Birthday Bed Time

I get a text from Paul who is up in Anna's bed for bedtime...

She's 5, Baby!

Loving her first day of 5. She's the best, and had a really great day. I want to post more every night but between everything I have nothing left at the end of the day! All is good!
Happy birthday my sweetie. We love all of your pink and purple sparkles and sugar and spice and rainbows and toots. You're starting to come out of your shell to strangers and love your girlie friends. Today mommy and daddy woke you up with the Happy Birthday song and flowers and a new birthday dress and lots of girlie little gifts like perfume, lip gloss that has a peace sign flash light attached, body glitter spray for little girls, a lolly pop, finger nail polish that is magnetized, a little stuffed bunny, and yummy smelling lotion and new hair clips! You got dressed all pretty, then we went to pick up cupcakes for your class (peace signs, your name, and one with a 5 on it, which you ate!), and your class sang happy birthday to you! You were happy now that you're 5 like everyone else in the class (yours is the last birthday) and even got to share your birthday with your favorite teacher Ms A. You got to be the line leader all day and mommy came to eat lunch with you at school. You got to wear the birthday hat today and Ms U have you a sweet gift of a link puppy and a magic light up wand and a my little pony! After school we went to the Olive Garden (your fave) and they sang you happy birthday with a candle In your dessert! You loved that (and actually asked for it :) ). Then we raced back to school for your Rodeo program where you all sang songs you've been practicing. You totally loved that and then had cake with your friends! You had a pink cowgirl hat with a flashing lights and a tiara design on it. I wore one to match. Mommy and daddy were the only dorks with hats on in the parents audience! We came home to gifts and cards in the mail and voicemails saying happy birthday for you, which you loved! You had a great day with us and your friends! What an awesome birthday. Now you've asked for a princess party (God forbid) and so on Saturday a where from 6-12 little girlies will be at our house for your party in their princess dresses. We have a bouncy house for the back yard but it looks like rain so we had to call in a back up plan: princess Ariel is going to come for 45 min to party it up with you gals! It's a secret surprise :) Also, you and daddy decided to make your own birthday cake so we borrowed gear and tips from Z and got decorations so you're ready to bake! No overnight camp trip this year bc the campground was full! Oh well the joke's on them because it will be flooding rain this weekend! :)

Now go to sleep! I can hear you and daddy cutting up in bed on the monitor. And no you are not getting your ears pierced after your birthday party (who told you to do that?!) and yes to your question you can watch SOME Sponge Bob now that you're 5. Love you, here's to another year :)



Final night of Four





FIVE! Birthday girl!!


Since you were barely 2 you've always opened your silverware at restaurants, went straight for the knife and handed it directly to us. ALWAYS. We'd never even asked. It's just something you started but tonight you did this:






Yee haw!























You were afraid that since your birthday head band only had 3 candles on it people would think you're turning 3. So I had to write on a little sticker the number 5 and stick it to the front of it.

Now I'm exhausted. Bedtime! More fun to come :)

Love love love from your mommy and daddy!!! Squeezes and kisses!!!

Lovin' Her!

Katy Perry: There's a message here..right?

Anna has taken a liking to a few rther racy Katy Perry videos. And I introduced her to them. OK it's not that bad. It's California Gurls, Friday Night, and Firework. It started with the innocent Firework. Then she was so enthralled...

At any rate she asks to watch them on my iphone all the time. I was thinking on some level I suck as a mom for letting her watch this crap. But then again, she's too young to really get the "racy" parts of it that's clear to you and me, and it's a chance for me to let her know that girls can be pretty all glammed up, but also a leader, a normal person, and able to make their own way. I'm not exactly in love with Katy Perry but I do think she's pushed her way in and has some level of talent. It takes guts as well as boobs.

She also has started liking Jewel's music (she's easy and not nearly on the racy side). I got to explain that she can be smart because she writes her own music as poetry, pretty, is married to a cowboy and has a new baby so she's a mom, too.

Then there's Lady GaGa. For some reason Anna's taken a liking to a few of her songs. So we watched her New Year's performance together and the look on Anna's face was more of: "WTH is SHE WEARING? I don't know about this..."  I explained that Lady Gaga likes to wear lots of different costumes. But that's about all I know about Lady Gaga :)

...out...

13.1 done!

Beat our best previous half marathon time by 6 minutes on Sunday at the Houston Half marathon! I've done the Houston Half in 2006 and in 2008. In 2009, 2010, and 2011, we did the Disney Half. All have always been in Jan which makes for a completely doable training season. We opted out of the Disney Half this Jan, and the associated Disney World, Fl trip that accompanies it. That's made me particularly sad because it's been fun benchmarking Anna's growth every year there. But we've decided to go in September instead to what was going to be the Wine and Dine Half but is now the Tower of Terror 10 miler. Oh well, screw you Disney for foiling our plans and shorting us 3.1 miles. But to be honest, I bonk at around mile 10 anyway!

A few things to note based on this year's Half:

-A full night's sleep without a kid's foot in my ribs and cramming our bodies into a smaller-than-Queen-size bed at Disney makes an apparent difference. It seems 1 hour of sleep = 1 minute overall trimmed off my run time the next day.

-Not tip toeing around 30 bodies in the Disney Wilderness Cabin at 2am conserves energy. Apparently by 6 minutes in the end.

-How the Hell did we walk the parks every year immediately after running 13.1 and a shower? The power of family pressure. Note to self: there's something to be said about all that post-race walking: cuts down on the stiff muscles.

-The closer you get to the finish line, the more clueless runners piss you off (translated: I'm trying to beat my time, DON'T YOU HAVE A GOAL? MOVE OUT OF MY WAY!).

- Running faster overall means you finish earlier. How about that?

-The last two miles suck the worst. Make that the last 2.1 miles.

-Houston has more of a cheer crowd than Disney

-Not sure how it's geographically possible, but Houston has more freaking hills than the Disney route

-Houston clearly handles the logistics better: better crowd control, wider running route, a post-race meal, and even better goodie bags!

-Houston has a later start time of 7am which means DUDE I GOT TO SLEEP UNTIL 4AM, unlike Disney's start an hour earlier. Eastern time. Do the math.

-Disney has more idiot walkers who just won't get out of your way (no offense to walkers, unless you're the idiot who walks 5-friends-wide across the route. TO YOUR LEFT!!!!)

-Get Anna a play date for the remainder of the day the next time we run 13.1 miles. We were sore and tired and we really didn't want to convey a negative message that RUNNING MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE CRAP the rest of the day, but she kept asking why we weren't doing anything fun that day. We told her that really it's just that sometimes it's good to just chill out, relax, and lay low. Life is not always go-go-go!

I can't even for the life of me now fathom the feat which has been for the previous 3 years of what we did regarding the travel, family, and half marathon experience of Disney. And oh yes, each year I was also there in Orlando a week early to work a major conference. Work, family, travel, a half marathon, DISNEY PARKS. One single trip to Disney alone can destroy a family's stress levels by itself!

WTF?! My GOD, people will clearly do whatever hair brained thing I dictate, won't they?!

HAHA. Those were the best trips EVER :)  Miss you Disney, see you in September, albeit 3.1 miles short.

Night 4: Incident- Fell out of bed at 1:30am. Dry on wake up. Night 5: wet Weeeeeeee.....

Night 3: Dry

Staying Dry

Anna's been potty trained since just before she was 3 years old...but has never managed to stay dry at night. She's still in pull ups at night, and most usually they're soaked by the morning. We've had week-longs stretches of dryness occasionally in the past, but that's a rarity. This is such a sensitive issue, we've taken her pediatrician's advice on not pushing her too hard on this. But if you ask around long enough on all of this, it seems the issue is split: ranging from behavioral to physiological to hereditary bases. I've been told to "just put her in her big girl undies, and after a few wet nights she'll get the idea!" (behavioral). My physiology books say that there's hormones that are regulated by the light/dark cycle, some of which are involved in bladder control, that develop later for some kids than others (physiological). I've read some Baby Center articles that say the muscles to control the bladder at night and the link to the brain telling the child to "not pee!" may take longer to develop in others.

What the hell.

I don't know what the answer is. But since she'll be 5 in March and she seems ready to participate in staying dry like a big girl, we've decided to go with big girl undies for bedtime instead of pull-ups. We talked with her about it just before Christmas, and miraculously starting with that night, she stayed dry all week (even though we hadn't switched to undies yet). Then the next week when she was at my mom's, she was wet all week. We'd agreed that her first night back at home, we'd start the big girl undies.

We doubled up the mattress pads and the sheet layers for quicker middle of night changes. We've prepped her for "just do your best, we won't get mad if you wet the bed! But the idea is to do your best." No water before bed, potty before bed, and that will be evidence of her best!

Night 1: Wet bed, 2am change
Night 2: Wet bed, 6:30am change

I don't think she's been trying her best because the battle over the water right before bed is still tough. She swears she's dying of thirst. My take on this is if you decide to drink water before bed, you're deciding you're wetting the bed. And that's that.

But our pedi says that limiting fluids like that isn't really going to help much anyway. When she wakes up wet, she isn't really upset. It's just more matter of fact, which is all likely a reflection of my own attitude on the whole thing. If I'd be upset over it, she would too. So what to do?! It's a Catch-22 for us: I try to get the point across that we're not mad when she wets the bed, but it's still not OK to wet the bed exactly. The goal is to do your best. If you've done your best and you still wet the bed, that's all we can do...

...Until these middle of the night wake-ups start to take their toll on us all...

For me it's a fine line between nudging her along and pushing. No one wants to push but we have to nudge a little or else risk no advancements at all. Like everything else, we'll just have to play this by ear.

Rainbow complete!

Right about now I'm realizing my anxiety and remembering why we were painting over dancing teddy bear wallpaper 10 years ago in the first place: I have had trouble commuting any room in the house to that of a child theme. Even Anna's room has tan and olive walls, with girlie blankets but nothing permanent. I struggle with patterns (translated they bug me).

But then:





That's actually pretty cute. And as much as I struggled with that cloud rug (I really wanted plain red), Anna will love it more than I will struggle.

At least for awhile. Then those colors are going to be a bitch to paint over!! :)

We will surprise her with it when she gets home so shhhh don't say anything!

Astronaut App 2011, done!

Done!
It wasn't nearly as painful as the last go-around. Maybe I should have proof-read it more thoroughly, or maybe it's just that this year I'm not so stressed out about the outcome. I am what I am, and now it's all on paper headed to the selection office. There are only so many ways you can represent how cool you are, and here I've done my best. Applications close Jan 27. They start letting folks know if they're even interested or not in the March-July timeframe.

This house

In April we will have lived in this house for 11 years. We long ago surpassed the record for living in any one place for so long years ago, actually.

A few weeks ago Anna said she wanted Santa to paint her bathroom and bedroom rainbow colors (rainbow is her favorite "color"). Paul and I realized at that point that we can still remember very clearly the day we redid her bathroom (that wasn't then hers), and that that day was about 10 years ago already. Or more even. We remember trying to pull down the dreaded teddy bear wall paper and realizing it was actually stuck to the drywall, so we said "what the hell" and painted right over it. The tiny little wall paper tool marks are still visible, but the wallpaper has still held underneath that paint for all these years. Since then we have just kept it clean and damn it still looks new, even after 10 years!

Right before Anna was born we put in a ceiling heater because that bathroom can get cold! Over the past few years, he ceiling has started to sag, and Paul's fixing it as I type.
This week Anna is at my mom's in Austin. And we think that after 10 years, the little bathroom is in fact due for an update. Why not go rainbow?

We realize when she gets home and we surprise her with it, that surprise will give all of about 5 minutes' worth of excitement. We know. And so the reason we are doing it is because...well, it's been 10 years. Why NOT go rainbow?

Oh Christmas Tree

Not feeling the Christmas spirit during hospital caroling.

Sensitivity

Anna-Marie has been asking a lot of questions over the past month or two that shows me she's becoming more and more sensitive and self-aware...

She's never been the type of kid you have to be hard on to get her to behave. Generally if you simply tell her to knock it off if she's acting up, she's compliant with minimal fuss. In fact, we've learned if you lay into her too hard or with a harsh tone without some kind of fair warning, she melts into tears. Geeze.

Not to say I don't lose my temper: I can only say GO BRUSH YOUR TEETH a handful of times before I lose my cool and the world around us both collapses...and of course we've have had the major knock-down, drag out battles. But in general, if she's acting like a little booger you really don't have to get into her face and scold...more like a firm "knock it off, you're not supposed to run in here" is enough to suffice.

She's always been that way and yes, she is an only child, and yes, I do think she's special when others probably don't (I'm her mom!), and yes, others may think I hover or protect her too much but I've come to terms with that lately and I'm starting to care less about that...and speaking my mind about it when I feel like it...but I'm digressing...

Every morning when we walk into school, she asks: "Mommy can anyone see boogers on my nose?" At first I didn't get what she meant but apparently she has realized she doesn't want to look like her boogery friends this time of year.

On the drive to school the other day she asks: "Mommy, why does everybody look at me when I make a mistake or do something wrong?"

A few weeks ago: "why does everyone look at me when I walk into the classroom?"

In a restaurant: "Why does that lady keep looking at me?"

"Why...why...why...ME" with the behavioral questions.

Mostly my answers are focused on the fact that she, too, looks at people when they walk into the classroom. And she must be staring at that woman herself to know that the woman is staring at her! And I ask her if she stares at her friends when they too make mistakes. And that everyone makes mistakes, and me too, and here's how to deal with it. Mostly it's a discussion centered on the fact that it's the behavior of "everyone" and it's nothing personal (she's the center of my own universe but not the center of THE universe). She seems to be getting it and this morning on the way to school instead of asking "Why...?" she said something to the effect that it's OK if she makes mistakes at school and everyone looks at her.

Are all 4 year olds this self-aware? Good Lord. I just assumed kids at this age get fussed for pulling their crap and the bounce off to go pull more crap...not melt into a personal pile of tears. I just assumed no kid this age even realized others were looking at them, much less about the mistakes they worry about making (and no I don't think she's this self-aware because she's the center of my own universe and has come to expect his means she's the center of EVERYONE'S universe).

Yes she's an only child, sure we treat her like she's the most special thing to ever happen to us (she is). We don't tell her she's perfect and we don't tell her to be mistake-free. We walk the fine line between "that's the best letter n I've ever seen!" and "your n looks more like an H!" because I'm bombarded with the latest motherhood information that too much praise of your child makes them think they can do no wrong and not enough praise destroys self confidence.

Well, Hell.

Each kid is born with innate character traits. Why not carve your approach to raising them around the kid you know? Why do we judge each other, still, as mothers? I've never been tough enough to let her cry it out, and yes I still have a monitor in her room because I'm her mother and if she needs me at 2AM, I will come up. She's perfectly capable of dressing herself, brushing her own teeth, and buckling her own seat belt if I just leave her right the Hell to it.

Good grief. Sensitive much? Gee, where could she get it....?

Serenity Now

All for the little ones, Christmas Joy!

I'm the sucker mom...a sign up sheet of stuff for parents to bring so the kids could decorate cookies... All the parents signed up for everything but... the darned STAR and SNOWMAN cookies! Good grief how are they going to decorate cookies without the cookies?! I remembered I bought one of those stupid huge cookie cutter containers last year with all kinds of shapes and sizes, figuring I have a kid so I'd be using it occasionally. This being one occasion. Someone had to come through on the very foundation of cookie decorating!

This crap is harder than it looks...Hell I don't even do playdough.






And yes, several innocent snowman lives were lost in my kitchen tonight. It was a massacre but the joy on those little boogers' faces that only their teachers will see tomorrow will be worth their sacrifice.

God I think I ate too much dough.

Christmas Tree 2011

This is our fifth year of Christmas tree decorating photos with Anna. I remember year 1 when she was learning to crawl! Look at this!