It's Fun to be One!

My little girl is officially one year old! I can't believe how fast this year has flown by! I just brought my little princess home from the hospital yesterday....how can she be one already?!? Wow! What an incredible year this has been! I took Annabelle out for her one year portraits and it went so well. The photographer insisted that I bring a cake along and just let Annabelle dig into it....so I did! It was a lot of fun watching her with this cake (her first one ever!) She didn't know what she was supposed to do with it until I put a small piece in her mouth. She figured out the rest all by herself! The day before was big sister's 16th birthday, so we did some double portraits as well, just to mark the occasion.

Will Somebody Please Slap Me.......

......if I ever even *THINK* about having double back-to-back birthday parties again? We had Annabelle's first birthday party and Gabby's Sweet Sixteen party (two milestone birthdays nonetheless!) this past weekend (Annabelle's on Saturday and Gabby's on Sunday) and I am totally exhausted (as well as broke!) All in all, though, it really was a fun weekend......just a bit much for one weekend. I would have preferred to have had these parties on separate weekends, but my sister and her 5-year-old son (whom I haven't seen since he was 3 months old!) came to visit for a week, and we wanted both of them to be here for both parties. It was nice to see them again after five years. Time really is too short to spend it so far away from our loved ones. Hubby and I are already trying to figure out if we might be able to make it over there to Georgia (where they live) next year for a visit. I love road trips, but have never taken one with an infant before, so I'm not sure how that would work......but I'm trying to figure something out.

We had Annabelle's party at Chick-fil-A. All in all, there were 9 other children there (if you include my older daughter and her friend, who sometimes act the same age as Annabelle & her friends, there were actually 11 children there!) Two of the children showed up 10 minutes before the party ended, but it was nice that they came. Annabelle received SO MANY wonderful gifts, most of which are battery operated (thanks a lot guys!) Up until now, Annabelle has not had a single battery operated toy. That's not necessarily because I have anything personal against battery operated toys, I've just always opted for the non-battery operated ones for some reason or another. I guess I always suspect, somewhere deep in the back of my mind, that battery operated toys are more likely to break.....or just suddenly stop functioning when the batteries die. The second scenario is not necessarily a problem unless I have no spare batteries to replace the dead ones with. Determined not to let that happen, I carefully checked all the toys to see what size spare batteries I should keep on hand. Wouldn't you know it.....every single one of these battery operated toys requires a different size battery! Go figure. Hmmmmm, perhaps *that* is the reason I have yet to purchase a battery operated toy for Annabelle?

Needless to say, I have dozens and dozens of pictures from this past week. With my sister in town and both birthday parties, it has been kind of a week-long holiday for me and I am currently working on bringing myself back down to reality. I am going to post some, but not all (There are WAAAAAAY too many!) pictures from the parties, as well as some misc. photos, but I am going to post them all under their own separate blog entry. This way, I can stop this entry here and not worry about it turning into 4 pages of rambling nonsense that nobody wants to finish reading.

Ersatz Binky!

OK......here is what happens when Annabelle is "deprived" of her precious binky. She takes the binky cover and...... VOILA! Ersatz binky! I almost fell over laughing when she did this! :-)

Standing On Her Own Two Feet!

My baby is standing! She's not walking yet, but it's very obvious that it's going to happen soon. She will stand and attempt a step (she doesn't actually make the step yet, but I can see one leg moving in place while the other remains still.) She has attempted steps in the past, but never while she was able to stand on her own. The steps she attempted were while whe was holding onto something (a chair, the wall, etc) and simply let go as she was taking a step. Now she is standing, so I can't wait for that first step! She still has not yet demonstrated that she can clap. It looks like we are going to totally bypass that milestone! She doesn't wave anymore, either, but at least I know she can if she wants to. I still can't believe she is almost one year old! The absolute best method of measuring time is to actually watch a child grow. The time slips by so fast. Don't blink or you'll miss it!











My poor little angel has a dipaer rash that I simply can't get rid of! She's never had a rash that I couldn't conquer in a day. This pesky rash has been around now for 4 or 5 days, with no sign of leaving. It's actually only a small spot in a very localized (and very sensitive) area, but it is dark red and blistered. Wiping it makes it bleed. I have air dried it and purchased the finest and most expensive diaper ointments and powders that I could find, but it is still there. It's not spreading, but it's not clearing up either. If anybody has any ideas on what I could do, I would be most grateful!

I ordered birthday cakes today! Annabelle's first birthday party is next Saturday, July 19th, and Big Sis Gabby will be having her Sweet Sixteen on the following day. It's going to be a hectic weekend, that's for sure! I joked around with Gabby that I was going to make them have a double birthday party and that the theme this year was going to be "Elmo". She didn't find that very funny! Anyway, I decided to go ahead and do a Pooh themed party for Annabelle and Gabby, of course, will have a Sweet Sixteen theme. The cake I ordered for Annabelle is absolutely ADORABLE! It's called "Balloon Ride" and features a basket with three real balloons coming out of it, and miniature stuffed Pooh characters in the "hot air balloon". The cake is blue with clouds and a rainbow "painted" on it. The picture (in the baker's book) was stunning, so I'm hoping the reak cake will turn out just as amazing. Naturally, there will be photos plastered all over this blog when the time comes!

For the past two years, and up until last month, I have had a very nice online photo album with all the pictures I had been taking around here. Not just pictures of Annabelle, but of the whole family, the area, our outings, etc. Well, the site that was hosting my album decided to make some changes that I didn't like, so I reluctantly cancelled my subscription, and now I am left with no photo album. I was about to go with another company, but they sent out an email shortly after I made up my mind to sign on with them, informing everybody that they were "going belly up" so to speak. Well, that stinks for me because I haven't found another site that I like. So I am considering expanding my blog somehow to include more of the family pictures that my far-away friends and family can view. I haven't figured out how I'm going to do this yet, but the wheels have started spinning. I have also decided to move my homeschooling blog over here to blogspot so I can keep everything together. This is mainly for my benefit, but maybe somebody else can benefit from my homeschooling notes as well. That would be great! I'm planning on getting that up and running (here) soon, as soon as I have time to move it all from the other account to this one. Hopefully it will be before Annabelle gets her driver's license!

FourthFest Celebration

It hit me today that this, the Fourth of July, is Annabelle's last holiday before she turns 1 year old. She has gone through one complete year of life and it overwhelms me to think that this is still just the beginning! What an INCREDIBLE blessing she has been to everyone in our family. Sometimes I wonder what I ever did to deserve such an amazing gift from God. Then it hits me: I have done nothing to deserve this precious little angel, yet God has chosen to entrust her upbringing with me anyway. That's grace in its purest form.

For our Fourth of July holiday, the hubby, the girls and I went up to our church for our annual FourthFest.....complete with BBQ, ice cream, and fireworks. The weather couldn't have been more beautiful and it was a great opportunity to just relax and mingle with friends. Annabelle seemed to really enjoy the change of scenery although by the end of the night (as the fireworks were starting) she was getting a bit cranky. We stayed way past her bedtime, so it's no wonder she was so tired. As tired as she was, though, she behaved like a champ! She was neither impressed with nor scared of the fireworks. She didn't really pay any attention to them at all...she was more interested in the rocks on the ground. We tried sitting in the grass, but Annabelle let us know in no uncertain terms that she didn't like the grass. So we were left with sitting on the concrete and it took every bit of energy I had left to keep Annabelle from putting handfuls of rocks in her mouth.

While we were at the FourthFest, Annabelle ate a popsicle for the very first time. What fun that was! I couldn't get her to hold the stick, so she just grabbed on tight to the popsicle and just chowed down. There was popsicle juice dripping everywhere and it took me forever to get it off her! It was a hilarious sight to see!


Annabelle enjoyed sitting on the curb "like a big girl".











Here she is, NOT enjoying the grass!












Sweets for the sweet:
















With big sis Gabby:











The music was great too!













A fantastic fireworks show ended the night. The fireworks were MUCH better than how they appear in the pictures! :-)

Hurricane Annabelle

With newfound mobility comes newfound adventures. With newfound adventures comes newfound messes to clean up. I suppose that is all a part of the precious "baby years" that moms love and treasure long after the kids have married and moved away. I can't remember the last time my house was clean and organized (like it used to be) but I am constantly reminding myself that these years pass so quickly and that I should enjoy them while I have them. I have formally given up following Annabelle to pick up all the stuff she knocks off the shelves or pulls out of the drawers. I love watching her like this - totally enthralled in the simpleness of everyday life. How great life would be if we all took such pleasure in the simple things! Sometimes it is a challenge to keep up with her (she has quite an advantage over me, as she is much younger and quicker than I!) and I sometimes find myself in the position of "choosing my battles" so to speak. Do I *really* care if she pulls all of the DVDs out of the cabinet? Is that *really* hurting anything or anybody? Does it *really* matter if she opens empty drawers and pulls them completely off their tracks? Is it *really* a bad thing if she dumps all the magazines out of the cozy little basket they call home? No, these things are not major issues. Yes, Annabelle *must* keep her hands out of the fireplace (the pilot light is always burning.) No, she *can't* play in the knife drawer. No, the litter box is *not* the same as a sand box. I have learned to pick my battles and not be as uptight as I used to be. In time, I will get the hang of it. Hopefully.

Besides, now I have a legitimate excuse for my messy house in the event that unexpected guests drop by and I haven't felt like cleaning that day. Or the day before. Yes, I blame it on the baby!

What's in a Name?

When it came time to select a name for my baby, I remember feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders. It was an overwhelming feeling of pressure combined with exhilaration combined with excitement combined with the possible feelings of future guilt over having picked the worst name I could have possibly chosen. Choosing the name that somebody else will carry for the rest of his or her life can be a daunting task. How will the name of our future child be perceived by others? Will our relatives and friends snicker behind our backs at the "stupid" or "silly" or (insert any derogatory adjective here) name that we find the most beautiful of all names? There are so many reasons for choosing one particular name over another. Perhaps one couple decides to name their child after a deceased relative, or name a newborn son after his father. In my family, our Jewish heritage states that the firstborn child must have a name that begins with the same letter as a deceased family member. Since my mother abandoned the Jewish faith, my name does not follow this rule (but hers does! My mother, Leanne, was named after her deceased grandfather, Leonard.) I met a family the other day whose newborn son, Ptolemy, was given his name because it is a "family" name. The name had been passed down for so long that it was actually expected for new parents to bestow this name on their firstborn sons. This particular family hated the name Ptolemy and called their baby boy "P.T." for short. But for the sake of family harmony, they chose to keep with the tradition, even though they hated the name.

So this brings me back to the actual choosing of the name. Why do we choose the names that we do? Are there proven studies that names can be beneficial or detrimental to our precious little ones? If we give our child a name that he or she grows up hating, or a name that other kids constantly mock, will our child be scarred for life? For my little girl, the last name of her future husband came to mind here. I personally know a woman named Candy. Nice, normal name. She married a man with the last name of Barr......now my friend is known as Candy Barr. Of course, scenarios like this are absolutely impossible to predict since we don't know the last names of our future sons-in-law, but the thought did cross my mind that my little girl's first name might clash with her future last name. This was distressing to me, as it was beyond my control and it began driving me crazy trying to come up with possible (future) last names that might not work with the name I dearly love: Annabelle.

Another consideration for choosing a name is the nickname that might result from the actual given name. Names like Cynthia turn into "Cindy", Robert becomes "Bob", etc. Can we handle the nicknames that stem from the given names? If you love the name Joseph, can you handle everybody calling your little boy "Joey" instead, even though you despise that name? That's something else to consider. I have a friend whose mother absolutely hated the fact that names were shortened into "nicknames", so she gave her daughter the shortest name she could find: Ruth. Monosyllabic, no middle name. No possible chance of this name being shortened into anything.

Another consideration is the popularity of a name at the time of the baby's birth. Do we want our children in a classroom with 8 other kids who have the same name? Or would we prefer that our children be the only one in the state with that particular name. Perhaps even the only one in the country with a particular name? How important is popularity to us? I remember as a child, I was so upset that my name was not one of the more popular ones. I wanted to be one of the 5 Jennifers or 7 Michelles in my class. I'm grateful now that my name is not as common as that, but as a child I assumed that if I had a popular name, I myself would also be popular. Then again, with a unique name, there is no need for a last name. Look at children like Suri. Or Shiloh. How many Suris and Shilohs are out there? After doing the research, I've found that Suri may very well be the only Suri in the country, but Shiloh is becoming more popular among average parents looking to name their children something different and unique. Of course, if a million people name their children Shiloh, then I suppose that cancels out the uniqueness of the name.


Then there are the insane names like "Apple" and "Banjo" and "Moon Unit". I thought hospitals were required to wait until the drugs wore off before they allowed a mother to fill out the birth certificate paperwork. I hope somebody was fired over these gross lapses in judgment.

After considering all these things, it came time for me to make the final decision for the most life-changing event of my life. I have absolutely adored the name "Annabel" since I was a teenager. I first heard of the name in the Edgar Allan Poe poem, "Annabel Lee". I had never heard the name before this, but found the name spectacularly beautiful, and have always associated the name "Annabel" (and any deviation in spelling) with a woman who was loved almost to the point of worship - a woman whose death caused a man to go insane. What an intense, powerful love! Then I met a very good friend who had a sister named Annabel. It was then that I decided I would one day have a daughter named Annabel...but I wasn't too sure I liked the way it was spelled. Even though "Annabel Lee" was a woman loved beyond comprehension, she died in the poem. I didn't like the association between my little girl and a dead one. So I firmly decided that my daughter would not have the middle name "Lee", and I would change the spelling of her first name. My beloved grandmother's name was "Belle", so I changed "Annabel" to "Annabelle" and gave my precious princess a name that I believe is the most beautiful name in the English language.

The popularity of a name is important to me. I did NOT want my little girl to have an extremely popular name, but I'm personally not too fond of the extremely unique names, either. I like traditional names (names that have been around for at least 100 years) and shy away from trendy names that tend to disappear as quickly as they appeared. "Annabelle" fits this category nicely.

I did some research on the name. The Social Security Administration keeps a list of names based on the birth certificates used to apply for social security cards. Every year they post the most popular names in the country. They list the top 1000 baby names for each year, going all the way back to 1880 and running up through the current tax year. I went back and researched "Annabelle" and here is what I came up with:

The name "Annabelle" didn't make to top 1000 list until the year 1995. It is in the top 1000 every year after that, with the various spellings hitting different positions on the list. As of the year 2007, here is the list of Annabelles and where they fall on the list:

Annabelle - #196
Annabella - #568
Anabelle - #733
Annabel - #798
Anabel - #950
Annabell - this is the most popular spelling in Germany, yet this variant did not even make the top 1000 in this country.

When talking specifically about the spelling "Annabelle", here is how it has fared over the years. The name is slowly gaining in popularity, creeping slowly up the list a couple of notches each year. A part of me hopes that this will level off and either stay where it currently is or drop down a little bit lower. Once a name becomes TOO popular, it loses a little bit of its uniqueness, and I am hoping that doesn't happen with this name. Okay, here is the chart for the "Annabelle" variation of this beautiful name, beginning with 1995, when the name first made the list:

1995 - #968
1996 - #924
1997 - #848
1998 - #641
1999 - #501
2000 - #463
2001 - #349
2002 - #331
2003 - #293
2004 - #300
2005 - #238
2006 - #206
2007 - #196

Only time will tell how popular this name will become.