"My Entire Life is Being Blogged"

The shirt says:

MY ENTIRE LIFE IS BEING BLOGGED



That's pretty much true, Annie.
Sorry!

(sort of....)

Chinese Food

Royanne really likes Chinese food.
She likes the fried rice a bunch, and the
crisp stir-fried broccoli. She likes the Hot &
Sour Soup after it has cooled down a bit.

We recently went out for Chinese food, &
she asked the waitress for some fortune cookies
before we finished eating. After I unwrapped
the first one, she broke the cookie open,
removed the printed fortune, and said,
as if reading it,
"You are so adorable!"

The next one, the same!
Before it was all over, she had about 6
fortunes on the table, all announcing her
adorable!

English Tea Party

Auntie M (Marybeth) threw a family High Noon English

Style Tea Party the first week in February.

(Top row) Marybeth, Carol, Janet (aka mom and
Mimi) and Kay
(Bottom row) Great Aunt Jessie, Abby, Royanne
and Grandma (aka Mom & Great Grandma)
(Cousin Sandra-not pictured-was taking the picture)

Although we did not plan it, the colors
are all compatible for the picture!

Mom's hat, blouse and skirt
really went together very well.
Made her really look the part!
Unfortunately she is standing in front of a
dark bench and you cannot see her skirt.

Mimi with Abby and Annie (aka Royanne)

Sisters Kay and Carol


Mom and daughter,
Jessie and Sandra

Sisters Jessie and Billie

Royanne, ready, at home, to go to
the tea Party. Once we got to the car, however,
she announced she wasn't going to wear the
scratchy itchy dress in the car seat....so it was back
inside, undress, re-dress, attempt leaving
again.......


Somehow during the afternoon, some little
girl pushed or touched a button and
caused the pictures taken to be grainy.
It made them look better to be B & W
or sepia, and since we were playing Tea Party,
I changed them over.

Abby

Cousin Sandra and Royanne. Auntie M
had an antique cup and saucer for Annie, kid
sized, and she was very careful with it.
(I was a nervous wreck every time she picked
it up for a drink of her pink lemonade).

Sweet baby arm!

Royanne and Abigail

Mom and kiddo

Let's Pretend

She sat in my lap, straddling and facing me.
She took my face in her two hands and looked
me in the eyes for several seconds. Then she said,
"Close your eyes."
So I did.

She used an old blush brush and gently
drew it across my eyelids, cheeks, chin
and above my lip. As she stroked above my lip,
she asked me "What's this part called, mommy?

She spent more time on my cheeks, intent and
serious about doing a good job.

Then she told me "All done, momma!"
and gave me a cheesy smile.

Out With The Old

This pink and purple kitchen is Royanne's second.
The first one she had was about 18 inches tall. It was
blue, yellow and green. She played
with it when she was 18 months old.

As she and her daddy spend a lot of time
in the kitchen, she really uses her imagination
in her bedroom, playing in her kitchen.

This day, she was playing with a blender
she got for Christmas from her dad's cousin Steven.
Steven likes to cook as much as her daddy.
It is gonna be in her blood!

Wider view of the imagination station!

Abby gave Royanne her old kitchen.
Can you imagine, Annie is 2 years old and on her
third kitchen! This one has a lot more
drawers and cabinets, along with a
microwave and phone!
She played with it often at Abby's, and Abby
offered it to Royanne.

Two night ago she asked me if I wanted
some Chinese food. Then she was off,
to make it!

Now that the bathroom door is left open to
facilitate better potty training, she climbs up
on the counter and gets water from the sink
for her kitchen whenever she wants it.
I'm not crazy about that, but I am letting it
slide because I am ready to bid the diapers
adios!

Warm Day in February

We enjoyed a fun day when the sun came out and the
wind was high, but bearable.

Royanne wanted to play with Pokey,
but ended up running back and forth
on the deck instead.

She wears sunglasses a lot. I
thought it was a cute trait, so I
went to the party section of a local
hobby store, and got a bunch of
different colors. Fifty cents each!

Here we were talking about getting the last
head of broccoli from our plant.
I was wearing an ankle brace, which was
why we didn't venture to the park.

While outside, Annie "hurt" herself, too.
I couldn't find my short ace bandage, so
I used something else, along with a rubber
band. She played hurt and pained about an
hour, after which she removed it and said it
was all better! Oh yeah, and while laid up, she
had to wear a nightgown!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was a pretty easy concept to teach
Royanne. Flowers for mom, brownies for all,
50 cent rides at the mall and blue ice cream for Annie.

After church and lunch, we went to the
outlet mall for some rides with Mickey and
Pooh, even though it was a little chilly.

The Blue Bell shop was crowded and
offered no seating, so we went there last and
then we ran to the car.

Did you ever turn on the heat and then
have ice cream?

"Making brownies".
(licking the beaters)

This was one of the last days Royanne spent
all day in a diaper. We are on our way to
being potty trained. What everyone said was
true: when SHE'S ready, SHE'LL do it.

Random Pictures

Royanne likes to take pictures with my camera,
now that she's realized it is different from the
three toy cameras she has. Some of them aren't
too bad, since she has a viewing screen
to use before snapping the picture.

This one was pretty good,
not blurry, and pretty centered,
even though I cropped it a bit.

This one was perfect! Again, I just cropped
it a bit. She has really become interested
in pictures, always wanting to look at the
"poto augh-bows" from when she was a baby.

Taking a Sunday afternoon nap.

Whenever Royanne is about to do something
she knows she shouldn't do, and I tell
her "Don't do that!"
she'll say, "Momma, shhhh!
Be quiet!"

I couldn't get the video to upload, but she
really likes using the parachute in dance class.

Playing dress up. Why the green headband?

Future soccer player?
Dancer?

Carrot lover!

First Day of Pre-School

Sweet beginning:

Royanne was pretty excited the night before her first day
of pre-school. I was trying to convince her
sleep was going to be her friend: she was too
excited to go to sleep as early as I had planned!

For a week she carried her lunch box around with
plastic food from her play kitchen: it was almost
a battle convincing her that she'd want real
food by lunchtime. I tried to make it exciting for her
so I had a lot of choices in her lunchbox, just a bite or
two of each: cucumbers, red bell peppers,
grapes, 2 kinds of cheese, crackers, pickle,
mini marshmallows.

I was toying with the idea of putting her
somewhere fun and educational 2 days a
week so I could go to MAACO and be productive.
Lately she's been lonely when Liam and Abby
are at school, when we stop by Kay's, & one
day she said she wanted to go to school, too.
My friend Heather has operated her own
pre-school almost 6 years: it was the
logical choice.

Before going inside, we took a picture on the
mushy grass - from all the recent rain -
It was pretty chilly and windy.

I told her to turn so I could take her picture
outside the door, before we went inside.
She waved too, and said "Bye, momma!"

Trying to ring the door bell.

This is her backpack, a gift from the
doctor I had before she was born.
It is pastel leather with her name.
Very cute!

Just inside the entry.

Her class was enjoying a brief playtime outside.
We found them out there. And like I predicted, she
took off on her own. Didn't
*sniff* *sniff*
*weep* *weep*
need me!

Cubby area.
(She got a blue one, she was
thrilled!)

When I came to get her late that afternoon,
she was cleaning up a bin of MR. POTATOHEAD.
She looked over & down the hall
(ESP?)
and I actually had
the camera ready.........then she ran full force
towards me yelling,
"Momma! I missed you!"

Calm ending!
(silky reunion)


We went to the DQ for a treat, as I promised,
so she could tell me about her day. She thanked
me for her good lunch. She told me she
learned about the letter Q and made a
paper quilt. She loved the glue part.
I really enjoyed hearing about her first
day! Such a big girl now. She wasn't afraid, didn't
cry, went on without me and fit right in.

On A Very Rainy Day.................

Royanne: Oh momma, I yove (love) you.

Me: Oh, Annie, I love you, too.

(***hugging*** )

Me: Annie, what does love mean, do you think?

Royanne: (.....thinking with her forefinger to her chin, tapping it, eyes looking up....)

RAINBOWS!!