Annabel Turns 2!

We have a two-year-old in the house. Let me tell ya, she is two and then some.

We had a quiet birthday celebration for Annabel. Still lots of flags and balloons and the foods she likes, but we celebrated with just the four of us (Michiel, Lisa, Alexander, and Annabel).

Here she is, sharing ice cream with her brother:

And here's her birthday muffin...banana chocolate chip with fresh whipped cream and m&m's on top:

Reading her new book, Frog in Love:

In honor of her second birthday (well, actually, it's her third...if you count the day she was born, but that gets confusing) I thought I'd list some of her recent doings and sayings:

"Ta-da! I look nice pretty"

If you ask her to hop she'll sort of gallop around the house yelling, "Hop, hop, hop!"

She's fond of saying, "I want to do dat too-also," or "You do it too-also."

She calls cucumbers "Q-manders."

She loves the Frog and Toad books and always asks for the same stories: "Cookies" and "Spring." Other favorite books are the Gerald and Piggy series. She knows them so well she can sit in a chair and "read" the stories to herself. When she gets angry, she'll sometimes quote Piggy: "I am mad and sad!"

Favorite songs at bedtime(in her own words): Row row row, my only Sunshine, sing song sickpens peck of her nose. She also likes to sing, "happy birthday to me" and "head shoulders knees toes." The other day she padded down the hallway, cocked her head to the side and said, "I love you in de afternoon."

We have stopped nursing (Yay!)

As of today, she weighs 30.5 lbs. and is 35 inches tall.

Annabel likes her routines. Each morning after we drop Alexander off at school, she says, "Xander's going to sko-el."

"Yes," I say, "Xander's going to school."

"I go to sko-el too!"

"Yes, in a couple of years you'll go to school too."

Normally, the conversation stops there, but one morning a couple of weeks ago, she went on: "I not go to sko-el in a cuppa years. I go when I 39 and a half."

Later I discovered that my parents had weighed her a week before at 29 and a half lbs, so that's probably where she got the number.

Alexander's Birthday, Part 2

Last weekend we had a joint Alexander-Annabel birthday party with the family, and it was quite the event. Those kids got so many presents! Alexander is still in Lego-heaven. And he's got a bunch of books to read in his new beanbag. Annabel got(among other things) a ladybug umbrella and a ladybug pillow (from different people...apparently I didn't get the memo about the ladybug theme).

Alexander wanted a Lego cake, so here's what I came up with:

Annabel was happy just picking off the m&m's and stuffing them in her mouth.

And of course it wasn't long before the boys had to pop open the Lego boxes and start building.

Alexander Turns 5

It's official. We have a five-year-old in the house. I may be more excited than he is. I remember turning five. I remember what a great year it was. All the new things I learned. All the things I discovered I could do. It's exciting when your child gets to an age that you have very clear memories of yourself.

But on to better things. This lucky boy got two parties. One with friends on his actual birthday (Feb. 9th) and one yesterday with family. The friend party was a pannenkoeken (dutch pancake) party, though we americanized the toppings: strawberries and whipped cream, blueberry sauce, nutella and banana. Yum!

There were lots of balloons and party favors and little boxes of Dutch candies. At the end of the party, the kids got to light sparklers in the front yard as they were leaving. It was a brilliant way to end a party with no breakdowns or dawdling about leaving.

And then, Alexander got to open his last gift for the day. The mobile police unit that he's been talking about for months. Here he is demonstrating the door.

And here is the finished product:

I think I'll save the other party for a different post.

Dis Thing

Annabel's still nurses a couple of times a day, or less if I can finagle it. For her, it's nice quiet time with Mama, and she's not at all ready to give it up.

The other day she woke up from her nap really cranky, so I grabbed a book and she settled in to nurse. Normally, she'll nurse for 5 or 10 minutes then say, "Odder side. I want to nurse on the odder side." But this time she was nursing for 20 or 30 minutes before she sat up and said, "Mama, dis thing isn't working any more. Uh-oh, I tink it's broken."

Yup, I think I'm about ready to wean.