ooooooohhhh nooooooo

this has been going on for about a week - pulling up on anything and everything she can. fliping over the piano several times and her little sit/walking car.

sorry for the shotty quality - I had to make it small to load it in a decent time...







also for your viewing pleasure one of the funniest videos EVER. Anna LOVES her doggies. Doggies can do no wrong.

Swing!

you know..watching baby Einstein, unfolding laundry...all before her first nap

This went on FOREVER. She took every single towel out of the basket...and I just sat there and watched. It was worth it to refold them all.

Car Seats...

So Brian and I have been researching car seats a bit today and I found this to be insightful. If you are looking for a car seat - or know someone who is click here: carseatblog.com

New research indicates that children under 2 years of age are 75% less likely to die or experience serious injury when they ride in a rear-facing car seat, and toddlers between 1 and 2 years of age are 5 times safer rear-facing than toddlers who ride in a front-facing car seat. Also, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that all children remain rear-facing until they reach the highest weight or height allowed by their car safety seat.

Rear-facing provides the most crash protection in the most common and severe frontal and side impacts. There is a stigma for a lot of parents regarding rear-facing. Many have the impression that kids should be front-facing once they are 1 year and 20 pounds. Even some physicians still give this obsolete advice, contrary to the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Other parents just think their kids need to be front-facing for comfort or some other issue, or that turning front-facing is some sort of rite of passage or graduation award for being a year old. Well, now there’s a reason why front-facing shouldn’t be a reward for many kids until they turn 4-years old!

So the idea is to find the car seat that has the highest rear-facing weight/height limit. Whew! So much to read! Who knew! Many of the new convertibles can allow children to stay rear-facing until they are 4 or 5 years old!!! I never thought of it this way - but those vans that have the seats that flip around backwards are a great way to have your child rear-facing in a crash. I can't wait to get a mini-van!!!!

August.

Where did this month go?! Oh my oh my! Big Happy Birthday to my dad!!!

We just got back from a few days in Poland and a few days in Garmisch for a marriage retreat with Brian's company. I have SO many photos to post it's not even funny, and I still haven't finished our Italy/France/Switzerland vacation! It doesn't help that I left the power cable to my laptop - yes my brand spanking new 1 month old power cable- in our apartment in Krakow. BOOO! Right now I'm going back and forth between my apple tower and Brian's laptop. So for now, I'll load some photos I've taken with our point and shoot camera off Brian's laptop.

As I sit here watching our sweet baby Anna try to STAND UP with the help of her piano, I wonder where the last 8 months have gone and cherish every moment I have as a stay at home mom. There was a point in my life I didn't even know I wanted kids and now I can't imagine my life without her. It's amazing to watch her grow into a little person.

Brian and the BMW got into an fight...


WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN"T HAVE A CHEESEBURGER?!
Anna, Hard Rock Cafe - Krakow






The boys rented scooters for a day - $25 for 5 hours! What a steal!


On our last day in Krakow we visited Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau. It was a very humbling experience. Before leaving Auschwitz-Birkenau, the German soldiers burned much of what was there; basically anything made of wood.
Memorial at Auschwitz-Birkenau

Auschwitz I

junkin' finds

Anna, Elena and I went 'junkin' on Saturday. I've been looking for an antique pram for awhile now. This one isn't EXACTLY what I was looking for - but it's close, and in great condition. The basket is just plain fun.






my favorite

Pisa

We stayed REALLY close to Pisa - it was maybe a 15 minute drive to the leaning tower of Pisa - aka shotty Italian construction - those Italians - great at marketing! We hit up the tower first thing in the morning. It was clear, bright and sunny! Which made for some rough lighting, but we made it work. We finished up the tower in about an hour and headed to Florence.

Thinking of Oma today!

Anna made a sign for Oma (my aunt Chris) today. She's having a kidney stone procedure done today and Anna decided to make a sign for her.




that ISN'T marker on her face...just a little leftover sweet potato she's saving for later.

Big Day!

Today Anna made the jump from sitting to crawling. Up until now she would just fall over sideways when she was done sitting and then rollover and start moving when wanted to get something bad enough, but the last few days she's been trying to go straight from sit to crawl. She REALLY wanted my shoes!

Italy - Beach/Pool Day

While on vacation we came across the iplay bathing suits for babies. This was the best $10 ever spent! No more of those "water-proof" disposable diapers that don't work!! ARGH! So here's my advice, if you know someone with a baby - and they swim a lot - get the iplay swim diaper. Worth every penny! Now that we're back home I've been taking Anna to the pool every weekend for from 1-3 hours. She loves it! I dunked her under water last weekend and she did great! She's such a little fish. Thank goodness for indoor pools, we'll be going year-round! EDIT: The iplay diaper is the yellow-floral design one at the bottom - not the blue fishy one - which I like - I just wish it wasn't a one piece, they are so hard to take off of wet babies. The iplay is a two piece tankini.










Anna's first sand castle

flippin' pages

derailed again. new wheels

Everyone in this family has gotten new wheels recently.

I got a new Passat wagon - we still have the Volvo, but we are going to sell it and I will miss it dearly. There are things I like better about the volvo and there are things that are nice to have on the Passat - like a rear hatch that opens and closes with the touch of a button! I will say I wasn't happy with the passat in the beginning, but it's growing on me. I like the color and it's nice to have a car that's BRAND spanking new...like 279 miles new. The dogs will be the ones to suffer, they won't have as much room in the cargo area in the passat.


Brian got a new-to-him Dodge Dakota. He loves it, and I'm very happy with it too. You never know when you'll need to haul random things. Our Volvo held A LOT!! More than most SUVs. But since the addition of Anna, I've been a little limited when it comes to hauling things because of the baby seat. Problem solved. Dodge Dakota. I like it better than our Dodge Ram we used to have - thank goodness it has 4 doors!! AHHH no more silly extended cab! You can put the passenger seat ALL THE WAY back and there's still room for Anna's car seat. That would have never happened in the Ram!! It's not the best for hauling dogs in Germany though (they must be contained - it's the law) so we'll have to work that out. I'd like to thank my brother for teaching me how to drive a manual when I was 16 - I'm amazed at how many women can't do that. So now I can steal the truck!!


I also got some other new wheels - I've wanted a bike for awhile and this is exactly what I was looking for - with baby seat. I'm not a huge fan of the rear baby seats, in fact it was my last choice for hauling Anna. My top choice was and still is the pull behind wagon and my second choice would be the seat in front of me, but that's not possible with this bike. So we'll keep looking for a pull behind wagon/jogging stroller. Overall I'm super excited!


Anna's new ride. Anna has many many rides. Brian has already stated that she doesn't need anything else to ride on - she has a wooden motorcycle, a jeep, and several ride/push cars. Also see previous post for more photos of Anna and one of her new car

Stuttgart Zoo

the only female of her monkey friends with a baby in this area - she was guarding that little guy with her life!


hiding from the other monkeys




About 3 minutes after we walked up to this monkey pen - the dominate male made some weird noise and ALL of the monkeys rushed to the top of the cage and looked in the same direction. Even the goats (yes there was some type of mountain goat in there too) - were interested in what the monkeys were looking for




Even the goat friends had babies