More Summer Fun

Anna continues to make us smile. Here she is hamming it up for the camera modeling some new duds from her second cousins, Case and Lena. Aunt Jess and Grandma Patty visited last weekend and got to join in on the dress-up fun!

(Check out the rest of the fashion show pics on Facebook!)

I turned my back for five seconds today and here is where I found Anna when I turned around! She loves our laptops and anything with buttons ... she literally climbed on top of my laptop bag to get to our printer. As the pictures show, she sure was happy with herself!

Anna and I went blueberry picking today with Nichole, her sister-in-law Anja, Josiah, and Adalyn. We had a great time! I had a baby-shaped sweat stain on my t-shirt from carrying Anna around in the Baby Bjorn ... kind of gross and funny!

Anna was very curious ...

Best bud, Josiah!

Trying her hand at picking one ...

Success!

Sweaty kids enjoying a water break ...

Josiah shared his goldfish crackers with Anna ... she liked them ...

Adalyn chilled in the stroller the whole time - what a cutie!

Nichole with Adalyn - so sweet!

What a fun day! Now we're looking forward to a visit from Grandma Nancy - can't wait!

Do you need to see the quirky cuteness again?!?! I think you do!

Here are two new videos to enjoy. The first shows off a few of Anna's new tricks: pushing her grocery cart and blowing kisses. You'll also notice her new-found affinity for whining and screaming ... I chalk it up to teething and frustration over not moving as effectively as she'd like.

This one's just to show off Anna's crawling skills ... I realized I hadn't documented it on the blog!

Also, if you're interested, check out the following video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6tZSS8gL-o. Anna hung out at Josiah's house a few mornings this week while I taught some classes at school. This is a hilarious video of Josiah pushing Anna around in his Tonka truck ... so precious!

Ten Months

I can't believe Anna turned ten months at the end of June and is already well on her way to being an eleven-month-old. She continues to change at a rapid-fire pace, crawling and scaling our walls and furniture like a pro.

Very proud of herself:

She still loves her time with Daddy:

Anna loves giving her babies and stuffed animals hugs and kisses. The other day she even started giving her "brown bear" a bottle. It amazes me how perceptive and observant kids are!

Anna's started doing this cheesy grin, scrunching up her nose and kind of snorting. Jimmy and I find it hilarious.

Although Anna looks a little spacy and tired, I had to include this cute shot from my birthday. Josiah and Adalyn are Anna's best friends here in TN. Josiah and Anna can play together with no problems - they are adorable together! He knows how to say her name and gets excited when his mom, our friend Nichole, tells him it's time to go to Anna's house. So cute!

Please excuse the headband in the video ... Anna and I were playing dress up before dinner ;-)

Here she is feeding herself with a spoon (with her LEFT hand)!

The Frogs in a Wok: A Weekend Update

Most nights Jimmy tends to tackle Anna's bath time while I clean up from her dinner. It's a nice system because I get some peaceful tidying time and, according to Anna's screams and giggles, Jimmy is way more fun giving baths than I am. I often hear him spelling out words with Anna's foam letters - a difficult task because there is only one of each letter. He was pretty proud of this concoction (one of the O's is actually a zero) - sounds like a good band name, doesn't it?!?!

This Saturday we packed a picnic and headed to Arrington Vineyards. We've never been there and have heard from friends that it's a great place to go. Next time we go, we'll definitely partake of the free wine tasting and live music; this weekend we opted for the kid-friendly version of lunch and a walk through the vineyards - fun!

We also had a great Sunday celebrating Father's Day. We took Anna to the local rec center pool for the first time - she loved it! She splashed around in the shallow end (as the pictures show), and she also loved swimming around with Jimmy and I in the deep end. She kicked her little legs and put her face in the water and smiled the whole time. Do I see swim team in her future?!?! I was calling her my little guppy the rest of the day.

You see the open mouth in all these pictures? You know what that is? Pure glee. Anna spent the whole time in the water shrieking her happy shriek. She got lots of smiles from other pool-goers.

What a great weekend celebrating summer and the great dad Jimmy is to Anna!

We're Baaack ...

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's been a few months. I have no excuses (at least, not any that grandmas consider viable). Here are some random-but-cute nine-month pictures and videos to catch up on the cuteness!

Cute Face:

Not-So-Cute Face:

Walking in Centennial Park holding Uncle Evan's hand:

Wearing Uncle Evan's shades:

Practicing standing by the coffee table:

Playing with her new shopping cart:

Army crawling/scooting:

Peek-A-Boo

Anna and Jenny play Peek-A-Boo, and then Anna gets excited...

ABCD or ACDC?

That's right - that's my darling baby rocking an ACDC onesie (a stocking stuffer for Jimmy this Christmas (that I gave him early because I thought it was so cute!)). I wanted to see if it fit Anna yet, and it did! She's getting so big ...

Here you can see her start to plot her escape from my elaborate photo-shoot prison:

I can hear her thinking either "Oh crap, I'm stuck" or "Are you catching this, Mom? I am so skilled!"

Success!

We played hard this morning, and Anna took a long nap, long enough for me to make and address all the invitations for my cousin Michele's baby "sprinkle" in a few weeks.

After her nap, I opened a new toy that my friend Lane gave me for Anna. It's an animal train that makes all kinds of cute sounds and moves on carpet - very cute. I have a few videos of our play time today, but they take forever to load --- this picture will have to suffice to show her happiness over the gift:

We miss you, Daddy! Come home soon and play with us!

It was a yucky day today in TN - really wet, dark, and cold. I couldn't stand not moving around, so Anna and I went to Target and walked some laps (and I did not spend anything, thank you very much!). It felt good to move, and Anna sang to everyone in the aisles ;-)

Home. Dinner. Bath.

Then, about an hour of this madness:

I was so glad to get this on video because when I tell people that Anna talks all the time, this is what I mean. There are hour-long stretches of the day where she just gabs away like this ... it cracks me up until I remember that she's probably imitating me ... I LOVE hearing her voice and can't wait to find out what all she's got on her mind!

Love and miss everyone ... especially you, Jimmy! Be safe and have fun and work hard ... see you Wednesday!

Big Picture Update - February!

Here's a big pile of pictures documenting Anna's sixth month ... she's getting so big (she's grown THREE inches since her four-month appointment!) but is still a little peanut (only weighing in at fourteen pounds and ten ounces). She's waving in three different ways - the open-and-closed fist, the arm flap, and the Miss America side-to-side - and greets me with at least one kind when I pick her up from day care each day. She can roll to get to whatever she wants (scary!) and is getting more and more independent with sitting on her own. She's also getting extremely vocal stringing together da-da's and blah-blah's (and blowing lots of raspberries) ... she's quite the singer, reader, and entertainer (wonder where she gets that from?!?!).

Here she is reading Valentine's cards from Grandma Patty and Aunt Jess:

Reading a Valentine's book with Daddy (thanks, Chad and Allison!).

Thanks for the cute bows, Mom ;-)

Helping Mommy cook dinner:

Getting curious about the camera:

I love this sweet grinning girl!

Thanks, Nis for this great Sesame Street toy. Funny story - the first time I put Anna under it, she screamed when the Elmo popped out and yelled, "Peekaboo, baby!" Like, she SCREAMED ... in holy terror. So I waited a few months until she could sit in front of it and play ... success! She loved it! Thanks for the fun gift!

We've finally had some nice days to get out and walk ... makes me excited for summer!

Goofy faces:

At the beginning of another walk:

And at the end:

Snoozing for a few minutes while Mommy got ready last week:

Lots of good play time with Daddy after his trip to St. Louis last week:

This last one makes me laugh - not only was her pacifier halfway out, but it was upside down. Anna was pooped after a busy day!

I'll try to be better about posting pictures more frequently ... it's been a busy month ;-)