Two at 2

Since my last post was just about our new land, I have a few old pieces of news and some new stuff as well.

On July 31, our sweet doggie had a birthday! Finley Dog turned 2!!!!

Here's one of his first pictures after we brought him home...



And here he is now...



We joke about him being a "Clearance Puppy" because he was the only one left of his litter and the last one that the people were selling because they were not going to breed dogs anymore. I remember them making the comment about his personality- something to the extent of... "We've never really had one quite like him..." He was SO wild when we got him, but he has been SUCH a good dog. It was no big deal at all to house break him and we could not have asked for a better big brother. He has loved Annistyn from the day we brought her home. Now, he puts up with so much. The other day she took his treat out of his mouth (because she thought she was going to eat it) and he just sat there and let her. He gets poked, hit in the head with toys, ran over by her Leap Frog train, and has a little girl always trying to climb on him and ride him like he's a horse. Poor Dog! He is so good though and never shows any aggression or anything but love to her or any of us. We could not have asked for a better doggie!!!! We celebrated by giving him a really big dog bone. He ate on it for about 3 hours. He also got a toy kitty that Annistyn picked out for him at Walmart. I love you Finley Dog Page!!!!

You could say that I have 2 two-year-olds in the house.

Annistyn isn't quite there so I'm REALLY hoping that we are just hitting the terrible 2's early and that it isn't going to get any worse....



This is just one of the many fits she pitches. She will lay down on the floor, scream, hit, kick, and me- being the super mom that I am- decided to take a picture. I know- Mother of the Year!!! If you try to console her or pick her up- she does the "jello" thing and gets even madder. So... I just ignore. She is JUST like her Aunt Shelley. I remember her pitching fits like that.

Annistyn turned 17 months on August 10 and she is growing up SOOOO fast.

She has decided that she needs to take a purse and a baby everywhere she goes.



This is from earlier today. She is holding "Belle" who is my American Girl Bitty Baby from the early 1990's.



We dress her and feed her. Annistyn loves giving her a "bottle". She even makes the smacking sound for her. She likes to share her "bop-bop" (pacifier) with her. She rocks her and burps her. I am LOVING playing with all these little girl toys. I think Santa is going to do a doll house for Christmas and he has already started looking into options.

She is definitely a free spirit.



She is bossy and loves pointing her finger and telling us, "No, no, no..."
She also has learned to shake or nod when she answers.

She likes to stand on her head too.



She is still very petite.... tall and skinny. She has brown curls going everywhere. Her 4 molars have come through- she has 12 teeth.

I wish I could say she knew her whole alphabet- that was my goal for 18 months. I guess I still have a month, but it's not looking very promising.

It bothers me that she doesn't want to learn her letters, but she just isn't interested and I'm not going to force them on her. I started with the letters in her name- like I would do with a Kindergartener who didn't know any letters. She knows "A", "T", and "S". She also knows "O", "W", "B", "D", and a few others. The ones that she knows she has taught herself with her Fridge Phonics. As far as listening to me, she won't do it.

She will fill in the numbers counting through 5. I really was hoping for 20... but then again- she doesn't really care about counting.

She does know how to tell people how old she is and she shows them one finger and says "one".

I would be concerned, but the other day she sat down and I started asking her about shapes on her board. I knew she would know which one was a moon, and I kept asking. On about the 4th one, I realized that she wasn't just guessing and I kept going. She knows all of her shapes- including hexagon, diamond, the difference between rectangle and square, and circle and oval. I think there were 10 on her board and she had learned them herself by pushing them and listening to what they said. She can even point out things that are those shapes that are not on the board.

Annistyn can tell you the sound that every animal on this planet makes. She likes animals much more than the alphabet. I really don't want to push things on her that she doesn't like because I don't want her to hate school. Being the kindergarten teacher that I am, of course, I don't want her to struggle academically and I want her to be ready when she gets to Kindergarten. We have such high standards compared to the coloring and "pasting" that we did when I was in Kindergarten. I would like to be the one that teaches her to read. I'm not sure that she is going to let me teach her anything though. She likes to be in the driver's seat. The problem is- I do too. Somebody is going to have to scoot over... and sadly enough, it will probably be me. I am raising a child that is exactly like me in sooo many ways.

I'll be satisfied with the potty training for now. I'm impressed that she has done that! We have used EVERY public bathroom within a 90 mile radius. Every time we sit down to eat and EVERY time we leave the house she has to "tee-tee". I hate public restrooms and I have already found Dora disposable seat covers and I think $17 sounds great for those. At this point, I would pay $50. She has Dora pull ups too and she loves seeing "Dor-da" on her "big girl panties".

She loves her Daddy and once he gets home- he's numero uno. The other night he gave her a bath and they called me in there.

This is what I found...



They are so silly!

Today Annistyn was in her 3rd beauty pageant- Miss Labor Day. She was in an awful mood. I wish there had been more little girls in her age group. It's nice when everyone can place, but I also liked it last time when there were several, so when she placed- I felt like she'd really won something. Today- there were only 2 in her age group. I probably wouldn't have put her in it if I had known that, but her Grandaddy sponsored her and she won a $50 savings bond, so that was nice. I am now the mother of the 2010 Baby Miss Relay for Life and the 2010 Baby Miss Labor Day.

Here we are on stage....



And here we are arguing about putting the "Photogenic" banner on...





She threw the banner down on the ground. She didn't want to wear her crown either.

I didn't even get a picture with her sash and crown after the pageant. She was so ill. Here she is finally wearing the crown though...




Can't you just see the attitude?

Well, I'm off to bed! I survived the first week of school- but boy, am I give out!