A nice birthday present

Since we celebrated my birthday while we were in Dallas for Thanksgiving, my actual birthday was rather low key. But Anna rolled over for the first time! Enjoy!

Our little girls

I woke up this morning at six and though I should get out of bed and be productive before the girls wake up and Laila gets here (I have two more days of watching her). So I'm posting some pictures of the girls fromthe last few months, random ones not necessarily worthy of an entire post, but cute nonetheless.

Hattie has recently developed a new love affair with books. She has always liked them, but now she'll actually sit and listen to an entire story and demands to be read "bookies" numerous times a day.

We had a pizza picnic one night. Hattie loved eating on the floor. Notice our little copy cat leaning in for the picture like Dad.

I walked into the room one day to discover this...sweet moments of being a mother.

There is an excellent frozen custard place here in town, which of course Hattie loves. Here she sports messy hair and a messy face...this picture also provides proof that I am part of my child's life, since I am never in any pictures with them!

A new favorite! Hattie actually smiled when I prompted, "Show me your teeth." She likes to pretend that the toy she is holding is a birthday cake. She'll put all the pieces in, walk up to you and say "Happy Day Mommy!" She then proceeds to take a piece out and pretend to eat it, but not after blowing out the candles first.

Kisses...and Anna doesn't even care.

Both Hattie and Anna love bath time.

Hattie decided to join Paul and Anna's session of tummy time.

Here is our little friend Laila. She loves to play with Anna, but I can't trust her the way I do Hattie. She's only 11 months old.

She also likes giving Anna kisses. She has been such a good playmate for Hattie. She has helped Hattie be better at sharing...whenever she does share, she says "Ook Mommy, I sharing." Although I won't miss being so homebound, I will miss having a constant friend for Hattie once she is gone!

Thanksgiving in Dallas and an early party

We left on the Monday before Thanksgiving to drive 5 hours to Paul's parents in Dallas. The girls did okay on the drive...Hattie complained only of an "ouwie bum" and was otherwise entertained by her little DVD player. Anna cried a bit, but slept a good portion of the drive. As always the week at Paul's parents was great...we just stayed home and spent time with family instead of rushing out and trying to get a million things done. Sadly with 2 kids there is never any sleeping in on vacation, so by the end of the week we were both exhausted from too many nights of late night board games.

The Thanksgiving meal was a huge success. Christina had a great time prepping the turkey.

And of course, per Iverson family tradition, we fried the turkey. Yum...it still makes my mouth water. Fried is definitely the best way to eat a turkey.

I didn't take very many pictures while we were there. Paul's brother Michael who was married in August had his wedding reception in Texas over the break, so we were able to see some old friends as well. But no pictures of the party, sorry! Paul and I did go out on a date, the first time since Anna was born, enjoying some free babysitting.

Hattie enjoyed being the only grandchild there (besides Anna) and was spoiled by aunts, uncle, and grandparents. She loves Grandma's house with its easy access toy closet and constant entertainment from Tang the Cat.

We also decided to celebrate my birthday early...we had a 1/2 eaten cake from the reception, and parties are always more fun with more people. As I have said before, Hattie LOVES birthdays. She wishes everyone in the family a happy birthday on a daily basis, so she was thrilled to have a real cake with real candles and real presents to open. Like on her birthday, Hattie opened all my presents and passed them over to me without looking at them. This girl is going to love Christmas.

When Grandma comes

My mom came into town on the Wednesday before Anna's blessing. It's always so wonderful when she visits. We went to the Science Spectrum, a cool little museum here that is great for kids...it was so nice to have another adult along so I could care for Anna while Hattie had someone to interact with her.

My mom is so great at playing with kids. She would color with Hattie or play with Play-doh all morning and afternoon. Hattie never once asked to watch TV or a movie. And even now that Grandma is gone, she hasn't asked for TV much. On Saturday my dad and in-laws arrived for the blessing so it was a bit crazy for a while. But Hattie loved all the attention.

Sunday night I got a horrible headache. I never get headaches, and this one was so bad that I could barely turn my head or move my eyes without pain surging. After a long, sleepless night, we discovered I had a fever and limited ability to move my neck. Paul, having just studied neuro at school, was worried I might have spinal meningitis, so we went to the ER for the first time in my memory (technically I went when I was about a year old, but I don't remember). Four hours later after a CT scan, a few pokes, and some pain killers, they sent me home. It wasn't anything serious, just a bad headache. I feel a bit silly that we went to the ER for a headache, but since I never get them, it really did have me worried. Better safe than sorry.

So Monday was shot...I slept most of the day after coming home from the hospital. It was such a blessing that my parents were there to take care of Anna and Hattie...it would have been a lot more stressful. That's the second time in the last few months that my parents have saved us during a hospital stay...gratefully this one was just a few hours instead of 2 weeks!

Tuesday morning I drove my parents around Lubbock...not much to see! But Dad got a Texas Tech shirt and we went to a museum. Hattie was terrified of the dinosaur skeletons. She was either burying her face in Anna's car seat or saying "Close eyes!" the whole time we were in there!

We grabbed a quick bite to eat then took Grandma and Grandpa to the airport. Hattie cried half the way home.

It was so wonderful to be with my parents again. I'm excited to head up to Ontario for 3 weeks in December. I love being in Lubbock and having my own family, but I also love being close to my parents and siblings.

Anna's blessing day

We were finally able to bless Anna in church last Sunday. Being nearly 4 months old, she was quite a big baby on her blessing day, despite the fact that she was 6 weeks premature. There's nothing preemie about this girl now! My mom and Dad were amazed at how big she was. We were lucky enough to have both my parents in town from Oregon, as well as Paul's dad, sister Christina, and brother Daniel.

It was nice to have both my side and Paul's side of the family together. Hattie certainly got spoiled by grandparent attention!

Anna was blessed in the same dress as Hattie...I still think they look so much alike!

We regularly call our babe "Anna Banana" so we joked on the way to Church that Paul would mess up and name her Anna Banana instead of Anna Isabelle. Or we feared that when Hattie heard Paul say "Anna Isabelle" she would shout out "No! Anna Banana!" Gratefully, all went smoothly.

I love her sideways grin!

I love how Paul and I are also puckering up! Hattie is a great big sister.

Cooped up

Last week both Hattie and Anna were sick...actually, we are still fighting the last bits of a bad cold. Runny noses and coughs never seem to go away. Anna is still running a fever and has goopy eyes, but Hattie is her usual self. Because they were sick, we didn't leave the house much...and once they felt better I was babysitting Laila, so with three kids under the age of 2, leaving the house is a little more complicated. By Saturday, both Hattie and I were stir crazy. We ran a few errands and every time she saw a park she would shout, "KIDS!!" hoping we would stop to play. Gratefully, we had her little friend Callie over to play. It was an hour of heaven. Usually these two buddies have their moments of fighting and trauma, but Saturday they were angels. I think it was because Hattie hadn't seen her in so long. They just ran around chasing each other and being two-year olds. But I loved this video:


(If you notice, Hattie says that her sister's name is Callie, and Callie says her sister is Anna...Hattie usually doesn't miss that question so she was obviously having a great time)

I guess even little kids need friends.

Extra babes

For the last two weeks I have had my hands extra full. I have been babysitting Laila, a sweet 10-month old whose parents are finishing up their clinical rotations for occupational therapy. Although it is certainly more work, it hasn't been too crazy either. Hattie loves to have someone to play with all the time, and she is learning to share more than she ever did before. It does get crazy when all three girls are hungry at the same time or need to nap at the same time. Hattie and Laila often keep each other awake as they cry falling asleep. Or I have to nurse Anna while Laila and Hattie sit on my lap. But on an average day, there is usually only about 30 minutes of pure chaos. Besides that, it's been wonderful. I love having a little friend for Hattie.

But with this Hattie is becoming more bossy. The other day, Hattie spilled her Teddy Grahms all over the kitchen floor. I asked her to pick them up quickly before Laila got to them, since Laila is still quite toothless. Hattie said, "Mama try." So I got down to help her clean up. As Hattie reached down to pick up her first Teddy Grahm, she said, "Ugh. It's a big one! Laila, help me!" Already she's trying to pass the buck to others to do her work!