My baby, not a "big girl."

Since meeting her heroes (Cinderella, Snow White, Briar Rose, Jasmine, and Belle--pictures to follow), Kathryn has been even more outgoing and talkative than normal. Yes, hard as it is to believe, it's really true. She's also started acting a little more independently than before. For example, at Disney World, she locked herself in one of the bathroom stalls and refused to come out until she was ready. So, I wasn't too surprised when she locked herself in yet another bathroom stall at Applebee's last night. I was surprised, however, when she took off her pants and diaper and climbed up onto the toilet. I was even more surprised when she actually used the toilet. All by herself.

I was so excited, I must have told her 100 times on the way home how happy I was for her and how proud she should be. She, too, was quite impressed with herself, but she told me as I got her out of the car, "Mama, I not a big girl." Of course, ten seconds later she was running into Evan's arms screaming about her accomplishment. Guess it's because she knows I'm not quite ready for her a big girl yet.

Let's Try Again

I've looked into all the suggestions given so far about why the pictures are so small. None of them fix the problem. The pictures are small like that on my computer, too. If I try to enlarge them, they get all blurry and distorted. So, I am going to try putting a couple pictures on here that other people have sent so we can see if it's really the pictures or the computer that's the problem.





Well, that's a little better.

Seriously...

Why are my pictures suddenly so small? It's really starting to bother me. Someone must know how to fix that. Please.

And now, per Adam's request, pictures of both of my beautiful girls:





Now, honestly, wouldn't it be nice if the pictures were big enough that you could actually see Kathryn's adorable smile??? Help!!

The Mini-Photog

Since I may not post for several days (given the exciting week of surgeries and procedures in my future), I decided to keep you going with an adorable little video of my up-and-coming photographer. Hope you enjoy it!

So many updates...

Can you believe that the surgeon's office doesn't want me to take blood thinners for 5-7 days prior to my gallbladder removal??? Yes, I can, too. What I can't believe is that this includes the motrin 600 prescribed when I left the hospital after Annaliese's birth. Now, maybe some women are completely recovered 2 1/2 weeks after deliveries. I am not one of those people. I am still taking my pain medicine almost daily--although, to be fair, I've also started using it to fight off the pain from mild gallbladder attacks. Following my surgery, they'll give actual pain medicine (ie. vicodin or percocet), so I guess that'll make up for them making suffer even more during the next week. (Did I mention that I had another ER visit last night due to the lovely stones taking up all the space in my gallbladder?)

Since hospital/doctor visits seem to be our new favorite hobby, we've scheduled Kathryn for her first surgery. She will behaving her adnoids removed on Feb 11. She saw the ENT this morning and, after taking x-rays and examining her, he determined that taking out her adnoids has an excellent chance of reducing her constant illnesses. Let's hope he's right, because I'm kind of terrified of having by baby put to sleep for surgery--even if it is only for 20 minutes.

Also a new change in my life, January is quickly becoming the new "birthday month," falling only behind June. In addition to my father-in-law, adorable nephew, and beautiful new baby, my newest nephew is now a January baby, too. Rick & Tiffany had their baby, Bryan Andrew, yesterday afternoon. He was 6 lbs 7 oz, 20 inches. Everyone seems to be doing well, although Tiffany needed a c-section, so she was a little groggy all evening. We all went to the hospital to see them last night, but of course I had a massive need-to-be-hospitalized gallbladder attack as we were pulling into the parking lot, so I went to the ER while everyone else saw the baby. Hopefully, I'll make it tomorrow.

This is turning out to be a very busy year for me...

Does anyone know how to get the little picture of Kathryn & Annaliese (and a little of me) at the right to be the same size as the ones above it?

Happy (Belated) New Year!

With all the craziness leading up to the birth of Annaliese, I lost track of posting for a few days. (Again.) During that time, some fun events happened, like the start of 2008. Here are a few pictures of our celebration:

Yes, that is my 2-year-old running around at midnight with a glass of fake champagne in one hand and a noise maker in the other. I'd been asleep for over an hour by this point.

Hope you all had a wonderful New Year, too!!

Please join us in welcoming...

Annaliese Brenton Vanover

January 4, 2008

6 lbs 12 ozs

19 1/2 inches

Everyone is home and doing well. Kathryn is adjusting very nicely to having her new sister around all the time. She's also loving all the attention she gets when her family visits. So far, so good...