Magellan

This little happy explorer can usually be found everywhere that she's not supposed to be.

Under tables....

On the stairs....

Behind the couch....

On the dishwasher door....

And in the fridge....

She currently has an activity table, ride-on car and two large baskets full of books and toys that sit prominently in the middle of the den, but of course she'd much rather be scooching into small spaces to find wayward screws, nails, food particles and TV remotes. I'm sure no one else can relate!

11 Months!

I'm either "all in" or "all out" with most things in life and this blog is no exception! This past month I've definitely been "all out," because we've been busy packing up the house, ordering a POD and U-Haul, canceling all our utilities, and then busy canceling the POD and U-Haul and re-ordering all our utilities. So now we live in a very packed up house just waiting for the moment that our realtor will call and say "The bank accepted your offer!" and we can move into our little short sale house. The whole house selling/buying saga is certainly another post for another day. I suppose I'll wait until we have a happy ending to give the whole report!

But on to Annie... she's 11 months now! She is continuing to develop quite the little personality and we get glimpses of this personality every day at every meal time. Feeding her 3 meals a day might possibly be the end of both Matt and I, but we're making some progress. Here's what else Annie has been up to:

- I think she weighs in the upper 18 range. We went to the doctor a couple weeks ago when she was sick and she weighed 18 lbs. 11 oz. Everyone always makes comments about her being so tiny... I just think she's long and skinny with an itty bitty head!

- She started cruising around furniture just a couple days after she turned 10 months. She especially is fond of cruising around the glass coffee table. I've just surrendered to the fingerprints at this point in order to keep my sanity!

- She's always been a noise-maker, but just after she turned 10 months, we started hearing her more audibly babbling with consonant sounds for the first time and she's pretty good with the "ma-ma"s and "da-da"s now.

- She started clapping on 4/17 and she thinks it's hilarious. Around the third week in April she started handing things to us if we hold out our hands. So cute!

- Around the end of the month she fed herself an entire meal - YAY! It has been quite the struggle to find things that she'll eat in solid form, but she's now a big fan of sweet potatoes, butternut squash, blueberries, bananas, pears and grapes. So we're making progress there. She's a little vacuum cleaner when you find something she likes, but she's not afraid to let you know when she's not a fan of something.

We love this little girl more and more every day!

I couldn't resist this picture. This is the face you get when you take away the joy of pulling things out of my purse.

11 months old with Raggedy Annie.

Yummy....squash!

When the parents are away...

Annie will play!

Matt and I went out for our 3rd anniversary last week and my friend Rachel stayed with Annie. She snuck in a few artsy iPhoto shots during her stay and I wanted to share.

I like my new teeth!

She looks a little like Pebbles Flintstone to me here.

When Matt's grandparents celebrated their first anniversary, they only had time to run out and grab ice cream sundaes. Almost 59 years later and every year since, they've had a sundae to celebrate. Matt and I decided to carry on their tradition by eating cheesecake every year since we had cheesecake wedding cake. YUM! And the only thing better than cheesecake? FREE cheesecake! Thanks, Sperry's!

My mom's parents were together for almost 62 years before my grandfather died and our parents have been married for a combined total of almost 68 years. We are so thankful to have so many examples of strong, Christian marriages to follow.

10 months - ON TIME!

Are my 5 readers impressed that it’s April 1st and I have Annie’s 10 month pictures and post up?

You’ll have to bear (bare? I don’t feel like looking that up for correct usage) with me on all the details this month – I can’t believe I actually wrote down specific dates!

No doctor’s appointment this month, but I think she’s a little more than 18 pounds and is wearing clothes pretty true to size... Can wear some 9 month and some 12 month clothing. Her hair is getting to long and I love that bows stay in!

She learned to do so much this month all in a span of two weeks:
March 12th – Pulled up and army crawled for the first time
March 13th – Crawled and stood by herself for the first time (this hasn’t happened since because she’s too busy hitting the floor to take off!)
March 16th – Waved bye bye for the first time and did it for about a week... I think the novelty has worn off already! / Sat up in her crib by herself for the first time
March 22nd – Dropped a feeding! Now nursing 3 times a day and eating 3 times a day – I like this schedule!
March 23rd – Stood in her crib by herself for the first time

- She sort of does a half crawl sort of thing... One knee on the ground and the other leg propels her along
- Loves her Curious George monkey – it’s the perfect size!
- Loves puffs, cheerios and yogurt melts ... Still a bit undecided on anything else that requires chewing
- Officially has two teeth – so cute!
- Still loves to bounce in her bouncer... And loves to swing!
- Sleeping around 7 or 7:30 to 6:30 or 7:00 every night
- Loves any toys that make noise or motion
- Has gotten the hang of turning pages of books and feeling different textures on the “touch and feel” books
- Has gotten more vocal, but still loves to “sing” more than babble

Happy 10 months, baby girl!

I now have approximately 5 seconds to take a good picture before she’s here....

“Mom, no more pictures. Too much to do around here.”

Just want to play on the drum all day!

With a little girl on the move, we’re never sure what might get pulled out of a drawer or closet around here. According to Annie, the most fun thing to do is to crawl to the pantry (always open...we haven’t learned yet!) and pull all the hot chocolate packets out of the tub. It’s even more fun when dad can help beat on the bottom of the empty tub!

Playtime at the Park

We're loving that it's finally warm enough to get outside on a regular basis! Last weekend we took a trip to a nearby park to soak in some sun!

First trip down the slide!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Almost as much fun as jumping!

Look at me!

This is what I found when I went to get Annie after a nap last week. Quite proud of herself!

She was sitting perfectly still a couple weeks ago and then managed to figure out how to pull up, then army crawl, then crawl, then stand up in her crib all in about a week's time. She's a determined one for sure!

Ahem...Nevermind that she's almost TEN months now!

I know I've said this before, but getting all of my pictures from my camera to my computer is such a chore. Then they go into iPhoto and then because we have the slowest internet known to man I can't just upload normal-sized pictures onto Blogger; I have to attach them in a smaller size to my email, then drag them from my email onto my desktop and then upload them to Blogger. And then trying to remember what order to upload them so they appear in all the right places... it's all just too much to think about sometimes. Wouldn't you rather just waste some time on Facebook, than go to all that trouble? Uh huh... me, too.

So here's a picture of our little friend. More to come, I PROMISE! And here are her 9 month stats from the doctor a few weeks ago:

Weight: 17 lb 9 oz - 30%
Length: 28.4 in. - 75%
Head: 17.32 – 50%

Let me also take this opportunity to say how thankful I am for daylight savings time for a variety of reasons, but most importantly, we didn't get Annie back into her "normal" routine post-DST... we just moved everything back an hour. So instead of sleeping from 7pm until 6am, she sleeps from 7:30pm until 7am and all her naps are moved back an hour as well. Much happier Annie and much happier parents!

Nevermind that she's almost 9 months!

Sweet Annie is almost 9 months, but I'd like to take this post and celebrate her 7th and 8th month of life before she's technically not 8 months anymore! Here's a few things Annie's been up to. (Disclaimer: I started this list when she was almost 7 months old, so I'm hoping I remember what happened when when.)

7 months:

- Sitting up really well

- Squealing
- Loves to sleep on her tummy (but STILL will not roll back from her tummy to back. It's not that she can't; she apparently just doesn't want to. If she is reaching for something and accidentally starts to roll onto her back, she will catch herself and throw herself back over to her tummy. SHEESH!)

- Transitioned to her high chair

- Can wear a bow in her hair - YIPPEE!

- Will giggle if you shake your head back and forth or tickle her under her arms - so cute!
- Her laughing often turns to crying
- Doesn’t babble.... Sings! Loudly!

- Smiles all the time
- Down to four feedings a day plus eating baby food 3 times a day

8 months:
- Eating baby food – one jar at every meal
- Getting on all fours from a sitting position
- Reaching for everything!
- Eats puffs, but won’t put them into her own mouth
- Loves baths and splashing around
- Wearing some 6 months/9 months clothing
- Still loves to jump ALL THE TIME! In the bouncer, when you're holding her, when she's standing up, etc.
- Still no teeth!
- Loves to stare at people from the grocery cart or her high chair in a restaurant until they look at her and smile
- Goes to bed at 7 and wakes up at 6 or 6:30
- Rough last month of sleeping... started getting up several times during the night just to say hello!
- FINALLY mastered the art of putting her pacifier back in her mouth - can I get a hallelujah?!?

We love you little Annie!

Yep, Still Here!

Dear Faithful Blog Followers,

I'm still here and so are my mom and dad. Dad's been working a lot and mom has been talking about radon a lot. As for me, I've been getting on all fours and rocking back and forth some. Mom asked me if I could hold off on crawling until after they sell our three-story condo, but I'm kind of getting sick of sitting in one place all the time. Just wanted to hop on here and post a little something so you all would know we were still alive and kickin'! Hopefully mom will post again soon, but no promises from me.

Love,

Annie