A Big Decision for Anna- Throwing Away the “paci”

4/5/13

Anna has sucked on her pacifier since about day she was born. She loved that thing and has needed it to sooth her many times. When she just started to speak she began calling it her “paci’. Many people told us to get rid of it when she was little, and maybe it would have worked out, but after considering we felt she still benefited from it. She was a child that got really emotional and had a hard time calming down. I remember many times when she was only a toddler and not able to express her frustrations, she would get so upset that she would run into her room, lay on her bed and suck on her paci as a means for calming herself down. When she had calmed down she would put her paci back on her pillow and come out happy again; we had a rule that the paci had to stay on her pillow. . It was something that Anna knew would sooth her so it was a great help for her when she was so young. She would also suck on it to go to calm herself in order to go to sleep at naps and at night.

The one thing that was terrible about it is the fact that she would wake us up in the middle of the night,, crying, when she lost it. We would have to go into her room time and time again searching blankets and under the bed for that devil of a thing. But we eventually got smart and resolved that by tying a “paci bucket” to her bed post where we kept several pacifiers so that she learned to just grab another if she lost one and allowed us to sleep.

When she was close to three years old her vocabulary had greatly improved. She could express herself fairly well, could have a conversation with us and we could reason with her. We could tell her why we did the things we did, and she understood. And she could control her emotions a lot more. At this point we decided that she did not need her beloved pacifier anymore and that she was mature enough to deal with life without it. Yet, we did not want to rip it out of her hands; we wanted her to make the decision to do away with it on her own. We told her that when she was ready she could throw them in the trash and when she did we would buy her a doll. She always replied, with a concerned look on her face, “No, I don’t want to throw my pacis away,” and she clung to them, so we just said, “Ok, you can keep them until you are ready.” When we watched the trash truck take the trash away, a favorite activity of the girls, I would comment that the trash man takes our trash away forever and we never see it again; just to make sure she knew that when she did throw something away it was permanent. 

Then one afternoon last week, out of the blue, while we were watching the trash truck empty the dumpster, Anna said, “mama, I want to throw my pacis away now.” I was shocked, I don’t think I was ready for it and said, “Anna are you sure? You will never have them again. Are you sure you want to do this?” She kept telling me yes. Then I realized what I was saying I thought, why am I trying to talk her out if it? If she is willing let’s do it now. So we gathered up all her pacifiers, six of them, and walked over to the big dumpster which was just emptied. Anna wanted me to lift her up and watch as she dropped them in one by one. After she did we all yelled, “hurray!” Then we jumped in the car to go get a doll. She was all smiles.

The thing that amazed me was when night came I thought she would have a really hard time falling asleep and cry and ask for her paci but she didn’t. All she said was, “I don’t know how to fall asleep without my paci,” I told her that she would have to practice and she would learn. She has never asked for her pacifiers since. I believe that because it was her that made the decision that she accepted the consequences and was ready to do live without it. She grew up a little more that day.

Baby #3

Had our first doctor’s visit last week. I hadn’t told people I was pregnant this time since I miscarried last time, and I wanted to make sure there was actually something in there. The doctor did a surprise ultrasound for us and there really is somebody in there! A cute little new one growing fast and making me extremely tired and quite nauseated. Much more nauseated then I was with the girls. Here is the first picture.

We are excited for another little Slack coming for some fun due on Oct 12, 2013.

Toes, Toes, Toes

We all decided to paint our toenails.

Anna’s 3rd Birthday

I can’t believe our sweet little Anna turned 3 years old! For her birthday she wanted a “pink princess castle cake,” and she wanted to help make it. So we made one together. She helped me put on the sprinkles and candy along with the ice cream cones and flags. She loved it especially the Cinderella princess and she even prayed for it several times in her prayers.

The morning of her birthday she woke up to fun decorations in the house and a new balance bike. She was more awe struck by the decorations that she did not even notice the bike for a bit.

My mom and I took the girls and some cousins to the McCormick Railroad park for the morning and we got to ride the little train. When anyone would call her for her birthday all that Anna talked about was going through the dark scary tunnel on the train. She loved it.

We celebrated her birthday at my mom’s house. It was so fun to see her so excited for her birthday. She talked and talked about her birthday for several weeks before the actual day, told everyone she was going to turn 3, and she was so so so excited about everything she could hardly stand it. I love this age for that reason.

And of course her birthday was full of princesses, dresses, ballerina skirts, tiaras, fairy wands, and everything girl. She is my little three year old girly girl who is in love with everything beautiful, sparkly, lacey, glittery, and twirling. We just love her and we are excited that she is no longer in her two’s!

Anna and the Underdog

Anna is mischievous sometimes. Lately she has been doing this thing where when she and Elise both get a treat she will eat hers until it is almost gone. Then she tells Elise to trade with her. Poor innocent Elise, the nice little sister, just trades treats and has no idea she is getting short changed out of most of her treat.  It has been happening a lot lately. Well, a funny thing happened while driving home from my mom’s house the other day.

 My mom had given each of the girls a little bag of fruit snacks to eat on the way home.  Halfway home I hear Anna say to Elise, “Here trade.” I heard the switching of fruit snack bags. I think to myself, “oh brother.”  Then I hear Anna fiddling with her new bag, I look back for a second and I see her turning it upside down shaking it and realizing there is nothing in the bag; that Elise had given her an empty bag of fruit snacks. I see Elise chopping away happily.  Then Anna realizing what had happened, that she had given Elise her last few fruit snacks and she got nothing in return, quickly said to Elise again, “here trade.” I hear another swapping of bags; then a horrified cry from Anna, “there all gone!”

 I just chuckled to myself, you got what you deserve dear Anna, you had it coming to you.

A Little About Our Darling Elise

I feel like I haven’t written much about Elise lately and she has grown and changed so much in the past few months; so here is goes. She turned 18 months in November and finally got to go with her sister to the nursery class at church. This is the pic I took of her on her first day of nursery.

It was kind of funny. Before church I told Anna that Elise was old enough to go to nursery with her and I asked her if she would show Elise where to go and teach her everything about nursery and she was excited to do so. After Sacrament meeting I told Elise she was going to get to go to nursery today, and she didn’t wait, she took of running down the hall, between people, straight to the nursery. Anna was trying to catch up yelling. “wait!”

When Elise got to the nursery before Anna, Anna had a meltdown, because she wanted to help Elise go to the nursery. So I had to go get Elise and bring her back to Anna. Anna took Elise by the hand and walked her into the nursery with her. It was cute. They were excited to be together at church and it is fun they were in the same class.

One day in Nov. I got Anna a little tutu I found at the thrift store. Anna, loved it. It was her first frilly type skirt. She wore it every day, all day long, and would not take it off for anything; except I made her take it off to got to bed. I think Elise was a little jealous because one morning we found her in her bed sleeping with it over her footy pajamas. It was so funny. She must have woken up in the middle of the night and put it on and went back to sleep so she would be first to have it on in the morning.

She also loves to put on anyone's socks and shoes that she finds lying around. Elise love to put things on. Sometimes I will find her going through the dresser drawers putting on pants on top of pants and several shirt around her neck and multiple skirts on at the same time. In this picture I think she was wearing 4 skirts.

Elise loves her sister. She does her best to keep up with Anna and at times leads the way and shows Anna how to go down the slides and up the jungle gyms. She talks in one word sentences, but gets her point across good and clear. She now also can hold her own against Anna when she needs to, though she she is very sweet and loves her sister dearly.  If Anna isn’t around she always asks, “Anna?”  One day we got home from the store and Anna didn’t want to come in so I let her stay in the car for a few minutes while I brought Elise in along with the groceries. When we got inside Elise started crying and pointing to the door in much distress saying, “Anna, Anna, Anna!” Lately, Anna and her have been actually been really playing together for the first time and laughing and having fun.

Elise is a smiley, smiley girl and loves to have fun and be around people. She hates when we leave her in her room at night to go to bed. She also loves to snuggle. My favorite time is right when she wakes up, she will walk over to me and climb into my lap and just snuggle for awhile. She is very affectionate and gives wonderful hugs and kisses. she also has the most kissable cheeks and loves getting kisses on them.

It was so sad. A few weeks ago the girls both got fevers and coughs and were just not feeling well. Elise looked like this for about 3 days.

Oh and another thing that has happened is last month Elise moved from a crib to a big her bed. . Every time we put her in her crib she would climb out and then we realized that if we left then crib rails down she would stay in. She just did not like to be trapped and confined anymore. So she was moved into a twin bed along side Anna and was very happy about it.

Elise’s favorite thing to wear is her lady bug dress that her grandma gave her. Her favorite things to eat are cheese, raisins, and cheerios. The swings are her favorite thing to do at the park. Her favorite toy is her stuffed animal gorilla that resides at Nana’s house.

Elise's New Favorite Word

This is Elise's new favorite word...

She always holds up one finger and says one "minute."