Annie

Annie celebrated her 2nd birthday on September 29th. I am so grateful for Annie's siblings who made the birthday festivities even more fun. Whitney got out our step stool and cut up a bunch of crepe paper to sprinkle on Annie like confetti while she opened her presents. Unfortunately, Annie didn't think it was the greatest idea.But she loved her presents and loved opening them herself and trying each gift out... especially her new TOTO!! Later that evening, Annie requested "Chuck E. Cheese" for dinner.

Some fun facts about our two-year-old Annie:

* She is OBSESSED with Wizard of Oz - "Wee Wee Woz"
* Annie has given everyone in the family their own Wee Wee Woz name:

Annie: Dorothy
Whitney: Good Witch
Daddy: Tin Man or sometimes Flying Monkey
Cole: Munchkin
Mommy... you guessed it: Wicked Witch

* Annie calls herself Dorothy. If she's crying, you'll probably hear her say, "Dorothy sad!" or "Dorothy hungry!"
* Around the time of her birthday she would say "I-hhMEEM" for ice cream. It sounded like a middle-eastern name with the whole glottal sound going on. But now she says it correctly. We're kind of sad she stopped saying it Arabian-style.
* She loves to make us laugh. When Annie sees us laugh at something she does, she will repeat what she said or did 50 times to keep getting a great reaction from us.
* Annie loves library day when we come home with new books. She will sit and turn the pages of every book on the shelf till she's "read" them all.
* The morning of her 2nd birthday, she had the BEST tantrum I've ever seen her have because she HAD to do her carseat buckle herself. I couldn't believe how she played the part of an independent two year old so well on her first day on the job. Her favorite phrase is, "Annie DO IT!!"
* Tyler's sister Marlie nicknamed Annie "Animal" and "Cavewoman." Need I elaborate?

On a more serious note... Annie had a pretty large mole removed on her bottom October 29th. Here she is in her little hospital gown before the surgery.During the mole removal surgery, the surgeon also removed what we thought was a lipoma on her back, but the biopsy came back saying it was actually an AVM (Arteriovenous malformation). The surgery went well, and her back has healed up fine (where they took out the AVM). But man, her bottom has had a rough recovery.

On Halloween, a few of her stitches popped open. To prevent further unraveling from the surgical site, Tyler stitched up Annie's bottom himself with two small stitches. It was a bit traumatic for me to watch, so I only let him stitch one side, and told him that he was in the doghouse indefinitely. He took the kids to the mall and came home bearing gifts to apologize. Come to find out, Tyler probably did the right thing and prevented further unraveling on the one side of the surgical site because by Sunday night, Nov 1st, the other side of Annie's stiches were unraveling.

We took her into the surgeon first thing Monday morning (Nov. 2nd) and he basically told us to just let it heal as it was. As Tyler and other surgeons like to say, "The skin always wins." Annie had had a big chunk of skin taken out of her rear, and the skin was just not holding closely together. PLUS she is an active toddler that doesn't hold still for anything. You would think that having a surgery would slow you down, but not for this munchkin.

So anyway, my entire November folder of pictures on my computer has been filled with pictures of Annie's bottom to document the healing process. Only on the 24th did I take my first non-bottom picture with my camera. Sad. It's been a long month.

Thankfully my mom & step-dad came in town last minute -- literally hours before the flight took off they redeemed some frequent flier miles and came out. It was so helpful having them around to help watch Whitney & Cole while we were absorbed in taking care of (and trying to restrict movement to) Annie. Annie is now doing well enough that we don't have to keep the dressing on her surgical site anymore. And now her skin is just working its magic and the wound is healing nicely.

We can't believe how lucky we are that the Lord has blessed our lives with this beautiful little girl. She is the source of so much joy and laughter in our house. It is exciting to see her grow up and we can't wait to see where her unique personality will take her next.