Christmas

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year. Heather got a new camera on Christmas Eve from Sean and started taking pictures. Here are a few from Christmas morning. Santa brought the girls a new kitchenette. Some favorite gifts were a guitar, a barn/tent thing, multiple pandas, and Super Why dolls. It was so fun to watch the girls this year. I know next year will be fun too. We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas.

Snow Day!

We actually had snow today! It was real snow. It was coming down in buckets. We were so excited we decided to get out and play in it. Annabeth was shaking she was so cold by the end of our play time. It was great and I hope we can get out and play in it some more.

Animal Magnetism

Last Wednesday I was almost certain I had found my true love, again. While I have always known Sean is my true love, I had doubts for the first time. He was tall, with big dark eyes and a gentle demeanor. He was social and good with the girls. Luckily for Sean, this lanky beauty is a giraffe. His name is Kiva. I met him when we were lucky enough to have a private feeding at the Houston Zoo. We spent 30 minutes with him and a young male named Miles. Miles was adorable. He let the girls get close, until they moved quickly. Then he would just walk away. Giraffes are fun to feed because there is no fear of being bitten. Giraffes don't have top teeth. Their tongue is 18 inches long and is as nimble as a finger. They weren't too slimy either. Kiva would come down and nuzzle you with his face. Apparently he loves women and would do this on command. I loved it. It was so sweet and fun. Hopefully we will be able to do this again someday. It was a real joy.

Dear Sweet Annabeth,

I am so glad your well-child visit went well on Wednesday. You were 23lbs (28th percentile) and 32 inches tall (55th percentile). Your head is still in the 90th percentile (19 inches). You cooperated well at the appointment until you were placed on The Dreaded Table. Then you lost your cool. You have too many unpleasant memories associated with aforementioned table, so I understand.

You crack us up these days. You have learned how to jump. You don't achieve much height, but you do get both feet off the ground. You are so pleased with yourself. You identify animals by the sounds they make. You call a cow Moo. You bark at dogs. The sounds are remarkably accurate sounding too. You still enjoy a good meal. You still love pandas and pacifiers. You still love to cuddle with Mama.

You are experiencing separation anxiety anxiety. You get very worked up at the prospect of being left. Once we leave, you cope well. For some reason there is lots of drama leading up to the handoff to a sitter. You also get upset if you think I am going to leave. I don't have to actually be leaving for you to fuss about being separated.

Overall you are a joy. You are talking more and more. You communicate well. You are happy 90% of the time. You love drama. You love to play with your dogs and your sister. Thank you for being our sweet Annabeth. You are uniquely you and I would never change a single thing about you.

Love, Mama

PS: If you want to party from 9:30 PM until 1 AM again tonight, can you please let us know first? It has made for quite a morning, especially for your daddy. For some reason his boss is not concerned about your party hours.

Where to begin...

Well, we have been one busy little family. There has been quilt sewing, elephant visiting, and pumpkin patching going on. There has been lots of messy eating.

I have picked up a new hobby, sewing. I can't say I am good at it. However, I am learning. I have made a quilt for Savannah and a rag quilt for Annabeth. My next project is a couple of receiving blankets and burp cloths for friends who are expecting their first baby in three weeks. Here are the quilts:

Annabeth has been learning to self-feed, the messy way. She has been in love with yogurt and we have been encouraging her to feed herself. It is a very messy proposition, but she and her clothes are machine washable.

We also went to an elephant open house at the Houston Zoo. It was awesome. The girls got to play with the elephant's toys (remarkably similar to their toys). We got to help give one elephant her bath. They even performed tricks for us. Needless to say, we had a great time.

We have also hit up a couple of pumpkin patches last weekend and today. I'll just say the animals will recover from the torture rained down on them by an 18 month old animal lover who has yet to fully grasp the concept of gentle.

As I said up top, we have been busy. Next week we take Annabeth for her 18 month appointment. I will update her stats then. We also recently had Savannah's first parent-teacher conference. I will update with more on that later too.

Have a great weekend!

Updates and Lots and Lots of Pictures

It has been very busy in the Golden household lately. We had some fantastic family pictures taken. Savannah started pre-school and Annabeth started a new Mother's Day Out. Savannah will be taking her first dance class at school this year. So we went and got her the leotard portion of her outfit. We'll be getting the rest later, but enjoy the adorable pictures of her in the leo. It is too cute. She was thrilled. She is loving the "new school". She wants to go every day. I'm so glad she finds it fun. What a relief! Annabeth has not embraced MDO in that way, but I'm told she has fun once I'm gone. She is adjusting to a new nap schedule. We are phasing out the morning nap and it has resulted in some funky sleep patterns. This morning she was up at 5:30! Ugh. Anyway, here's hoping tomorrow's wake-up call is not so early. Enjoy the pictures. I'm hoping to keep everyone updated better in the future.

Our weekend in Galveston

We packed up the kids and headed out to Galveston last weekend. We had so much fun. The kids love the beach. I mean seriously love the beach. Savannah asked why we had to go home. Annabeth's favorite part is playing in the really wet sand. She would dig and dig in it. Then she would inevitably rub her eyes and hair. She also loved attempting to do head stands in the sand. She would put her head down on the sand and come up with a muddy mohawk. Hilarious. Savannah loved the waves. She also had fun hunting for hermit crabs with Sean. Mostly though she wanted to be in the waves.

We stayed at The Victorian which is conveniently located across Seawall Blvd. from a beach. It was great. If one kiddo was sleeping one of us could take the awake child to the beach. It was a great set-up. We were able to tuck the kiddos into bed in the bedroom and Sean and I could stay up in the living room without disturbing them. It also had a small kitchen. It was so easy to spend time there!

We were mostly at the beach. However we did venture out to The Strand for ice cream at an old fashioned ice cream and candy shop. We had lunch at Gaido's and went to the aquarium at Moody Gardens. I was so in love with the penguins. They were adorable.

Everyone was closely examining the hermit crab.

I swear, she is well loved. This picture does not prove anything.