Anne speak

I love, love, love the way toddlers talk!  They can say anything and it sounds absolutely adorable.  I kind of wish they'd talk that way forever although it wouldn't be so cute as a teenage.  I love how they can't say certain sounds and yellow becomes "lellow" and especially when there is no explanation for their version of a word.  Here are some of my favorite toddler words of Anne.

She inexplicably calls Harrison "Hut", which is one of my favorites.  

She is obsessed with lions but calls them "Lies".

She refers to different sizes as being "Daddy", "Mommy" or "baby".  For instance, if she sees a big leaf or rock, it is a Daddy.  A medium sized something (animate or inanimate is a Mommy) and the smallest ones are babies.  We also have this little thing we do when she's on the changing table where she'll say "octopuh" (for octopus, I have no idea how this started) and I'll blow raspberries on her belly.  And she'll say Daddy when she wants a big raspberry and baby when she wants a little one.  She also thinks all men are "daddies" and all women are "mommies."  

My favorite word this week is Caterpillar.  She says catapappa.  She saw a very large and unusual "lellow catapappa" at the park this week and Jamie and I ask her about it all the time just so we can hear her say it.  She also saw a "schnaiwl" (snail).

She calls my parents dog, Seabouy, "Seababy" but that's an improvement over Harrison who used to call him "Seabooty."  

She calls our friend Alice "Ms. Asses" and she calls her teacher Ms. Susan "Ms. Su su."  

"Blellybubbub"means bellybutton (one of her first words, along with "tay tu" (thank you which she says correctly now)).  

She also has this crazy Charleston (SC) southern accent.  Not the redneck kind but more of a lady from the deep south.  It is so drawn out southern that it would put Scarlett O'Hara to shame.  For instance, when a tv show has finished she yells "it's ovahh Mommy, it's ovahh."  Even her kindermusik teacher, who I assume to have a good ear, has commented on her southern drawl.  

Anne was an early talker and developed a good vocabulary when she was pretty young but I think its because she had so much practice.  She LOVES to talk.  She'll even talk to herself in the car when no one's paying attention.  This is quite a contrast to Harrison who, like most males, seems to think there's no point in talking unless something important is being said.  I've always been known as someone who asks a lot of questions and Harrison has no patience for them.  "Stop asking/talking Mommy" is the most frequent answer to my various questions.    

This will be a post in progress because there are so many I'm currently forgetting.  No matter what though, my number one favorite is "I love you, Mommy" which she says perfectly every time!

spoiled rotten, part 1

Just like last year, we have had an incredibly wonderful time with family and friends at the beach this summer (and it is only mid-July!).  In mid-May we visited our friends Lindsay and Leith at their new oceanfront home in Topsail Beach!  In addition to the obvious fun of staying in a beautiful house on the ocean in a perfect weekend in May, the best part of the trip was visiting with best friends and seeing our kiddos become great friends too.  Unfortunately we forgot our camera so we didn't get any pics from this weekend :(

Our next fabulous beach trip was to visit Jamie's parents in Ocean City, NJ.  We decided to fly since it would be Anne's last free trip before she turned 2.  The kids always love flying and it is such a quick and easy flight to Philly that we left RDU after 7am and were in Ocean City by 11am.  Not too shabby!  We pretty much stuck to our usual routine up there which consists of biking to the boardwalk for breakfast and doughnuts every morning, going to the beach during the day, and biking  back to the boardwalk every night to visit the "amusements" which are tons of rides and games and the biggest Ferris Wheel I've ever seen.  One new highlight this year is that Jamie and I took Harrison to play putt putt and we loved every minute of it!  If Jamie were writing this blog he would probably mention that he won the game, easily, and by a LOT, but I'll just say that Harrison and I had a lot of fun and weren't really keeping track of the score.  And, as always, the best part of the trip was spending time with Nana and Grandpa Jack!  We can't wait to come back next year!!

Harrison and I beaming with confidence before it became apparent that we were going to be crushed (somewhere around the second hole)

Some cute pics at the beach and the boardwalk:

I love this pic because he was so excited telling me about all the cool rides he had just been on, true bliss.  Disney has nothing on this place :)

on the Ferris Wheel

At the very cold beach.  The high was in the mid-70s when we were there but Anne and Daddy didn't seem to mind!  Harrison and I were huddled under a towel somewhere.

In front of Brown's Restaurant, where the Baublitzes eat breakfast every morning.

We let Anne ride with Harrison on the last day and they did great!

Getting ready to ride our bikes.  Anne rode on the back of mine (no accidents this year, yay!) and Harrison rode with Jamie.  I was a little sad because I bet he'll be wanting to ride his own bike next year :(

With Nana and Grandpa Jack on the last day:

I was also going to write about our week at the beach with my family over the 4th of July but I'll do that posting later!

bible school lessons

Last Friday Harrison finished his first week of Vacation Bible School.  In typical Harrison-fashion he has told us literally nothing about what he does at school, who he plays with or who his teachers are.  So, in an attempt to get any information from him, I was going through his crafts and asking him the meaning behind each one.  I came across this picture of the resurrection scene and I asked him to tell me what was going on in the picture.

According to Harrison, Jesus "punched out" the two guards because they were mean to him and he died after he "fell into the cave."  I'm not trying to be sacrilegious but this really cracked me up (although I was able to contain my laughter in front of him) because not only does it really look like the two guards have been knocked out but that this is so the opposite of what Christianity, and bible school, teaches.  Clearly we need to work on our listening skills and also our bible time!!  

so long paci :(

It's been a big week in the Baublitz household.  We have been officially paci-free for the past five days  and it is going GREAT!!  Harrison never took a paci so I've been in unchartered territory in knowing how to deal with this obsession - and it truly is an obsession.  Anne was nursing within 3 minutes of being born and basically nursed her entire first 24 hours until I figured out that I could try a paci.  She took to it immediately and other than a brief couple of days around 5 months, she has had one every single nap and bedtime (except for when she would fall asleep in the car).  When she was a baby we took it with us everywhere and we have gradually reduced its use to only in the crib.  Even though I knew that it wasn't good for her teeth and that it would be harder to stop it the older she got, I could not bring myself to take it away from her.  Part of this was because it is just another symbol of babyhood that is gone and partly it is because I know how much she loves her paci.  So, for the past year I've been telling myself that she would be paci-free before her second birthday.  Since we only have about 3 weeks to go and I didn't know how long it would take, we started weaning her after we returned from our trip to Ocean City, NJ.  We basically just removed it from her crib and when she looked for it we told her that the paci "went bye by because she was a big girl now."  She kind of wimpered for about an hour so I went in and read her some stories until she was too tired to worry about it and she fell right asleep.  Yesterday was her first nap without it and while she put up a screaming fuss, I just went in and read her more stories until she got really sleepy.  That night she asked for "pa pa" but didn't fuss much at all.  We had a mini setback tonight when she discovered a paci hidden in the bathroom but after crying for a couple of minutes, she shrugged it off.  I'm so proud of my big girl and couldn't be happier with how this transition has gone!

Here are a few pics of her with her beloved paci:

taken after a midnight feeding sometime during that first week (I've always loved this picture!):

and another one of my favorites of her, taken about a year ago:

Sniff, sniff.

first prize

So, Harrison told me this morning that he wanted a "ring in his mouth."  My heart felt like it dropped to the floor.  Surely he couldn't mean a piercing???  But since he recently finished a weeklong sports camp where most of the coaches had various piercings and tattoos, I feared the worst.  I tried to casually probe as to what he was talking about by asking if he knew anyone who had such a ring, what it looked like and why he wanted it.  But since my casual probe turned into extensive questioning his answers ranged from "at the sports camp, it was in/on their tongue, and it looks cool" to "his 4 year old friend Max had one, it was red or blue, and it tasted sweet."  So, while I'm still not sure as to whether he wants his tongue pierced or one of those giant candy rings they sell in the checkout line, it reminded me that my little guy is growing up and I had better write down as many childhood memories as I can.

Riding in the car with toddlers and kids a lot you get used to trying to distract them from their arguing and whining (especially "are we there yet?") so one thing I'll do is say "the first one to see so-and-so wins a kiss from Mommy."  Now, I'm not trying to short-change myself but I'll be the first to admit that it really isn't that great of a prize.  But, to Harrison you would think he was trying for a real life Lightening McQueen race car.  Not only does he get SO excited when he gets to claim his kiss from me but he gets really, really mad if Jamie spots something first (I finally had to remind Jamie to let Harrison win).  While I'd like to think otherwise I know for a fact that this will not last forever and there will come a day when he would rather do anything than get a kiss from mom.  But, today is not that day and for that, I'm thankful :)  Little does he know that it is really me who is getting the prize!!

                                  This is a pic of us after having just claimed our mutual prize.  

Memorial Day weekend

I'm a little late posting about our Memorial Day weekend but better late than never.

One of the things that gives me the most joy from parenting is being able to introduce Harrison and Anne to the things that I loved as a kid.  Obviously, being from the beach a lot of my fondest memories involve the water and I love watching my kids creating their own memories there.  One of the many water related memories that stick out in my head is crabbing off our houseboat.  While we no longer have the houseboat I was eager to teach Harrison how to crab and was overjoyed that he seemed to love it as much as I did.  Anne was at my parents house napping so we were able to give Harrison our undivided attention (which is also loved!).  After creating several lines with chicken necks we quickly caught tons of crabs although only six of them were a decent size.  In fairness, by "we" I mean Jamie and Harrison because I did not catch a single crab that was big enough to consider keeping (and we ended up letting them all go).

The other thing that I introduced to Harrison this trip was my childhood love of climbing trees.  I'm lucky in that my parents still live in my childhood home.  We took several walks around my parents neighborhood and I showed him the best trees to climb and helped him do it.  I love his current age because he is eager to try at least some of the things I suggest.

Of course, in addition to crabbing and climbing trees the rest of our weekend included several trips to the beach and pool and lots of time playing in Mimi and Granddaddy's big yard.

I'd say that we're off to a pretty good start to the Summer!!!

spring has sprung

It has been such a gorgeous February and March and we have been trying to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather by going outside as much as possible.  Here are a couple of cute pics of activities we've been doing.

Harrison helped me plant these beautiful planters for the front porch.

Anne, meanwhile, was pretending to play tennis.

Another day they played golf in the caul-de-sac.

And we also take a lot of wagon rides.

One day we walked up to some neighborhood courts and they tried their hand at tennis.

And, yesterday we did some painting on the porch.

Harrison painted with his cars.

while Anne mostly painted herself!

And almost every night we're able we dine al fresco on our porch but this was the first night that the kids sat at their own little table.  They LOVED sitting together!!

We've had such a great time these past couple of months that we can't wait to see what the rest of Spring has in store!