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Hello my name is Larissa Annen and i am the proud mother of a 'hitter'. yup...that's my latest confession. i really thought i had this parenting thing all wrapped up until i had ronan. he was the sweetest, easiest baby EVER and was just a joy. then he got his personality and stubborness...and well...it's not gotten any easier. i love ronan fiercly! he is the most cuddly child still...but man.....he is pushing every theory and belief i have or should i say 'had' on parenting. no matter what i do...it doesn't change the behavior. and now, well...now he's really into hitting. not everyone...just his family. zander and i specifically. today at playtown when i told him to give a ball to a kid he freaked and started hitting me. which lead to him being taken to the benches to sit on a time out. where he threw a bigger fit and continued hitting. so off i go dragging his butt to the bathroom while he's SCREAMING "don't spank me!" to which i'm getting looks from the 'nonspanking' mothers. REALLY?! you want to shoot looks at the woman who's about to go spank her child? cause obviously you think i have issues...so by all means, pick a fight with me cause i'm soooo stable!!!!! ok side rant....
anyways, after the spank ronan calms down and does better. but the same thing happens again later. soo...we leave. i'm just worn out by him. but we get home and he crawls up in my lap and wraps his arms so tightly around me and gives me 'floppy (sloppy) kisses'. and all is mostly forgotten. at least until he socks his brother three minutes later....
any advice?!

Jade the show boat

oh my word...my girl is a performer. she DOES not like it when people are not paying attention to her. tonight at small group there was no childcaare so she was in the room with us. she and gracie tepfer played together and were absolutely adorable. they giggled and crawled around the room. but jade did everything in her power to make sure i, or someone else was always looking. squealing, throwing her dress over her head, hugging herself and swishing back and forth until she literally FELL OVER! she was in rare form. but i swear i couldn't help but laugh. i had no idea she had this much desire for attention! god help us she is just like i was at that age. i fear for her and myself in the future.

Dear Ben,

My darling husband...i love you. i really do...but on behalf of my burnt scalp i'm telling you that i will never again let you color my hair. never. especially not four times in one night. i speak this to you on my behalf of my burning scalp, my brittle hair, and my bruised self esteem that had to wear a hat to church. i know you think you know what you're doing...but honey, you don't. and i know realize that. so please, i value our relationship too much to let you do this again.
so please retire your mixing bowl and brush and leave the hair coloring to lynzy.
love,
your wife who's sleeping on a towel so she doesn't dye the pillow.

A good night

tonight was the first time in a LONG time that we had friends over for dinner. i always get stressed thinking i have to have it all perfect. its hard for me to just focus on the time with friends and not worry about the food and presentation. sound familiar? some people are just born hostesses...they thrive on it...not me. i can count on ONE hand the number of times we've had people over. its sad. i always second guess my cooking and think that its not good enough for other people to eat. but tonight i bucked it up and made some food (i didn't even get carry out aren't you proud?!) and made my famous bbq chicken. a favored meal of my mother in law and mom. so i figured it was safe to pass. plus for five kids it was an easy pleaser also. it was a great night and easy. ben is amazing at helping me clean up so the after math is super simple. however, my insane children were beyond crazy tonight. ronan was throwing toys and spitting water...and weirdly enough was FIERCELY protective of all of jade's toys. he did NOT want the other little girls playing with her stuff. zander was crazy also emptying every container of toys there was, jumping on me, begging for candy, etc. it was all just weird. but all in all a great time.
the above pics are from the famous annual vday picture session.

My poor baby Jade

So jade has another double ear infection....that is something like her seventh in three months. so of course the doctor says we should probably be talking tubes for her too. blah...poor baby girl.

OH FORGOT!

i'm getting a NEICE finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! congrats chris and jen on their 5th child and first girl...good lord...don't know how they can have five. three is killer....

happy birthday benny

today my darling husband turns 31~. the boys picked him out some clothes and decorated the house for him. we let him sleep in and fixed him bacon for breakfast. then i took the kids to the mall (in the pouring rain, hows that for love) so he could stay home and have some time alone. then of course, off to lunch at applebees. ben's all time favorite meal. chicken fingers, no coleslaw, extra honey mustard.
naps, then dinner at panera bread. tomorrow we're going out cause our babysitter could only do sunday. so we're going bowling...ben's idea. i felt bad for ben cause his work people 'forgot' his birthday. even though the decorate, etc. for everybody else. it was hard to see that for him. but fortunately his family, mine, and our small group texted or called to wish him a happy birthday.
so a few funny stories too. i love stressing out other mothers. such as buying ice cream from the ice cream man at lunch time at the park. fabulous. well tonight i found another one. because it had rained a TON there were lots and lots of puddles at the mall where we ate dinner. the boys know they can only walk through puddles when they have their boots on. and since it's so cal, this is RARE. so they wore their boots and after dinner i let them go crazy in the puddles/lakes outside. i didn't care if they got wet cause it was almost bedtime and we can always strip them down...which we did. strip down, race home, and take baths. it was good times. but man did i ANNOY the heck out of the other mothers at the mall who's kids were not wearing boots and wanted desperately to play in the water with my boys. WWWAAAA HAHAHAHAH...go me. i'm eviL! hahahah...it was great.
another funny. tonight once again we were talking to zander about jesus and accepting him, etc. his little friend evangelizes him all the time telling him she's going to heaven cause she's jesus' princess and he's her prince. tonight zander took the prize....he told us again that his friend was going to heaven cause she was god's princess and then he said, i'm going to heaven cause i'm jesus' PET!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahah...go z. i love you!

ponderings and musings

well i have hit the four week point for going to the gym. i am reaching the point of seeing results but i'm also reaching the point of wanting to say screw it. i'm tired of going to the gym and tired of dieting. is this what is destined for the rest of my life?! blah....my girlfriend and i have gone every other day without skipping once. well once i had to skip but i did a 40 minute video at home, with zander, which well...you'll need to ask him. its funny. i've also been struggling with how i look....i want instant results...its' hard to keep perservering knowing eventually it will pay off..just not right away. however, i sometimes like to pretend that i was once 350 lbs and now i'm rockin' looking. cause if i was 350, well then my current weight and look is fabulous! so that's how i get by...pretending.
my amazing husband got me a massage tonight and i swear it was wonderful! it was a swedish massage and it helped so much with the sore muscles. but doesn't he remember that its his birthday tomorrow?! and what did i get him? nothing...cause i suck. i swear every year we have this fight. i always feel like it's a test to see if i can figure out what he wants. he hems and haws like he doesn't want anything but i know its not true. OR he wants really expensive things that i just have to laugh at him about. so this year, he gets nothing. ok not really...i just seriously haven't figured it out yet! but the boys decided he needed new clothes. they said this, not me. so they picked out some shirts for him. they were cute...but honestly they picked out shirts that look just like him! we also got decorations for him too. i love this man and am sooo proud to celebrate him tomorrow. he's an amazing man! but opa i wish you were here tomorrow to make waffles for breakfast..thats what he wants and i swear i'm not as good at it as you guys are! oh well, i'll try.
darling jade update...this girl is meant to be the baby. she gets mad at me sometimes when she feels like i'm ignoring her and just starts sobbing. sometimes i've checked her over thinking something is hurting her only to realize she just wants to be held. little punk. and this girl can work an audience. every where i go she will throw herself around in my arms or the shopping cart to make eye contact with passing people to get them to smile at her. she thinks she's the shiznit...i hate to tell her, she'll grow out of it. people love babies, but well, they stop looking after a while. poor baby girl. but here's my favorite jade aspect...she LOVES dinosaurs. whenever she sees one she lights up like a crazy child and starts growling at it! the boys taught her to growl at dinos and i think its hilarious. stuffed dinos, walking dinos, the ginormous dino my parents got z, any ole one. she loves them. ahh...the youngest of boys. hahaha...i loved g.i joes growing up too thanks to my brothers.