Monday, August 10th, 2009

I feel like there's lots to catch up on:

FIrst of all, Annie has sprouted her first tooth. I admit to being unimpressed with Jack's first tooth at 6 months and not even remembering Mallie's first tooth..... But Annie's has surprised me and taken me aback. At 9 1/2 months, I don't know if I had stopped expecting it and starting thinking that she would just be a cute little 'gummy' 16 year old....but feeling her tooth popping through yesterday shocked me!

I took Annie and Mallie to the doctor for their check-ups today. On the way home, I called Tommy and told him, 'The girls difference in weight is only 5 lbs.!" To which he asked, "well, which one is heavier?" This may not seem funny, but if you could see Annie, you'd realize that she is so big that the question was legitimate. Annie is in the 90th %ile for both height and weight. Mallie is in the 50th for weight and 25th for height. The doctor reminded me that this isn't any type of forshadowing for the future, as Jack was in the 90th %ile for weight at 9 months too and now resembles a string bean.


Jack and Mallie have been performing both fiddle and piano concerts featuring Jimmy Buffet's "Volcano" several times a day (i.e. if you miss the 9 a.m. performance, you can catch the 9:05 a.m. performance). Piano duets are performed (loudly) in the living room by banging the keyboard in synchrony and yelling "I don't know, I don't know, I don't know wha I ma gonna go when I don't know!!!!!!!!!!" Fiddle concerts are less loud, but equally hilarious. THey are performed in the outdoor arena with plastic golf clubs. One is held under the chin, the other acts as a bow. This takes so much concentration by the musicians that the lyrics are sung more softly and slowly.


WHen we got home from our Columbus adventure this Sunday (an overnight in Columbus to visit the COlumbus zoo- which was awesome...and the Dublin Irish Fest).... Jack promptly got out of the car and started scrounging around in the garage. He emerged with a diaper bag over his chest and shoulder with two wooden spoons protruding from it. It was his bagpipe. He used his elbow to squeeze air from it and the spoon to manipulate with his fingers to get the proper notes. When he finished with that, he stood on top of the cooler and played the wooden spoon as a flute, telling everyone in his audience, "this one is about someone that goed to heaven'- which was taken directly from a band we had watched early that day.


We celebrated Mallie's second birthday on Tuesday. She embraced her day, unlike Jack's 2nd b-day, where his fear of the song 'Happy Birhtday to You" ruined his time. SHe woke up asking about her cake. When it was time for cake, the smile on her face was from ear to ear. While everyone sang to her, her little shoulders shrugged up to her ears with joy and she wiggled around with excitment. She has been obsessed with all of her birhtday gifts, including her new shopping cart, dolly, purse, lip smackers, and dress-ups. Her dress-up trunk includes dangle earrings and high heels which are 12 sizes too big for her. SHe has been persistant about wearing and walking in them. And by the end of her party, she was suffling around in them, pushing her shopping cart as though she'd been born in heels.


At the end of Mallie's party, Jack, being the eternally gracious host that he is, ushered everyone to the door, saying, "Bye everyone! Thanks for coming to my sister's birhtday party!"....an Mallie being the myna bird, repeated, "Bye! Thanks for coming to my sister's birthday!!"

At a picnic this wekend with all the Gilbride cousins, Jack was WAY too busy to eat his dinner. At one point, he ran by me and Grandpa Gilbride and stopped to ask if he could have a brownie. I asked him if he had eaten his dinner. He said, "Yes." I asked him if that was the truth or if it was a lie. He said, "That is a lie." And ran away to continue playing with his cousins. I thought GRandpa Gilbride was going to bust open trying not to laugh in front of him.

Mallie got a shot today at the doctor's office. She was not happy about it and didn't do much to mask that from the sweet nurse who had the unfortunate duty of administering it. The nurse was full of apologies and gave her a cool band-aid. Mallie was so beside herself that she tore the band-aid off and yelled at me to 'Throw it away!" Then the nurse offered her a pretty princess sticker for being such a big girl. Mallie, still in hysterics wound up to whip the sticker back at the nurse, who kindly excused herself from the examining room at that point.

Annie is being a HUGE handful!!! SHe is learning that she is not supposed to do things and find that experience funny (which presents a problem in discipline!!) When she picks something up that she is not allowed to have, she gets on all 4's (really all 3's, while holding the thing in question in her hand), waiting for us to say something. When we say , "No Annie!", she throws it down and crawls away as fast as she can, laughing. The girl is only 9 months old and already finding her old lady and old man hilarious when we (lamely) try to excert any type of authority. It's going to be a long 18 years at this rate!!!


Annie has also learned a new trick from her Auntie DI. They were sitting out on a blanket for an hour or so a couple of weeks a ago and Di taught her, "How big is Annie?" SOOOOO Big!!" Annie, being the chubby little thing she is, struggles to raise her rolly little arms above her head and instead shrinks her head down to prove how big she really is. She is also clapping when someone says 'yeaaaaah!" and waving when someone says 'bye or 'hi'. I also told the doctor today about my crazy belief that she is saying 'ba ba', 'mama' and 'dada' intentionally and braced myself for a weird look from her. She said it's certainly early for that, but it's not unheard of and if she's doing it and I'm hearing it, it's certainly plausible!

Mallie and Jack learned about the man in the moon a few days ago from their Yaya. Ever since, they have been asking me about 'him'. "Why is there a man in the moon?' 'Is he real?" Etc. I have been explaining it, repeatedly that there are mountains on the moon. And when the sun shines on them they make it look like there's a face on the moon that we call the man in the moon. Mallie has no clue what is going on and is only asking about the man in the moon because Jack is. However, she is asking about it every time he does and I wanted to see, if by any chance in the world, she is picking up on any of this. So she asked me while we were driving, "Why there a man in the moon Mama?" and I asked her, "I don't know Mal, you tell me, why is there a man in the moon?". SHe relied in the most flip way, shrugging her shoulders, " I dunno..... mountains... moon..... sun shining....."