Halloween 2012

Halloween 2012

Yesterday, the kiddos celebrated Halloween 2012 with some costume and trick-or-treating fun. Despite insisting on being a firefighter again for the the past six months or so, the day before Halloween James changed his mind and decided to be Thomas the Tank Engine. When presented with her choice of either a bee or a pumpkin, Anna chose pumpkin without hesitation! They had lots of fun galavanting around the neighborhood with their good friends Fred-Bear and Rayosaurus. While James' favorite aspect of the evening was probably stuffing his face with candy, Anna seemed to enjoy the act of acquiring the candy, putting in her bag, and carrying her bag perhaps even more than consuming her treats.

There are a few photos of Anna playing in a leaf pile last week here as well. Notice how cute her turtle sweatshirt is, thanks to Great-Grandma Nina! Also, notice Anna's "pouty face" on the couch. This is one of her favorite postures lately. Fortunately, her cuteness comes through more than her grumpiness.

Our big girl!

I write this post with great fatherly pride. Anna's vocabulary has just exploded of late, but this past week she demonstrated her new verbal skills with what might be two of the most important nouns she'll be using in the coming decades. You guessed it -- Anna learned both "hobo" and "robot". She'll do alright. While she might be developing a reputation as a bit of a toughie, Anna showed some tenderness with her snake this morning. The photos came out a bit blurry, but there's no blurring this girl's cuteness.

Anna loves a snake

Ear Tube Success

We are happy to say that Anna's ear tube insertion operation went flawlessly this morning. After 9 ear infections in about 10 months, and the concomitant antibiotic doses, we decided this would be the best course of action for our little sweetie. In addition, the doctor told us that she had a lot of fluid built up behind both ear drums, which had been limiting her hearing. Now she's resting with her mama, sleeping off the anesthesia. By this afternoon, she'll be running around with (or from) her brother!

Just Another Summer Day

Here are some photos of Anna (and her brother) riding the High Trestle Trail, swimming at the pool, and being very tired afterward...

Just Another Summer Day

See more about the High Trestle Trail here:
http://www.americantrails.org/resources/structures/High-Trestle-Bridge-Iowa.html

Words, Words, Words

Eric and I were discussing Anna's blooming language and recalled that when James was about this age we made a list of all the words he knew - we'll have to try to find it.  I thought it would be good to put this down for Anna as well.  I'll try to list them more or less in the order she's said them.

Dog (usually said, "dg, dg")
Ball
Bubble (said, "bub-ba")
Done
Down (as in "sit down so we can read a book")
Hi
Bye bye
Banana (she does a really cute version of the sign for banana when she says it)
Vagina (said, "gina")
Momma (yes...she said vagina before momma)
Dada
Book
Bug
Bird
Hat
Hop
More
Shovel
Apple
Up/Down
We'll add more as we remember them or as she begins to say them.

6/20/12
James
Up (when she wants to be picked up)

7/8/12
Baby
Flower
Water
Gentle

Smart Girl

I am constantly amazed at how smart Anna is.  Recently she demonstrated her extensive knowledge of language by doing animal sounds in response to "What does a...say?"  She can do maybe 10 or so different animals but my favorite is the penguin for which she does "waddle, waddle, waddle" while waddling to demonstrate. 

Her ability to mimic things she sees never ceases to amaze me.  Often it is something James has done, he is after all very interesting.  But just as often it is some small household task or a silly game we play, often after only seeing it one time. 

Tonight, while James and Eric were off camping, we had an ice cream treat after dinner.  When we finished I said, "Let's go inside and throw it away."  I was momentarily distracted putting something in the sink and I looked down to see Anna putting her spoon and the empty ice cream container in the dishwasher.  She then closed the dishwasher door and attempted to press the buttons to start the machine.

Brains and beauty...what a package.

The Cutest Girl

Ice cream brings out the cute in Anna:

From Cutest Girl

(Please excuse her brother's burping in the background.)

Also, we have some photos of the kids from their Mother's Day photo shoot:

James and Anna Mother's Day Photos 2012

Anna finds her belly!

Our little girl can do so much! She now has about ten words or so, including dog, mama, dada, done/down, ball, and "nana" (which means "I want that!"). She also clucks for a horse, moos for a cow, barks for a doggie, and makes funny monkey sounds. And Anna is learning her body parts:

From Anna finds her belly

Anna's Birthday Celebration

Last week, Anna's Grandma and Grandpa visited to help celebrate her first birthday! Grandpa took some great pictures throughout the week:

Grandpa's Photos

We had a lovely cook-out birthday party (it was over 80 degrees!) with our friends, jointly celebrating with Ray, who turned one the day after Anna. Anna had a great deal of help opening her presents and blowing out her candles. Notice the AMAZING doggie cake that Anna's mommy made for her! These pictures are fun because they capture the many moods of Anna -- when she was younger, we often commented on her "serious face," which she still shows occasionally. But more and more, it's just big smiles and goofiness.

The photos of James pushing her on the swing is something we've come to call "baby scrambles." I'll leave the details up to your imagination, but say that Anna absolutely loves it.

Anna's First Birthday!

It's hard to believe, but our little girl celebrated her first birthday this past week! We've had some summer-like weather roll through and were able to enjoy her day at the park and on the porch and tomorrow we'll have a cookout party to celebrate. Anna got to wear her very cute horsey birthday dress, enjoy some chocolate cake that her brother helped make, and do something James invented on the swing that we call "baby scrambles" (fortunately, before the cake).

There are some photos of our fun this week and more to come posted here:

Anna's First Birthday

And some video of a new toy from Uncle Billy & Auntie Shay:

From Anna's Birthday Videos

And some help opening presents:

From Anna's Birthday Videos

And a girl with her birthday cake:

From Anna's Birthday Videos

And, of course, baby scrambles:

From Anna's Birthday Videos

We noticed that James took great joy in this same swing on his first birthday, which seems like forever ago:

From Anna's Birthday Videos

At long last -- Anna's bedroom!

Not only is our little girl walking, but perhaps even more exciting is the fact that she is now sleeping all night in her crib! Since she is now in her bedroom full-time, we thought we should finally show off what her room looks like thanks to the hard work and generosity of various members of our family, especially her Pappa who spent the last few days of his visit here this summer submersed in yellow paint...it's a lovely room for a lovely little girl!

Anna's Room

Anna walks!

It's hard to believe that our little girl is almost 11 months old! She is doing so much by herself and recently started taking a few tentative steps. Today, she showed off her walking skills! Soon she'll be running around after her brother (either in play or revenge).

Anna Walks!

Cute Pictures...

There are stories behind these, but for now we'll leave that to your imagination...

12.01.16 -- More Photos of Cute Kids