Anna

I am so behind on my blogging and there are so many pictures to go through, but as I was looking, I noticed all of these cute ones of Anna. She is quite the princess! She loves to laugh and giggle and dance. She knows exactly what she wants and will settle for nothing less. Her communication skills are quite good, but when she is impatient, she just lets out ear piercing screams. It is a little, okay, a lot, embarassing when we are out in public. Her cuteness makes up for it though! The picture below is for Aunt Katy. Thanks for making her this cute dress! It fits her well. This picture is for my mom. Thanks for sending this fun Spring outfit. Everyone at church loved it!

Anna has a sweet tooth unmatched by even myself. She manages to find any sweets in the house and can tell it is candy even if the wrapper is unfamiliar and unopened. I made what my mom always called a jello "salad" growing up. It has cottage cheese, cool whip, strawberry jello and strawberries so it really should be called a dessert. Anna LOVED it and couldn't get enough. She was even burying her head into her bowl trying to lick every last drop. I think this picture tells it all.

Below is a picture from Christopher's birthday party which I will post about later on. Very cute!

My dad was in town and so we made another trip down to the Lincoln Memorial. This picture is from the Lincoln Memorial facing the Capitol Building. It was a nice day and Anna ran around while my dad, his girlfriend, Cindy, and Mark toured the memorial.

This was taken on a day trip up to Baltimore. It actually was chilly on the Harbor. Anna was none too thrilled to be confined to her stroller. She wanted out!

Anna's hair was getting long and uneven and scraggly. I was hesitant to cut it because she has some adorable curls in the back (definitely not from my gene pool). While my dad was here, we decided to try the job. Overall it turned out much less scraggly and my fear of losing the curls turned out to be unfounded as her hair is curly as ever!

Living in an apartment has its advantages and disadvantages. I definitely miss having a yard for the kids to dig in and garden. I do try to have some plants/herbs on the balconey though. Since Spring is here, we were potting and resoiling some plants. Anna jumped in full throttle and kept putting dirt everywhere.

As you can see...

Christopher got a tent for his birthday. Anna loves it most, I think. She rolls around and the more pillows and blankets the better! She loves to be one of the big kids and is upset if I try to feed her. She insists on using a fork and spoon. She likes to carry around purses and grandpa was nice enough to bring her one with keys, cell phone and lipstick in it. She puckers and applies (it is plastic) and feels very grown-up. It is amazing the difference between boys and girls and how truly natural and innate gender is. I don't teach her anything, she simply knows what she likes and it is girl stuff! She even has mastered batting her big brown eyes to get people to extra fall for her. What a wonderful addition she has been to our family!

Great Falls and Iwo Jima

On Easter, while my sister was in town, we went to Great Falls on the Potomac. When we first went here, our west coast background came out and we geared up for a long hike and prepared for some physical exertion. It is a flat trail and is fairly short. But it is beautiful nonetheless. Mark was climbing all over the railing, but he is always good to pose. A good distraction for him and from giving me a heart attack!

The kids climbing on the rocks and enjoying the wind. Anna of course had to get in on the fun too!

Vicki and Ben and the boys hanging out on a bridge over the C&O Canal.

And, a close-up.

Anna stayed on the ground with mom. It isn't that she didn't want to go up with the others, but she is a little more fearless than she should be and is entirely too fond of stairs for someone who doesn't know how to navigate them yet.

My sister, Vicki, really wanted to see the Iwo Jima memorial and I was glad that she did, as we hadn't been yet. It looks much smaller in pictures than it does in real life. I am always amazed at the emotions the memorials evoke in me. I always come away with more respect for the soldiers and for the country that they have fought so valiantly for.

Vicki and Ben below the memorial, but it kind of puts the enormity of the statue in perspective.

Anna mostly loved to walk around. Have I mentioned that she has been walking for about a month now? She would always walk holding on to my hand and seemed to have no desire to let go and try on her own. She hated to fall down and would act as though it were a mean, cruel punishment to even try to have her possibly walk on her own and get hurt. But, upon Vicki's arrival, she decided to show off and really has been walking on her own ever since.

Finding the right things

I have to say that I am very grateful to live here in Bethesda. We live in a great apartment, in a great location, close to school, work, shops,etc. There are many advantages. It also happens to be a very affluent area, which has its pluses and minuses, especially when one is not affluent and has a husband in graduate school. Christopher goes to a great school (and, yes, I know I am using "great" way to much!) where the parents donate tons of money and the teachers are fantastic. The homes in "The Kenwood" section directly behind our home sell in the $4-5 million range and the homes around Christopher's school are somewhere in the $2-3 million range. And, the prices haven't been affected by the economy. Why am I telling you all this? I have been feeling inadequate of late that perhaps I do not have my kids involved in enough "extra" stuff. You know, language classes, music classes, 2-3 sports activities, and so on. We are on a tight budget and so I let them pick one class in the fall and one in the spring. A lot of the other parents have their kids in everything or at least a lot of things. Then I think that I can try to teach them some things myself. I know basic piano, I can play a little bit of sports, I can pretend to know some basic Spanish. So, as I was thinking that I was failing in adding these things in on top of the laundry, cooking, reading lessons, playdates, one class for Mark and one for Christopher, since it is Spring, trying to clean, still staying fit myself (which is another bummer. Ran a marathon and didn't lose a pound!), and the general long, dull list that can be motherhood. I then came across this article:http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=f318118dd536c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=7f1a6169b62fe010VgnVCM100000176f620a____&hideNav=1
(I don't know how to link to words yet. Another thing on my long list of things to learn!)
If you don't have time to read it, it basically reviews the Proclamation on The Family but also reminds us that we shouldn't overbook ourselves or our kids so that we have time to focus on fortifying our homes and building lasting traditions and relationships with our kids. If home is somewhere they love to be, what is wrong with that? I love having a living prophet and apostles that always have the words we need to hear at the right time.
So, I know I said motherhood had a long, dull list of duties, which is true at times. But, last night, Mark got sick with the stomach flu and as I was cleaning up his vomit this morning from all over his room (I seriously don't know how it got some places) he said, "Mommy. You are such a nice mommy to clean up my throw up. Thank you." Now, that make all of the menial jobs sooo worth it!

A bad apple does not a bad bunch make

I have to say that overall I am a fairly cynical person and usually see the craziness in the world around us instead of seeing the good. Alex always tells me crazy political stuff but then he says, "Okay, now I will balance it with this great human interest story." And he does, and it is about someone who showed great moral judgment, character and strength. I guess this is a long preface to an event that happened last Saturday. We try to go out as a family on Saturdays for a bike ride/run. Christopher and Mark will ride their bikes or scooters while I push Anna in the jogger and if Mark gets tired, he joins Anna. Alex usually comes, but this last Saturday he was helping some friends move (which is a whole other topic, but we're REALLY going to miss the Woodburys). So, I was by myself on the Capitol Crescent Trail with the three kids and it was a beautiful day and so it was getting a lot of use by everyone. Now, there can be some occasional bikers that forget that the trail is for everyone and that there are even rules posted periodically along the trail reminding them not to go too fast and that pedestrians have the right of way. Christopher was being cautious and taking his time in passing some other runners and I was a little ways behind him when a man came way too fast and yelling "ON YOUR LEFT" and then as he got to Christopher who was passing the people in front of him at that exact same moment really yelled at him. I was furious to say the least and called out to the man not to yell at my little boy. He was clearly livid that I had the nerve to say anything and turned around and started to yell at me and then fell off his bike. He even started to backtrack and act as though he was going to get at me. I won't go into all of the words that passed between us, but I will say that as he was getting more and more angry as I maintained that he should have been the responsible one to slow down as he was coming from behind, people on the trail were slowing down and said an occasional word to support me. When he saw that a small crowd was gathering, he backed down and was not even able to get back on his bike properly because of how enraged he was. Normally I would have been bothered by this for at least a number of hours. But there were several ladies that checked to make sure that I was okay and I was truly uplifted by the fact that so many people were willing to slow down and step in if needed. There are the occasional bad apples, it is inevitable. But, there are far more good people and for them I am grateful!

A sidenote: I love music but do not always have time find new songs when I tire of my current list. I found this great site where you just type in an artist you like and it plays a range that it links you will like. Hopefully some of you can enjoy it too. www.pandora.com