Anders is universally considered to be the funniest member of the family. Even
Rosie agrees. Here are some of his more memorable quotes of the last couple of months
A few days after the 4th of July we heard Rosie crying and went upstairs to get her up from her nap. Anders beat me there and when I walked into the room I heard him telling her, "It's ok sweetheart. Don't cry. Mommy's here. Did the fireworks scare you?" I think he may have been projecting ;)
He also got really into the Star Spangled Banner and started asking for it as his bedtime song. Those octave jumps are not kind to the Von Ottley Family Singers.
Upon seeing that Anders had colored in a book
Me: "Anders, did you color in this book?"
Anders (whispering with his finger to his mouth): "Shhhh, mom, we need to be quiet. Rosie's sleeping"
I came out of the bathroom to this scene and Anders immediately piped up, "I didn't color on my hands! I was just coloring on paper!"
Anders was supposed to be napping but had been playing in bed for over an hour. I went to go check on him and he was laying on his back with his hands as binoculars over his eyes. He looked up at me and said seriously, "I'm keeping my eyes peeled...for motorcycles"
While in a public bathroom with Adam
Adam: "Anders, don't touch anything in here"
Anders, standing inches from the stall door: "can I touch this with my....nose?"
Adam: "um, ok."
Anders, touches the door with his nose and in the process bumps it with the rest of his body: "Can I touch it with my...belly?"
While grocery shopping
Me: "ok, we need some..."
Anders: "CHOCOLATE CHIP ICE CREAM!" (we've never had chocolate chip ice cream)
He has been so curious about bodies lately. We got him a couple of books to help explain things and he's always asking us to tell him "a little bit more" about his brain/heart/lungs/kidneys/digestive system, etc. One day Adam and I were having a conversation in the front of the car when Anders, staring at his arm, started yelling from the back: "MY BODY HEALED MY OWIE! Good job, body! Thank you, body! Goodbye."
Anders is wilting in the North Carolina heat. He seriously can't deal with anything over 85 degrees. One day while getting him out of the car into the bright sun he covered his face with his hands and said "my brain is hot!" Poor little Pacific Northwesterner.
He is constantly wanting us to tell him stories and he's very specific about the elements of the story that need to be present. Like he'll ask for a story about a train, and a crocodile, and ice cream. It can be a real challenge trying to squeeze that all into one story. One day he asked me to tell him about a white airplane and pink airplane (birthday party favors). Later in the day he was talking to Adam in the car.
Anders: "Dad, do planes talk?"
Adam: "No, planes don't talk but pilots flying the planes can talk to each other. In real life only people talk, not planes."
Anders (thinks it over for a bit): "Do toy stories talk?"
In addition to hearing stories Anders has been really into acting lately.Throughout the day he's constantly assigning roles to us and we have to quickly get into character and have a dialogue with him. We're reading James and the Giant Peach right now and although we'd love to be the different bugs that James becomes friends with that's not the part of the story he has latched onto. He'll always tell us "this is James" (pointing to himself) "this is Aunt Sponge" (pointing to Dad) "and this is Aunt Spiker" (pointing to me). Then he likes us to be cruel to him by calling him a "nasty like boy" (he requests this particular phrase) and telling him he can't have any friends/toys/lemonade. It gets a little awkward when we have to act this one out in public but no CPS calls yet.
On a particularly grumpy night Adam was hauling him off to bed in tears while he yelled, "I don't want to go to the dentist!" You and me both buddy.
Anders: "Mom, do you feel sick?"
Me: "Oh yes! <cough, cough> I'm so sick!"
Anders: "Can I say a prayer for you? Dear Heavenly Father, we're so grateful for this day, <mumble mumble> mommy feel better <mumble, mumble> NAME OF JESUS CHRIST AMEN!"
Watching Rosie throw a piece of broccoli across the room: "Classic Rosie"
Oh, Anders. I don't care how many times you make me say it, you're not a nasty little boy. You're actually quite a peach.
Our favorite little lady is six months old! After a rocky couple of months our little Rose seems to be in full bloom. The whole family is just crazy about her and now you can be too!
So let's just get this out of the way first, shall we? When we were in the hospital we noticed that she cried a lot and didn't really sleep the way newborns usually do. Not a big deal, though. Oh and she startled really easily. Like, every time a nurse came into the room (so, every 30 minutes) she would jump out of her skin and start wailing. It's cool. At her four day old appointment we mentioned that she seemed to cry a lot to our pediatrician but that we didn't think it could be colic because wasn't she too young for that? Apparently our baby is super advanced. It was colic! The whole thing lasted about eight weeks and it's all a blur now. Thank goodness for other moms of former colic-y babies who commiserated that yes, it was terrible, but it would also be short lived and someday we would fall head over heels for this baby. And oh were they right. Ok, let's get to the good stuff!
Rosie is a veritable ray of sunshine. She passes out smiles left and right and leaves everyone she meets in a puddle on the floor. Literally every time we take her out we get at least two or three comments about what a happy girl she is (and a couple more about her thighs, more on that later). She's totally content to just sit in her stroller and full body grin at everyone who glances her way. Bless you, child.
Big girl! Just how big is Rosie? Wouldn't you love to know. Actually, we'd all love to know but we can't take her to the doctor until we get insurance in September. Hey-O! But her 3-6 month clothes are straining to contain all of her chubby goodness. So different from Anders at this age. When we were in the hospital the lactation consultant encouraged me to feed her for at least 10-15 minutes on each side. I was like, "umm...pretty sure she's done in 5". She's a super eater and always has been. We've been giving her more solids lately and she growls whenever we try to take something away from her. Definitely a Wolfe family trait.
Her three greatest loves are food (see above), swimming, and Anders. No one can get a laugh out of Rosie like Anders can. If she's riding in the stroller without him she'll crane her neck around to get a glance at him and if she's upset, she cheers up the minute he walks in the room. And the best part is, the love is mutual! Anders (mostly) adores his baby sister. It's my favorite thing about being a mom of two.
CRAAAAWLING! We kind of knew we were in for trouble with this one when she started rolling over at two weeks old. Sure enough, she started army crawling a few weeks ago and has now moved on to planking and propping herself up on her hands and knees. I have mixed feelings about early crawling but overall I think babies get easier the more independent they get so I'm embracing it.
Other things about Rosie I want to remember:
- Not a big reader. Unlike her brother she's not super interested in being read to. She'd rather just eat the book, thank you very much.
- Has had two bottles in her life but only because I'm too lazy to pump. She takes them just fine.
- Has about a million nicknames: Rosie, Rose, Ro-Ro, Rosie Posie, little sister, baby girl...everything is fair game.
- She has four toys and otherwise plays with cars, dinosaurs and her wipes package.
- Her hair naturally falls into a middle part. When she was born she had the funkiest hair you've ever seen. I won't even attempt to describe it. It's much better now but still falls funny in the front. Good luck with that, baby girl.
Overall she's our mellow, happy, go-with-the-flow girl! She treks along on all our family adventures and never complains, even though it usually means interrupted naps and feedings on the go. She's the perfect addition to our family and I wouldn't swap her for anything.
