Snow!

Anna and I are have a snow day today! Nashville got about three inches of snow overnight which warrants a day off school in these parts. Not that I'm ever one to argue about a day off work. Anna and I ventured out into our snowy backyard this morning to play.

Getting ready:

Crawling around in the snow ... not really liking it when she tried to walk and the snow covered her whole boots:

Trying to walk ... marignally successful:

A really whiny video ... not representative of the fun she actually had:

We may venture out again later today. I wouldn't be surprised if we had another day off tomorrow too. Hope everyone's staying warm!

New Jammies!

Anna and I have a nice schedule going these days: I pick her up from daycare around 3:30 or 4:00, come home and play for a while (or go grocery shopping, like we did today), eat dinner around 5:00 (early, I know), and then do the whole bath/stories/bed routine so the munchkin's in bed between 6:00 and 6:30. It's early, but so is her wake-up time (6:00) since I've got to drop her back at school on my way to work. The only positive to this craziness is that Anna LOVES school right now. She runs into her classroom in the morning to grab her favorite baby (imagine that) and show it to her teacher. She's even getting to the point where she's sitting down to play on her own and waving bye-bye to me. Sometimes it makes me feel a little sad that she's not quite so dependent on me, but I'm also thrilled that she's comfortable where she spends the bulk of her days and feels loved by her caretakers. Today her teachers put her hair in a Pebbles-esque ponytail which I found mildly amusing. See for yourselves:

I'm not big on kids and television, but Anna enjoying a fifteen-minute video about farm animals allowed me to whip up dinner tonight. Amen to that! I love the baby wrapped up sitting next to her ... that's Anna for you!

I love these next few pictures of Anna in her new bug jammies. She now knows how to say "jammies" and repeats it the entire time I'm putting them on her. It's so cute! Her hair is crazy from post-bath play. It's almost long enough to fit behind her ears when it's down. She's also learning how to scoot on her belly off the couch, the bed, and the stairs, but, as you'll see from the last two pictures, sometimes she gets a little stuck ...

Oops!

Poor girl! She kept saying "Help, Mommy" over and over. Of course, I had to keep her waiting a few seconds to snap some pictures :-)

Christmas Pics

Here are some pictures from Christmas. Jimmy's cousin Rick took them Christmas morning. We had a great time in Ohio --- more posts to come!

Ho, Ho, Ho

Anna learned a new trick - telling me what Santa says. Enjoy!

Anna also learned how to take the lid off a cookie jar and spill the contents all over the kitchen floor, which explains the abrupt ending of the video ... have I mentioned how much I love our almost 16-month-old?! She NEVER stops. NEVER.

The Boo

This is how I found Anna Thursday morning - cuddled between two babies. She's been obsessed with her babies these days, always wanting to hold them, feed them, shush them, and, as of Wednesday night, read them bedtime stories. We had covered these two babies up as I was putting Anna to sleep, and I thought it was precious that their coverings were 100% intact the next morning (UNLIKE Anna's, might I add ... hers are long cast off to the bottom of the bed!).

Thursday night we played and had dinner with Nichole, Josiah and Addy (who Anna now remembers and says "Siah" and "Addy" when asked to identify them). Nichole had these two cute superhero capes she made, and Anna and Josiah had fun wearing them around!

Playing with Addy:

And Josiah:

Checking out the tree ... Anna with the coveted tv remote in her hands:

Anna found these hilarious glasses to complete her superhero persona ... I think the glasses, water all over her shirt, and bloated post-dinner belly really make her a force to be reckoned with :-)

Looking forward to a weekend of playing and getting ready for Christmas!

Breakfast With Santa

As promised, here are a few pictures from the Breakfast With Santa from Saturday. Anna liked Frosty and Santa from a distance but was less than keen on being around either of them alone. Enjoy!

She gave Frosty a high five!

Yeah ... she wanted nothing to do with Santa without Mommy close by. She was pointing to his nose and glasses and smiling with him when I was holding her. Don't worry - I whisked her away the moment after the camera snapped this!

Dancing!

Here's a quick video of Anna dancing to Kidmo's Preschool Worship dvd ... she's been dancing more and more these days! When I picked her up from school on Friday, she and I danced to some music that was playing on the radio in her classroom. One of her buddies from class came up and wanted to hold my hand, and when I held it, Anna took her other hand and started dancing away. It was the cutest thing!

I took Anna to a breakfast with Santa this morning and hope to have pictures to post tomorrow. Anna wasn't a huge fan of Santa, but she loved everything else!