Sissy Bear

Is it weird that I never call you by your name?  If someone asks me what your name is, I actually hesitate as if I have to remember.  Because I do. 

Oh...don't look at me like that!

I mostly call you Sissy.
Your daddy likes to call you Annie. 

Sissy bear is a close second. 

I'm sorry for the humiliation in advance, Anna.

There are other variations, too: 

Sisser

Sisser Bear

Sissy Pants

Sisser Pants

Stinker Bear

Stinker Pants

You get the idea.  Again...I'm sorry!  I can't help myself.  Just ask your brother.  But you made out better than your cousin.  They call her Magootz.

You are 5 months old, coming up fast on 6 months and here are a few tidbits about you...

The only way I can describe how cute you are is to tell you that every time I hold you I could just squeeze you until you pop.  I mean...I really have to try not to squeeze you too hard. 

You have the fattest cheekers!!  So sweet.

You were lucky enough to get one of your daddy's big dimples, and it shows up when you smile.  

Although, it is like pulling teeth to get you to show it off.  You don't hand out smiles very easily...we definitely have to earn them!  If anyone can get you to grin, though, it's your big brother.

You laugh at anything he does!  

Except when he hit you with his car bucket.  

On purpose.  (He went to time out for that).

 

Your brother is clearly your favorite family member.  Daddy and I are chopped liver.  You don't even try to hide it or pretend that you like us all equally.  You really need to work on your nonverbal cues. 

Which is why your daddy and I gave you another nickname...Grumpy Cat:

Image via

Despite the occasional frown, you're a very easygoing baby.  No matter what is going on, you'll usually sit quietly in your infant seat or be completely content in my arms while I walk around.  

You go to bed at 7.  If we miss the mark and get you to bed later, we pay for it.  Boy, do we pay for it!

You wake up around 7, too.  You're a great sleeper.

We've already had one trip to urgent care with you.

First one ever for us.  You wouldn't eat for 14 hours straight after your 4 month vaccinations.  STINKER!    Turns out, you just weren't hungry.

That was a $500 hunger strike and it's coming out of your allowance in the future.

You heard right!

It was a consolation when the doctors and nurses said that you were the cutest baby they'd seen all day :)  

You love to roll over onto your tummy, but then you cry because you realize you don't know how to roll back over to your back.  So we roll you back over.  Then you immediately go back to your tummy and cry.  Daddy thinks you're already acting like an irrational female  ;)

You have one freckle.  It's on your knee.  I love it!

You refuse to take a bottle.  I can't say that I mind all that much.
But you are still a stinker!

You love to blow raspberries.  We joke that you always do it in the wrong context, though.  You do it in the middle of trying to be really mad, like you're trying to prove a point.  Instead, it just makes us laugh and want to squeeze you, which makes you madder and forces you to blow more raspberries to get your point across.  It's a vicious cycle.  

Daddy gave you your very first taste of table food the other day.  It was whipped cream from the Cheesecake Factory.  Nice.  Clearly, you have him wrapped around your finger.

You have barely started to laugh out loud.  The only person who can get you to do it is...you guessed it...your big brother.  He pretends to fall on the ground and you crack up. 

You are such a joy and this age is so magical.

Can you stay this little forever?

I never thought I could love a baby girl as much as I love you.  

I never could have imagined it.

  

Dinos

Hmmmmm...Dinosaurs.
Much like my tumultuous relationship with my child's cars, I now have a love/hate relationship with his dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs have invaded our house.

We literally have bucket-loads of dinos.

We have stuffed dinos, dinos on our jammies and dinos on our kiddie plates.
We read encyclopedias about dinos, watch shows about dinos and talk about dinos.
We have dinos in our beds, dinos at our table and dinos that watch us on the potty.
There's something disturbing about sitting on the toilet and seeing this...

I don't know.  I can't place it...I just feel like I'm being roared at.

We have even managed to find books that merge his two obsessions...vehicles and dinos....

And when he's not using the book as a skateboard or wiping his boogers in it, we actually manage to read it.

All that to say, we have dinos coming out of our ears!
dinos. dinos.  DINOS!!

Now let me just say...my kid is smart.  I know that every parent thinks that their kids are smart.  And trust me, I'm the first to admit when he's not being very smart.  I'm pretty sure I texted Andy this picture after about 7 games of hide and seek where he hid in the same place all 7 times.  No pillow to cover him.  Not even the tiniest inclination to hide himself with the blanket located directly behind him.  And I counted to 50 every time.  Slowly.

The text read "After 7 games of hide and seek with this as his hiding place, I don't think we're headed to the gifted program any time soon." 

But those are isolated incidents.  Brain farts, if you will.  He's one smart cookie.
Everything I've learned about dinosaurs, I've learned from my 3 year old.
He knows the proper names of all his dinosaurs as well as their sub-species.  No.  Really.
And when I fail to pronounce them correctly, I am swiftly reminded of the proper pronunciation.

"No, Mommy.  It's a Quetzalcoatlus. Ket-zol-co-at-lus."

Oh.  Sorry.  Well...this is the Triceratops.  I know that one.

"That one is actually a Zuniceratops"

Which for those of you who don't know is not a triceratops, but instead, is a ceratopsian dinosaur.  Get it right.  

OK.  Well what about that Ankylosaurus.  He's cool.

"That's a Euoplocephalus."

What?

"You-plo-se-fa-lus."

OK.  I'm done.

There's nothing more confusing to a parent than having your child correct you on dinosaur names.  It's a double-edged sword, really...  

I mean, on the one hand, you're stoked because your child is obviously very bright.  He can soak in information that passes through your ears like water.  He can pronounce things that he shouldn't be able to.  He knows what a sub-species is and which one is which.  And those things are wonderful.

But then there's the other side of the coin.  The one where, as a result of those facts mentioned above, your 3 year old accidentally (on purpose) makes you feel like an idiot.  All the time.  And then, to make you feel even more like an idiot, he lines them up so that you will step on a Spinosaurus.  And yes, that is as painful as it sounds.

And it's all downhill from there. 

Well guess what, Sam?!?  If you're so smart, then surely you can remember to put away your Spinosaurus.
Bam!  I just pulled mommy rank.  So, I've still got that in my favor.

But then that little 3 year old stinker subtly chuckles under his breath and shakes his head as if to say "oh, mommy...you're so pathetic" and very calmly and coyly replies: 
"Mommy.  That is NOT a Spinosaurus.  It's an Argentinosaurus."

AGHHHHHH!!  Enough!  Forget it!  Just go hang your dinos from the kitchen cabinets!  

Christmas and New Year's 2012

It was a great Christmas!

Sam is a little over 3 and this was the first year that he could really get into it.
So Andy and I got into it, too!

We did a little Elf on the Shelf action...on a Lego potty...with chocolate chip poop...

The elf, whose name is "Jingle" (original, I know), made his way all over the house.  Every morning, the first thing Sam would do was look for Jingle.  And then he'd LAAUUUGGHH!!!

We had fun with some seasonal decor.

I was absolutely sure that he would have fun with this for HOURS.
Five minutes later..."I'm done."  Really, I should just learn to stick with cars and dinos.  Cars and dinos are always where it's at for this kid!

Notice the snow in the background?  That was the first snow of the season, so that meant our traditional sugar cookies and hot cocoa.

And since we like to do fat kid things, I made the hot cocoa with heavy whipping cream and sweetened condensed milk.  And then we dipped the sugar cookies into the hot chocolate.  Fat. Kids.

We started another tradition of a special Christmas Eve present.

There were Christmas PJs to wear, Christmas books to read, a treat for Santa and food to sprinkle on the driveway for his reindeer.  When I took Sam out front to sprinkle the reindeer food, Andy went out on the back deck and jingled a bell.  Sam and I could hear it out front and Sam freaked out!  He was so excited to hear Santa's reindeer, that he ran inside screaming "Hurry!  Hurry!  Get into bed!  Hurry!  This is so AMAZING!!"

He did some poses for us in his new jammies...

He was so excited that he went to bed at 8 and didn't fall asleep until 10:30.  It didn't help that we would jingle the bell downstairs so that we could watch/listen to his reaction on the monitor.  :)

Christmas morning brought new dinos and new cars.  And this thing...

Andy's "vintage" nostalgic find on eBay.  It's an old school Hot Wheels City.  Andy had one when he was little and thought Sam would love it.  And he does!  But note to self: vintage does not always mean vintage.  Sometimes it just means old.  And dirty.  And I might have secretly wondered if my child would get MRSA.  But, to be fair, it is one of Sam's favorite things now.  Seriously though...check out how ghetto...

Propped up with some plastic cups.

Big brother helped sissy open her presents...

And then it was off to celebrate with family!  

Some noteworthy memories with a lack of pictures:
New Christmas morning breakfast tradition...Cinnamon Roll Casserole from Pinterest.  Amazing!!
Old Christmas tradition of gin fizzes at Grandma and Grandpa's
Non-traditional Christmas Tex-Mex dinner at Nana and PopPop's that I hope becomes a new tradition

AND...after calling it a night on New Year's Eve at around 9:30pm...

New Year's Day Naps!
Sam and Anna slept at the same time for 2 solid hours and so did I!!
That's the best way to ring in a new year :) 

Welcome 2013!  That nap will last me all year, so watch out!

And since there are so many pictures of Sambo on this post, I think it's only fair that I end it with the best part of our 2012:  This beautiful addition...

TeeHeeHee

This is how she reacts anytime her brother comes near her!  She. Loves. Him.