Annie-14 months!

I'm so behind! Sheesh! I had this written much closer to the time Annie was actually turning 14 months, but I was waiting to get better pictures of her. I see now that this is not happening, so I am just gonna post what I have. Hopefully I can get some better shots next month when I have my real camera charged and ready to go.These are from a couple of different tries....:/

Our sweet, sassy girl is 14 months old! She is really coming into her own and becoming quite independent. She is changing everyday! Below are a few highlights about her.

-Annie is full on "knee crawling" now. She's learning to book-it, too! She seems to enjoy being able to explore more now and is into the cabinets and toys like I knew she would be. She often talks and yells as she crawls, then she will come up on her knees to look around and talk some more and wave her hands around, then will be on her way to wherever her goal was.
-She has gotten FOUR teeth this month, and they have been doozies! They make her have all the classic symptoms-drooling, light fever, runny nose, and even loose diapers. She had a couple of rough days this past month-days where I thought she'd totally had a personality change, especially around the 4th of July-but it would always turn out to be another tooth, poor baby.  I know they must hurt coming in. She's also started grinding her teeth, and it makes us cringe! I think she's just feeling things out, but still, I wish she wouldn't!
-She is so responsive to our questions. She always nods her head-usually yes, but sometimes no-even if she doesn't understand what we are asking.
-Some of her favorite toys currently are the tunnel and picnic basket she got for her first birthday. She also loves the magnets on the fridge. She likes Henry's trains and will have one in her hand as she crawls around, making a clunking noise:) She will sit up, try to put it on its wheels, and drive it back and forth on the ground. I don't even remember Henry doing that at her age! She still adores books and will sit and just look and look at them.
-Something else I've been noticing about her "play" is that she loves to put things away. She will put all of her play food in the basket, put all of the little soft animals in the little velcro ark we have, will put magnets in a ziplock bag, will put her blueberries (or whatever snack) in the cup holder of her highchair tray. She gets so happy and proud when she does this. I remember Henry dumping stuff out for forever, but putting it all away seemed to come way later. She seems to be doing this earlier than him, and the dumping out phase is not nearly as dominant as it was with him!
-She's learned the sign for drink (or milk-I'm not sure exactly which one it is). She is a much thirstier kid than her brother every was, so we were getting a lot of screaming at mealtime between bites. Finally I realized she was was begging for her sippy! SO, we taught the sign which has cut down on some demands!:) Often after she takes a drink she will say a big, "Ahhh!" in satisfaction.
-She loves Facetime and knows the ring. As soon as she hears it she starts squealing and "talking" (another new thing this month where she jabbers and jabbers and carries on a whole big conversation with us). During Face time, she will wave and say "hi!!", try to kiss the person on the other end of the phone, say and waves "bye bye!" at the end of the conversation. She certainly knows cousin Kaia (because she spent some time here in May), so she squeals and laughs when she sees that big cuz.
-She has really started loving swimming even more, if you can believe it! She will sit on the steps and splash, splash, splash! Then she will lunge forward for one of us to get her, but we let her go under the water first and she holds her breath and comes up ready to do it again! She also has swimming "posture" now and wants to be on her belly kicking her legs and splashing her arms. We both feel like if we would let her go, she could almost swim on her own it's that good! I just barely hold her chest with my hand and that is all she needs. She sits on the side and will put up her pointer finger and try to say "one, two, three, jump!" with us, then she falls into the water for us to catch her. She is also really good at relaxing on her back for a second, then she wants to play in that position and will kick and splash with her arms. She is definitely comfortable in the water.
-If Annie hears us whisper, she starts to do the same with her jibber jabbering and it is so, so cute.
-She loves to sit beside us up on the sofa. She acts like such a big girl. When we put her down she throws a fit and wants back up!
-She loves her babysitters Jasper and Lily. She knows them and goes to them! She has done so much better in nursery this month, and I am so thankful!!
-There's much, much more, but I hope that hits the highlights and helps us remember this sweet phase of being 14 months.We love you sweet Annie, more than you know!

Looking outside the window was much more interesting than Mommy's camera.

This one is not from the same set, but I wanted to include it anyway because, well, she's technically in her pjs like the others, but it also shows her mop of hair that is constantly in her face and also her sweet morning smile. She's such a happy girl in the morning.

Photo try #2...wet hair this time?!

Annie-13 months!

I can't believe I am already writing this post...this past month has flown by. I guess because we are into full blown summer. Anyway, this month has been Annie's biggest month of change yet. She has developed so much over this past month that it is hard to keep track of all of the new things she's been doing! I will do my best to document some of it here.

-She's officially an army crawler! On 6/12 we saw true crawling where she was moving forward and lifting up her knees, but since then she has chosen to get around primarily using her arms and pulling herself. We could tell she was getting close while were were in Iowa, and when we returned she really took off. I am still not used to it and have to do double takes when I set her somewhere and a few minutes look over and she is not there! She is always babbling, clicking, or squealing/talking while she pulls herself along, so it is entertaining to watch. She's making lots of new discoveries now that she is  more mobile (kitchen cabinets, under the bathroom sink, the AC vent returns, cords, things like that)...
-She has 3 very deliberate signs-more, all done, and please (a new one this month). Those three come in handy quite often!

-When asked how old she is, Annie will hold up one pointer finger! She also gives high fives.
-Right around her first birthday, she started pointing and "grunting" to get to something or someone she wanted. She has a certain sound she makes and she's pretty persistent with it, too. It's an "uhhh-uhh-uhh!" while pointing as in "I want that!" and "Take me there! And be quick about it!".
-With all her grunting, she is also pretty verbal for a 1 yr old I think. She can say mama, dada, bubba, dog, nana (for banana), uh-oh, hi, bye, no (nononono), ball (bah), awe, eyes, nose...when she fusses to be held, I ask her to say "up" and she gets close with her own version which is "bup". We were at Lowe Mill one night sitting on a blanket outside and she saw the moon on her own and pointed to it (and grunted, like I could give her the moon of course) . I started saying moon to her and she would try to say it back with "mmmm!!" A long time later when Steven was around (so he could see) I asked her, "Where's the moon?" and she searched up in the sky til she found it and pointed and said "mmm!" with a big grin! So smart!:) The main word she is into right now is thank you! and she says it ALL the time. It amazes me that she knows when to say it-she's appropriate with it the majority of the time! She also says it when she is giving something to someone else, too, though, and will do this over and over and over. Sometimes I think I also hear her saying something like "here you go", but I can't be sure. Anyway, the "thank you" thing is pretty cute and sweet if I do say so myself. She nods her head yes now, and when I ask her a question like, "Do you want to eat?" she will nod her head yes in response. 

-She knows 3 animal sounds, and when we ask her she can tell us what the duck, dog, and sheep "say".
-Some of her favorite things are to swim & take baths-the girl can do some serious splashing. We think it is funny that after all the wildness in the pool, if we lay her on her back in float position, she gets so calm and still that you'd think she was going to fall asleep! This reminds us of Fern our bunny...when we would lay him on his back in ouur arms he would get so calm and still, too! Weird!  She loves to ride in her little push car on walks, swing, crawl thru her play tunnel, and look thru books. I can leave her in her bedroom in front of her bookshelf, and she will pull the books off the shelf and look through them for the longest time. It is the sweetest thing! I can see her looking at the pictures & working on turning the pages. She gets into the zone. She also loves music and will dance and dance when it comes on. She especially loves the Annie soundtrack and when the first song comes on she just starts to groove in her car seat in recognition. It is the cutest thing.

 
-Two days after her first bday she started pulling up and did so on the crib, the brick hearth, and on me. She's doing more and more of this, but she's still not super busy in this area yet. The morning of her 1 yr check-up she pulled up to her feet in the bathtub. Just this month she's started sitting up in her crib when she's not sleeping...I don't think it ever dawned on her before! She started in Iowa and now it's a regular thing. We've lowered her crib because of this.
-She is pretty opinionated and can throw some fits now. She does what we call the "straight baby fit" where she makes her body rigid and straight and cries in protest. She will also throw herself back sometimes which makes me nervous! She can also do a pretty good "limp" crying protest where she melts on the floor and makes it hard for us to pick her up. She is doing better in nursery, but still cries when I drop her off and then again when we pick her up she breaks down crying. She has struggled with the drop off time this week at VBS and begins crying when I go to the computer to check her in. :( Surly she'll get over this.
-Since last week was VBS and naps are hard to come by there, I decided to start dropping her morning nap. I remember starting this with Henry at 15 months, so she is not that much earlier, and she doesn't seem to need it as badly as he did, either. I knew she would need to be doing this soon anyway since I will be going back to teaching in the fall, so I wanted to get started. She's done surprisingly well. Usually she will fall asleep on the way home, though, for a few minutes and then I will lay her back down for a big nap (3 or so hrs) at home. She is doing super at night and sleeps a good 11-12 hours. She only gets paci at nap and night (and when sad in nursery!). She doesn't seem to miss it otherwise.

-She's a friendly girl and waves at everyone all the time. She also waves and says bye when we are exiting one room and going into the next and certainly when we leave somewhere for real. She picks up on those ques pretty quickly!
-Tooth #7 came in this month.
-She's getting SO blonde and her cheeks are so rosy all the time. I think she looks sunburned, but isn't. People always comment on her blonde hair and big blue eyes. Most people say she looks like her mama, and some say she looks a lot like her bubba. Steven has said from early on he thinks she looks like me and can see resemblances in my baby pictures, but I have a hard time seeing it myself and my mom doesn't really think so either. I think it is so interesting what people's thoughts are on both kids' looks.
-She's interacting more and more and will point to our eyes and say "eyes" and same with nose. She will also put her finger to her lips and say "shhhhh!" which is, oh, so precious. When I ask her to blow, she will blow air out of her nose. She is so proud and will help me blow her nose into a tissue, too.
-She is fully weaned! This is bitter sweet for me, but she has done great with it. I think I nursed her for the last time on 6/16. She hasn't loved milk, so it has been a little bit of a task to get her adjusted to that, but she has improved, and she guzzles water anytime. She drinks more than Henry did for sure. She has eaten her weight in blueberries this month since we went and picked them. She can down them. And she LOVES bananas! I give her one every morning and she is SO, SO excited about it each time. When she sees me getting it, she lovingly says "nana! nana!" and dances in my arms over it. When we were out of town for a week she didn't get one everyday like normal. Toward the end of the trip we ran into the grocery, and when she saw their big pile of bananas she went berserk! At first she started her usual happy response, but when she couldn't eat it right away, she got so upset and cried and threw fits. We had to let her start eating one as soon as we paid for it and she was basically done by the time we had got to the car! I guess she had gone through banana withdrawal! Steven thought it was funny one night when we were grilling squash on the grill and she looked and it and pointed and lovingly said, "nana!" If only we were that excited over such a food!:) She eats pretty much everything we do now, and I've tried peanut butter and eggs this month and she luckily had no reactions. Yay! She loves cheese and eats frozen peas just like her brother did, too.

-What a blessing you are to us, little Annie. You enrich our lives and make us thankful. We praise God for you each day. He knew what we needed before we even asked.

Annie-12 months old!

Annie turned one on May 26th. We had celebrated with family and friends at her party over the weekend. On her actual birthday, we celebrated by dinner, ice cream, and a visit to the park as a family. On 6/2 she had her 1 year check up and did great. Her doctor was not concerned she was not crawling, but said she should be pulling up to the standing position (which she had done just that morning for the first time!). She weighs 19lb 13oz (25%), is 29 1/2 inches long (60%), and her head circumference is 44cm (25%). She's growing great! These pictures are from 2 different times...I needed to get one prior to her party and I think her eyes were red from just having swam and then napped, then I took some others on her actual bday. I think the difference in her looks is kinda interesting. 

-She's a little lover and when we say "awe" or "give me hugs", she will lay her head down on us and usually makes the "awe" sound, too.
-Steven was out of town for a week in May for work, and when he got back, she was so excited. She was fussing and nearly jumping out of my arms to get to him. Once he held her she kept staring at him, and when he tried to set her down or give her to me (which she usually loves), she broke down crying! This happened several times, and we got the biggest kick out of it. Steven ate it up, of course.
-She's sleeping great now. She takes a big morning and afternoon nap (around 9:30 and around 2:00), but she can also function fairly well without a morning nap. I've been trying really hard to let her get that morning nap in, because I know it is important to establish her routines if I can. She sleeps through the night no problem. She goes to bed at 7:30 and wakes up at about 6:00. This is my one complaint about her sleep...I wish she would sleep a little later in the mornings, but oh well! I usually feed her and lay her down to play/roll around in her bed until Henry wakes up (7ish). She sleeps with her bottom in the air, and it's cute!

 -5/21 She started nodding her head "yes". It is very exaggerated and cute.
-Right around her birthday she started pointing. She points at everything!
-She eats just about anything! I love this about Annie-it is just so different than what I am accustomed to! She feeds herself, too, and does not seem to mind getting a little dirty-another new phenomena for me:). She loves all fruit and most veggies I've offered her (rejected fresh tomatoes). She eats meat (chicken, ground beef, ham/turkey, etc), bread, and loves cheese. She eats any little snacky thing I've offered her like crackers, cheerios, dried fruit, and loves fruit and veggie melts. She hasn't loved yogurt as much her brother did. She will accept about half a container of it, then she's done. She doesn't seem to have the strong preference for sweet things like her brother, either.:)

-She loves music and when certain songs come on in the car (esp the Annie soundtrack), she starts to groove! She waves her hands all around, wiggles her bootie, and squeals! It is amazing what she is recognizing these days. She loves any music, but you can tell when it's a tune she's heard before-she really lets us know!

-She can blow her nose! I can demonstrate it, then she does it, then I can tell her to blow into a tissue and she will. It's actually a pretty convenient trick!

-She imitates any sound we make. She clicks her tongue, makes the "shhh" sound, makes a pop sound with her lips, blows air between her lips to make all kinds of sounds. She's quite entertaining!

-As you can see she has busy hands and could not leave her sticker alone...she's all over the place and lots of fun!

-She's proven to be quite a mama's girl this month and often begs for me when she is in the arms of someone else. It is kind of annoying and kind of sweet, too. I try to remind myself it is just a phase and to enjoy it.

-There is so much  more. She is changing every day. I have waited too long to do this post and now month 13 and 12 are blurring together!

-We love you more than you know, little girl, and think you are so much fun! The first year of your life has gone by so quickly that it makes me sad, but I will just focus on the fun part of it and do my best to look forward to this next year in your life. You are really going to come into your own, and I can't wait! You are wonderful, my little love!

Annie's **1st** Birthday Party

 

We had so much fun on Saturday the 23rd celebrating our sweet Annie turning ONE!! It is hard to believe she is a year old!! This past year has been so much fun, and we loved commemorating this special day with an ice cream party! Luckily it was a sunny, warm day so people could also take advantage of the pool! The invite said, "A little ice cream and a lot of fun, our sweet Annie is turning ONE!"...with all the details below.

The party girl!

Guests entered the fence straight into the pool area. I wanted to make it obvious where they should go, so we put out these signs. I was so excited to find the little metal ice cream "hand dipped" sign to hang in addition to the chalkboard and wooden signs.

I asked Steven to do this for me, and he did not disappoint! His handwriting and (artistic ability for that matter) are so much better than mine!

This sign is a re-vamp from Henry's 2nd bday party. I was going to get rid of it, but decided to reuse instead! "Annie is one. Let's celebrate!" is the current declaration!

Mama and Dada with the sweet bday girl!

We set up 2 tables on the deck. This one held the smash cake and regular cake (which we brought out later-didn't want it to melt!). I was so excited when it dawned on me that I could use the pre existing hanging window frames to display Annie's 12 month pictures. I made a "Sweet Annie" banner to hang above. I was SO pleased with how this turned out!

The other table held all the food (hot dogs/brats,baked beans, pasta salad, and strawberry feta green salad). I made the ice cream cone garland that hung above it. It was actually quite easy, too, and cheap! Someone had given be a bunch of yarn, so I made a bunch of balls and hot glued cones to them and a cherry pom-pom on top, then strung them on yarn. I really didn't want to hand write Annie's info board (my handwriting issue again...), so when I saw a computer version at another party we went to recently, I got the info from my friend and decided to try it out. It took some time, but this non-technical person was actually able to figure it out! The most difficult part was getting it printed. It had to be smaller than I had wanted due to some technical issues, but I just mounted it on some poster board and it seemed to be fine still. And...it cost me 43 cents!:)

We played pin the cherry on the ice cream cone!

I set out bubbles to play with on this table. Cousin Kaia decorated the little chalkboard sign for me (which I found at the Target $1 section for $3!). I thought it was so cute!

Annie's 2 grandmas enjoyed the shade!

The pool was calling our names!

I made these nutter butter treats for the sweets table. They were SO, SO easy!

Aunt Mae made Annie's smash cake. It was adorable!! Just what I wanted, and of course she pulled it off.

And here is the other "cake"...again Aunt Mae did a perfect job decorating the cupcakes. I was so pleased with how these turned out!

The birthday girl! I attempted this party hat for her, but it was a little heavy and kept sliding off! We got a few pics in it at least!

The 5 cousins!

Lilianna and Annie are less than 3 wks apart. I'm glad her little buddy was able to come!

I handed Annie to Grandpa a little too soon. She was unsure of him and broke down crying pretty quickly, then had trouble recovering and only wanted me for a while afterward! Sigh! It's so funny because she always reacts like this to him, and he's such a friendly, kid loving guy! Sorry grandpa. We will keep trying!

More guests! Ezra and Annie are also just about 3 wks apart, and we loved having another baby friend around to help us celebrate!

Months 1-6

Month 7-12

Dada, Grandpa, and Uncle Jimmy (whose beard Annie loved to pull all wknd btw!)

Grandma and Aunt Mae

Manar splashing with Annie

The McInnis family was also there. Georgia was warming up on the hammock after a dip!

The grandmas giving the birthday girl some attention!

More decor...I hung yarn ice cream cones from the umbrellas, too!

Annie kept looking at the hanging ice cream cones and reaching for them. She has just started pointing, so she would point and fuss to get to them! It made me happy she noticed them:)

I wanted to snap a picture of all the ice cream toppings before taking them out to be devoured!

Here we are pre-cake. As you can see she did not appreciate her hat:)

We sang to Annie and she kept reaching for her candle. Then she pulled the cone off and threw it on the floor. We picked it back up and put it on again, and she promptly threw it off again, this time breaking it:) She touched the frosting a little, then I put some in her mouth and she ate it, but wasn't crazy about it.

Here she is checking it out a little more.

After a few minutes of trying to get her to eat cake, Grandpa tried to give Annie her very first bite of ice cream. She was not too pleased about it and started crying. Oh, well! I have no doubt she will learn to love it.

After I fed her a little, then brother wanted to get in on it. She at a bite from him, too.

Henry was happy that he FINALLY was getting to eat some of the cake he helped make the day before!

As you can see he thoroughly enjoyed cake and ice cream time!

Three generations represented here!

My folks with the bday girl (who was starting to get tired of being passed around... ). I'm so glad they were part of Annie's special day!

Here are the kids at the part (minus Lilianna who had just left). Ezra, Annie, Kaia, Henry, Georgia, Marley, Camden, and Layna

Annie "hitting" her pinata! We went from youngest to oldest, she she was first up. Kaia was the one who finally broke it open (second to oldest represented!)

Mommy and Aunt Mae with the birthday girl!

We also played pin the cherry on the ice cream cone!

Henry got pretty close with his!

She loved playing with the pom poms!

Annie...with a cherry on top!

Annie actually seemed to really enjoy opening her little gifts and played happily with each one! She doesn't really have many things that are "hers", so it was fun to get some gifts just for baby girl!:)

I scream, you scream! We all scream for ice cream!!!

Here are the party favors we sent with guests.  Each little bag had ice cream bubbles, an ice cream post-it matchbook/notebook, a mini-pen, and smarties. We sealed the cute little bags up with gold washi tape, and voila! Thank you everyone for helping us celebrate this special day!! We had so much fun! Annie's actual bday is the 26th, and her check up is the week following, so stay tuned for her 12 month post after that!