Andrea's battle wound

From a fight with the Etch a Sketch. Guess who won.

What a Sweetheart

My mom has a friend that had quite a few health problems and hospital stays over the last year and a half. Andrea recently went to visit her in the hospital with my mom. During the visit Andrea sang for her as only Andrea can. I was told that before they left Andrea said that she did not want to leave until Jean got better and could go home. Jean passed away a few days later.

We love you Jean. Thank you for the memories that you have given to my girls and to me.

How Things Happen at Our House

When Grandma is in charge things look this:



When I am in charge things look like this:



And this:





And this:





And then this:



















Which leads to this:





There was still some left over candy the next day, but only until Cousin B got ahold of the tablecloth and the candy ended up on the floor. Somehow the gingerbread houses were safe and stayed on the table!

And...

The first words out of Andrea's mouth to me this morning: "No tie-oh-tees woat me up nass moh-ning." (No coyotes woke me up last morning--meaning today.)

Andrea's current obsession/fear

Wolves/coyotes.

I don't know where it came from, but I came home from school to Andrea saying that she doesn't like "how-wee wofs" (howly wolves). Then Greta told her that she heard coyotes at our house, and how she thought I was whistling.

Um... what?

I was helping Andrea in the bathroom a few minute ago when she said, "Deh's no soah-wuh in dis bah-woom."

"What?"

"Deh's no sah-wuh in dis bah-woom."

"... There's no sour in this bathroom?"

"Deh's no baff in dis bah-woom."

"Oh! There is no shower or bath in this bathroom!"

"Yeah."

:)

Andrea: "Do you have a yutty bum?"

"I mean... a yutty tummy?"

Me: "No."

Andrea: "What do you have?"

Me: (thinking)"... Nothing. Why? Because I want to go to bed?"

Andrea: "Yeah."

Me: "Because I am tired."

Andrea: "Oh."

More random Andrea

Andrea wanted to share the water in her sippy cup with me this evening. She told me that I needed to drink it "for wee-oh, nah pee-tend" ("for real, not pretend"). I did get a little that dumped into my mouth, and she told me, "Dat's a duhd duhl" ("that's a good girl").

Andrea's Phrase of the Day

"That's the whole point!"

???

Where did it come from? The first time she said it my mom and I both laughed. Then she said it again after my mom said something along the lines of "You want me to color the rest of this?"

Silly, silly girl!!

Talk about easy!

For the last month or two I have been wanting to potty train Andrea. As my schedule is, I didn't know when I would be able to do it without making my mom work also.

Saturday Andrea decided that she wanted to use the potty... a lot! Sunday afternoon I put her in panties. She has been in panties since, minus bedtime, but she has woken up with a dry diaper the last three mornings! She has done so well!! I am so proud of her!! And the only accident so far was yesterday. She had said she needed to go potty, I repeated to make sure I had understood her, and she said no. Five minutes later she said she needed to go, and by the time I turned around she bent over to look between her legs. Oops!

Now I need to go back to the store to pick up the style of panties she has been asking for (size 4 will not work!).

Silly Andrea

A little while ago I stopped for a minute to wash my hair in the bathtub. Andrea had been following me around. She was standing by me as I was getting the water going. Out of nowhere she told me, "Don't get water in my eyeball." I laughed.

Not too long before that she had told me that her hair looked perfect. She is pretty easy to please when it comes to her hair. She lets me do my thing and she picks the pretties to finish it up.

Middle of the night wake-ups

A few nights ago (Monday night maybe?) I went to bed late. I had checked on the girls, made sure they weren't ready to roll out of bed, and covered them up before I went to bed. Andrea woke me up about an hour later (1:30 a.m.) needing a drink. I complied, and got her back to bed.

Three hours later (4:30 a.m.) she came running into my room, telling me that "it's going round and round!" Being woken up because of scary dream isn't exactly fun. This was worse, with a startling wake up comment, accelerated heart rate going from sleep to WAKE UP, and needing to take care of my scared little girl. A middle of the night dizzy spell had never happened before. I was surprised. I held on to her for a little while (it didn't last very long), then she said she needed a drink. I took her into the bathroom, set her on the counter next to me, got her a drink, and, after handing the drink to her, I noticed that she wasn't sitting there "okay". Her body was moving in a circle. I pulled her close to me to stabilize her. It wasn't long and everything seemed okay again.

As far as I know she hasn't been having many of these dizzy spells anymore. I was supposed to schedule a follow-up appointment with the ENT awhile ago (I don't remember when I spoke with him. At least a month ago), but I never did because I figured I had the time frame of when these were happening narrowed down. Bad excuse not to schedule, I know. They seem to happen when she has a cold; quite often later in the sickness when she seems to be getting better.

I think it is time to get the professional involved again.

What Andrea said at breakfast

"Tah-tut meok is so dee-ish-us." (Chocolate milk is so delicious.)

She is feeling better!

Yesterday Greta was sick all morning and into the afternoon. I started offering her Pedialyte that I remembered having in the evening when she kept begging for water. Remembering that my mom had said Andrea had a bit of diarrhea the day before I gave her some also. Both girls loved it.

This morning Greta is doing even better. She woke me up at 7:00 a.m. as she ran for the toilet. Luckily she was just hungry and not starting another round of throw up. She ate four crackers, had a couple drinks, and went back to bed for about 45 minutes. When we came downstairs I asked if she wanted more of the medicine drink. Andrea had been given some Tang before Greta and I got downstairs. I poured Greta half a glass of Pedialyte. Andrea wanted some too, so I gave her about a quarter of a glass. She wasn't impressed. She wanted "ohm" (all of it). She didn't want it anymore, and kept reaching for Greta's cup. Her grandpa and I kept asking her if she wanted different drinks - orange juice, apple juice, Tang... she didn't want any of it. Finally my dad pulled out the apple juice and held it next to Greta's cup, saying, "Look! It's apple juice!" Greta seemed amazed. When she had her next sip she said, "It does taste like apple juice!" (It really doesn't.) Andrea was still saying that she wanted Greta's drink.

My dad: "It's okay to want."
Greta to Andrea: "That's what Grandpa tells me!"
Me to Greta: "Do you like it when he says that to you?"
Greta: *silence* "I'm not saying."

That made my dad, mom, and me laugh. She did eventually say that no, she doesn't like it when he tells her that.

They always make me laugh

Last night I told the girls to find books to read before they went to bed. Andrea said, "Weh's doh-tah soos?" It took me a second to figure out she was asking "Where is Dr. Seuss?" I'm not sure which Dr. Seuss book she was referring to - maybe The Cat in the Hat?

Today in Primary the singing leader had snowflakes that she had the kids sit on. When we got home that's what Greta wanted to do, so I cut papers into squares, folded them, and showed her what to do. We made four (or more?) papers worth of snowflakes of various sizes. Toward the end she said, "This is totally, totally awesome!" I am sure I taught her awesome, but totally...?

At lunch we had yummy skillet dinner. Andrea didn't eat much, but she did tell Greta "Dis is ree, ree, ree, ree good." But she didn't say good. I had to ask her what she said, then figured it out just as my parents told me.

As crazy and wild as these girls are, they have hearts of gold. If I get hurt (even pretending) Greta gets sad right along with me and wants to make me feel better. Greta loves making things to give to people, usually some kind of drawing or painting. She has been wanting us to help her spell out messages that she writes. Andrea knows how to make your heart melt. She is the hardest kid to be mad at! All she has to do is smile at you or tell you that she loves you and she is forgiven. And she has the saddest, most heartbreaking cry. I heard that tonight when I went upstairs after multiple times telling them to be quiet, it's bedtime, etc. It broke my heart and I had to hug and kiss her until she wasn't so sad. She is finally letting me wear a sweater around the house without making me take it off. She used to think that if I wore a sweater it meant I was leaving. And if I give her a kiss she says, "No bye-bye."

Yet another Andrea funny

I have another funny phrase she said a week or so ago, but it's written down at home. Hopefully I will remember to type it up soon!

Today I got home from school. Andrea was being a little cutie (Greta was playing computer games and had not yet noticed that I was home from school, at least not that I could tell). My mom said that if I had gotten home a little bit earlier I would have seen tears. Why? Andrea told me, "Ee-uh ant big bankie. Ga-mah seh NO." (Andrea wanted big blankie. Grandma said NO.) My mom and I laughed and laughed.

Cutest little dancer!!

We were watching a dance competition (I think there were eight countries involved) tonight. Andrea loves dancing. She started dancing along. Since I don't have a video camera, I pulled out my trusty camera. It might have been a bit more effective if I had changed the settings a little so it was taking pictures in a row by itself, but I didn't. You get the idea. She was dancing with the Russians. Sorry the pictures are so small. I didn't notice that I had them set to upload to a smaller size until 31 pictures had uploaded.



She wanted to dance alone. Can you tell?



Andrea got to sit on the couch with me for a couple minutes after that while Greta danced alone.



She didn't dance for very long.