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Both girls had check-ups yesterday. It was Hadleigh's two year check-up and Annelise's four month check-up. All went well, except for Annelise's five shots...ouch! Although Hadleigh got one shot, she did not even cry...such a tough chica!

Hadleigh weighed in just under 28 pounds and was 32.5 inches tall. That puts her at 60% for weight and 25% for height.

Annelise weighed in at 12lbs. 12oz. and 24.5 inches tall. That puts her at 60% for height and 30% for weight.

OK, these are my rough estimates based on a growth chart I found, because my pediatrician will not tell me percentages...I guess he is trying to minimize the worry.

The House

So, I thought I would write a couple words on my new house. It is in a cute little neighborhood that I actually used to go walking in when I was single. There are two families from our church who live in the 'hood and we hear that there are several families with kiddos under four years old. That is perfect for us!

It has 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms, as someone mentioned yesterday I am going to go broke buying shower curtains. This will give Annelise her own room until she calms down and decides to start sleeping through the night. At this rate I think it might take until she is 5. There are three bedrooms on the top floor and one on the main floor. Other than bedrooms it has a living room, a dining room, a kitchen with a breakfast area, a family room, a "media" room (this is for Dave's coveted projector screen TV), laundry room, etc. The yard is cute and flat and fenced, and it is all all preped and ready for a screened in porch. All the bathrooms are mostly white (not pink or green or orange) which is super nice. The kitchen has new appliances, though the cabinets leave a little to be desired, but all in good time. So, basically the house is the perfect combo of done and needing to be done. We don't have to gut and rebuild, but Dave will have several projects that he will enjoy doing...bathrooms and kitchen. I am so glad I married MacGyver.

I am excited about the large living spaces because it will give us more room to host things, which we love doing. It just feels super tight in our current digs. We might be able to fit all 16 folks from our CG into one room comfortably.

Of course the downside to all this is we have zero furniture, so the rooms will look bare for a while. But I refuse to let my house be overtaken by toys...I actually don't have enough toys to take over a house...thank goodness! On that note, I am a little toy-averse, but that is a whole other story.

I have booked our movers, so as the lady told me yesterday I don't have to do anything to get ready for this...I LOVE that. As my good Baumholder friend, Lisa told me, one time they packed a bag of trash and unloaded it at their new place. Not that I want them to pack trash, but the point of paying someone else to pack is that I don't have to do one single thing. Of course we will prepare, but that is because I want to, not because I have to.

That is the story, we continue to pray that the Lord would be glorified in our new place, that we will use it to honor him, and that it will be a safe, peaceful place to all who enter.

We move in on the 4th, 4 weeks from today.

House Inspections

I have heard varying reports about home inspectors, but yesterday I was convinced that our home inspector was awesome! Our realtor, Daryl Sims, is an old MTW buddy of mine. He was a missionary in Romania for two years and then came back to the office and worked in my department. A few years ago he left and became a realtor and when I heard that I knew we would want to use him. He is also very meticulous, so when he recommended our inspector I knew he would be good, I just did not know he would be THIS good. If you are ever in the market I can make the connection. Even Dave was impressed, and it is hard to impress him about these things because he knows so much about houses.

Yesterday at playgroup someone asked me what made this house stand out among the rest, and my answer was a little funny. This is the first house we visited that did not have mold. Dave has an amazing sniffer. He literally walks into a house and says, "hmmm, mildew!" It was so annoying when we were looking at houses. I finally just told him to stop talking about mold because every house in Georgia is going to have mold with its generally wet, humid weather. But don't you know, our inspector who is mold certified remarked how surprised he was that he did not find mold. Score for Dave.

So, after our lengthy discussion with the inspector he told us how impressed he was with our choice and the house. He said the potential and the possibilities were great. I took that as a compliment since I figure this dude sees a lot of houses, and a lot of crappy houses. So, if he thinks it is good I am happy. Turns out he is also an architect, so Dave said this morning that he wants to hire him to draw up a couple of our home projects, namely the kitchen and the master bath. We hope to see him again.

That is all good news on the house front as there is nothing to stop the show. There are still two tests that will come back next week, lead paint and radon, but we are hoping for the best. We know the house has lead paint...because it was built before 1978 and everything built before 1978 has lead paint, but we are hoping it won't be extensive. Also the cross ventilation under the house is amazing (according to dude), so he was hopeful that the radon reading would be OK, though apparently you never can tell.

It's just got to make you feel good when the inspector tells you it is a great house. Yea! We are super happy.

Offer Accepted

Well, after several disppointments, we found a house on Friday, made an offer and are now in contract to close on March 31.

Miss Hadleigh Claire Turns Two

This past Friday, Miss Hadleigh Claire turned two. Can it really be that I have a two year old? We had several celebrations, the first was with Dave's family last weekend. She got a new pink and purple bike, and Aunt Angie gave her a pink rabbit ("yabbit" from Build-A-Bear). Tuesday playgroup met here and I made little cupcakes. Wednesday I took cupcakes to her school. Saturday we had a bunch of friends over for a partay! I was all excited because I found a great deal on a jumpy moon walk and thought it would be great fun to be outside with a cookout. Although it was 70 on Friday, it was 25 and snowing on Saturday, so we had to cancel the moonwalk. Ah well, Dave still grilled and we still had friends over, so all in all it was a success.

So, now I will update on Hadleigh. She loves to jump. I'll say, "one, two, three, jump" and she will do this sort of skip step with a HUGE grin on her face. She still isn't terribly coordinated (hmm...crazylegs jr?), but she likes to "run fast" which basically means she moves faster than a crawl. She has become proficient on steps. I also began to notice this month that when she walks she leads with her belly which makes her waddle. It is pretty cute.

Her vocab is widening everyday. She will count to ten when she feels like it. SHe now consistently answers "two" when I ask her how old she is. Sometimes she would say "be"...I don't know? I love listening to her read her books as she goes through each of them naming each thing she sees..."oooh, monkey (then makes the monkey noise), star, hand, frog, frog? frog". If she cannot find something she puts her two hands together with her palms up and with a questioning voice says, "giraffe?" as in where could it be? She also likes to play peek-a-boo with us. She will ask us where something is, while all the time it is behind her back. She knows her shapes and she knows her colors (though she likes to call everything yellow or pink).

Naptime used to be a favorite time, but now when I put her down she cries, "play, play, plaaaaay" which makes me giggle a little.

She loves her little friends and it is sweet to hear her talk about them and give them hugs and get excited when she sees them. She loves Jacob and Brennan the best.

Dancing is still a fav past time in this household. Her fav CD is by our church buds, Jeremy and Laura with her fav song being "Star of Bethlehem." We just got the ABC album by They Might Be Giants, so I think that might quickly become a favorite too. When she wants to dance she says, "Shake? Shake?" That is mostly because I tell her to shake her booty, that is in honor of Susan Nichols from my days are Reach Out.

I cannot remember when this happened, but she puked for the first time recently. It was super pitiful, as she was in her crib all three times. OUt of the blue we began to hear shrieks "yucky, yucky!"

She still loves Annelise and wants to see her and play with her. On Saturday I had Annelise is her swing and when I walked into the room, Hadleigh had stopped it from swinging and was leaning over the seat into Annelise's face talking to her and laughing.

Reading is still the fav past time. Some of her new favs incluce Marvin K Mooney and the new Elmo counting book she got for her birthday.

She adores Sesame Street and knows most of the characters. It is super cute because she treats the characters like animals...as in when she says monkey, she always makes a monkey sound to go with it. When she sees Count, she says, "Count, ahh ahh ahhhh" and Elmo is, "Elmo, la la lala". She also lives Ernie, Berk and Grover, which she cannot pronounce so she just squeals when Grover comes on the screen.

Alright, the little miss is up, and she is asking to "Shake!"

Too Much

I know...I have much to catch up on! We have had four monumentous events in our household that I need to cover.

1. Last weekend Miss Annelise Louise got to meet Miss Asher Elizabeth. I actually need Elaine to send me pictures of this one, and actually I do not even think we got a pic of the two babes together. Drat! Picture or not, after almost 14 years I was finally able to meet little Asher. My best college bud, Elaine, has been wanting a daughter named Asher since I met her on our first day of freshman orientation (we were next door neighbors...Second Glide!). December 16, Asher arrived in this world, so when we heard she was traveling down to Gatlinburg for spring break with her fam, we just had to go up and meet her.

We were able to hang out with Dave's fam on Friday and even had a little birthday party for Hadleigh Claire who is now TWO! It was great fun, and Dave's nephew, Jacob even cut out of school early on Friday to take part in the festivities (I am sure he wasn't too disappointed about missing school). She was very concerned that Boppa (which is what she calls Dave's dad) was within eye shot at all times, and had a great time playing with everyone. She loves her bike with the fancy horn and streamers!

Saturday we drove out to Gatlinburg and hung out with Brian and Elaine and their kiddos Todd and Asher. Dave and Brian quickly headed to the golf course while Elaine and I spent all afternoon talking and holding babies.

2. Annelise Louise turned 4 months on Sunday. I need to devote a whole post to that event, but I will mention it at least.

3. Hadleigh Claire turned 2. Wowee, I cannot believe it! I will write more about that later as well.

4. Today we made an offer on a house. Holy Crap! It is true. Who knows what will happen, but at least we have been able to come to some sort of agreement. I suppose we will either get this house, or not get this house. Those would be the two obvious outcomes. I suppose we will have more to tell early next week.

Those are the happenings around the McNay house. I hope to have more time to blog and time to post pics in a few days.

In My New House

So, literally we have looked at so many houses I feel like shooting myself in the head. I want to just say "my mother told me to pick the very best one and you are not it..." and be done with it. That is not entirely true, but it is almost true.

Regardless of the fact that we have not found a house, I have been realizing a lot of things about my new house (where ever it may be).

1. My new house is always clean. Everything has its own place, there is never any clutter, the floors are gorgeous, etc.

2. My new house is quiet. Everyone takes naps when they should, and sleeps through the night without any issues. No one ever cries for no apparent reason...no one ever wakes others up by being too loud.

3. My new house is perfect for having people over. It will comfortably fit the 30 people who are now regularly attending our community group. It fits Dave's coveted wall screen projector. And when the Stoddards come to visit again with their 5 kids everyone will have their own bedroom.

4. In my new house I will always enjoy cooking and we will never have to order out again. There will always be food in the pantry and fridge.

5. In my new house we always excercise and eat right. We will LOVE going out and taking walks regularly.

Anyway, you can see my freakish thoughts...somehow this new house is going to fix all of my problems...and while it might fix some of the issues (giving Annelise her own room so that she can cry all she wants in it) it won't make me want to clean or excercise...ah well. It was a nice thought.

On Sleep and Moving

A man named Greg just left my home. He was here to give me a quote. A quote on how much it would cost for his company to pack up all of my earthly belongings, put them on a truck and move them to our new home. Now, we haven't purchased a home yet...we haven't even put an offer on a house. But we are close. And I figure once we get this ball rolling it is going to be rolling fast.

Last year I made a deal with Dave. He wanted another baby and so I agreed as long as we could be moved into a permanent residence by the time the second child arrived. The Lord had other plans for us, so when I realized there was no way of buying a home before Annelise arrived I made a second deal. If I have to move with two children under two, I want to hire movers...not just to move the boxes, but to pack us up and move us out. This is my luxury item.

I graduated from college 10 years ago and in those 10 years I have moved far too many times. I moved from KY back to CA. From CA I moved to Acworth, GA...then to a sweet basement apt on Linda. After 11 months on Linda I moved to the Compound, where I lived for 2 years...my longest stay anywhere. I then lived with Bif and Kris for 3 months and then moved to Project Midvale Road for a year and a half. Back to Bif and Kris' for 3 months before my wedding...to PPN for 5 months (my only apartment experience) and then to Henschtal, Germany. We lived there just over a year before moving to Mettweiler where we stayed a year and a half...and back to Atlanta. So, let's see, that is 2 cross country moves, 2 cross Atlantic moves, and 6 moves across town. You see, I deserve this luxury.

So, we have the movers confirmed and now we just have to confirm the house...I know a little backwards, but like I mentioned I think we are close and I needed to make sure we had a solid quote and money set aside for this cost.

Onto my next subject of sleep...we are making progress! My little elf is improving, slowly, everyday. We are now on a decent schedule. The exact times varies every day, but I know generally what I can expect. Annelise goes to sleep at 6pm. The last two nights she is getting up at 9pm to eat and then again at 2am and then at 7am. So that is a 3 hour stretch and then 2 5 hour stretches. Much improved from 3 hour stretches throughout the night. I am hoping this will continue, and improve even more. She has done 5 hour stretches before and then reverted back to 3 hours, but I am hopeful this time it will stick. She is going back down for a morning nap around 8.30 for about an hour. And then will sleep for 3 hours from about 11-2. Yes! Another quickie nap from 3.30-4.30 and we are golden.

She is sleeping better, she is going into her bed (well, technically she sleeps in my bed when she naps) without protest and is falling asleep on her own. MAJOR improvements. I am SO happy. I am hoping that when we move into our new home Annelise will be sleeping well enough to have them in the same room. I know that Sar is working on Jill's schedule too. She even checked out the sleep Bible from the library to brush up on strategy. Yea! It is so nice to be on a schedule and to have both girls sleeping at the same time.

Silly Girls and Fun News

This morning I was in the other room when I heard Annelise begin to fuss. As I approached the living room I heard Hadleigh talking to Annelise. "It's OK, qui, qui, OK". Then she got reallly close to her face and started grunting. It was funny because Dave discovered that when we grunt at Annelise, she will smile. Super sweet. A few minutes later Hadleigh took out her fav book, "Little Quack" and started reading to Annelise. I hope these girls grow up to be wonderful friends. It is something I pray for every night.

Here is a fun little picture of Hadleigh being super silly. She loves to make faces for the camera and give really silly grins. She also noticed that I Was taking pictures of Annelise and wanted to get in on the action.

And here is my little Annelise. She looks a little shocked here. She hates the flash on the camera, but my house is too dark to not use it.

On other exciting news, I just got a call that we have been approved for a loan! This wasn't incredibly shocking news to us...we assumed we would be approved, I just did not think it would be this quick. We actually thought about getting approved last fall, but realized we would get a better rate if we waited. Since Dave is self-employed we needed our tax documents to prove his income. We received our taxes in the mail over the weekend, and sent them to our loan guy yesterday. Now we just have to find a house...though we have been narrowing it down... I am currently getting quotes from movers, we could be moving into a house in another month. Insanity!

Sovereign Grace O'er Sin Abounding

1. Sovereign grace o’er sin abounding!

Ransomed souls, the tidings swell;

’Tis a deep that knows no sounding;

Who its breadth or length can tell?

On its glories, Let my soul for ever dwell.

2. What from Christ that soul can sever,

Bound by everlasting bands?

Once in Him, in Him for ever;

Thus the eternal covenant stands.

None shall take Thee From the Strength of Israel’s hands.

3. Heirs of God, joint-heirs with Jesus,

Long ere time its race begun;

To His name eternal praises;

O what wonders love has done!

One with Jesus, By eternal union one.

4. On such love, my soul, still ponder,

Love so great, so rich, so free;

Say, while lost in holy wonder,

Why, O Lord, such love to me?

Hallelujah! Grace shall reign

Hallelujah! Grace shall reign

Hallelujah! Grace shall reign eternally.

I sang the words yesterday and then stopped and went back to read them. Wow. I was going to say I liked a particular verse, but could not decide on which one. Where He frees me from my sin? Where he holds me forever in his hand? Where he makes me a joint heir with Christ? Where he tells me of his love? I can't decide. It is all beautiful. Thank you John Kent for writing such a beautiful hymn!

The rest of service followed the theme of this hymn. I was excited when it came time for communion because we have started a new way of celebrating. When we did it at the Ash Wednesday service I got a little excited, and then was glad to see it wasn't just an Ash Wednesday thing. We went forward by rows to a "station" where we received the bread and wine. Tinnin explained that this also symbolizes that we come to Christ with empty hands, and we leave filled with his grace (ok, it was something probably a little more profound, but it was something along these lines). He encouraged us to really hear the words as we took the bread and wine. This always seems a little akward to me...do I look at the person giving me the bread while they say "This is Christ's body given for you." I decided I would look them in the eye as they said the words, and I found it profound. I actually started to cry. I know crazy, emotional, mommy. I do not know, but something about hearing and seeing them say the words to me was moving. So I will repeat the last words of the song...

On such love, my soul, still ponder,
Love so great, so rich, so free;
Say, while lost in holy wonder,
Why, O Lord, such love to me?
Hallelujah! Grace shall reign
Hallelujah! Grace shall reign
Hallelujah! Grace shall reign eternally.

Fostering Hope

Here is a fun little radio snipet of my dad. He officially "retired" (he actually retired from his day job 6 years ago and then worked as a volunteer pastor at his church for 5 years) from his job at the church 6 months ago, and has now filled his plate with "fun" things. In the last several years he was involved in forming an organization called ACTION (Area Christians Taking Initiative on Needs). Since retiring he has been working with ACTION and recently began to head up a program called Fostering Hope that works specifically with teenage foster children and foster children who have been emancipated.

Well, I am not able to upload the link...but in any case, he was interviewed on a radio show out in LA...8 minutes in the spot light. You can see more about the organization and about Fostering Hope on ACTION's website. Cool stuff!

Normal

It is official. Yesterday was my first normal day since the arrival of Annelise. It was glorious! Annelise took three naps in her bed. Hadleigh took her normal afternoon nap. We took a little outing to the library for a modified playgroup. I made dinner and washed the dishes before I put Annelise down at 5.45 (she sleeps in out computer room which doesn't have doors and is next to the kitchen).

While we were out a stranger even commented on how smiley Annelise was. She said "What a happy baby! Is she always this happy?" To which I responded..."No, she is actually ridiculously fussy." When the woman commented I realized that is the first time a stranger has said something nice about Annelise. They are usually telling me she is hungry, or asking me why she is screaming. Sar and I have discussed this often...why is it that when a stranger hears a baby crying they immediately assume she is hungry. I think people just feel a need to say something when a baby is screaming bloody murder. I always feel the need to correct those crazies..."No, she isn't hungry, she is just ridiculously fussy!" I am guessing that there must be crying amnesia. Once your baby leaves the crying phase you forget that babies cry for no apparent reason quite often. I promise not to let the amnesia get me.

All that to say, it was a wonderful day and I hope it is a trend to more peace in the McNay household.

Weird Things

Well, Brea asked me to write about my weirdness...I feel like my whole being is weird and odd right now...so I will put some of them down on paper. The thing about this exercise is that weird is a relative term. I had a friend in the army who thought being a missionary was weird and a hard thing to make your children endure. She found it odd when I told her some missionaries would think being in the army is weird and a hard thing to make your children endure. I generally think what I do is reasonable and what everyone else does is weird. I think that goes back to the sermon yesterday...in any case. Here are some things that I have been told are weird.

1. I like theology. I think some people think that is weird. I love reading the Heidelberg Catecism for fun! I am no great theologian, but I like knowing and understanding things. I love understanding truths about imputation and justification and federal headship and original sin. I loved reading Luther's Bondage of the Will. I do like reading things on both sides of the fence...as I read Picrilli's "Grace, Faith, Free Will" and Johnston's "Why I am Not An Arminian"...as well as Driscoll's "Radical Reformission" and McLaren's "Generous Orthodoxy".

2. I have an obsession with clean floors. You wouldn't be able to tell this currently as I cannot remember the last time I mopped the floor (and I feel sick when I think about that). But one day when I am able to run the vaccum while my children nap I will gladly go back to mopping twice a week.

3. I have a love-hate relationship with puking. It actually likes me, while I continue to hate it. But I have a LOT of puke stories. I have "christened" many countries and states and houses and hospitals. One time I was even admitted to the hospital because I couldn't stop, and they couldn't stop it. They were convinced I had hepatitis and refused to believe me when I insisted it was brought on by really painful menstrual cramps (is that too much info?). I wish I could go 8 years without puking (isn't that how long Jerry Seinfeld went?)...but alas...it is my lot in life.

4. Christy mentioned a fear of ghosts...I will have to say that I have a fear of (what I will call) the boogie man. I have an overactive imagination, and I am just sure that one of theses days he will come out from under my bed or my closet or my bathroom and get me with a knife. Dave hates this irrational fear because it makes me turn on lights in the middle of the night when he is trying to sleep.

5. I had both of my girls w/o an epidural. Though I think Annelise has scarred me for life, I was able to make it through. Some would definitely call that weird.

OK, so now I am going to ask Sar Courtney, Jess R and Lisa to post their weird things...I am so interested.

Even Wonder Woman Needs a Friend

Growing up, I loved Wonder Woman. I think when I was little I would get up super early in the morning to watch her on TV. I specifically remember watching her on TV when we lived in our green house in West Orange, New Jersey. I bet you didn't even know I lived in New Jersey. I can still sing the theme song by heart. For Christmas Dave bought me season 2 of Wonder Woman on DVD. It has been fun to watch it again. Linda Carter was amazing.

So I have had lots of ponderings on my desire to be Wonder Woman ever since Annelise was born. She has completely shattered any glimmer of hope I have ever had about being super. That has been a bit painful, but I will save those thoughts for another blog post.

At this very minute I am pondering how my life look a bit different if I had a friend. Oh, I know that sounds SO horrifically pathetic. SO before you feel too sorry for me I will try to explain my thought.

I think that part of the difficulty we have had making a decision about where to live is based partly on the fact that we don't have a real community, and I think that is a direct result of some decisions we have made, as well as our insane transition from Germany to Georgia.

1. Hadleigh and Annelise go to bed at 6pm. This makes doing things at night with other couples/families difficult/impossible (unless they come to our house).
2. We decided to become involved in a fellowship at church that is primarily singles and couples without children. We love it because, not only are they the coolest people at Intown, but they are also willing to come to our home for things (Bible study, etc).
3. I got prego with Annelise soon after we moved here and was so sick I had a hard time engaging and meeting new folks.
4. We now have two kiddos, one of which is fairly angry and it is hard to think outside of my immediate need of the moment.

Throw all those things together and we have a disconnected (as in some here and some there) group of friends. I have my playgroup friends who we see on PMO day as well as on playgroup day. I have the women I am in Bible study with one morning a week. I have the women in my community group. I have the women in the fellowship and then other folks that aren't part of any of the groups mentioned above. Would this be called a decentralized group of friends?

All of these things put together make it difficult to decide about where to live. Do we live near playgroup/Intown friends? But I really only see them a couple times a week...so would I spend more time with them if I lived near them...maybe...but not necessarily. Do we move into town and live more near our single friends...but then they all work during the day, so I wouldn't necessarily get to see them more often then I already do.

Ah...the dilemma. And now as I have come to this realization, I am not exactly sure what to do. I am not sure who I fit with, and where I belong, and it all seems bit confusing. I do feel somewhat glad to have come to some more realizations about my hesitations of moving. Maybe now that I am seeing some of the issues we will be able to come to a better decision...or maybe we will be just as confused.

Miss Hadleigh Claire is 23 Months

I know that technically she won't be 23 months until tomorrow, but since I have time right this minute I thought I better post now. Who knows what tomorrow will hold for me?

My first born is 23 months and I can hardly believe that in one more month she will be 2 years old. I am beginning to plan her party and am looking forward to celebrating.

Hadleigh's language has advanced a lot this month. She is putting words together, like "baby sleep", "Dada work" and "You're fun". She is also calling her friends by their names...Jacob, Bre (Brennan), Kate and Zack. These are just the ones she has attempted on her own. As I have mentioned before she is a perfectionist, so won't say a word unless she thinks she can really say it.

We are also teaching her responses to questions. For example I will ask "How old are you?" and I hold up 2 fingers. Her response is "Three". I will then correct her and say "No, two" and she looks at me (as if she knows exactly what she is saying and says "Three!" We are working on it. Hopefully in another month she will realize that isn't as old as she thinks she is!

I am also starting to teach her the catechism. I ask her "Who made you?" and she will respond "God" and get a big smile on her face.

Our nighttime ritual is by far my favorite part of the day. Since Annelise has been born Dave has gotten in on the action (as I cannot always be the one to sing to Hadleigh at night). Dave has taught Hadleigh some new songs, so here is the order of the evening. After her bath we read to her, give everyone kisses and go into her room. We turn on her flashing bug lights and sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider". When Dave started singing this with her I informed him that I only sing "spiritual" songs with Hadleigh as night, but she loves the song and the motions, so...we sing it every night now. After the spider song we sing "Clap your hands all ye people..." you know the one and Hadleigh claps violently. Next up is "Jesus Loves Me" which Hadleigh knows all the motions to, it is super sweet. Her favorite part is showing her muscles at the "he is strong" part. After that Hadleigh asks for "King" and then she lays her head and against my chest and we sing "Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King". Dave and I used to sing this song to her every night when she was an itty bitty baby. I love that she asks for this song by name and that she seems to understand that the song is comforting and restful. After the song we say a little prayer, always asking that Hadleigh and Annelise would never know a day without the Lord. She loves to say Amen and then we sing the Amen song. Hugs, kisses, and nose kisses follow. And she also always checks to see if I am wearing earrings...just a funny thing. And then off to bed with "giraffe" and "bears" and "dabears" and "key" (her blanket). I am glad that Dave has gotten in on the action of the nighttime routine and I think he has added a lot of fun things to it.

We have hit some fun discipline issues this month. Mostly involving her coming to me...as in she doesn't. We have polled friends and I now have a stack of three books compliments of Kris that I need to read.

She loves her little friends. If we are going somewhere I generally say "Guess who we are going to see today?" Her first guess is ALWAYS "Dada" and then after that she guesses Jacob and then Brennan. Last week as we were walking into her school, we walked in with another little boy who is in her class. She got so excited and started jibbering away at him.

Hadleigh had her first puke this month. She actually had her first 3 pukes. We now think it was due to some bad milk. Poor thing would wake up crying and saying "yucky".

Soon and very soon we are going to see the king

Soon and very soon we are going to see the king

Alleluia, Alleluia, we are going to see the king

No more crying there, we are going to see the king

No more crying there, we are going to see the king

Alleluia, Alleluia, we are going to see the king

No more dying there, we are going to see the king

No more dying there, we are going to see the king

Alleluia, Alleluia, we are going to see the king

The Elf is 3 Months

Over the weekend Annelise turned 3 months old. She has become very responsive over the last month and has been smiling and cooing throughout the day. She has a great open mouth smile that almost looks like a laugh.

She loves her baths, and now gets one every night. As soon as she gets in she is all smiles and laughs. She kicks and splashes, but HATES water in her eyes or on her face. In fact she hates anything that touches her face...the wind...a shirt...she just squirms and protests until it doesn't touch.

These days nights are getting better. She goes down at 6pm without protest, and will sleep until 6-7am. She generally gets up every four hours to eat, but sometimes will stretch 6 hours, but after she eats she will usually go back down to bed without too much trouble. We are currently working on organizing her day time sleep. According to our sleep "bible" her morning nap should develop sometime this month. Yesterday after some protest she took an hour nap (in her own bed) in the morning. Today, after much protest she took a 3 hour morning nap. I was happy and sad all at the same time. Happy that she is starting to sleep better (and not in my arms), but sad as I realized this means I am going to be limited with my time out. We will see what the nap schedule holds in the future.

I have felt like her sleep has been the most difficult part about Annelise. She has a hard time sleeping and likes to be held, and even when she is held she will not always go to sleep. I did pick up the sleep "bible" today and as I was looking at average sleep time for her age I have realized she isn't entirely off. She is about average getting around 14 hours of sleep per day. Compared with Hadleigh I feel like Annelise should be getting more sleep, but I need to be content with the 14 hours Annelise is getting.

I forgot to mention that at Annelise's 2 month appt she weighed 10.1 pounds and was 22.5 inches long. She is long and slender just like Hadleigh. Her dark hair is slowing falling out and it does look like red hair is coming in its place. Her eyes look grayish-blue, but I am not counting on that staying. Hadleigh's eyes changed a lot until she 6 months old.

More Houses

We now have looked at 11 houses, and tomorrow we are going to up our total to 17 (if all goes well). We have looked at some houses in the eastern suburbs...ok for the record they aren't exactly suburbs as some of the area even has an Atlanta address. So, it isn't as bad as Gwinitia...or Cobb heaven forbid I live there (see my sarcasm), it is just more suburban than Midtown. OK, so as I was saying, we looked at some houses just a bit east of the city, and saw 2 that were OK, but nothing that we HAD to buy. Last week we looked at a more urban neighborhood in the city, and found one house that is super cute...Jessica calls it the "Green House". It was adorable, but we aren't completely convinced that it was THE house. It could be, but we still need to look some more. Tomorrow we are going to look east of the city again which should be interesting...just this week 4 new houses went on the market, and they seem to be just what we want, not too big and not too small.

I actually had been having some anxiety associated with moving closer into town into the more urban neighborhood, but after looking at houses down there and meeting a neighbor and reading their community newsletter I feel a TON better. That kind of makes me feel funny, because the info I found out would probably not make most parents feel better. Dave and I laughed as we read the community newsletter that boasted 35 arrests since last April, involving drugs, burglaries and prostitution. And why would we want to live here, we asked? But those things happen everywhere, even the suburbs, it is just more over tin the city. It is also nice to know that there is a strong, active community that will fight against things that seek to destroy the community. That is one thing that attracks us to the area.

Who knows. I still desire to be close to our church community and so we do not know how this will play into our decision. I think that if we live outside of the city we will just have to be much more intentional with our time, so as to not get too comfortable in a life that on the surface might look neat and clean.

It will be interesting to see what the Lord has in store for us. I look forward to seeing what February holds.

Miss Hadleigh Claire Meets Petroleum Jelly

The pictures pretty much speak for themselves. Last Friday I thought Hadleigh was with Dave and he thought she was with me. Apparently Dave found her first, and sent her to find me. When she found me she was rubbing the jelly into her cheek (as if she was really enjoying it). It is hard to tell from the pictures, but it was all over her face and even on her eyelashes.

I wiped her down with a towel, and then washed her hair about 7 times. It just wouldn't come out, so after her bath we combed her hair back like a gangster...and Saturday morning she woke up with it all spikey. There was nothing I could do to make it stay close to her head. We are now at Tuesday and she still has some remnants from the jelly, but it is mostly gone!

I think she looks like a cross between Kramer and Jim Carey as Ace Ventura.

Tell Me What You Want...What You Really, Really Want

I wish I could tell you, but I just do not know myself, and I hate not knowing.

We are now embarking on a new adventure...house hunting. I cannot believe that the time is actually here. As much as it pains me to think my days of wandering the earth are over, I am also looking forward to putting down some roots. The big question of the minute...hour...day...week...month is where the heck do we want to live. I wish I could just pay someone to tell me the answer. At this point the main contenders are a little suburban community just east of Atlanta, or the more urban neighborhoods on the eastern side of Atlanta.

I literally change my mind once an hour, if not every five minutes. There are many variables...too many...and it is impossible to compare the two areas because they are vastly different. In many ways we are choosing between two different lifestyles and honestly I want them both, and I want it all.

Dave and I tend toward the risky side of life. We are not HUGE risk takers, but we kind of like living on the edge. Moving to Germany was a risk...a very, very good risk. It was hard, but good and wonderful. Moving back to Atlanta was a risk...of sorts...mostly because Dave did not have a job here. Can I say that having two children 20 months apart was a risk? Maybe I was risking my sanity. Anyway, we kind of enjoy a good challenge in life.

If I could choose the perfect place to live, it would have the following characteristics.
Close to Dave's work
Close to church
Lots of kids
People out walking around and getting to know the neighbors
Walking distance to restaurants
Walking distance to public transportation
Diverse...lots of ethnicities...different socio-economic...different lifestyles...
Good schools
Urban-feeling
Good parks, and maybe a community pool would be nice! =)
Oh and did I mention affordable? Affordable to a one income family...

Of the two different areas we are looking at they each possess some of those characteristics, but not all. So now we have to determine what is most important, and I am not sure how to do that.

How can I measure having Hadleigh grow up with her little buddies Jacob, Brennan, Sadie, Andrew...with being within walking distance of MARTA? How can I compare living in a diverse neighborhood with having a community pool?

I want both and I want neither. I love and hate both. I just cannot seem to get a grip on what is most important to our family. I do not want to settle. I want to take risks. I want my girls to grow up loving all sorts of different people. I want them to grow up seeing the church active, changing culture and proclaiming the gospel. I want them to grow up with good friends where they can ride their bikes and go to each others houses. I want them to grow up loving the culture of a city. But I just do not know what all of this means, and I honestly feel like I cannot have it all. That really bothers me. Well, I suppose that sometime in the next several months these questions will be answered, and I hope I like the answer!

22 Months

Wow, Hadleigh Claire is 22 months! I cannot believe that in just two short months my little girl is going to be two. We are having so much fun with Hadleigh these days. She just loves Annelise. Yesterday when we were getting ready for church, Hadleigh ran to Annelise's car seat and got it all ready for me to put her in it. She loves to push her in the swing and bounce her in the baby seat. This morning she walked up to Annelise and said "hi baby, hi baby". It was super sweet.

She is still a sleeping machine. The last couple of weeks she has been sleeping from 6pm until 10am and then still taking a 2 hour nap! I think part of that was because she was sick, but when she is well she sleeps until 8am, so life is still great in the sleep department. Sometimes she just likes playing in her crib and will play with her animals long after she is awake. Even if I go in to get her up she will ask to stay in her crib.

She loves being outside on walks or getting the mail, or just running around.

She loves our weekly family outings and was just a doll at our trip to the High Museum on Friday. We took MARTA to midtown and she just loves to ride the choo choo. As we were walking through the paintings she took a special interest in the landscape art and kept saying "Whoa!' "Dude!" Everyone around her got a real kick out of it. She also enjoys when we go out to eat, and on Friday loved the fried calamari as our appetizer and shared Dave's corn chowder and my lamb gyro.

Reading is still a fav past time. Her recent favs are "Pajama Time", an Elmo alphabet book, and a book about a mole and a bird (I can't remember the name). She also LOVES "Good Night Moon" and "Little Quack". Whenever we go in her room she says "Moon? Quack?"

Sesame Street is her fav show and we watch it some days over breakfast. She can name all the characters and especially loves Elmo and Grover. For Christmas she got a Sesame Street dvd that has lots of songs on it. She asks to watch it almost all day long.

Jackets (and sweaters), hats, and shoes are her favorite articles of clothing. As soon as she wakes up she wants to put those things on her body. Amazingly she has figured out how to put her shoes on and also manages to get them on the right feet.

Dave is still her favorite and as soon as she gets up in the morning she asks about Dada. She just loved having him home so much over Christmas.

She gives lots of hugs and kisses these days, and will even give a little back scratch when asked (Dave taught her that).

She still eats just about anything we put in front of her. And if it is on our plate she is even more interseted in eating it. Last week Lrod was over for lunch and Hadleigh was begging crackers off of her. If I am eating it, she wants it!

She seems to be learning more words, and she definitely understands everything we say to her. We do think that she is probably a bit behind in her vocabulary since she hasn't begun to use sentences or put words together. She babbles and sings a lot, and she memorizes books. For example, in our Pajama Time book, everytime it says pajama time in exclamation we raise our hands in the air. She knows where each exclamation is and will raise her hands before I say the words. She also has a book called "Head to Toes" that I have read so much I have memorized. I will quote the book to her and she will point to each body part and even point to the body part before I say it. She is so funny. Again I am thankful for a laid back pediatrician who knows sometimes children don't go by the books.