Franklin Baby Sadie

The other night, as I was snuggling with Annie, she started to tell me an interesting story…

Annie: Mommy, there is a tiny tiny baby in my tummy, and on July 21, 2009 we’ll go to the hospital and the doctor will take it out. Is that a long time from now?

M: No, that’s only a few weeks from now. How about July 21, 2025?

A: Ok. When my baby comes, it will drink your milk, and my milk, and then the fridge milk. And I’ll dress it up and bring it to show all our friends.

M: Oh, will it be a boy or a girl baby? What will you name it?

A: Franklin Baby Sadie. Yes, and I will love it forever.

It wasn’t until I was laying in bed by myself and thinking about it that I realized that if Annie had a baby in 2025, she would still be a teenager! I guess I should have said 2030-ish. But I guess Annie had been doing a little thinking about it on her own. Yesterday she was in the bathroom, (I don’t know, maybe she was taking a pregnancy test) and out of the blue she opens the door and yells out “I’m not having a baby until I’m married!”

Ladybugs of the world beware

Last summer Annie found a pet ladybug that she named Spot. Poor Spot hung in there for a good hour or so, and then got tired and "took a nap". He was napping for about a week or two, then he mysteriously went on vacation and wasn't seen for the whole winter. Well, this morning we were out weeding the garden and Spot was found again! Apparently he loves carrots because we found him and about 5 of his closest relatives hanging out in the carrot patch. Annie ran into get her bug cage and I quietly whispered to all the ladybugs that they'd better hide, and make it fast. Well none of them listened so now they are all crammed into Annie's bug cage with about 15 carrot plants that Annie insisted on pulling up for them to snack on.

How do I love thee...let Annie count the ways

The other night I was snuggling in bed with Annie, which Tim hates but I love to do it. Anyways, we're snuggling away and Annie starts telling me how much she loves me. Here is her little speech, as best as I can remember.

"Mommy, I just love this family. I love you and I love Daddy, and Bailey, and Olivia. I love you all day, and I love you at night, and I love you at school and when you are at work. I just love you. I love you Mommy, when your old and fat."

WHAT? Actually I think I might have heard that last part wrong, she was rolling over while she said it and then seconds later she yelled at me, "Mommy...rub my back!"

First casualty of the summer

Poor Annie - I got a call from daycare yesterday letting me know that Annie's eyelid was red and swollen and that Annie kept rubbing it and they suspected that Annie wouldn't be able to open it up when she woke up from her nap! So Momma called the doctor and the doctor said...bring her in. Then he told me that it looked like a bug bite. She had another bite on her shoulder that was swollen up too. Poor girl! They told me to give her benedryl and apply a cold compress, but it would probably get worse before it gets better. She looks like Rocky during the fight scene with the Russian guy....but without all the blood.

Girls Night Out in the Backyard

So it was Ladies Night last night in the backyard. I didn't realize this until 9:45. Annie has been talking about going camping for the last couple of weeks and Tim thought it would be a great idea if he and Annie pitched the tent and camped out in the back yard. I thought it was a great idea too...I could put Olivia to bed and Tim and Annie would be bonding in the back yard...I could lounge away the night watching Lifetime(not!) movies. I actually ended up watching a Futurama movie...all was going well, I was raiding the snack cabinet and sipping beers...and then Annie walked into the living room, and I start shoving fruit snack wrappers into the cushions in an attempt to hide the evidence from Annie.

Me: Where's Daddy?
Annie: I don't know...what are you watching?

Since it's an animated movie, of course she thinks it should be a good one for her to watch. There was only about 5 minutes left so we snuggled on the couch until it was over and then out to the tent to see if Daddy was still out there.

Me: Daddy, are you missing someone?
Tim: Sawing logs.

Annie refuses to go to bed unless I lay in the tent with them. I figure, whatever...the movie is over, it's already 9:45, she should fall asleep in no time. 60 minutes later, she is still messing around with her sleeping bag, adjusting the lantern, asking random questions like "Mommy, why do people have birthday parties at the swimming pool?" I'm guessing birthday parties are a pretty big deal for a three year old. That's about all she talks about lately. Her birthday is coming up "tomorrow and a lot of days" according to her, and she is always going over who is invited and who cannot come, etc...Every once in a while I asked her if she wanted to come in and sleep inside with me, but no she really wants to sleep in the tent. A while later I hear Olivia crying upstairs so I tell Annie I'm going to check on her and I will be back. Fingers crossed, I think she'll probably be asleep before she realizes I'm actually curled up in my own bed. So I curl myself into my own bed and about 30 minutes later I hear Tim and Annie coming in, Annie is losing it, crying all over the place. Apparently she really wanted me to sleep outside with her. At this point I don't care, I guess I was destined to sleep in the tent. So, yeah. Tim's grand plan, didn't end up so grand for me. Honestly I never realized how noisy our neighborhood is in the evening. Cars driving by all night, airplanes narrowly avoiding a crash in our back yard, wind chimes! You know, I love those wind chimes, but not at 3:15am. So, I'm a little tired today. Let's hope Annie will hit the sack early tonight.

We went all the way to Ohio and all we got was 27 bug bites, poison ivy, and a farmers tan.

Well, just kidding about the poison ivy, kinda! Olivia did grab a hand full of that stuff, but I rushed her into the bathroom and washed her hands real good. Anyways, Ohio! Yes, we flew out of Denver to Ohio two weeks ago, but it feels more like last year. Olivia got tired during the last part of the flight and was kinda cranky for about 30 minutes and some rude lady kept staring at me. I gave her the evil eye...didn't do much to get her to turn around though. So we start our approach to land and honestly, I'm a very nervous flyer. I can't remember when I starting being a nervous flyer but I can say that within the last 6 years or so, I've been run over by the shadows of airplanes flying overhead about 27 times. Of course I take this as a sign that I'm destined to get crushed by one some day, or it could just be that we live about 2 miles from a little commuter airport. So anyways, I'm getting nervous...Annie's sitting next to me saying things like "Oh, were going down now!" Of course being a freak, I take that to mean that Annie is somewhat psychic and we are in fact going down. I casually prompt her to say that we are going down but...we will be landing safely, right? She agrees to this and we continue on...going down, everythings okay....kinda bumpy...touching down any second...going back up? What's going on! We shouldn't be going back up! Okay, all hell breaks loose (in my mind that is). I'm quite certain that Annie's first prediction was correct and we are in fact going down....in flames...no landing gear...big crash. Well, obviously, we didn't crash, this time. The plane circled around, in what I can only describe as a death circle, and finally landed. I gave the pilot the second evil eye of the trip as we left the plane...I don't think he noticed.



On to Lima! So one of the reasons we are in Ohio was to celebrate my Grandpa's 90th birthday. I can't imagine what it is like to be 90! He seems like he is in great shape, and still pretty sharp too. Annie sang happy birthday to him, I think he liked it.



We spent the rest of the weekend hanging around Nana and Papa's house, paddling around the pond, watching a momma duck trying to get her eggs to hatch, making a mess out of Nana's house, the usual stuff. Monday afternoon Tim headed back to Denver and left me alone with Olivia - scared of everyone except her nephews and me, and Annie - the little demon...so needless to say, I wouldn't call it a vacation for me. I did manage to ditch the girls one evening and go shopping, but didn't end up finding anything for myself that I liked. One day we went to a rummage sale with Nana and our soon to be cousin Lily. That sale can be described with one word only...totally awesome (okay, two words). They gave you a shopping bag when you walked in and for the low price of one dollar, you could leave that sale with everything you could possibly stuff into that bag. It got a little tense at times between Annie and Lily, seeing as they both like things that are either shiny or pink, but in the end they both took home quite a nice haul. Annie kept asking me if she could have some little stuffed animal, or Christmas ornament, or whatever. I said "Who cares! It's only a dollar!" Ha, jokes on me...that dollar turned into $15 dollars after we couldn't fit all our treasures into our suitcase and had to fork out the dough for another one on the way home.

Did I mention that I had the pleasure of sharing a room with Annie? Did I mention that she snores louder than anything? Something tells me that it's not normal for a 3 year old to snore like that. Someone remind me to ask her pediatrician about that.


By the second weekend, I was pretty much going crazy being stuck with our two little angels...thankfully, Olivia was finally warming up to everyone else. On Sunday we had Bonnie's bridal shower. Annie and I got there early to help set up and make food, etc. Unfortunately Annie saw the pool and really, really wanted to go, really. Poor girl, lucky for her Uncle Tony agreed to drive over and take her swimming for a while. I guess Tony was so excited to be there for her that he jumped into the pool with both his cell phone and wallet still in his pocket! After their swim Annie came back in while the shower was in full swing. Of course she had no interest in being there and decided to drive me up the wall. Thankfully, my cousin Jenny (the blog's biggest fan!) offered to take her over to the park. They apparently had a great time and found the most awesome baby rocks for us to being back to Denver...don't tell Annie, but they never made it back home...in fact we almost didn't make it back home either! We were running late to catch our flight but finally made it...no thanks to the security guard who had to do a test on Olivia's milk. I was a little bit worried about flying alone with the girls, but everything was fine and we only had to try landing once this time!