Way back in 2005...Amy stories

Well here are the things I wrote about dear little Amy in 2005.

• Amy likes to chew on her tongue
• 6/29/05 - Amy slept from 9 p.m. -4:20 a.m. - woo hoo!
• 7/26/05 - slept 9 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. -- did that for 4 nights
• Amy likes to twirl her feet in little circles
• Amy is happy when Reed talks to her and puts up with him yelling, pushing and all the things an almost 3 year old does to his baby sister.

On vacation in Daytona...

• 10/13/05 - Amy rolled from back to front! She likes likes the camera (hope that lasts!)
• We floated around in the indoor pool a lot, and relaxing in the pool floatie makes Amy sleepy!
• 10/14/05 - Amy clapped her hands! Yay!

• 11/1/05 - On our way home from work/school, an older man stuck in traffic next to us rolled down his window to tell me how beautiful Amy is.
• 12/8/05 - Amy waved bye-bye!

Way back in 2005...Reedy stories

Well my Outlook notes go back to 2005 for Reed. These are kind of random, and it'll probably be a little confusing adding old stuff then new stuff, but "it is what it is" as all the kids are saying these days. Well maybe that's not the kids, but anyway...

July-ish 2005...in Montana

• Reed calls Martha and Kathleen "new aunt"


• When Reed would realize people had left, he'd say "where lot a body go?"


• Reed says "me twinkle Amy," which means he wants to sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to her


• Reed calls "C Hill" – the big hill behind Grandma and Grandpa Larson's house, which has a gigantic C at the top (for Carter County High School) "ABC mountain"


• Reed was so excited to go for a ride on the awesome train that Grandpa Larson made out of old lawnmower wheels and metal drums, but he fell asleep as they rode through the middle of town!


• We're getting a lot of "Why?"s now – fun!

August-ish 2005

• On the day elementary school started for Loudoun County schools, Reed said "Me go kindergarten, me big kid"


• When he sings the ABCs, Reed ends it with "now I know my ABCs and me too"

September-ish 2005

• 9-23-05 – Tod asked why Reed wanted Mom to do things for him and Reed said "Because that's the waaaay that is"


• Says "e e" for animals, for some reason


• 9/12/05 – Since spending time with Grandma Larson, who made up lots of stories for him, Reed wants stories all the time. He says "Me hear Reedy story" - that means you have to make up a story which includes him. He also usually tells you three animals that need to be involved in the story too.


• Reed asks us to sing "Baby Mine" to him


• Reed went through a stage of shortening everybody's name...like "Am" and "Kik" and "Ceej"


• For a while, Reed called my hair "mommy's Os"


• Reed sometimes says "me happy". Awwww.


• Reed says "goddy" for "doggy"

November-ish 2005

• 11/26/05 – Reed helped put our artificial tree together. When he saw it all decorated, he said "Amy! Come see our tree!"


• End of November 2005 sometime – in the tub, Reed spelled out "STERLING" using the foam letters. He thought he was spelling 'bathtub' - Sterling is the brand name which is marked on the tub.

December-ish 2005

• Reed calls it "McGondalds" rather than "McDonalds"


• Just like Mom, Reed calls Amy "sunshine" and "sweetie"


• 12/3/05 – Reed says "THAT house ready for Christmas" every time he sees a house with Christmas lights up


• 12/7/05 – Reed got in the car and pointed to where it says "Eddie Bauer" on his car seat and said "That say Kiki and Poppy loves Reed"


• 12/31/05 – The day after watching the movie Madagascar, Reed said "Hey, no cars in Madagascar?!" Get it? Madagascar???

So I begin...

About a year after Reed was born, I started writing in a journal to capture the cute little things he did and said, and how he was growing. It was hard to keep up with! Even more so after Amy arrived....I never even did start on her journal, though I certainly intended to. Instead what I found myself doing was making notes within my Outlook e-mail account -- so I wouldn't forget things, I'd type up a quick note with the date, and I had every intention of then moving things over to the journals. I really wanted it to be a handwritten account of the kids' early years, but I got further and further behind, before I just gave in to keeping the notes electronically.

Now the Notes feature in Outlook isn't exactly pretty, and I can't include pictures. So as I've started reading the blogs of friends (and Tod has one too), then I read that there are companies that will print your blog for you, I thought this is the way to go. So I'll start here and maybe I'll bring in some of those old notes too, I'm not sure how it's all going to work out.

The name "...notes to myself..." just came to me as I was setting things up. My wonderful mother, back in the days she worked at NALC, would write herself a note on a Post-It note. She'd write "NTM" and then whatever it was - stop at grocery store, bring in treats, whatever. NTM = Note to Myself. Then she'd staple the note around her purse strap. I thought it was so funny that she needed to include the NTM part, as if she'd come home with a note on her purse and if she didn't write NTM, Jim would say "hey, I guess I better pick up the dry cleaning". Not!