More added...look below!

Annabel's "real" birthday was last week. We celebrated by playing at the park and I made a yellow cake with chocolate frosting (daddy's favorite!). Though we didn't get to spend the whole day together, it was really special and fun. 

So, now that Annabel's 1, I need to stop using the excuse of "having a baby." - i.e. "It's okay to be 20 minutes late to work, I have a baby!" or, "Oh, man, I didn't do my homework...but I have a baby!" or..."How did the cat end up in the dishwasher? Oh well, I have a baby!" Now I have a kid...and lots of people have kids, and somehow manage. Its been nice having a year-long respite from sanity, but its time to get on the ball!

 

  

This weekend we had the chance to visit with my parents, as well as help my dad campaign for Commissioner!

 

 

 Hittin' the Campaign Trail! Watch out Barack!

And later that day....

 First Kiss! Ahhhh....

 "That's enough!"

Later this week, Annabel had her one-year well baby visit. She received all her immunizations, as well as a finger prick! I was surprised at how brave she was- very little crying or squirming. She weighed 21.8# (65% - I think...recalling from memory...) and 29" tall! (77%?). She continues to have fluid on her ears, so we're starting the third round of antibiotics. She absolutely HATES taking this. However, after demonstrating how her monkey puppet loves to take it, she will give it to herself! It's so cute! She also has to stay on her nebulizer once a day through the winter, which is such a pain in the butt. This has been made a little easier by video time in the evenings....turns out she has a about a 3-minute attention span when watching veggietales, which is just about enough time to finish the medicine!

On a last note, Annabel has been using sign language more and more. She knows "eat," "all done," and "milk." She's so smart! What a cutie!

Happy Birthday, Punkin!

Annabel, it has been so much fun watching you grow through the months, and we love you so much!

As a newborn...

One month

Two,

Three months,

four,

Five months...

Six...

Seven months old in April...

8 months loves to eat!!

Nine months!

10....

11 months and sooo big!

And today....

ONE YEAR OLD!!!

So....is she walking yet?

Ah, yes. The questions people ask to measure the developmental stage of my child. Besides the one in the post title, my other favorite is "is she sleeping through the night?" And the answer to both would be....no. Occasionally we get lucky and get a full 12 hours of sleep in (not us - her) but not usually. Last night she woke up around 2 or 3 to nurse (tried"cry-it-out" for 20 minutes, gave up) then again at 6 (this time CIO worked). Oh well. As for walking...she consistently takes 2-3 steps, but they are falling steps, not balanced steps, so I'm not counting them. 

However, I feel confident that she is smart, healthy, and age-appropriate!

This morning at breakfast she cracked me up. I mixed up some vanilla yogurt and banana for her (which I know she likes) and poured a bowl of Special K for myself. So she refuses to eat the yogurt, forcefully pushing the spoon away, and keeps gesturing to my bowl. I give her a "crunchy" (a cereal flake) and she loves it! So from that point on, in order to get her to eat the yogurt, I have to put a crunchy on top of the bite of yogurt so that she can see it before she will eat it! How funny is that!

Yesterday we had a play date with Nora. It was really fun. It was interesting to watch the girls, since they don't really play "together," but still aware of each other and what the other is doing. It's fun to see a hint of the personality that is ever emerging and developing. 

Another random thought - this week I received an advertisement in the mail for life insurance for children. Now, maybe I'm naive, but doesn't this seem a little grotesque? While I am aware that terrible things happen every day, I'm less than willing to believe that death could strike my own little family. Especially not to the point of purchasing life insurance on my child! It's not even an option. I don't know - does anyone else have strong feelings about this, positive or negative? Anyway, just a thought. 

Here are some pics from the past week:

Saying goodbye to grandma and grandpa

 She is fascinated with this huge jar! Right now she is going through a phase where she loves to "hide" things. In this picture she is trying to put her pacifier through the mouth of the jar:) Luckily she wasn't able to!

   This is Derek's attempt to put A in time-out. Pretty ineffective if you ask me! But soooo cute. 

 Rough night?

This is a game we (she) like(s) to play!

OK...A few more birthday pics

 Ice Cream Cake (not exactly what I wanted but still pretty)

 Regular Cake that my grandma made

 Bailey's pooped! Too much sugar for one day!

Daddy helps the birthday girl change clothes

"What is this stuff?"

Birthday Party!

Yesterday was the big day! We began the weekend early Friday, my mom and dad came and watched A while I cleaned and got ready. Saturday was a bit more hectic, and people started arriving around noon. There were a lot of people here! It really was a lot of fun. We had a puppet show, corn-hole tournaments, burgers on the grill and ice cream cake. A still isn't feeling too well (double ear infection, staff infection, cough, wheezing, congestion, etc) but she was a trooper and didn't even take an afternoon nap! She got to play with her cousins for most of the day, which I think was really fun for her. And I think she really enjoyed getting new toys and clothes! Her friend Joel helped her open presents!

 A new rocking chair! How cool!

 

 She was so pretty in her party dress

Cousins - already at 6 mo's Morganne is much smilier than our baby!

 A had so much fun with her cousin Abby

More pics to come! I'm too tired tonight to add anymore!

Just a note - I had a recent spook in blogging, and after some consideration about how public this site is, I have decided to no longer use our daughter's name. She will from here on out be referred to as "A" in my blog. You who know us and read this regularly know her name, and if you forget, email me! You just never know what creepazoids are out there...

There's a whole world under there....

Today while looking for a textbook under the couch I found a shoe, a favorite pacifier, a box of Golden Grahams (?!), my watch (been looking for that....), our electric bill and a few other odds and ends. But not my textbook. I found that on top of the tv. There really is no wonder we have mice.... 

Well that was easy...

Hours after setting mouse traps, we caught the rat bastard. (no pun intended). GROOOOOOSS!!! I had told Derek I would dispose of the little guy once caught, but turns out I couldn't. I'm a girl, afterall. 

I felt kind of sad actually. I wish we could have just caught him and let him go in a meadow somewhere.... 

Happy Labor Day!

Friday was my last day of work. So, to celebrate, we took A to the park. She absolutely loves the swings! She was shrieking and giggling and having so much fun. Who would have thought to put an 11-mo old in the swing. (Well, my mom that's who. She's the one who told me A liked it so much).

   

 I thought this last one was pretty funny. Her daddy gets the same look when he gets off a roller coaster....

After the playground, we walked to the video store to pick up a movie. While we were there, a little boy got his hand stuck in the gumball machine! I desperately wanted to take a picture, but I thought that may be a little uncouth. They finally called the fire dept, and in marched 5 of the city's finest with a bottle of Dawn. Of course, Derek and I had to "look for a movie" this whole time:)

I snapped this one as we were walking away:

 Hehe.

My brother has been here this week, and he came up to stay up with us for the weekend. It was sooo nice. We had a really good time. He and I stayed up till about 2am Saturday night, him playing the guitar and me working on some knitting. I wish I were able to see him more often. 

Today (Labor Day) we stayed around the house and set mouse traps. A has been standing up a lot more on her own lately! Today she stood for probably 30 seconds. We tried to get her to take a step, but she's still pretty nonchalant about it. She is apparently in no hurry to be walking. Which is fine with me. Tonight we went to a cookout, and now getting ready to settle down and watch the movie we rented 3 nights ago!

Happy Labor Day!

A Mouse in the House

EEEK! It's true....we have a furry friend taking up residence with us. And I am NOT happy about it. We have seen him three times this weekend and found "traces" of him today in the kitchen...Yuck! So today I bought some traps and put them around the house. Derek wanted to use the sticky traps, but I said no... because those are super-gross. I don't want to deal with a dying mouse for three days. I may want to kill the bastard, but I don't want him to suffer!