Being ONE is FUN!

Here’s what Annie has been up to in the last month:

• Loves the dishwasher and fridge. She’ll take off crawling at warp speed if either are opened while she’s around.
• Climbed up the stairs by herself for the first time the first weekend in May
• Started saying maaaa maaaaa and daaaa daaaa more at the beginning of the month
• At the end of the first week of May, she figured out that she could use her fingers to play with her lips and make some really fun noises! It’s one of her go-to tricks now and seems to be a fan favorite.
• The week of May 13th she started saying mama and dada more continuously and seemed to start connecting it to us more. (Matt says I’m brainwashing with the “ma-ma”s.... She definitely has those down a bit better than the “da-da”s)
• Thinks its a really fun game to wrinkle up her nose and blow air out and wants us to reciprocate for even more fun!
• We discovered she’s a fan of squash and zucchini, but only if it’s covered in crushed up goldfish crackers.
• Still loves to clap!
• She had her first Krispy Kreme doughnut on Free Doughnut Day! As expected, she was a big fan.
• No signs of walking yet, but she’s a daredevil whose not afraid to climb anything that might be obstructing her path.
• Thinks it’s really funny to shake her head from side to side.
  

And she’s quite the string bean:
Height: 30.25” - 90%
Weight: 18 lbs 14 oz. - 18%

What a Difference a Year Makes

(Note: This was originally supposed to get posted on Annie’s birthday, but let’s just pretend...)

1 Year and 1 Day Ago....
I was 36 weeks pregnant and having a baby shower, walking to Sonic with my family for a post-dinner ice cream dessert, and playing a late night game of Rummikub.

1 Year Ago....
Matt and I woke up, were making plans to head to church with our family and then take in an afternoon Sounds baseball game. But sweet little Annie had different plans. After a frantic call to the OB doctor on call whom I had never seen, heard of or spoken to in my life, we drove to the hospital (with no bag of things one might normally take to the hospital when there’s potentially a baby on the way), and then made plans to meet up with our family at the late service at church. After a couple of hours of being checked and completely re-creating my medical file (mine hadn’t been transferred at the hospital yet and my doctor was out of town, so picture me with my planner out trying to remember the dates of and exactly what had happened at the last 10 OB appointments), they decided I was officially in labor and sent us to a L&D room.

I was panicked because my replacement at work was starting the very next day (I was 110% POSITIVE that I was not going to have Annie early, so we all though having 4 weeks for me to train someone would be plenty), so I was sitting in the hospital room with my laptop trying to write down everything that I was supposed to teach my replacement over the next 4 weeks. Meanwhile, I was texting the world to let them know that I was in labor, and Matt had his laptop, Blackberry and cell phone out as well. I don’t think our L&D nurse really appreciated our tech savvy-ness.

Fast forward a few hours – a few innings of a Dodgers baseball game on the TV in our room – and Matt was heading out to the lobby to get some pizza when the nurse told him he better stay in the room because the baby was coming! Then in walked another random doctor that I had never heard of or seen before (and I’ll never forget he was drinking a can of Coke when he came in to deliver Annie). Fifteen minutes of pushing and out came little 6 pound 4 ounce Annie who thankfully was completely healthy in spite of her 4 week early appearance. We were so thankful that the Annie fan club/paparazzi was just around the corner and all got to meet her just minutes after her arrival. (After an apparent fight broke out between the NICU nurses and the L&D nurses on whether or not she would have to be checked into the NICU since she was considered a “preemie”.)

I can remember that with her coming 4 weeks early, a fairly quick labor and a very fast delivery, I was not prepared for when they handed her to me for the first time. I’ll be honest... It wasn’t love at first sight. I think it was just too much to process all at once. I just remember thinking “Wow. They just handed me a baby. My baby. I’m not quite sure what to do here.” But within 15 minutes, I was head over heels in love. I have several friends that are pregnant right now and one was recently talking about how so many people talk about how bad the first few weeks are with a new baby. While they were definitely rough and (thankfully) I don’t remember too much about the sleepless nights and all the crying (me and Annie!), I can clearly remember one morning sitting in the chair in her room, looking out the window with her sleeping in my arms and thinking “I can’t possibly think of ANYTHING better that exists within this earthly life than this moment right now” and wishing that I could just stop time and enjoy it a little longer.

One year later, I still can’t think of anything better than being Annie’s maaaaa-maaaaa and getting the opportunity to love on her every day!

More posts to come soon.... Birthday party pics, 12 month pics with Raggedy Annie, etc., etc.!

Blueberry Massacre

I'm afraid there were quite a few blueberries harmed during dinner last night.

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!