Anna's First Time at the Park (Part1)

How the morning began...

Anna's first time on the slide

Her first swing

Peek-A-Boo!

In the outfit from Aunt Jess (and Grandma Patty?).

We're all ready for the Bengals playoff game.

On Hair Bows, Cereal, and Santa

Can you believe this is little Anna?!?! She's changing so fast these days I can barely keep up. I took these pictures today while she, Jimmy, and I were playing. We're all dressed in our Bengal's gear for the game today, and Anna just looked a little to boyish in her orange shirt and jeans ... a little pack of hair bows called my name while I was on a quick Target run, and I think her little white bow tops the outfit quite nicely, don't you? Grandma Patty got Anna a Johnny Jump Up for Christmas, and, while there hasn't been any jumping in it yet (because someone's legs are a little too short), there have been a lot of smiles and walking around!

We've been introducing Anna to cereal this past week with mixed results. She seems to take it more frequently from Jimmy but isn't always interested. Any tips? Recommendations? We're all ears!

See, Mom? I told you she likes that stupid blue toy the best!

Here's Anna in a new six-month outfit from the Martin's ... we thought she looked like such a big girl in it!

More random playtime shots:

These Santa pics are long overdue. Santa came to Anna's daycare, and our friend Derek (Aunika's dad) happened to be there at the same time as Jimmy (who didn't have our camera). I kept forgetting to get the pictures from him! Enjoy a little belated holiday love!

Here's a short video ... you'll hear Jimmy explaining to Santa that Anna is not a boy. Seriously. Any mom who dressed her boy in little black stretch pants and a shirt reading "Peace, Love, and Christmas" should be shot ;-)

Love to you all ... WHO DEY!

Anna's Nursery & Play Time

I just can't get enough of my little cutie! As promised, here are some pictures of her newly-updated nursery. I haven't been crazy about making it too "baby," but I wanted to give Anna a nice place to play. Thanks to some great shelving from my friend Erin and her mom, a few hand-me-down decorations from my childhood bedroom, and tons of new toys from family members, Anna's play corner is set! Check it out:

Notice that Anna has a "sports' shelf" with her Titans picture, her Sounds baseball, and her Bengals dinosaur. She also has her own cd player. Can you tell she's her father's daughter?!?! On the other hand, the cd's are the two Glee soundtracks Jimmy got me for Christmas, so Anna's her mother's daughter too ;-)

On the left are two pictures of my grandma when she was a little girl. My grandma was with me the day Anna was born and instantly saw a connection between Anna and herself - they both have little dimples in the same place! The picture in the middle was drawn by one of my best friends from elementary school's mom. Anne and I had the same pictures hanging in our rooms! Finally there is the dorky-but-cool-at-the-same-time Sound of Music poster my friend Carrie found for me at a thrift store a while back. For Christmas Grandma Patty gave Anna a book of poetry compiled by Julie Andrews and her daughter, and Anna and I spent some time listening to the accompanying cd of Julie reading poetry today ... my goal is for Anna to be able to recite poetry in a British accent when she's older ;-)

This is an angel my mom painted for me when I was young. The colors go perfectly with Anna's room!

Now on to more cuteness ...

This is what happens to Anna's hair when I forget to brush it immediately after her bath:


And this is what it looks like the next morning when she wakes up:

I need to remember to grab my camera at the beginning of tummy time. Anna was smiling and reaching for these blocks for nearly ten minutes, only to start fussing once I had my camera in hand:

We sat and knocked over block towers for a while ...

Chilling out with her Glowworm from Aunt Penny:

Smiling at Mommy's funny faces:

Anna had her four-month checkup today. Developmentally all is well ... yeah! She has not been gaining the kind of weight the doctor would like to see ... Anna still only weighs 13 pounds (nowhere near doubling her birth weight yet) and is only 24 inches long. Cereal is in the near future to help put on some chubs!

New Pic

Aunt Jessica just sent me this picture of Anna ... too cute not to post! This hat is part of an outfit she got for Christmas (and will likely wear for her six-month pictures). Thanks for sending, Jess!

Christmas, etc.

Jimmy, Anna, and I just returned home from a whirlwind Christmas. I didn't do the best job photo-documenting Anna's first Christmas, but I'll share what I got:

We spent the 23rd and 24th with my parents in their new house. It was wonderful to all be under the same roof! And when I say all, I mean all: Jimmy, Anna, me, Melissa, Jed, Evan, my parents, Darby, Lucy, Kenny, Cooper, and Boomer ... it was a full house!

Anna had fun playing piano with her favorite grandpa:

And I had fun twirling Anna's hair into spikes while she dozed off watching Elf:

Anna is getting so much more expressive these days. She loves to play on her mat and look at herself in the mirror Jimmy rigged to it. She's also turning and smiling whenever I call her name, as captured in this picture:

I am hating blogspot right now because I'm having trouble formatting my pictures ... here's our family picture on Christmas Eve, also Anna's four month birthday!

Here's the whole Herdeman clan at my grandma's:

With Great Grandma:

With Grandma:

Reading with her grandpa (notice the hair decorations):

We spent the 25th and 26th with Jim and Roxane. Anna enjoyed cuddling with her other favorite grandpa:

Smiling at Aunt Jess:

Playing with a Piglet stuffed animal from Great Grandma Edna Mae:

Too tuckered out to enjoy her first trip to Skyline!

This next picture warrants some explanation. A friend from church made Anna this beatiful crocheted blanket when she was born. It has big holes in it, and Anna has started hooking her fingers into the holes and pulling the blanket over her face. When I was changing her diaper the other day, she pulled the blanket around her face and was as happy as could be:

Yes, she looks a little chunky and spacey in the picture, but it's still cute!

Finally, Anna has really been enjoying her exersaucer for longer periods of time. She has also discovered her tongue, and she blows raspberries all the time!

Overall, we had a great trip. We got to see all of our families and lots of friends. Anna got to meet Erin, Lindsey, and Anthony and spend more time with Emily, Melody and Cate! She also got to meet her NEW Uncle Mike, Jess's fiance!

I've been working hard in her nursery the last two days, hanging pictures and sorting all the toys she got for Christmas ... she is one spoiled girl, let me tell you! More pictures to come ...

Clark Kent's Home State

A few weeks ago I (Jimmy) drove out to Colorado Springs, Colorado for work. The first day of driving was great. I got see eight professional sports venues in one day by going through Nashville, St. Louis, and Kansas City!

Then on day two, we had to drive through Kansas. During the stretch in the center of the state, there was nothing to see. Literally nothing. But people try to get you to stop about every 5 miles by offering attractions of every type. The signs usually always started by saying "take the next exit." Here are some examples: "Take the next exit to see historic Dodge City, the pride of the Old West. Only 130 miles south." or "Take the next exit for the Colby public library." About every 10 miles for 2 hours, we saw signs for The Oasis of The Plains. It was a gas station.

Here are my top three favorite signs for attractions that I saw:

3. Pet live rattlesnakes and praire dogs
2. Come see the 5-legged steer.

And not an attraction, but it shows what's important in Kansas,
1. Lamb. It's good.

One thing that was neat to see was the acres upon acres of wind turbines. They went on for about 15 miles.