Tipping the scales

I was weighing myself on the scale the other day and Annabeth asked if she could get on, too. So I let her get on the scale, and I asked her what it said. She said, "Two years old."

Merry Christmas Family and Friends!

Hi Family and Friends! We wish we could be with you this Christmas - we miss you. Annabeth and her Daddy were singing Christmas songs this morning, and instead of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," Annabeth was singing "We Miss You a Merry Christmas," which was very appropriate, especially when she was singing it over the phone to our family in Texas.

Annabeth and her cousins

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving of Annabeth and her cousins Jonny and Kendall. We had a nice time with Uncle Earl, Auntie Cam, Jonnie, Kendall, and Auntie Cam's brother and his wife on Thanksgiving. I figured I'd better get my Thanksgiving pictures posted before Christmas. :)

Our little dancer..

Lately, Annabeth's favorite way to play is to run around the house. When she was younger, she liked sitting and playing with her dollhouse, or coloring, or more sedentary activities, but lately she has been on the move. One of her favorite things to do is to "da nce" around her grandma's room to upbeat Spanish music. Her dancing mostly consists of running around and around in circles, sometimes holding a stuffed animal dance partner.

Tonight when I put her to bed, she wanted to dance, so I turned on some Spanish music for her in her room for a few minutes. She asked me, "Mommy, is this marching music?" I told her, "It's dancing music!" Then she asked, "Mommy, is it shaking your bottom music?" Oh boy, I don't know where she got that one from. I'll have to ask her grandma. :)

Some other funny moments from the last few days..

Last week before I went to the grocery store, I asked Maria if there was anything I could get her from the store that week. As I added a couple of items to my list, Annabeth said, "Grandma, do you want cottage cheese?" Annabeth loves sharing cottage cheese with her Grandma. When I brought it home, she danced around, saying "Yay! Cottage Cheese!" I'm glad she can get so excited over something that's pretty good for her at the same time. :)

After dinner the other night, she asked if she could play in her Grandma's room. When I said yes, she said, "Yay!" A short pause, then, "Now I'm going to sing a pause about it!" She then danced around in a circle, and sang, to the tune of "She'll be coming round the mountain." "Play, play, play, play, play..."

While we were cleaning up from dinner that same night, Annabeth asked me for some crackers. I asked her if she wanted Saltine crackers, but that's not what she wanted.. she asked for the round crackers. While I was getting down the Ritz crackers to give her a couple, she asked me, "Do you know what I'm asking you for?"

Update on Baby Moore #2

On Tuesday I had a pregnancy checkup and heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time! It was so exciting - I teared up, because it was so good to hear the baby and know things were going well. So, in honor of this special moment, here are some pictures that I haven't posted yet, along with a little story.

Around the middle of October, I was cooking dinner one night, and I peeled this clove of garlic, a "mama" garlic with her little baby attached. I showed it to Pat, and said, I wonder if this is a sign that we are expecting? Pat said we should take some pictures just in case. We had been wanting to have another baby, and just in the last month or so had been trying to get pregnant. When we took this picture, it turns out that I was about a week pregnant, but we wouldn't know it for another couple of weeks.

Here is the pregnancy test we took a couple of weeks later. Two lines meant we were pregnant. :)

Some funny things lately...

Here are some funny moments from Annabeth recently. Sorry I haven't been good about posting lately, but I've been very tired the last few weeks during the first trimester of our pregnancy. Annabeth is really excited about having a new baby brother or sister. She likes watching Dora, and one of her Dora programs is called "Big Sister Dora." In the program, Dora's mom has a boy and a girl. Lately, after watching Dora, when I've been asking Annabeth if she wants a brother or a sister, she says, "A brother AND a sister!"

Last week we went out for dinner and were coming home. It was after dark. Annabeth was trying to reach the little roll down shade at her window and couldn't quite get it. She started crying and said, "I NEED my shade! The sun is in my eyes!"

A couple weeks back, Annabeth watched part of a Sesame Street episode that had a song about it being ok to be sad, and it's ok to cry. After seeing it, when I talk to her about whining, she says, "I'm not whining, I'm crying!" She figures whining isn't ok, but she shouldn't get in trouble for crying.

Annabeth loves singing, and has been enjoying Christmas music this time of the year. This year she really wants to listen to a 3 song Christmas CD that she got with some Christmas books from her Uncle Jon and Aunt Sara on her first Christmas. Her favorite song is Jingle Bells, and she goes around the house singing it all the time.

One of Annabeth's new words the last couple of weeks is "forgot," which she says, "gu-got" She has reminded me several times when I "gu-got" something. It's so cute how she says it.

Annabeth loves Grandpas and Cowboys

Annabeth loves older men, anyone who is a Grandpa figure to her. Our neighbor, Mr. Pinney, who is probably in his 70's, has come over to talk and visit on a couple of occasions. Both times, Annabeth has run to him, wanting to be picked up, and said, "My grandpa!"

This week when we went to get some Chinese takeout and were waiting for our food to be ready, another grey haired gentleman came and ordered and was waiting for his food. He told Annabeth hi, and started talking to her, and suddenly she left our table and ran to sit in his lap! She didn't call him grandpa while we were there, but when we were leaving, she started fussing and said, "I want my grandpa!"

Annabeth has a friend at church, Micah, who wore a cowboy hat to church a couple of weeks ago. Last week when we went to the grocery store, Annabeth would point out anyone wearing a cowboy hat and say, "Mommy, it's a cowboy!" Then she would shout across the store, "Hi Cowboy! What are you doing, cowboy?" This was to at least 3 or 4 different men who were wearing cowboy hats that we saw during our shopping trip.

A Buggy Family

Here are the pictures from Halloween of our whole family.. Pat and I made costumes to go along with the bug theme of Annabeth's ladybug costume:



Pat had a yellow vest and his happy face hat, to which he added some stripes so he could be a bumblebee. I love my buggy family! :)

I put on one of Pat's vests, one of my adventuring hats, and added some of Annabeth's bug toys - a butterfly, some bumblebees, a spider, etc, and went as a "Bug Keeper."

This is not a Halloween picture, but I thought it went with the theme of the post - these are some Bunny ears that Annabeth's cousin Kendall got her at the balloon fiesta in early October.

...

The last few weeks Annabeth has started using the word "after." The only problem is, she has it confused with the word "before", so she'll say something like, "I want to read a story after my nap" and when I say, "Ok. We'll read a story when you wake up from your nap," she gets really upset. I've tried to explain to her the difference between "before" and "after", but she's still working on figuring it out.

Today we went to the grocery store, and I was talking to one of the ladies about pacifiers. She said that her son used one, and called it a "binkie", and I told her how Annabeth had named hers an "abba" from the time she could talk. Annabeth, who is listening to the whole conversation as she sat in the little "car" attached to the front of the grocery cart, pipes up as if she needed to set the record straight, "Lady, it's called a pacifier!"

Our little ladybug, etc...

The other day Annabeth and I went for a walk, and lately she wants to get up on the bridges on our street and look out. I lifted her up, and she said, "Wow, look at the world!" Then yesterday, "Look at the view!"

Annabeth is also trying to get the hang of using pronouns. It's neat seeing her as she's trying to learn grammar. The last couple of days I've noticed her saying things like when we went to get Grandma at the doctor's office, "We're going to get she." English sure is a complex language to learn.

Here are some pictures of Annabeth in her Halloween costume. Pat and I ended up dressing up and going out with her to trick or treat. Annabeth was a ladybug, Pat was a bumblebee, and I was the bug keeper. I'll post a picture of all 3 of us when I get it downloaded from our camera, but here are these for now:

Sleeping...

Today, on the way to her nap, Annabeth was talking about going to sleep. Then she asked me, "Mommy, are you going to sleep with Daddy? He's a nice guy."

Walking the stairs...

Lately I've been trying to encourage Annabeth to walk up and down the stairs on her own. I figure that she should be able to do this now - and she's getting heavier and heavier to carry. This morning when we were walking downstairs, she said, "My knees are old." I'm sure she must have heard this from her Grandma Maria, but it was so funny coming from a 2 year old.

Balloon Fiesta

A couple Fridays ago, Annabeth and I went to the Balloon Fiesta with Uncle Earl, Auntie Cam, Kendall and Jonathan. Unfortunately, Pat couldn't come, because he had to work and wasn't feeling well. Since it was just the two of us, Annabeth and I took the shuttle from Coronado Mall, to the Balloon Fiesta Park. Annabeth was really excited to take the "shuttle bus" - the last shuttle bus she took was a couple weeks before, when we took a shuttle from airport parking to the airport.

The morning we went was a Special Shapes Mass Ascension, which means that most of the balloons taking off were special shapes, instead of the traditionally shaped hot air balloon. It is a neat morning to be at the Balloon Fiesta, and we really enjoyed it. It was a beautiful morning - not too cold, even before the sun came up, and very little wind, which means the balloons stay near the field longer and there's more of a chance to see them and get pictures before they fly away.

Jonathan and Kendall were really excited to see the Darth Vader balloon, so that's where we went first. While we were waiting for the Darth Vader ballon to take off, there were Storm Troopers walking around for the kids to meet and take pictures with:

I love this picture, with Annabeth and her cousin Kendall. Annabeth is looking up at the Storm Trooper, like she's wondering, "Who are you?"

This balloon is named "Pig."

Here's "Airplane Happy"
"Lilly Bee" and "Joey Little Bee" holding hands and kissing.
Noah's ark, reflecting the sunrise
Here's "Darth Vader" the balloon that we were waiting to see

Annabeth and Auntie Cam. The balloon behind them is called "Oggy the Friendly Dragon," but when Annabeth saw it, she said, "Look, an alligator!"

Annabeth walking with her cousin Jonny. She loves Jonny and was so excited to see Jonny and Kendall and spend time with them at the Balloon Fiesta.
Look, Kendall is holding a balloon!
Isn't this shot just hilarious? :)
Annabeth and Kendall
Annabeth enjoyed wrestling, chasing, tackling, etc Jonny as much or more than she enjoyed the balloons. She enjoyed watching the balloons for about the first 20 or so minutes we were there, and then this is where she could be found most of the rest of the time.

Trip to Texas

Here are some pictures from our trip to Texas last month. We had a great time, it was great to see our family and Pat's coworkers while we were there. I blogged a little about it last month, but didn't post any pictures then.

Here is Annabeth dancing with her Great Grandpa Frerichs at a chicken dinner we went to the second weekend we were there. I remember when I used to dance with my Grandpa like that. :)
Annabeth's cousin Allison - my brother Jon and sister-in-law Sara's second child. The last time we were in Texas, last January, we missed her being born by about a week. This is the first time we got to see her. Isn't she a cutie? :)

Aunt Sara with Allison and Annabeth

Aunt Sara with all three cousins. This is pretty typical of how Annabeth gives "hugs." She was hugging Justin the whole time we were there - by the end of the second weekend, Justin knew to brace himself for one of Annabeth's hugs when he saw her coming.
Annabeth and Justin taking a bath together. She decided she was going to wash his hair for him. Justin gave Annabeth a bath while we were there, too, but they weren't in the bathtub at the time. After Justin dumped a cup of water over her head, Annabeth came into the room, dripping, and said, "Justin gave me a bath!"
Annabeth and Grandpa Phil walking to the chicken dinner after church.

Annabeth and Justin during one of the rare moments that they were both in the same spot and still long enough to get a picture of them together.
Annabeth and Allison. Annabeth was really excited to get to hold her cousin. After she was done, she said, "I want a baby sister like Allison."
Another Annabeth and Justin picture.
Annabeth trying to fill her daddy's shoes.
Annabeth with her Great Grandpa Oestreich. He was reading her a bible book, and while he was reading, she sang (to the tune of "Jesus loves me") "Jesus loves me in a book."



Another couple of fun moments from our trip - when we went to visit my mom at work one afternoon during the week, Mom had the shaker on to polish some of the chili grills. The shaker basically uses smooth stones and shakes it with the grills to polish them - imagine a rock tumbler, but almost as tall as a person. It is very loud. I was concerned that Annabeth, who doesn't like loud noises, would be scared by it. She stayed pretty calm, and instead of getting scared, asked my mom, "What's that noise all about?" It was so cute! She was just like a little grown up.

We went with my mom a couple of times during the weekend to an assisted living home and a nursing home.

We were looking for my mom's Aunt Evelyn to visit with her, and told Annabeth we were going to see Aunt Evelyn. When we were walking down the hall, there were a lot of the residents out in the hall. One of the gentlemen in the hall said hi to Annabeth. I guess she thought we had arrived since he was being friendly to her, and she said, "Hi Evelyn!"

When we were visiting Aunt Evelyn, we asked Annabeth to sing "Jesus loves me." Annabeth said, "No, ba ba black sheep" and sang that song instead. :) She already sang "Jesus loves me" for another group of ladies earlier that weekend, so I guess she wanted a different song instead. After "Ba ba black sheep" she sang "Jesus loves me" and "Jesus loves the little children."

Potty Progress

In July we tried to work with Annabeth to get her to use the potty, but she wasn't making too much progress and was getting frustrated, so we just let up for a while and figured we'd try again later. The last two days, she has asked to use the potty twice and then used it successfully! We're excited to see her start to make some progress in this area.

It's been too long...

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost a month since I posted here. I still have lots of pictures from this summer/fall to post. When we were without power a little over a week ago, I edited the pictures for posting using my laptop battery, but didn't have an Internet connection to post them. Anyway, here are some pictures from the end of August:

Annabeth playing "mimi's" (pretending to sleep) in the lid to her sandbox. Maria and I were outside with her, and she asked Grandma Maria to get in there with her. Grandma, being a good sport, did.

Annabeth at our neighborhood block party in August - it was a luau theme.

Here was our contribution to the luau - Pat made this pineapple bird, and we put a pineapple fruit dip inside and pineapple chunks around it for dipping. Unfortunately, I didn't think ahead enough to get a picture until after the party.

She's got me figured out...

Tonight we were sitting at a pier on the hike and bike trail in Austin, waiting to see the bats fly. (There are millions of bats that fly from under the downtown bridge downtown that goes over the river each night.) We went down there around 7pm, and it took longer than I thought (until about 7:45) for the bats to start coming out. In the meantime, I was trying to entertain Annabeth, who was getting increasingly bored. First I gave her some animal crackers, then a crayon, from her diaper bag. She then asked me, "Mommy, may I have something from my diaper bag to make me happy?" She's got me figured out.. :)

On the way back to the hotel we took our hotel's free shuttle. The shuttle driver met Annabeth yesterday, when she said hi to him. On the way we were talking about bugs, and she said, "I don't eat bugs." I asked her, "Who eats bugs?" She said, "The bats!", continuing a conversation we were having about how the bats were flying from under the bridge to go and hunt bugs for their dinner. He said most adults don't know that. :)

Another few funny moments from this weekend...

From tonight, right before bed.. we called Pat to say goodnight, and got his voicemail. Annabeth asked me what it said, and I told her, it was Daddy's voicemail, and it said, "Hi, this is Patrick Moore, from IDModeling.." She says, "Heidi Modeling?" I said, "No, IDModeling." "Heidi Modeling?" "No, IDModeling." "No, YOU Modeling!" she said, with a laugh.

When we got to my parents house on Friday night around 1 am, I was trying to get us situated for the night, and was very tired. I must have been staring off into space for a minute, because Annabeth looked at me and said, "Mommy, what are you thinking?"

I am thankful that sometimes the small things can be very entertaining for a 2 year old - we've spent a couple of hours, I think, the last couple of days, going up and down the escalators in our hotel, per Annabeth's request, and she's still loving it!

When we were waiting to catch our plane in Albuquerque, we saw our plane park, and all the people get off. Annabeth asked if we were going to get on the plane now, and I told her they needed to clean the plane for us before we got on. She said, "Is the plane dusty?" The people who were sitting around us found it quite amusing, too, when she said (quite loudly I might add), as she pointed to the plane, "That's our plane, behind Daddy. I'm going to Texas!")

Annabeth has had a blast since we've been here, and especially has enjoyed playing with her cousins Justin, Allison, Edie, and Riley. I'll post some pictures (and hopefully some video, too) of our trip when we get home.

Milestone, etc..

Annabeth is starting to learn a new skill.. counting. Up until this point, when we count with her, she has pointed to whatever we are counting (usually something in a picture in a book) and counts them, but she's not actually been counting the items -- she just counts until she feels like stopping. (Right now she can count to about 12) Last Wednesday when we were at the library, though, she actually started counting the items, pointing to each of them, and stopping when she was done. Since then, she has counted correctly intermittently, sometimes going back to her old ways, I think, when she doesn't really feel like counting. :)

A couple of other gems from the past few days that I didn't want to miss..

On the way to church, "Where's Grandma's son going?" when Pat was driving us to church. (we've had a lot of discussions lately about relationships - that she is Daddy's daughter, and that Daddy is Grandma's son, etc.)

This morning at breakfast... we were having baked oatmeal, a new recipe I tried recently. I really like it, but Annabeth doesn't seem to care for it quite as much. This morning we had it for breakfast. I fixed hers with soymilk and mine with regular milk. As usual, she wanted to taste my breakfast. She tasted it, and I asked her which one she liked better. She pointed to her bowl and said, "This one not so good" and then she pointed to my bowl and said, "and this one not so good."

Pat has been suffering from allergies lately, and today on the way to MOPS and on the way home, she was asking me about them. Annabeth: "Does Daddy have a ya-ya? (ie, owie, boo-boo... ya-ya is the Spanish slang her Grandma Maria taught her." Me: "No.." Annabeth: "What about allergies?" Also, other questions, like Annabeth: "What makes allergies?" Me: "Daddy gets allergies when the grass and flowers grow fast, and it makes his nose and eyes itch." Annabeth: "What makes the plants grow?" Me: "The rain", etc. She's definitely a curious 2 year old. :)

Oh, the things they say...

I was reading a newsletter today that I get by email from BabyCenter.com (a website that will send you information and articles of interest based on the age of your child - from conception on
) that said that preschoolers Annabeth's age say the funniest things. It is so true. Here are a few of the latest..

Sometimes Annabeth misspeaks certain words, especially when she is emotional...

We were at a parade last weekend with our friends the Junglings, and the kids were picking up all kinds of candy being thrown from the floats. At one point, Annabeth excitedly asked me, "Mommy, can I see her pollilop?!"

Annabeth then spent the afternoon with the Junglings, and "Aunt" Kelly told me that sometimes when Annabeth said her name, she would say "Annabeth" and sometimes she would say "Annageth". I heard her do this last night when we were over at our neighbors' house. I don't know if it's because she's a little shy being around people she's not used to, or what, although she usually warms up very quickly.

Annabeth also likes to make up words, both in English and in Spanish. (she's learning some Spanish words, courtesy both of Grandma and Dora the Explorer) Her spanish mostly consists of little slang phrases ("I want to go mimis" for I want to take a nap, "I have a yaya" when she gets hurt) Tonight she used another slang phrase her grandma taught her quite appropriately. We were eating dinner and she accidentally dropped something, and said, "Ay Carumba!" (she also likes to say "Ay Chihuahua!")

Lately when I carry her up the stairs, she hangs onto me and says, "I'm your little monkey." Yesterday, she said, "I'm the baby monkey, you're the mama monkey - let's go to the branch."

Ready or not, here I go!

We went to a church potluck last Sunday night, and Annabeth played outside with the older kids. See if you can guess what they were playing...

This past week at home, Annabeth has been hiding her eyes against the kitchen cabinet, and saying "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, ready or not, here I go!" Then she takes off running.

Sometimes she's just standing in the middle of the hallway, and she says, "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, go!" and takes off running.

Another funny moment from lunch yesterday... Annabeth was drinking a glass of water, and looked up at me and said, "I'm giving my lips a bath."

Beautiful Double Rainbow...

After a fairly dry spring and early summer, we have been blessed with some really nice rain over the last few weeks. Everything in Edgewood is green and growing. In fact, it looks much like it did when we first saw the house before we bought it. Last week, God gave us a beautiful show of his colorful creation with this double rainbow.

Here is Annabeth looking out our front door with the reflected rainbow showing off the glass.

Mommy and Annabeth with the rainbow..

Here is a view of the double rainbow.

Here you can see how green it is around here now, and just under the rainbow, though it's a little hard to see, are some sunflowers. We have had beautiful sunflowers here the past few weeks


We had some fun playing in the water and splashing in the puddles on the porch. Annabeth really enjoyed making footprints, and here is a picture of Daddy, Mommy, and Baby footprints. :)

You are special...

Yesterday I read Annabeth a book called "You are Special" by Max Lucado. When she and I went to the library this morning, she pointed to a board book version of the book that we saw there, and said, "You are special!" Then, when we came home, she was playing with Grandma at her dollhouse, she said, "Grandma, you are special!" and then she said she wanted to sing a song. When Grandma asked her what she wanted to sing, she said, "Jesus loves me." It's nice to know that she's catching some of the messages we're trying to communicate to her. :)

She's starting to recognize the emotions of herself and others and communicate them to us. Yesterday she told me, "I'm mad. Grandma told me to put my toys away and I don't want to and I'm mad." She also tells me when she and others are sad and happy.

I think one of the hardest things for a toddler is that they have such strong emotions, and at times have trouble communicating them. One of our friends gave Annabeth a book shortly after she was born (when her own boys were in their toddler and preschool days) called "My Many Colored Days" by Dr. Seuss. I think I see why this is such an appropriate book for kids (and parents of kids!) that are Annabeth's age.

Zoo Crew

A couple weeks ago, Annabeth, Grandma Maria and I took a trip to the zoo. On the way we stopped at Wal-Mart and Annabeth got these cute zoo stickers, which about 2 minutes after they were pictured here were stuck all over all of us and the car. :)

Here is an ostrich that we saw. I always take pictures of them when I see them, because I have a certain affinity with the bird. My maiden name is Oestreich, which often got pronounced "Ostrich" when people attempted to pronounce it. (Actually, it's pronounced like in baseball, "A-strike")

Later in the morning, we met up with Auntie Cam, Kendall and Jonathan during the sea lion feeding time. Then we went to a big play area for the kids where they have a huge maze of tunnels and slides that they can climb through, and this area with a big mat where jets of water shoot up out of random spots. Annabeth had a blast there, because she could finally get wet. It was a really hot day, and everywhere we went in the zoo, wherever we saw water, whether it was a running stream, a waterfall, or even a dirty pond or puddle, she would say, "I want to go swimming!" Finally she got her chance.

In this picture, you can see one of the water jets getting ready to hit Annabeth.

Here's all three of the kids after playing in the water.

After playing in the water, we went and saw a few more animals, the elephants, giraffes, (Annabeth and I had some dippin dots (ice cream) to cool off while Kendall and Jonathan got to feed the giraffes, because we had seen them eariler) the alligators, and then the kids got to sit on this Komodo dragon (statue).

After that, we went and saw all of the cats, including this meerkat, who ran from the other side of his cage to the fence right in front of us when he saw us. He must like to perform for his audience. :)

Next we went to see the tigers and the polar bears. When Annabeth saw the tigers, she said, "I want to get in there!" This was another recurring theme - she kept wanting to get in the cages with all the animals - "I want to pet them!" It was fun to see her enjoy the zoo in a totally different way than the last time we were there, which was a year ago. Auntie Cam told her she couldn't get in with the tigers because they would want to eat her. This must have made an impression, because the next day she said to me, "Auntie Cam said I can't get in with the tigers because they want to eat me."

Here is Annabeth looking at the polar bear pool from the passageway that goes underneath it. It's a bit shadowy, but I thought her shadowed profile looked pretty cool. We didn't see the polar bear from here,

but when we got up to the top, there he was.

We ended our trip to the zoo with a picnic. It was a great day.