Annabelle turned six on March 27. She’s just finishing Kindergarten (homeschooling) and will be in 1st Grade next year! That doesn’t seem possible.
For her birthday this year, Nana and Papa K came down in the morning for presents and cake, and then just our family went to Upnorth Bounce House and had dinner at China Garden. We also had a joint birthday celebration/sleepover at a hotel and waterpark for her and Emma with a couple neighbor friends.
Size
Annabelle is 46 lbs (60%) and 3 ft 10 inches tall (61%). She is wearing size 6/6X or Small for clothes, and size 12 shoes.
Eating
Annabelle still LOVES yogurt, and eats it every morning for breakfast. She also loves quesadillas (on the stove, not in the microwave), PB&J sandwiches, bacon, scrambled eggs, fig bars, applesauce, most fruit, cucumbers, shrimp, and pizza. She is not a fan of mac & cheese (though will eat it occasionally), carrots, and most dinners we make.
Sleeping
Annabelle will still occasionally nap if given the opportunity, but most days she wakes up between 6:30 and 7, and goes to bed between 7:30 and 8. Every once in a while, she has an accident in the middle of the night but for the most part, she is able to wake up and go potty in the bathroom.
The girls still share a room, though they are now downstairs. At first, they were in an area at the far end of our basement that didn’t have a door or wall, but now that area has a door and a wall, and the girls have moved into the other bedroom downstairs. We bought them a bunk bed too — Annabelle is on the bottom bunk. The girls still go to bed at the same time, and usually wake up together or within 30 minutes of one another.
Development
Academically, Annabelle likes doing hands-on things like cutting, gluing, coloring, tracing, worksheets, etc. and has less patience for things that only involve thinking, talking, or listening. Whenever we use manipulatives in math, she takes forever and a day rearranging them, and telling me everything except the actual answer. She took the Iowa Basic Skills Test just last week, and during the listening portion when she was supposed to listen to a story and then choose the picture that corresponded, she would imagine her own story and choose the picture based on that. She loves telling stories, and talks so fast and excitedly that it can be hard to understand her.
Annabelle is still working on mastering letters and their sounds, identifying written numbers, and doing simple addition and subtraction, but she’s definitely made progress this year. With letters, i and j are hard for her to remember, and with counting, she gets tripped up on the switch in tens (20, 30, 40, etc.). But we have been working through the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and she has learned how to sound words out. She also did well with the lessons in her math book. Her attention span in the other subjects like History and Literature was a little spotty, and she frequently complained about not wanting to do school, but since she was only in Kindergarten, I didn’t really push it much. But my expectations will be higher next year!
Homeschooling this year has meant lots and lots and LOTS of sibling time. Annabelle plays well with both Emma and Corbin. She is very easygoing and willing to share most of the time (though sometimes she does get possessive of things that she hasn’t had much of a turn with, due to her siblings’ hogging it).
When disagreeing or fighting with Emma, Annabelle tends to have meltdowns and come crying to us instead of handling the situation herself (but Emma is bigger and stronger, so I kind of get it). Travis and I have to intentionally remind ourselves that most likely, the situation isn’t as bad as Annabelle is making it out to be. We have been trying to use Connected Families’ Peace Process model to mediate conflict, which involves getting both girls calm, asking for both sides to share their point of view, and then asking questions that help them think of a solution to the problem.
Annabelle and Corbin don’t fight all that often (unless he destroys something she was playing with, or they both want the same toy), and generally Annabelle enjoys having a younger sibling who is mostly willing to do what she wants to do (Emma tends to be the ringleader when Annabelle plays with her). Corbin doesn’t always cooperate though, so Annabelle is really looking forward to having a baby sister who can’t say no to rides in the stroller, or being held like a baby.
Emma and Annabelle still spend most of their time playing Barbies, dolls, or dressing up as princesses, but they also enjoy playing in the woods, imagining they are like the Boxcar Children. Annabelle loves making mud pies, cakes, and other concoctions in buckets and pie pans with dirt, sticks, rocks, leaves, mulch, and pine cones.
Annabelle hates getting her hair brushed, and almost always had a head of very unruly hair, but she has gotten better at being able to brush it herself when we ask her to, or when we’re going somewhere.
The girls’ room has been downstairs since this past January, and Annabelle would never remember to put socks on when she got dressed. Then when we wanted to go outside and were putting on winter gear, she would realize she didn’t have socks, and whine for someone else to go downstairs to get her socks because it’s “just so far away” down there. We started telling her to “remember socks!” when we sent her down to get dressed. Thankfully the season for socks has passed for the time being, but we are seriously contemplating storing their socks upstairs in the foyer for winter.
Annabelle is ofte goofy and has the best facial expressions. Some examples:
This past winter, Annabelle went ice fishing with Travis several times, and actually caught some fish on her own! When we were down in Florida during February, Annabelle also went mini-golfing for the first time, and rode carnival rides like the Scrambler and Pirate Ship for (almost) the first time. We also found a couple of baby turtles in the swimming pool that we rescued to safety in the nearby pond.
And that’s Annabelle at 6 years!
For her birthday, we went hiking at an open space with my in-laws and then ate pizza outside while the kids played on our driveway. She got a Minnie playhouse from my in-laws, a Barbie airplane from my dad and stepmom (Emma’s gift too), and a singing Anna doll from us (and two weeks later, she decided she didn’t want it to sing anymore so she had us remove the battery).
(Photo from Summer 2019)
Sleeping
Annabelle has gotten much easier to put to bed at night. She still drags her feet to get jammies and lotion on, brush teeth, and go potty, but once she’s in bed, she’s usually out within 10 minutes or so (especially during the summer when she’s exhausted!). Similar to Emma, some nights she does the bedtime routine with minimal pushback, and other nights, it’s like pulling teeth.
Development
Annabelle now knows how to spell and write her name (it’s a long one!), and knows all the letters of the alphabet (she still asks which letter is which sometimes, but I’m unsure if it’s because she’s being hesitant or if she really doesn’t know). We’re still working on writing the letters too. She can count up to 30, and knows all her colors and shapes. She also made a lot of progress in her coloring and cutting abilities this past year.
Annabelle can be shy, and during her Christmas program for Pre-K, she didn’t do any of the motions to the songs. She knew the words and sort of sang, but otherwise, she stood there with no expression. Haha!
Annabelle also started receiving speech services through the school district at the end of the school year for her trouble with pronouncing certain sounds.
Emma and Annabelle are two peas in a pod, and play together 95% of the time. Overall, they get along great and have both made progress in compromising. They do disagree/fight over the same toys (“I need another bed for my mom!” “No, I do!”) or who gets to play which role (“I always have to be the boy!”) or who does the voice for which doll. Over the past year, Emma and Annabelle have:
Size
Sleeping
Even so, she still fairly hard to get to bed at night. She still likes rough-housing, and can frequently be found using Travis as a slide when we’re reading books before bedtime (or Mommy’s back if Daddy’s not around). Her bedtime shenanigans usually result in her hard noggin hitting someone else. They get hurt; she doesn’t feel a thing.
Eating
Her favorite foods are YOGURT, bacon, grape juice, graham crackers, strawberries, blueberries, grapes, egg sandwiches, jello, mandarin oranges, and applesauce. She still seems to prefer water over milk (though prefers juice over water), and doesn’t like the cheese that comes with Lunchables. Her favorite candy is gummies and Hershey kisses. Once, she hid in the bathroom eating chocolate eggs she had stolen from Emma’s backpack. Her favorite restaurants are China Garden (“China Buffet”)and McDonald’s.
Development
Around age 3.5, she was obsessed with asking us “What you like today?” and taking our order. She would also set up an ice cream shop and yell, “Ice cream for sale, ice cream for sale.”
Annabelle sporting her new shorter ‘do:
Annabelle loves her baby brother Corbin, and plays with him a lot. She has enjoyed pushing him around in her doll stroller, or pulling him around in the Mega Bloks wagon. She will also stop to squeeze or tickle his cheek as she walks by (one of her main expressions of affection). If Corbin is crying, Annabelle will go find him a toy to play with, and if he wakes up from his nap while I’m busy doing something, she’ll climb into his crib and entertain him. Lately, though, Annabelle will just walk up to Corbin and tip him over, which he of course doesn’t like. Not sure why she does that?
Annabelle flip-flops between demanding independence (No, I do it!) and acting like a wet noodle. She *can* get dressed on her own, go to the bathroom on her own, get on her jacket and shoes on her own, but she often acts like she can’t, or doesn’t even try. And then she makes you chase her when you try to help. ::sigh:: Though I will admit that when Annabelle puts her own shoes on, 90 percent of the time, they are on the wrong feet. She’ll ask “Is this the right foot?” When we go shopping, she either wants to push the cart, or ride in the cart.
One time this past winter, we had been at our neighbor’s house and Annabelle didn’t have the energy to walk home. So I left her on their driveway and told her I’d have Travis come back and get her on the snowmobile (we have a very quiet neighborhood). By the time he was on his way over, he discovered that she had ended up walking home on her own.
Annabelle is naughtier than Emma was, and back in January, I came downstairs after making dinner in the crockpot to find Emma and Annabelle, completely naked, throwing wet paper towels and wads of toilet paper around Travis’ office and hallway (which we had just refinished with engineered hardwood) and sliding around in the water. Just, wow. Emma informed that Annabelle had been the instigator, and she tried to tell Annabelle that they shouldn’t do it, but then she got sucked into doing it too because it looked so fun.
And that’s Annabelle at 4 years!
Size
Annabelle typically front-loads her calories each day, in that she eats 27 snacks before lunch, then forces us to fight her for 5 bites of dinner. As long as I make sure her snacks are healthy, and as long as she continues to eat a variety of foods, I don’t really care. She’s growing, she’s healthy. That’s all that matters. I am, however, working with her on not screaming, “Mommmmm!!! I want a snack and a drink!!” every time she wants a snack. Because hearing that for 27 snacks, times 5 requests every 5 seconds for each snack, equals a LOT of screaming and Mommy losing her patience. I tell her that she needs to ask once, in a non-whiny, non-screamy voice, and then wait for Mommy to respond.
Sleeping
Development
Annabelle has started to recognize letters (especially letter A since her name starts with it). She has a longer attention span for coloring and actually does pretty well with staying in the lines.
Annabelle loves to sing and knows the lyrics to several songs, including Rain Rain Go Away, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, ABC, Bingo, Old McDonald, and Jesus Loves Me.
Things Annabelle often says:
And that’s Annabelle at 3.25 years!
Size
Eating
Sleeping
Development
She loves baby dolls, especially her Little Baby. While at my dad’s house for Thanksgiving, she found a little basket for Little Baby, and carried her around in that with Baby’s little blanket. So. Cute. She also loves pushing strollers around, and being pushed in them.
Annabelle also LOVES shopping and running errands, both the real thing and pretending. She often asks to go shopping, and if she hears that I’m going shopping without her, has a total meltdown. Luckily, she’s a pretty good shopping buddy and is fine with riding in the cart 80% of the time (especially when Emma isn’t there). Get the two of them together, though, and it’s game over. 
Annabelle doesn’t really have the attention span or muse for coloring, though she does like painting and doodling. Her new thing (that she picked up from Emma a while ago) is playing restaurant–sitting down with a pencil and paper, and asking us “What would you like today?” (though it comes out more like “Wha ya like day?”) And she gets very upset if we don’t answer her immediately. And she LOVES Playdoh.
I feel like we still don’t quite have a grasp on the things that Annabelle is truly interested in beyond baby dolls, shopping, and music (she loves singing!), because her most favorite thing to do is whatever Emma is doing. She goes along with Emma’s ideas 80% of the time, though there is still plenty of fighting over toys and “Annabelle isn’t doing x or y like I’m telling her to!” Overall, though, these sisters really love each other, and find some very creative things to do together.
Annabelle has started to be a good helper with picking up toys and putting things where they go, especially when there’s an incentive to do so (like helping mommy bake something). Often when we ask her to do something like pick up or to stop doing something like throwing pencils on the floor, she’ll say, “Oooo-kaaaay.” It’s so stinkin’ cute!
In general, she just likes climbing on people, and at night while she’s “falling asleep,” she’ll balance on her head and bounce her butt in the air, which inevitably leads to her falling over sideways into either the wall or your face.
Annabelle still loves being carried, and often says, “Carry me.” When I put her down after a while and say “I can’t carry you anymore; you’re too heavy!”, she responds, “No, I’m little! I’m little!”
We’ve unfortunately fallen back into the habit of watching technology right when we wake up, but it gives me a chance to drink my coffee and wake up before they demand too much from me. Annabelle often says when she wakes up and I’m still sleeping, “Mom, it’s wake up time!”
And that’s Annabelle at 32 months!
Size
Eating
Sleeping
Little by little, though, Annabelle is getting better at sleeping through the night. We had been rocking Annabelle to sleep and putting her down in her crib, but just this past week, we threw in the towel and did away with the crib. She is now on a twin mattress on the floor, which is mostly barricaded off from the rest of the room by a nightstand and a mattress railing. (She fell out of the toddler bed when we tried it one night.) We still lay in her room until she falls asleep (which sometimes takes a full hour!) but she sleeps through the night! WOOHOO!
Annabelle is still a bundle of energy and a cuddle bug. She is much more cautious about sensory things than her sister–when we went to the beach last weekend, Annabelle didn’t even want to put a toe in the water, while Emma went swimming almost immediately–but she is also independent (she says “Self” often, because she wants to do it by herself). She loves climbing on playgrounds, but won’t go down a steep slide by herself (“Lap. Mommy.”). When we were doing some landscaping a couple weeks ago, Emma got in the planter barefoot with me to remove sod clumps; Annabelle stayed in the grass. This past weekend, Emma took off her shoes to play in a puddle. Annabelle thought that was a good idea, but once her shoes were off, she wanted them right back on. Annabelle didn’t like the feeling of grass or sand as a baby either.
I was determined to avoid bangs with Annabelle and for a long time, she let me put her long bangs up in a side ponytail to get them out of her face. But then she started pulling the ponytail out all the time. *sigh* So she got bangs.
She’s still pretty stinkin’ adorable, but they require more upkeep. (Thankfully, I can bribe the girls with Starbursts and cut them myself.)
And that’s Annabelle at 26…almost 27…months!
Size
Eating
Sleeping
Development
Annabelle LOVES her big sister Emma and they play together most of the time—though sometimes the age difference makes getting along a little difficult.
I started working two days a week at the beginning of January, and Annabelle started going to daycare at the same center Emma has been going to. She has handled the transition well, and the workers say that she only cries for a few minutes a couple times a day, and the rest of the time she is pretty happy. A couple times during the day, Emma and Annabelle get to play together in the gym, and the workers say that they play together the whole time. One day when I came to pick them up, they were both riding a trike—Emma was sitting in front, pedaling, and Annabelle was riding on the back.
Size
Eating
Annabelle’s other favorite foods are bacon, banana, blueberries, applesauce, peanut butter on a spoon, honey, cereal, apple slices, edamame, suckers, and chocolate. There are other foods she will eat too, but they’re more hit and miss.
Sleeping
She is nursing to sleep less often than before–which is good, considering I want to wean her any day now, but hard because it means she cries in her crib before falling asleep more often. I just hate that! I will try rocking and nursing to get her to sleep, but sometimes she just isn’t having it, so crying it out it is. I remember Emma getting to a point like that too around this age. I know it’s a good thing for them to learn, I just wish it didn’t involve so much crying.
Development
Annabelle’s favorite things to do the past two months have been:
And that’s Annabelle at 19 months!
The big news this update is that ANNABELLE IS FINALLY WALKING!
Annabelle is similar to how Emma was at this age in that she likes to move things from one place to another, and she likes emptying drawers and bookshelves, but she’s different in that she’ll actually play with the mess she makes, instead of immediately moving on to make another one. I remember being so frustrated with all the messes I had to pick up with Emma (and… she still makes them and I still am).
Annabelle also has an independent streak. She will refuse to do some things (like drink her chocolate milk) if we try to help her. She still loves climbing, snuggling, being held upside down, being “body slammed” onto the bed or “steamrolled” on the living room floor (rough housing), being pushed/pulled, and taking baths.
Size
Eating
I’m still nursing Annabelle 3-4 times a day, usually in the morning, before naptime, before bedtime, and in the middle of the night. I have no real plans for weaning at this point. I’m hoping it will work itself out naturally. That’s usually my approach to most transitions: Wait and it’ll happen on its own. 😉
Sleeping
And that’s Annabelle at 17 months!
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