20 months, 19 days

For Italo and I, the journey to parenthood was very intentional. We tried for more than 6 months to get pregnant with Annabelle and had lots of conversations prior to the "trying" about having babies. One of the things, I always thought of was staying up all night with a sick baby. Well, don't get me wrong, there have been lots of sleepless night since Annabelle was born because of one reason or another, but she has never thrown up...until Sunday night. I always thought that happened all the time with little kids, but we have been lucky to make it 20 months and 19 days with the worst part of baby explosions being diapers.

I awoke at 2:30 to hearing Annabelle crying and knew by the sound of the cry, it was different than her normal, I am awake and want company cry (which I always ignore). So, I got up to get her paci and try to get her to lay down until I realized that she has thrown up. So-up we go. I was trying to figure out if it was best to give her a bath or just wipe her down so she could go back to sleep. I decided sleep was more important for her, so I wiped her down, changed her clothes (Italo was stripping her bed down at this point) and brought her to bed with us. After she got into bed with us, she starting singing and talking and I knew she would not go to sleep. So, I found another sheet, laid her down and sat in her rocking chair while she tried to sleep. It id not take long before she lost it again. So, again, change her clothes, change her sheets and then wait for her to go to sleep. As we were more experienced this time, the procedure did not take as long so she went back to sleep pretty quickly.

As I sat in her room, listening to the wonderful noise of her sleeping and sucking on her paci, I was able to think about the joys of Mommyhood. And believe it or not, this one one of the moments that gave me joy. There truly was no other place I would have rather been at that moment. Don't get me wrong, I did not want Annabelle to be sick or hurting, but being able to be there to comfort, protect and help her when she was sick, was a joy I can not explain. As a working mom, there are lots of moments that I do not get to take part in, but in the middle of the night, no one needs me but her. And I love being able to give myself completely to her. I was so happy to sit next to her bed, waiting to make sure she would sleep soundly.

P.S. The next morning she lost her tummy again and I called my parents to see if the food I fed her the night before was possibly expired....Well, needless to say serving her food that expired 3 YEARS before she was born is not a good idea! Poor girl!

CHRISTMAS!

The Frigolis had a wonderful Christmas celebration with our family this year. Of course, it was filled with house hopping and running late to each place we were supposed to go, but it was a joy to be around so many people that love us in the season of love. Christmas Eve, Annabelle and I went over to my mom's house around noon and played with Jacob, Grace, Allen, Kimberly and my mom. We enjoyed playing games while Annabelle napped, and the older kids played together. We then went to my childhood church for candlelight service (where the rest of the family joined us) and enjoyed a traditional service filled with the beauty of thousands of glowing candles. It was a great way to start the evening so we could be reminded of the wonder of a newborn Baby born to save us from our sins! We then went back to my mom's house for Christmas dinner, followed by the reading of the Christmas story by my mom's dad-Granddaddy and then having a gift exchange.

Granddady reading the Christmas story

Grace, Jacob and Annabelle - Excited Christmas cousins!

Annabelle had quite a lot of fun with the gift she gave her relatives. It was a box of hersey kisses that said "It's a GIRL" and a note that announced that she was going to have a little sister named Margaret (Maggie) Rose in April.

Daddy and Annabelle reading a book she got from Aunt Kimberly and Uncle Allen

Italo and I were quite surprised an impressed when we gave Annabelle a present to pass out to her great grandmother, Granny Jean. She looked around the room for a minute and then walked right over to her and handed her the gift. Our daughter is just a genius! :)

After each gift Annabelle opened, no matter what it was, Annabelle would say either-"WOW" or "Uh Ye" at what she show inside. These are some PJs she got from GrannyJean and Granddaddy. Her excitement is very contagious!

More Presents to open-she was pretty tired of opening presents after the first gathering, we had, too bad, we had 2 more big things to do before the Christmas gathering were done!

What is this?!?!?!?!?!

Her first Christmas present to open on her own!

That evening, we spent the night with my mom-this is her most important wish of the Christmas season....We all slept in the same room, so Annabelle woke up at 5:30 (not unusual for her at all-but she usually puts herself back to sleep) and realized that she was not alone, she started saying "Mommy, Daddy" like she was trying to wake us up. I got up, found her paci and blanket and told her it was still bedtime. I am glad she was too young to know what was waiting downstairs so we could all go back to sleep! She woke up again at 8:00 and we proceeded to wake up my Mom and Chris by signing "We wish you a Merry Christmas" as we went into their room. We then had a Birthday party for Jesus where we ate Pie for Breakfast and sang Happy Birthday to our sweet savior. After the pie, Annabelle still wanted her oatmeal---YAY---she has some good habits! We then tried to get her interested in her stocking, but she was more interested in the Christmas tree now that the presents were gone and she could see it better. After that we walked down the street (in ourPJS) to my Grandparents house and continued our birthday party by giving Jesus words of Praise for his Birthday. There is so much to Praise Jesus for this Christmas season and it was very sweet to hear everyone's "presents" to Jesus.

When Annabelle finally saw what was in her stocking, she was glad to get a new Blanket!

Christmas Morning Wonder-She liked all the ornaments on the tree!

Annabelle in front of the Nativity scene at my Grandparents house

Eating Jesus' Birthday pie!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

After the Birthday Party, we got dressed and went to my Dad and Andrea's house to celebrate with them. Annabelle enjoyed walking around from person to person eating brunch from their plates. It was a great Christmas brunch for her! We then opened presents and played games while Annabelle took a nap. (we ran out of room on our camera, so we don't have any more pictures) After she woke up, we went to my Dad's parents house and had a wonderful feast and yet another gift exchange with the extended family. This celebration is always the one constant in the Christmas plans and all of the family makes a point to be there. It is awesome to see some folks we don't see as often and celebrate with them. My favorite new tradition is that we all pick a name to pray for in the family throughout the year. I was so excited to have 4 names to draw this year for my family and it was a moment of realization of how much my family has expanded over the last 3 years! I am so blessed and grateful to our Lord for all that he has done in my life!

Jesus' Sweet Mercies

Yesterday did not turn out the way I thought it would when I woke up. Italo and I had a VERY quiet weekend, which is very rare for us. So we were home to watch things more than normal and on Saturday we noticed that our older cat, Sphinxy, was getting sick and actually letting Annabelle touch him. That NEVERS happens, so I knew something was up, but thought we could watch him until Monday when I could take him to the vet. By Sunday afternoon, we knew we could not wait any longer so during Annabelle's nap, I took him to the Emergency Clinic.

As is always the case at Emergency Clinics-Sphinxy and I had to wait a LONG time. So-there we were in the room for about 2 hours waiting to see the doctor. I knew the outcome would not be good, so I was sad and holding my big cat.

Well, low and beyond--I started feeling my sweet little baby move in my tummy! This was the first time during this pregnancy that I could for sure say that I felt him move! It was like he was trying to keep me company while I was alone with this difficult situation.

We ended up having to say goodbye to Sphinxy yesterday, but before we did, Italo and Annabelle joined me at the clinic to say goodbye. Annabelle was playing around and sitting in my lap while Italo and I talked about our options and I reminisced about all the good times with our little buddy-Sphinxy. She was completely unaware of why we were sad, or really that we were sad at all. She just kept insisting that the bottle of lotion in my purse was milk and was trying to get me to open it up for her to drink.

But in the midst of that difficult situation, Jesus was reminding me of all of the blessings in my life-they were all around me-in my tummy, on the floor laughing and in the chair next to me crying just as hard as me over a lost life. My sweet, sweet family-all four of us were together and everyone was loving on me in their own way! Jesus' blessings are just priceless!

Halloween Celebrations

We had the pleasure of going to Killeen, TX (where my brother lives) to have a fun Halloween celebration with my brother, Sister in Law, my Dad and Andrea, and my niece and nephew Jacob and Grace. Kimberly-my sister in law-decided to go all out and dress up with the kids as all the characters from The Wizard of Oz. Kimberly was The Lion, Allen was The Tin Man, Grace was Dorothy and Jacob was the Scarecrow. They were super cute. Andrea and my Dad decided to join in and Andrea went as The Wicked Witch and my Dad went as a munchkin. They were all so fun! Since I had already bought Annabelle's costume, we could not participate in the Wizard of Oz theme, but we did make our own story with Little Red Riding Hood.

As you can tell, Italo was the hunter who saved the day, Annabelle was Little Red Riding Hood and I was the wolf disguised as Granny.

Here is Annabelle with her cousins, Jacob and Grace

Grace and Annabelle with their baskets!

Here is Annabelle playing the part of Little red Riding Hood very well and picking flowers instead of staying on the path to granny's house!

My "Red" is SUCH A DELIGHT!

Several people have asked me if Annabelle was scared of my costume--and as you can imagine---NO. She is not scared of anything! But, several kids at the carnival we went to were very scared. One little boy was so worried about me, his mom asked me to take off the mask, so he could see I was a normal person! Who knew I would scare kids......The mask was VERY uncomfortable and I will certainly not be doing that again in coming years!

Annabelle loved the carnival we went to-they had slides and bounce houses which are her favorite! I spent most of my time trying to look out of the little holes in my mask to see where she went and chase her around! Some people thought I was acting out the story, but I was just trying to keep up with her! Italo was great to stay on top of her knowing that I could not really do much with her on my own!

After the carnival we went Trick or Treating...However, Annabelle did not like it at ALL! She wanted to stay at each person's house and get to know them! The first house we got to-we rang the doorbell and no one answered. Annabelle had a huge fit because she could not go into the house. I finally convinced her to go to the next person's house and get her candy and she did not care about the candy at all-she just wanted to guy to pick her up and take her inside with him.....SCARY! We decided to try one more house and she again really wanted to go into the house. We finally gave up. Since I am a mean momma wolf (as I was called all night), I did not let Annabelle eat any of her candy, except for one sucker that I let her try. (Only after much encouragement from my Dad and Andrea) She actually really liked it! She was A MESS after she was done with it, but it was fun seeing her enjoy it so much! Andrea would ask her for a lick and she would say NO and stick it in her mouth! She must have really liked it to be that selfish:)

Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

Our Anniversary Cruise (with Annabelle and Family)

Annabelle's New Entertainment

On our cruise, we traveled with lots of folks that entertained Annabelle. She learned tons of new games and songs. One of her favorites was "Cowboy Annabelle" which Matthew taught her. She really enjoys it but no one can do it as well as Matthew!

Annabelle in the Mirror

Annabelle's favorite part about her new room is that their is a mirror next to her dresser/Changing Pad. She loves to play with the baby in the mirror! These are some pictures I captured after her bath on Monday afternoon! So FUN!

What a Summer

What a summer Italo, Annabelle and I had!!!! We started the summer off by moving the weekend of Memorial Day and are ending the summer by moving into our new house!!!!! YEAH!!!

We had a fabulous time at my Mom and Chris' house and they were so gracious and helpful in so many ways during the last 3 months. They even made us a wonderful fish dinner with homemade banana pudding on Sunday night to send us off extra full! I guess I will have to get used to washing my own dishes and my own laundry again--dang it!

We are in the land of boxes and mess right now, but last night we got Annabelle's room all decorated and put together and it made me realize how much she has grown up. She no longer needs so many of the things that were in her old room. I have plastic bins full of clothes that no longer fit, toys that are "baby" toys, a bobby, bouncing seat, bottles etc etc etc. I can't even believe how much she has changed since the beginning of the summer! A few of her big changes:

1. She can WALK!!! When we left the Carrollton house, she was just starting to crawl all over the house and Just started to find the stairs and want to climb all over them. Now, she can climb up a ladder, run and pretty much do anything else she wants
2. She does so much TALKING! Annabelle's first word was Uh-Oh and she had just started saying that towards the end of May-now she has a collection of about 10 words and it brings me joy each time I hear them! If I sing the song "Mamma Mia", she will laugh and say Mamma, but mostly, there is a lot of Dada heard around my house! She also says all of her MALE grandfathers names-and LOVES to say them. She says Nonno, Granddad, Granddaddy, and Grandpa. For some reason, she will not say the female variety of Granny, Annie or Nonna, but I hope that will come soon enough. She also can say all the names of the parts of the face and loves to point out everyone's nose, ear, eyes, teeth and mouth. Sometimes the pointing hurts, but it is really cute!
3. She is learning her limits. Before we moved, she pretty much just did what I told her to do-now she realizes she can make her own decisions. I must say she really does a GREAT job most of the time obeying me, but from time to time, she decides to do whatever she knows she is not supposed to do. For instance, she loves to eat the cat's food, she loves to touch "pretties" and she wants to tear all my magazines apart! I refuse to put these way from her, thinking instead that my daughter is so wonderful, that she will simply obey. And like I said, most of the time , she does-but sometimes I walk into a room and just think-OH MY GOODNESS CHILD-IF ONLY I COULD BRING MYSELF TO SPANK YOU!
4. She LOVES baby dolls!!!! Grace left quite a few baby dolls behind at my mom's house, and I have quite a few that were mine when I was little, so there is no shortage of baby dolls at my mom's house. And Annabelle has to love them all!!!!!! She rocks them, feeds them, looks for their nose, ears, eyes and mouth and always wants Mommy or granny to hold them and her. She will give her about 5 baby dolls and then want to be held too. I have to secretly sneak a few out of my arms after I have her so I can actually hold her. It is really sweet though.

So-I am excited to be settled in the new few days-weeks in our new house and see what else she learns to do. Needless to say-it will bring me joy and maybe a few tears from time to time!

By the way-if anyone is bored this week and wants to help unpack boxes-Come on over!!!!!

Fun times with Granny!

This is Annabelle, my niece Grace and Granny (my mom) cooking some boiled custard. It is a good idea to put a baby right next to a boiling pot right...... :)

Chuck e Cheese

I think that Italo has been excited about Annabelle's first Chuck E Cheese experience since she was a itsy bitsy girl. Now that she can walk, we decided to go and see how she liked it. She seemed to like it, but I think there was SOOOOO much to look at, she got a little overwhelmed. But, she is always up for an adventure, so she had a good time.

Look what Annabelle can do!!!!

I have discovered that Annabelle seems to be an all or nothing kinda gal. She went from no steps to walking all over the place in one step! She is an expert at walking now, but she tends to only be motivated to walk when there is someone waiting to give her a hug at the other end of her journey. It is So fun to see her be so proud of her accomplishment and it is amazing that she is taking so many steps! There is no stopping her now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy July 4th

My sweet friend, Shelley, made this adorable shirt for Annabelle to celebrate this year's 4th of July. Shelley is a mommy to a wonderful 7 year old little girl, Abbey, and teaches Kindergarten in Frisco. She is wanting this to a her last year to teach and so has started a business making these shirts to bring in some extra money. She makes adult and children sizes and they are just darling! The funniest thing to me is that whenever I have seen these wonderful friends, Abbey has one of these cute shirts on. It never fails that someone comments that they like her shirt, and she PROUDLY says that her mommy makes them! It brings a smile to my face each time! In case you are looking for some fun summer shirts, feel free to look at her website www.sewmuchjoy.com

Another Celebration for Italo

On Italo's real birthday, we had a little family celebration with Annabelle and then Italo and I went out for a overnight date! We went to eat at Canary Cafe-which was delicious and then we enjoyed a baby free night a local hotel. It was a wonderful celebration to celebrate the best husband EVER!!!!! What a CUTE Birthday BOY!

Annabelle trying to sneak a peak-and some icing off the cake before the "party"

Is that a super Hero belt you got?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

The BirthdayBoy and his present opening helper!

SOCKS!!!!!! Doesn't Italo get exciting stuff for his birthday.... :)