New baby on the way

 

Baby number two.  Due on November 2nd.  We're so excited.  Anna is excited about being a big sister, although I'm not sure she totally understands it yet.  We have a few months yet to keep reading her big sister book to her. 

No type of weather can stop my little girl from wanting to go outside.  It was actually 50+ degrees when we took this picture.  There was just so much snow and ice, it took about two days that warm to melt it all away.  This was one of the most fun days she's had yet in a park.  She got to swing, slide, and walk around in snow for two hours without getting cold.

Anna LOVES "birdies," so I built her a bird feeder.  That's entirely built out of scrap materials (excluding screws and wood stain).  It turned out pretty nice, and doesn't look like it in the picture, but it will hold about 10-13 pounds of birdseed.  So we don't have to fill it very often.  I also used some galvanized roof flashing on the bottom surface to help prevent wood rot.  Hopefully, it will last for a long time.  Strangely enough, since we've set it up, it attracts birds like it should, but also brings...rabbits.  Turns out Anna likes watching rabbits graze on the all the seeds that the birds drop on the ground. 

Anna and Daddy at the Nature Park.

"Doctor Anna"

She put on one of my dress shirts and went around saying "I'm a doctor."

What a fun day.

Williams Park.  She loved this thing.  I would lift her up and balance her on my knee so she could look through the opening and say "hel-lo-o" over and over.  I was actually back there with her and stretching my arm around to the other side of the wall to take the pictures.

Williams Park again...We did this for quite a while.

"Hel-lo-oooooo!"

Yes, this park is "toddler friendly."  But that little tunnel thing was not exactly Daddy friendly.

The cold weather has been back for most of the past week and a half or so, but when we had all those nice days in a row last month, Anna and I spent as much time outside as we possibly could. 
We went to the Pittsboro park one super warm day (Anna came home covered in sand.  After her nap, I had to give her a bath and change her bed sheet)
Arbuckle Park (Bburg) - where she found the most dangerous thing (some kind of strange bouncing thing with metal bars and old tires, much cooler than it sounds) on the playground for a two year old and decided that was her favorite.  She also got to play with some other kids
Pleasant Acres, aka the Jamestown Nature Park - She is usually disappointed at first about the lack of swings, but she loves to go exploring in the woods.
Williams Park (Bburg) - Anna had so much fun on their giant toddler-friendly maze of a playground, which was full of other kids for her to play with, that she was too tired to argue or throw a fit when we went home.  She fell asleep in the car and took a nice looooonnnng nap.  Btw, there are some really cool pipe chimes that the kids can play at that park.  Anna could've stayed and played those for hours. 

Now, other than yesterday, it's been pretty chilly out.  We've been going to Lowe's every now and then, and she just thinks that's the coolest place on Earth.  She loves to explore around the garden section (and gets to be kind of outside with a good wind block), likes hanging out in the lawn furniture, and could literally spend a whole afternoon looking at all the different lights and ceiling fans.

Aaarrrgh!!!

Blast it.  She's waking up again.  1:40 a.m.  This will be her second time tonight.  I'm guessing her gums/impending new molars are bothering her. 

NATURE PARK!!! and cute quotes

Yes, I'm catching up on the last few weeks at darn near one in the morning now. 

We've finally had a few decently warm days for an Indiana spring: 40s and even some 50 degree weather.  So, I finally got to take little Anna back to the Jamestown Nature Park, one of our favorite places.  We walked on trails, and she rode in the wagon some and just had a great time.  As usual, I had trouble keeping her out of the water, despite the somewhat chilly temperatures.  She really wanted to go throw rocks in it the way we had when it flooded along the railroad tracks a few days ago (I need to post a short video of that day.  It was quite cold, but lots of fun), but I was able to keep her focused on hiking, enjoying the trees and looking for birds, another of her favorite things.  We checked out a couple of bridges, ran around in the gazebo a little, and sat on a log under a big tree at the edge of the woods (a delightful first for Anna), then had a snack at a picnic table.  We finally saw some birds before we got back in the car; a flock of sandhill cranes overhead.  Anna thought they were pretty neat, but she really wanted to see some of the little birds she's used to watching out the windows.  Still, we had a good time.  I hope she never grows out of her love for hiking with her Daddy. 

I'm really thankful the weather has been nice enough for us to go to some parks again.  

And now some cute quotes from a two year old:

"Go see a disaster house?"
"Walk in the disaster house?"
"Look at ANOTHER disaster house?"
 This isn't a stretch for the girl who used to say "Disaster loves you," one of my favorites.
Tammy and I are looking for an old house to fix up and sell.  After hearing me predict one day that the house we were going to see might be a disaster, she started calling them all "disaster houses."

That's a question: How many ______ are ______?
     - for example: "How many leaves are outside?", when she wanted to go outside, or "How many shoes are on Anna?"
   

"I have an idea"
"I have another idea"
Most of the time, she doesn't tell us what her idea is.  And she says it in a happy, almost sing-songy way that only a toddler can pull off.

"I have a tail."
"It's my tail." [spoken as if declaring something that should make everyone happy and proud]

Me: "Don't get in that water, it's cold and yucky."
Anna: "[very upset that I won't let her play in flood water on a windy 42 degree day] Get a NEW water?"

"That's a doondoo bot."

"Uhwellowellowellowellow"

"Give me a NUBBINS!"

The tail thing continues

So it seemed that after my stepmom, Mary gave Anna a long, narrow mink pelt with a clip on one end to use as a "tail," the whole tail thing would be resolved.  Not so.  Anna was petrified of the furry clip on critter. 
She kind of lost interest in it for a little while, until, last week, while she was sitting on the potty, a.k.a.: the duck toilet; named as such for obvious reasons.  We were looking at a book where she saw a baby and two parents.  She pointed out the Mommy and the Daddy in the picure:

Me: "That's right.  Other kids have Mommies and Daddies too."

Anna: (with a huge excited smile) "And other kids...HAVE TAILS!"

The all-caps emphasis is for enthusiasm, not anger.  She was back on her mission to procure a tail for herself.  
She later proposed that a short string with a cloth leaf and two cloth butterflies on it (part of an old baby toy, but was integrated in a way so it wasn't a strangulation hazard) could be her tail.  I believe she even used the word "pretend."  So, I tucked it into the back of her pants, and until I can come up with something better, that will be her de facto pretend tail. 
She spent the rest of the day talking about it
"I have a tail" and "My tail" and "Anna have a tail"
I would compliment her on her lovely tail and she would say something like "butterflies on it."  It was a good week. 

Potty Training, Toddler Bed, 2 yr Molars, and Separation Anxiety

You would be correct to assume by the name of this post, that we haven't been getting much sleep lately.  Anna Rose has decided she is scared to be away from Daddy all day, and she wants her Mommy to sit in a rocking chair by her bed all night. 

We've been able to ease her off of having Tammy sit in the chair til Anna goes to sleep at night, but she of course spends her whole day with me.  Stay-at-home moms have networks and contacts, and they have play-dates for their kids all the time.  Not so for the stay-at-home dad.  There's no group of dads with kids Anna's age for her to socialize with.  It's just me and the kid.  We have a great time, but it kind of reinforces her separation anxiety.  Almost everywhere she goes, she goes with Daddy.  The other day, Tammy tried to take her to an ice cream party with some moms she knows and their kids, but Anna would have none of it.  She spent over half the time crying and throwing a fit because she wanted her Daddy. 

She'll grow out of it, but I wish I had some opportunities for her to get to know more than just the realtors I work with and the occasional client, when I actually have active clients.