Christmastime is Here....

Oh, can't you just here the Peanuts singing?? Love that song....anyway.....

With Thanksgiving still a week away, I thought I would post some pics of Frass trick-or-treating and also making cookies with Papi. Finally, with snow flying, we put up our Christmas tree. Enjoy and Happy Turkey Day.

Happy 3rd Birthday Frassy!

Insert cliche here:

...Where does the time go....
...She's gotten so big...
...She's not a baby anymore...

There are many suitable phrases to describe your only child turning three, and let me assure you-they're all true.

Ann Elizabeth is blossoming before my eyes. Every day there is a new (sometimes ugly) addition to her burgeoning personality. I love every minute. Monday, October 20th was her birthday and I thought we'd celebrate with her first "real" haircut.

The child is a diva. She posed in the mirror and loved the salon chair. Much better than the screaming ball of terror I thought I would have to wrestle into submission.

We ended the week with an improptu photo session courtesy of Aunt Ann. I will let her help me post those so that I may do them adequate justice-they are truly gorgeous.

So, I will leave you with some salon photos and a promise for more!

Photogenic

I have failed Frassy as a mother. When I was little, I had perfected the "pose". Every picture my family has of me from ages 2-6 show me with my head coyly cocked onto one shoulder smiling as big as I could with various arrangements and numbers of teeth. I mean it. EVERY picture.

My child, on the other hand, has not yet perfected the pose. She moves too quickly. She says "cheese" and smiles while staring at her feet instead of the camera. It has been impossible for me to take pictures of her anymore. Three year old pictures at a studio should be a blast...NOT. Here are some examples of what pics look like at our house.

Zootastic Frass...

Okay, not really. The first hour was great. Frassy darting here and there between animals, marvelling at the humanoid qualities of the orangutan, and then it was over. The heat and humidity quickly melted my charming, exuberant Frass into a puddle of angst and pitiful whining.

"I NOOO get in the stroller!!!"

"GJ carry me!!!"

"Papi, Papi! Up! Pleeeeeeaaaseeee!"

Oy.

My only moment of peace came after I had to *gasp* spank her to get her into the stroller and Mom and Dad wheeled her off to find some "gi-rabbes" as my "F's are B's" Frassy says. Aunt Ann and I snuck off the other direction to check out the Meerkat colony-Aunt Ann's favorite animal ever. Though our visit with the little rodents lasted about 90 seconds, it was quite the relief to have a moment away from the Frassy I had just demoralized.

The giraffe stick-horse and a tube of tiny resin zoo animals from the money pit, um, I mean gift shop at the exit quickly cured all ills. Frassy proudly held her tube and watched Mary Poppins (a new fave) all the way back to Lexington.

Everyone else slept.


(For a far more philosophical glance at our day at the zoo, whip over to Aunt Ann's blog at www.annbransom.blogspot.com )

Testing. Testing.

Well, Mommy is persona non grata. David came home late Friday night and since he greeted Frassy Saturday morning, she has been an absolute tyrant. Mommy ran a pretty tight ship while Daddy was gone-rules followed, punishments doled out appropriately, bed time observed. However, since David has been home, she has sensed a disturbance in the force. She is testing every boundary and carefully calculating each weakness, looking for a chink in the armor of my iron-clad parenting. I am not slayed by her cuteness. Her baby blues and sweet looks effect me not.

David, on the other hand, is completely Frassy-whipped. I came home from dinner with friends tonight expecting to find my freshly-washed, tooth-brushed, Bible-read child neatly tucked away into her crib. Instead, this is what I find...a greasy-haired, pearl-clad child loving on her weak-willed father WELL PAST BEDTIME!! Alas, my ship is sunk....

Doomsday is upon us...

No Daddy. Now no GJ and Papi. They leave Wednesday for Colorado Springs. Ugh. Frassy will have to be picked up by a very gracious Aunt Peggy this week. Poor Peggy. She is going to have a VERY cranky Frass on her hands. She has been so out of sorts with Daddy gone. Thank goodness she'll get a full-on "Daddy fix" this weekend.

A Glimpse of the Garden...

Beautiful cukes, pathetic onions, and bolting lettuce bed NOT featured... ;)

As promised...

...some updated pics of Frassy. She is like a tornado. She goes 100 mph over anything in her path and just as suddenly as it starts, it's gone. She is currently into coloring with colored pencils, or her favorite-mechanical pencils, wrapping up her stuffed animals/dolls and playing "baby", and checking the garden with Mommy. She was adorable this spring putting each little seed in each little hole. Of course, she could only do the big seeds, so we call them her beans and her squash. I'm like a proud mother over this garden. I have put a lot of sweat into each square foot. Some things have failed-onions and chives and peppers, and some have been huge successes-cucumbers and sweet corn. Little Frassy has seen every moment. Even someone who is 2 1/2 can appreciate the miracle of growth. She has seen these huge plants grow from dirt and tiny seeds. I think next year she will be even more enthralled. Unfortunately, this year's plantings are over-shadowed by her irrational fear of bugs...not the dark....not the boogey man....bugs. She will levitate into my arms at the sight of a butterfly! Oh well, next year she'll probably be afraid of dirt!

Bossy pants....

Okay, perhaps I misspoke. Apparently, my daughter is more like me than I imagined (or maybe care to admit.)

Having gotten off yet another 12 hour shift, I went to pick Frassy up from my parents' house. She was wilder than Cootie Brown. Aunt Ann and Uncle Ben pulled up as we were leaving, and my child proceeded to lead the group of us in calesthenics!

...Come on, Papi! Uncle Ben, YOU flap your arms! JJ (GJ's new name), MARCH!!....

Aunt Ann informed me via phone on our ride home that Ann might be like her in some ways, but that she was never that bossy. .....Hmmm....maybe she's more like her mother after all.

Challenge accepted....

Hmmmmm....my sissy decided to start a blog. And to inaugurate said blog, sends me a link to it with the line "maybe I'll do it longer than some other people who started blogs..."
Oh, it's on!

OK, I'll admit, I've been a crap blogger. The fact that it has been a year since the last post was driven home by the comparison of my last post's pictures and my sister's first. Nola was hardly more than a fetus in mine and a full-grown lady in hers. Point taken. An update is clearly in order.

Frassy. Where to begin? She is a complete heathen. She is NOTHING like me when I was her age, albeit she does have a penchant for entertaining. Ironically, she is devilishly like her namesake. I was a model child. Obedient. Thoughtful. The axis of my universe was pleasing my parents. Aunt Ann on the other hand was inventive, independent, and thoroughly willful. I have just perfectly described my child. The curse of the Anns is alive and well.

I have to work in the morning. Anymore, I tend to work a 52 to 60 hour week (possibly why the blogging has suffered.) So, anymore updating must wait for another day. I have much to report-new jobs, a Frassy-dedicated garden, new hobbies, etc. But for now, sweet sleep.