Snow Baby!

Daddy and baby are bundled.

Daddy, Momma, and Baby

wander outside to see the snow.

Baby sat in the snow.

She touched the snow.

She cried, "Get me out of the snow!"

I think snow would have been more enjoyable for this snow baby

if snow wasn't so cold!

It's Official!

"Dada" is Anna-Kate's first word. Last night before bed AK repeated after us to say "dada." This morning I wanted to confirm that she knows what she is saying. I asked her, "where's dada?" We were in the living room and Will was in the kitchen. I asked the question, and she immediately turned her head to look at Will. When we sat on the couch to eat our breakfast, Anna-Kate said, "dada!"

Anna-Kate better ask for the pony now because her daddy is crazy about her!

8 months

It is time for the 8th month update. Will and I are more enrapt everyday. Will l.o.v.e.s that Anna-Kate will mimic him. He absolutely can not get enough of it. You know Anna-Kate now shakes her head "no" and blows raspberries and smacks her lips. Here is a little bit more about our angel (ha ha):

Mobility: not interested! Well, I think she is in that frustrated-I-can't-reach-what-I-want fussy stage. Maybe interest in mobility will follow. For now, I enjoy my still baby. ;) She will tolerate tummy time for longer and raises to a push up position.

Language: she will sign milk and at times wave "hey." Her "da-da-da-da" sound is totally clear and at times appropriate, but I won't claim that yet. I also thought she said a syllable that sounded like "dog" (the "g" was silent). I will wait to claim that one as well.

New Love: DOGS! Oh my gosh! She smiles at MK's dog every morning. When their dog comes in after being out, the dog licks AK on the face and she grins so big! At the grandparents', their dog jumped on AK and she laughed! Her second favorite is her rubber ducky, quack quack.

Favorite Toy: a book!! I bought two new books for our trip. One is a cloth taggie book. It has an animal on each page. After she looks at each animal, she chews on the tags. The other book is plastic, and has a place for pictures. I put pictures of our family in each slot. She can look at that for 15 minutes! Chewing on it in between studying the pictures of course.

Food: She is eating lots of things now: pears, apples, mangoes, bananas, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, asparagus, green beans, sweet peas (didn't like those), carrots, chicken and turkey (don't make the meat myself). Next goal - eating things that are not perfectly pureed.

Do you have to have a kid for these details to be interesting?

Together Again

After a week apart, Mary-Knowles and Anna-Kate were excited to be back together. I love watching their friendship devlop. For an outing that day, I took the girls to a play date at Mary-Knowles's church. We were definitely the youngest there. Because of that, it took MK a few minutes to decide she was going to crawl around.
Her first destination: the car seat. That is one of her favorite toys!

I pulled her back to the carpeted area and she soon discovered some new fun things to do.

When we are anywhere, Anna-Kate will find anyone under the age of 13 and watch them fascinated. I was amazed. AK stayed on her tummy watching the 2-4 year olds playing for more than 15 minutes.
Mary-Knowles made friends with this brother and sister. The little boy in particular was quite taken with her. They were pretending they had a store in there. I guess MK had some shopping to do!

MK and AK took a break from their new friends to come back together again. I wonder if they were comparing notes while sitting there.

This is probably my favorite picture. The blond girl (with the awesome pink cowboy boots) enjoyed looking at the babies. She informed me that she could hold the babies. When she held AK, the little boy decided he needed to hold MK. Unfortunately for him, MK wanted to play, not sit still.

Learning From Daddy

A day or two before we left for TN, I came downstairs to find Will teaching Anna-Kate how to shake her head no. It was really cute. She had to think really hard about it. While we were in TN, she mastered the skill of saying, "no." It was endless fun for the family watching her do this. Many times we asked her questions and she would answer "no." Like, "Do you want Opa to sing you a song?" A random woman in a restaurant said to her, "you are so cute. Do you want to come home with me?" Anna-Kate responded, "no."

When Will realized how great she could do this trick that he taught her, he began to teach her 2 other new tricks: to smack her lips and to ... I don't know what to call the other thing.

Look for pictures of our trip soon!

Until Next Time

Here are a few images from last weekend mostly. I love this picture of my family!

Admittedly I have been playing around taking pictures of Anna-Kate to submit to Regis and Kelly's Beautiful Baby Contest. What's the harm right?

I'll let you know if we win. ha ha ha

We can not get enough of Anna-Kate when she wears this outfit, especially with this hat! How cute is she!

I'll end with my two favorite people.

Most Memorable 13ths

What better day than today to indulge in some memories of ...

....ME!


Here are some of the most memorable January 13ths ever:

- My mom would say Jan 13, 1982. It snowed 11 inches in Salisbury, NC, and my mom and dad met their oldest daughter!


- Jan 13, 1993 my mom and I went together to get our ears pierced.


- Jan 13, 1995. I turned 13 on Friday the 13th, and it happened to be the only day in my growing up that I was grounded.


- Jan 13, 1999. I was thrown my first surprise party. Thanks high school girls!


- Jan 13, 2000. The local gospel quartet (4 guys that were in school at GWU) showed up at my house carrying long stem roses singing me Happy Birthday!


- Jan 13, 2003. I turned 21. My college roommate, sister, and a few others blew up 147 balloons (3 popped) in order to fill my dorm room. I walked in to a room FULL of balloons. Then had to pop them in order to get the notes that my friends, family, teachers, boss had written to me. Definitely one of my most memorable.


- Jan 13, 2004. When blowing out my candles, my hair caught on fire!! To make the story more interesting, I was also holding a 3 month old baby at the time.


- Jan 13, 2006. My roommate and boyfriend (eventual husband wink wink) schemed together to get me tickets to the circus for the first time!

- Jan 13, 2008. I came home from work to find a bundle of wood on the hearth of my apt with a schedule of events for the evening: dinner at Angus Barn, open gift, becca chooses movie to watch in front of fire in our fireplace.

- Jan 13, 2010. On the Friday before my birthday, I had a stomach virus. On Saturday my parents met me at a steakhouse, which I could almost none of because of the virus the day before. Before we can order, the waitress pours a glass of water on my lap. I watch my family enjoy steaks while I enjoy ice water from hip to knee. My sweet husband to make up for it is going to take me out for a steak tonight and has promised a true date night after we get back from a trip we are taking next week. This is the first birthday with a child, so it was meant to be memorable!

An Angel and A Confession

When you look at your child sleep, do you think there must be angels among us? She looks so innocent and peaceful.

True confession: Anna-Kate normally sleeps in a pack-n-play at Mary-Knowles's house, not on the floor. I had put it away before the break to get it out of their hair for the weeks we wouldn't be there. On Monday, I went to put it back up for AK. After fighting with it for more than 10 minutes, I surrendered. Yes, the pack-n-play beat me. My child slept on the mat with a blanket over it instead.

Let's Eat!

Our January resolution...
This week for the first time I have tried feeding the girls at the same time. The goal is to work on: the socialization of meals (this was breakfast), flexibility of when we eat so we can accommodate playdates and etc., and, most of all, work on patience. The first two goals were okay with the girls. Patience, however, will again be the lesson for next week.

Don't Leave!

This was Mary-Knowles and Anna-Kate our last day before the Christmas break. I was impressed that Anna-Kate let Mary-Knowles crawl on her like that. She never cried. ;)