me, "Mama, I'm so proud of you that you have a birthday all of a sudden."

And later: "I'm so happy that it's your birthday and I can have a piece." Give you one guess what he wants a piece of...

Annabel at 9 weeks

I don't seem to say as much about Annabel as I do about Alexander. So here's a new picture:

And she's started to really get interested in the world around her. When holding her in your arms or in a carrier, she always wants to be facing out.
And because I can't stop talking about Alexander...this is how he counts when he's playing hide and seek:

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 45!"

He still hasn't quite got the idea of the game yet. When you walk into a room to come find him, saying, "I wonder where Alexander is," he'll answer from behind the bed, "I'm here!"

Alexander's Imagination

So, my brother doctored this picture of Alexander, and we have it as our screen saver. The other day, Alexander was staring at it with a sad look on his face.

He said to me, "It was fun, but I was a little bit scared of the water."

At first I didn't know what he was talking about. Then I said, "Were you?"

"Yeah, I was on the board and the water was scary."

He proceeded to tell me more details of his surfing adventure as if he'd actually done it. I inadvertantly ended the conversation by asking a question that stumped him: "How did you keep your clothes dry?"

Potty Training and Pounds

Alexander peed in the big toilet for the first time today. While he was doing it he looked up at me and laughed. "That makes a funny sound!"

Annabel is 12lbs. 12 oz...and getting bigger every day.

And I'm supposed to be working on my book, since both kids are sleeping (for the moment...)

More Alexanderisms

Talking about stepping on one of his cars: "That freaked me a little bit out." (It's almost like he's using dutch grammar on an english sentence.)

"My owie soaked away in the bath."

After Annabel made a little baby cooing noise, Alexander looked up at me in delight. "She said Mama!" Really, she was just making an "m" sound.

When Annabel was crying and I was trying (unsuccessfully) to comfort her: "You have to call her Sweetheart."

Upon discovering the flap at the front of his overalls--the one for peeing out of--and sticking his hand deep inside: "Mama! There's another pocket!!!!"

Alexander: Big Brother Extraordinaire

On Friday, I attended a MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) meeting. A friend of mine swooped up Annabel and held her for practically the whole meeting. At one point she went down to the daycare area where both of our preschoolers were playing. As she left to come back upstairs, leaving by the door to the parking lot, Alexander broke through the child barricade and ran after her shouting, "That's my sister! You can't take my sister!"

Apparently, it took Rebecca a while to convince him that she was just taking Annabel back to me and that he shouldn't worry. He was pretty bent out of shape about it.

The next day, he was lying on the floor next to Annabel and giving her kisses, and he said, "I love her and she loves me too."

What a sweet big brother!

Annabel, Alexander, my dad, and I are all over in Bend visiting Jo and Eric. Later today we're going to head up the mountain to go play in the snow, since we didn't get any this winter over in the valley.

Annabel is still a little fuss-pot even though her cold is on the way out. But she is gracing us with more and more smiles every day. Her papa will be amazed to see how much she's grown after only three days.

A couple of days ago, Alexander gave me a new mommy experience. He was upset about something...didn't want to get dressed or brush his teeth, and he said to me, "You're a stupid mommy."

Wow, where did that come from? Then I realized that he got it from Alice in Wonderland. We've been reading that book, and in our previous night's reading Alice had said something about "the stupidest tea party" she'd ever attended. I'm not sure he fully understands the word, but he gets the gist and was trying it out. My mind flashed forward to his teenage years when I may be called things a whole lot worse.

Ah, motherhood!

Burping Like a Man

Well, Annabel is seven weeks old today! The time has gone so fast already. Yesterday, she and Alexander attended the catholic baptism of my cousin's girlfriend's daughter, Charlotte. She's three. Alexander did a pretty good job of being quiet in the pew, but Annabel was another story.


As soon as we arrived, she woke up and wanted to nurse. Because she's got a cold, nursing is a difficult and noisy affair with her alternately crying for the nipple and choking on the flow of milk. After she was done, during a moment of silent prayer, she let out a burp that echoed up into the rafters. Yes, our little girl can burp with the best of them!



We've had a few days of lovely weather, which gave Michiel and Kevin and opportunity to set up Alexander's new play set in the back yard. He's a lucky boy. Yesterday, we all spent the morning in the backyard--Alexander swinging and sliding and climbing; me doing yoga on the lawn; Annabel snoozing and bouncing in her bouncy seat; Michiel and Kevin working on their contraption for the local Rube Goldberg contraption competition. What a lovely way to spend a saturday morning!







Another Alexanderism: While Michiel and Kevin were building their contraption, Alexander came to me with a very sad look on his face and holding his plastic toy toolbox. "How come my screwdriver isn't a real one?"




One more Alexanderism: He likes to watch the bees that visit the blooming heather on the edge of the garden. He calls them "hummingbees." We don't have the heart to correct him.

Impressive Alexander

Today Alexander said to me, "I'm going to eat the flesh of the apple." Except that he actually said "flush," but I knew what he meant.

What three year old refers to the flesh of the apple? I am constantly amazed by the words he uses. He also talks about the garbage truck picking up yard debris. And yesterday he pointed to the train track he had just put together and said, "Hey, that's very impressive!"

I wracked my brain trying to remember when I had said something was impressive and realized that a few days earlier, when he zipped up his hoodie all by himself I had said, "Wow, that's impressive."

He's good with words...now if we can just get him potty-trained!

Annabel still has a cold and is all snotty and unhappy. But when she's quiet and alert, she's smiling more and more. It's a beautiful sight! And she weighs 12 lbs.

Annabel's First Easter

Well, she's had her first Easter, and she slept through most of it. We put her in a pretty dress and she snoozed while her brother hid plastic eggs all around the house (mostly by tossing them here and there). He then cajoled each of us in turn to come and find them with him. We began with 45 eggs and after many rounds of hiding and hunting ended up with something like 32. Sneaky eggs.

This evening Annabel sat on my lap holding her head up all on her own for about 10 minutes. What a strong neck!

She now weighs 11 lbs. 4 oz. according to our Dr visit on Wednesday. The nurse measured her length at 22.25 inches, which is .25 inches shorter than when she was born. Hmmm.

Happy Easter Everyone!