Oh, no he didn't?!

Oh, yes he did!


As a mama, you would think I would have learned this lesson already. No scissors just hanging around, accessible to my little barber.

But, noooo, lesson not learned.

And, now, Anabel's little curls are GONE!

Well, there are a FEW left...

**sniff**

I am going to have to take her somewhere to get this fixed.. it looks bad. Really bad.


This is what I heard from the other room - "You are going to look so beautiful..." I thought nothing of it. Then it was just too quiet. I went to check on them and there she was ~ totally trusting her big brother.
I can see this may be a problem in the future. Her totally trusting him. She will blindly following him into all kinds of trouble.

Ok, now off to pout in my coffee.

my big girl

She will probably kill me for putting this picture on here when she gets older, but MAN! This is just too friggin' adorable to not show off!


My little baby is hard at work growing up into a big girl. It is kinda breaking my heart.

Baby = Forever?
Pleeeaaaasssseeee?

But, I am so proud of her! She basically potty trained herself overnight.

Here's how it went:

One week ago... "Anabel, wanna try the potty?" Her response: "NOOOOOOOOOOO. NO. No. No. NO!"

5 days ago... She started to tell me every time she went pee in her diaper. She would grab my hand and drag me to take her to get changed. The was MANY times during the day, sometimes even when she was totally dry. If I wouldn't jump up to change her right away, she had ways to make me do it. **Fit throwing ways.**

4 days ago... "Anabel, wanna try the potty?" Her response: "No." Still demanding a diaper change at every incident.

3 days ago... She grabbed my hand demanding to be changed. "Anabel, let's try the potty." She led me in and sat down (the cute photo above). This happened throughout the day after she has just gone in her diaper.

2 days ago... Anabel: "Poop!" Me: "Wanna sit on the potty?" Her response: "uh-huh." So in we went. She peed on the potty.

And has ever since. At night she still needs a diaper, though is not very wet in the morning. During nap yesterday, she stayed dry. She is telling me when she has to go and then goes. She needs a little help from me, but is totally going with zero fight or hassle.

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!!!

Seriously blown away by how easy this was! Enrique took 2+ years to get it. Of course we were pushing it really hard and he just wasn't ready. It was a constant battle. With Anabel, I decided I would just wait until she was the one who wanted to start learning. I guess she was ready.

Lesson learned/reaffirmed: Let the child lead. They will get there when they do. Don't force it. Don't rush it. They are growing up and learning at their own pace. Their pace is good.

I seem to be learning this (trusting this) more and more as my kids grow up. Such a powerful way to interact with them. I mean, really, trusting them?! To learn and grow and become the person they are meant to be come? I am here to just provide a great, loving environment for them. They will take care of the rest.

hockey and hats and songs

Well, I just went through and organized my pictures and downloaded everything that was in my camera. I normally sort through my pictures about once a week, put them in folders, etc. But, I have not done any picture organization since November. November! Can you say a little behind?

Well, I am caught up now. Which means I can hopefully get back into a regular blogging groove. Yay! Here are a few pictures to catch up on some things we have been doing lately.

Anabel is loving her new kitties. Here she is reading one of them a story.Too sweet.

We took the kids to see their first hockey game. A good friend of Don's was in town playing, so we went.
Enrique was totally captivated like this. Until the game started. Then he was done.

E has been stealing my camera alot lately. There were over 100 pictures on there that he took! Everything is fascinating to him. Here is one that I really liked...

A little art making..
But I am so out of the habit of capturing our days with the thought of sharing stuff here that I never took a picture of the finished product. Bummer. It was a fun painting for Don's mom that both Don and the kids did using some pictures I took.

Me thinks we need to be making more art around here, don't you?

We have been loving getting to play outside after way too many days cooped up with colds and freezing temperatures.
See that cute sweater she is wearing, my sis made it for her and I love it!


This is what pirates would look like if they could sail their ships into Colorado...
Gotta keep that head warm, which the pirate hat alone doesn't really do.

I never did show and tell of all the goodies we made for everyone for Christmas. So, here is one picture I managed to take of a couple of hats I made for the kiddos. E's is too big, I need to fix it, but I think they are pretty dang cute!


And lastly, a song for you from my goofballs...

A song for you from Lisa Delzer on Vimeo.

anabel's laugh

One of the most wonderful things about being a mom is getting to hear my children's laughter. It is truly one of the most delicious sounds in the whole world.

There are those little moments when I hear Anabel and Enrique playing and then comes the giggles.. those moments make all the other crazy times so worth it!

Well, little miss Boop has been sharing with us this little laugh these days...

Anabel's Laugh from Lisa Delzer on Vimeo.

Sinister!
I love it.

welcome back!

Some random pictures from the past few weeks...

superheros

Well, a little late.. but here are my little superheros!

Enrique, of course, was superman. Kinda funny because he wears this outfit most every day lately, so it didn't really feel like dressing up. But, he played the part really well, I think!

So serious...

He was so friggin' excited to go trick or treating!


Anabel was Rocket Girl. According to Enrique - All us girls are Rocket Girl! He created this outfit for his little sister. I made it, but it was all his doing. Pretty cool, huh?


Anabel was totally cute trick or treating! She would just point to her bag whenever someone opened the door. Too cute.

Happy Halloween (a little late)!

my peanut is TWO today!

Anabel is 2 years old today. I can hardly believe it, these past two years have gone by so dang fast. I am so insanely in love with this little girl. She is silly and sweet and wonderful. I love being a mom to a girl.. there is something special and magical about that and will forever be one of my most favorite things.



So, in honor of TWO, some love for my little peanut...

2 things I love about you:
Your big sweet grin.
How affectionate and loving you are.


2 things you are loving these days:
Baby dolls.
Ice Cream.


2 things you are learning right now:
New words.
How to climb up on things.


2 things that make you laugh:
Daddy tickles.
Your brother.


2 things I wish for you:
That you always be true to yourself.
That you live your dreams.


2 things you say that are oh so cute:
WOW! (with big wide eyes taking it all in)
Apple.. you say "app" like it is the yummiest thing on earth.



2 things you do that you shouldn't:
I keep catching you drawing on the walls with crayon.
Peeling bananas, but then not eating them.


2 things you don't seem to like:
Bananas.
Your brother chasing you.


2 things you like playing with:
Hats - you love, love, love hats.
Your babies.. you lay them down for bed and kiss them night-night over and over again.


2 things for you to never forget:
You are loved so very, very much by your family.
You mama is so thankful that you came into this world 2 years ago.


I love you with all my heart, dear sweet Anabel Raini!
Happy Birthday! xoxoxo

saying yes

I have been a grouch with my kids lately. They have been driving me crazy. Fighting. All.The.Time.

It's been making me nuts and my patience levels have been super duper low.

And I know that when they are all wacky like this what they need is me. 100%. Paying attention. Present.

But, it is a vicious cycle. They need more of me. I want to go do my own thing and not play with them. They get more wacko. They need me to pay attention. I just want to check out and avoid them. They get more insistent that I pay attention to them by acting up, and I get mad and angry with them. Around and around it goes.

Well, after our art group this week (paper mache), I had a big bag of torn up paper sitting on the floor waiting for me to do something with it.

Enrique discovered it. I was working on the computer (trying to escape my nutsy kids) when I looked up and saw that he had dumped the WHOLE BAG out onto the floor.

My first reaction was to yell. Scream. Get mad. Clean that up! Don't do that! NOOOOO!

Instead? Instead, I took a moment to breathe, to watch him and the pure delight all over his face. This was a MAJOR DISCOVERY!

And I let go of all my annoyance and frustration and said YES!

So all three of us - me, Anabel and Enrique had a confetti party. We tossed, we rolled, we laughed.

And laughed.

And laughed.

It is good to just let go sometimes. To be a yes. To let these goofy kids be kids. And in doing so, I fell in love with my little poops all over again.

spotlight boop

This little girl is killing me lately with her cuteness! Seriously! I can't even seem to get a fabulous picture of her because when she pulls out the cute trick, I am so overwhelmed with gushing mama pride I forget I own a camera.

But, here are some pics of her from the past few weeks. Isn't she getting so big?

bed head

Yup! She is my daughter! I think this is pretty much how I look in the morning.. Only she's cuter...

a few sweet moments with my girl

ahhh, breathe..

I spent the morning at the Dr. with my daughter, who has 2, yes TWO ear infections! And maybe the beginnings of a bladder infection, oh my!! No wonder she has had a fever that will not be defeated! It is such a fine balance isn't it between just turning over the care of our little ones to the medical world and all that encompasses (don't get me started) and trusting my mommy instincts, which means knowing when to turn it over to the medical world.

Today, I am so happy and grateful for having a doctor I trust and that trusts ME to know what to do to help my daughter. A nice partnership. And I feel like we are now on the road to recovery.. ahhh, breathe!!

It has been a rough week, taking care of a miserable little baby girl. And now I am hoping to see her bright shining happy face here soon. We got a little glimpse earlier. She and big bro were playing, laughing and dancing! Ahhh, breathe!

Now I think I am going to go tuck away in the tub and have a little quiet time to take care of me...and to breathe...

bye bye spring snow!

Well, we got dumped on!


But now, it is almost all melted and our yard is full of mud.. whoo hooo, we love mud! (Well, the kids do, I'm not so keen about cleaning it up).

We spent a good long time outside after the snow stopped and the sun came out.

It was so much fun. Usually Boop is on my back when we head outside in cold weather, but now that she is walking, she totally got to go for it!




Such a pretty little girl...



And the boys made a snowman that wasn't so picture worthy, more of a mud/snow man.


But, they did have a full on snow ball fight!


Now it is warming up again.. so we are doing a little spring cleaning, which I'm sure will take a couple of weeks. Anyone else getting the Spring cleaning bug?