Hands off my Mommy!

Annie has gotten possessive about some things in her life...certain toys, her chair, books...but none so much as her Mommy. She routinely pushes the dogs away from me and tells them that I belong to her, but recently it has expanded to other places. A few weeks ago I brought cupcakes to her class to celebrate her birthday. Annie passed out plates to all her friends, and then made it clear to everyone there that "This is my Mommy, so don't get any bright ideas..." She repeatedly said "My Mommy" while hugging my leg and staring down all the other toddlers that glanced in my, and the cupcakes, direction. The same thing happened a few nights ago while we were at a restaurant for dinner. If anyone even looked our way with Annie seeing, she would say in a not so nice voice, "No, my Mommy, my Mommy". Well I guess I should feel flattered that she thinks everyone else in the world (including grown adults) would want me as their Mommy!

I think Annie has also figured out restaurants. We don't really go out too often, but the last few times that we have gone out, Annie has asked the waitress for some milk when she takes our drink orders. The last time we went out, the service was kinda slow, and I think Annie noticed because she asked/told every waiter that walked by "I have some Dinner?" Hopefully it will be a while before she figures out that most restaurants also serve dessert...although in my opinion that wouldn't be so bad, as long as she shared it with me!

Our Two Year Old!

Annie's finally 2! Okay, not finally..it seems like the last 2 years have gone by extremely fast. Too fast if you ask me. She is settling into her new super cute big girl bedroom (and so is Daddy, who lays down in there with her after she wakes up in the middle of the night). We think she is also starting to understand all this talk of a new baby and being a big sister. The other day she waved to my belly and said "Hi Baby" and gave it a big kiss. Earlier in the week, the first thing she said when she woke up was "I'm going to be a big sister!"

Her birthday went by pretty fast too, but not until we made a "Happy Cake" together.

A Christmas Story - Nuetzel Style!

We are finally back from our Christmas vacation, and we are tired! Our trip started out at the Rondot's in Lima...traditional last minute gift buying in the town were all the major shopping occurs at the local super Walmart, so if you didn't like your deer whistles or cookbook...move to a bigger town! With shopping finalized and all the presents wrapped and under the tree, time to move onto our traditional family Christmas Eve festivities. Rushing to get to church in time to find seating for 25 (good thing Aunt Andrea is always on top of this) followed by a good stomach stuffing dinner at the China Gate Restaurant, and then home to open presents, and more food...of course Annie, who hasn't voluntarily eaten in 2 months, didn't really eat anything that day either. Presents were opened so fast by the 4 kiddos that I didn't really catch what Annie got so if you are missing any gifts, they probably ended up in Colorado. Almost every gift Annie opened was accompanied by her oohs and ahhs! Quite amusing! She got great gifts from her Aunt and Uncles and especially loved the baby doll with dresses especially made by Nana and the matching crib too. The next morning, we headed off to Wooster and spent time with Grandma and Grandpa Nuetzel and the Aunts and Uncles there. One highlight was the trip to a local house that had an 80 foot porch completely filled with christmas decorations, including the ones that were in Higbee's window display in the " A Christmas Story" movie. Annie had had a great time playing with her cousins in Lima, and Wooster was fun too, although a bit more full of some close calls while playing with her bigger cousin Jonah...by the end of vacation she started to lay on the ground like a slug when Jonah came around....it was her only defense. New Years Eve, we headed back to Denver and got home just in time to go straight to bed and sleep through the New Year, it was a long day of traveling and neither I nor Annie could keep our eyes open past 11. Tim, on the other hand spent the midnight hour shoveling the driveway...