Annabelle and Simon

Last weekend, we were so fortunate to have a visit from my brother, his wife and their 2-year old son, Simon. Annabelle was so excited when she saw another person her own size and the two kids had a blast running around. Here's video of some of the activities they did.


Thanks, Micah and Rachel, for a wonderful visit. We sure enjoyed seeing you. I hope it's not too long before it happens again.

Spelling

We have slowly been expanding Annabelle's knowledge of letters and what they look like. As of a week ago, she could identify A-G, and all the letters in her first name. We recently put up the letters of our last name for decoration, and Annabelle immediately learned the letters and what they spelled. Here is a video of her spelling out her first and last name.

A good little helper

We have the first of many guests this month coming tomorrow and so I've spent the day cleaning. Annabelle wasn't much help until I got to the vacuuming part. She went crazy wanting to do nothing but vacuum all day. Knowing she's such a good vacuumer, I'm sure I'll be inclined to vacuum more often.

There's a first time for everything

Yesterday was a day of firsts for Annabelle. Two things happened that she has never done before. The first is that Annabelle wore real little girl underwear. She's been in Pull-ups for about a month now. She actually caught on to the idea of going to the bathroom in the potty pretty quickly. I'd say it took about 2-3 days for her to understand what to do. But the problem was she didn't know how to hold it, so I would have to be the one to get her to the bathroom before she had an accident. Within a few more days, she was able to hold it for a couple hours before I'd take her to the bathroom. But after that, we were stuck. She knew what to do and had very few accidents, but she wouldn't tell me when she had to go. I was always the one to ask her if she needed go. Last week, she began telling me occasionally. I decided that we needed to just take that one last step, meaning wearing real panties, to help her learn to recognize the urge to go and not want to go in her underwear. So, we went to the store and I let her pick out 2 packs of underwear, one is just normal colors and the other she got to pick a pack of Little Mermaid underwear. That really got her excited to wear them. And on our first day, she was accident-free. YEA!!!!

The other thing she got to do for the first time is attend the circus. A friend called and told me that she had a free child's pass and buy 1 get 1 free adult coupon. So, we all went together. Annabelle had a great time, even though we adults were only somewhat amused. There were lots of acts involving animals, such as bears, elephants, and tigers, and other acts including stunts on a bike, aerial stunts, rollerblading, etc. The only problem was it was over 2 hours long and the later show, which we attended didn't even get started on time. So, at 10:00 at night, we're finally leaving the area walking back to our car. Annabelle was exhausted, but she sat still on my lap for the entire show.

Crazy girl

Annabelle has been cracking me up lately. Tuesday, I returned home from somewhere and left my shoes and purse in the living room. A little while later, I saw Annabelle put them on and begin to walk to the door leading out to the garage. When she saw I was watching her, she opened the door and said,"See ya!". It was hilarious. She did it again a second time and I was able to capture it on video.
Then yesterday, she kept jumping around and moving her feet, telling me she was dancing. So, I put on some music and she danced like crazy.

New bike

A few weeks ago, we purchased a bike for me and a child's seat for Annabelle. Michael already has a bike and we had talked about gettting one for me so we could go on family bike rides. At the store, we picked out a nice purple bike for me, but there were only two child seat boxes available and both had been opened. We were really looking forward to going on a bike ride that day, so w picked one and took it home. Michael immediately went to work getting the seat assembled. What he found was a bunch of pieces for the seat but no instructions. So, for the next hour and a half (it might ave been more, I can't remember), he worked on that seat until finally he had it all put together without any help whatsoever. Isn't he such a stud?
After dinner, we all got on our bikes and off we went. Annabelle looked awesome in her pink Barbie helmet. I thought she might object to wearing it, but I think she was excited, especially when she Michael and I had helmets too. We had been out riding for about 35 minutes when all of the sudden, my bike began to pulse and slow down. It was like I had squeezed the brake lever and then immediaitely let go about 4 times ina row. Finally, the bike came to an abrupt stop. I got off the bike, thinking maybe the chains had come off. While I was leaning over the back tire, observing the bike, the tire popped. I should say it exploded. The sound was like a gun going off right in my ear. It scared me to death. Michael, who was some distance in front of me and was doubling back to where I was, heard it too and had no idea what had happened. We then decided that there was nothing to do but have Annabelle and me stay there with the bike and Michael ride home and get the truck and come back for us, which he did. What we think happened was Michael had filled the rear intertube with air to its maximum and with Annabelle's 35+ extra pounds resting on it, it was just too much for the bike and the tire exploded.
That was on a Saturday evening. I was very anxuious to get a replacement tube, so Monday I took Annabelle with me to the store to get one. As I was deciding which one to get, Michael called me and told me not to get one right now. When I asked why, he told me he had accidentally run over the bike and it was in no condition to be ridden. I thought he was joking, but he wasn't. Apparently wat had happened was he had the bike on the driveway behind the truck, ready for the new tube to be put on. When I left to get one, he decided to sweep out the garage where the Camry had been. When he finished, he decided he might as well do the other side, so he got in the truck, started to back it up, heard a crunching sound, and immediately knew what he had done. At first, he thought the bike had gotten really messed up, which is when he called me. However, after a second inspection, he saw that other than a few scratches, the only thing broken was the left-side brake lever. But he determined it was still rideable. I was sad and upset at first, but soon after I got home from the store, I found it quite funny. Later that week, we did get another intertube and went for a ride. Yesterday, the new brake lever we ordered arrived and now Michael can fix that as well.
Annabelle loves to ride the bike and likes to go "fast, fast" as she says. I enjoy the workout and I know we will love doing this activity together as a family.

(Sidenote: I guess there is sound on the videos in the post below. Yea! Sorry for the misinformation.)