oy!

I don't know what else to say. Anna climbed out of the crib by herself for the first time today and she learned how to crawl in and out of the umbrella stroller by herself today. I'm not sure how much more of this I can take! Tuesday night can't come soon enough!

Big Day!

Today is Anna's first official day at the CDC (Child Development Center aka day care aka Center for Disease and Colds). I signed her up for hourly care until we figure out if we are moving or not and what town she'll be going to Kindergarten in. She can start Kindergarten in our town starting this month, but if we ARE moving, I don't want her to start school only to move in a month.

Today she'll be there from 11:30-4. Thank GOODNESS one of my good friends, Kasey, works in the room Anna will be in. So it makes me feel a little better about that! I'll be spending the afternoon in the pottery studio!

I unloaded all of the photos from the red camera. I'm so frustrated with this camera it isn't even funny! But it works great for video. So I use it a lot for that. One day I need to sit down and upload all of the videos to youtube it just hasn't happened. But usually before or after I do a video, I will take a few quick photos.

It's been warmer here (not today) so we pulled out the kiddie pool we NEVER used last year. I also got some sand for Anna's sand box. We got the sandbox from the same couple who gave us the swing set. I bought 4 bags of sand - they looked small - turns out I only needed 1 ...maybe 2. So I need to find a home for the other two bags. Currently it's on the porch, which is nice, it won't kill the grass there and it's covered, so it gives us something to do outside on rainy days.

I'm not a big bow person...or a big flower person. I think babies look silly when they have this HUGE bow or flower the size of their head. It's NOT CUTE! Babies are cute enough, if you put a huge bow or ugly flower on your kid you're just saying "hey, I think my baby is ugly and I want you to pay attention to this bow/flower instead of my kid's face" I like small bows, but now that Anna is older, it's hard to keep anything in her hair for more than 10 minutes. If she doesn't know it's there, we're good, but as soon as she signs 'horse' she finds it and it's all over! She may end up with a daddy haircut ;) until then, I've made a few (60+/-)bows (small, cute, understated).


the box


Eating with a spoon all by herself.






oh boy


it gets worse!


daily coloring!


Daddy hooked up a 'winch' to our jeep so we no longer have to push. Anna can peddle with her feet, but not up and down the hill. We've also taken the jeep on a few walks!


Still a little big, but it was a steal of a deal!


fun for her, not for your back!


some things never change - proof it's inherited and starts at birth


Go zebra go!

mooooore teeth

Yesterday I got a glimpse into Anna's mouth and notice she has several molars that have come through! All I have to say is it's ABOUT TIME! SO SICK OF TEETHING!

New words: Car (signing and speaking) and dog (signing) she learned it from Baby Signing Time, we didn't teach it to her since she speaks dog. She also signs Milk for Milk instead of Want

Great article for new BFing moms!

If you know someone with a new baby, pass this along!
http://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/bfinfo/control.html

Anna's newest word: Book and she learned the signs for Cat and Horse yesterday. It helps that we have many many horses next door!

Anna update ...pics to come later

We had a wonderful last minute/surprise visit to Virginia for Easter. It was one of those "I'm going to America...tomorrow" kind of trips. There were several reasons of course, but there also happened to be a soldier in Brian's company who needed his dress blues to be in America the next day and that kind of sealed the deal for the trip. I was glad to help Josh out, see family and the Easter bunny of course.

During our stay with my sister Anna's vocabulary doubled! Ahhh the joys of a speech therapist! We had been working on several signs with her: please, thank you, cracker, love. When she wants something she points to it and signs milk, which is OK, since she and I both know what she wants, which is the whole point of signing at this age. She really nailed them down within 24 hours of being in Virginia. Jenni also taught her to sign sorry She also nailed down a few spoken words: duck, door, more, up. I was just amazed at how quick Jenni could get her to mimic any sound she made. Jenni feel free to comment if I forgot words.

She has also learned to blow kisses, snap her fingers and in the last few days...jump!

edit: I forgot to add she signs potty and wash hands (as she reminded me today!)

Happy Mother's Day to all!

Antibes, France July 2010

Bundle Me Toddler

You may remember I added the bundle me to my 'favorite things' list. Sadly Anna outgrew the bundle me very early this past winter. :( We were still able to use the bottom in the stroller and put a blanket over her. Low and behold with a little Amazon searching one night I found out there is a TODDLER SIZE bundle me! and it was on SALE! It arrived in the mail today and I'm sooo excited! We've had some chilly weather the past faw days with lots of wind. Wind makes it hard to keep a blanket on Anna. The Germans have some VERY nice buntings that are very similar to this one, but in dollars with free shipping is nice too ;) I'll get some photos during our walk today.

Cheerios ...do a body good

Anna's new ride!!

Mom, stop taking photos and push!!!



Druuuum roooooll ...the new bundle me!!






vs the old bundle me