Anna ~ 8 Months

Slow down, baby girl!  You are growing up way too fast!  In the past month, Anna has gone from just rolling around everywhere and doing her favorite pose ALLLLLLL day....to crawling like a pro.



To the left...



...To the right!  I bet Anna has struck this post 1,000 times!

Here she is doing the pose again, but, *ahem* "somebody" jumped in the picture with his own insta-pose, ha!!

Then she did the army crawl everywhere for a week or two.  Somewhere in there, she learned to push herself up into the sitting position and now she can sit up so tall and strong all day without me worrying she'll fall over.

In a matter of days, she was then crawling like a pro and I can hardly keep up with her now!  Baby gates are going up this weekend! 

In her 7th month, we had a bit of sleep regression and now Anna's waking up to eat around 3:30 or 4 a.m. each night.  She's also napping exclusively in her swing because for some reason, her naps just fell apart and wouldn't last more than 20-30 minutes in the crib.  I thought maybe she was getting a tooth, possibly disrupting her sleep, but as far as I can tell, no chompers are coming through yet.

The more mobile she becomes, the more she chases her brother Ben.  She is absolutely crazy about him! Here's a game they play at night sometimes before bed:  Ben jumps off the chair, lands and rolls into a flip and runs over to kiss Anna.  Anna HEE HAWS :)  Now that I look at the picture below of Ben jumping, it is pretty funny!

Baseball season is upon us, and Anna has been to several games already.  She looks pretty pumped about it, huh?

Finally, we're still getting the hang of this eating business.  She's not that into eating the solids lately, and that means lots of spitting it out, grabbing the bowl and spoon, and rubbing the dirty face.  Unless it's bananas on the menu - this little girl will eat anything as long as I cover it up with bananas :)  So, she ends up looking like this a lot of the time!

Busy Ben

Little Man has been having a ball this spring.  He's got quite the social calendar....preschool, open gym playtime, time with Grandmama, the park, the track...I don't know how he fits it all in! :)

Playdates ~ here's Ben and Sophia "sittin' in a tree"....ha ha!!

Anna is FINALLY willing to take a bath without being held by Mommy!  Ben loves to "help" bathe her, and it's a great distraction for her since she adores him.

The school year is coming to a close and Ben had a great time performing in his preschool's Spring Program.

Hanging out with Little Sister.  He likes to say to her, "Open your mouth!" while demonstrating proper technique, to get her to take more bites...so sweet!

Finally, Ben is the proud new owner of a big boy bike!! 

 He scoots around on his bike, so proud!!  He asked me if Bunny could ride with him, so we tied him to the handle bars :)  You can't see it all in the photo, but Bunny's little shirt says, "Best Friends Indeed".  So SWEET, and so true.  I don't know what we'd do without Bunny ~ good thing we have two, ha!

Donuts with Dad

Another exciting day at school for Ben! Today was Donuts for Dad, and he has been talking about this for days. Ben asked me several times about the donuts and said he was going to eat a LOT. So, this morning I asked him of he was going to eat 20 (that's the highest number he counts to) and he said, "No, that would be yucky." When I asked how many he planned to eat, then, he said "19". Ha, ha!!! (For the record, Ben only ate 1 1/2 donuts...whew!)  Here they are...such a handsome pair. Ben's a lucky little boy to have such an awesome Daddy :)

Easter 2012

Our family had a wonderful Easter.  Of course, our baby girl's first Easter was a special occasion, and Ben was very "into" hunting for Easter eggs this year so that was lots of fun! 

Here are our sweet babies!

Ben had a ball hunting for eggs...we did have to fill them all with a treat, though.  The ones at school had candy in them, so that's all he talked about.  I didn't want to see what would happen if all those eggs were empty , so we put M&Ms, Skittles, and a little bit of money as the "treats" in them!

Anna spent most of her Easter napping...

...and relaxing with Grandmama.  It was a great day!

Sweet Sounds :)

Anna is just crazy about all her brothers!  The one that can really get her laughing, though, is Ben.  Whenever he's around, she's got her eyes fixed on him...grinning from ear to ear no matter what he's doing!  Lately, Ben has been such a sweet brother, giving her kisses and hugs, and singing to her when she's crying (always makes her smile!)  Here's a video of him making her laugh.  I could watch it a thousand times!! :)

Muffins with Mom

Our first of many Muffins with Mom at school today! It was tons of fun...Ben ate two sausage and egg muffins, Connery threw up, and then Ben poured orange juice all over his white shirt...HAHAHA!!!! Fun times for all! No, really, I loved it and Ben did, too :). He's already talking about Donuts with Dad next week!!

Anna ~ 6 months!

Time to celebrate Anna's "half birthday"!  (Well, the time was about a month ago, but better late than never on this blog, I guess!) My little baby seems to be growing right before my eyes these days :(  But each and every day is such a joy with her...she really is the BEST baby!  She's never in a sour mood, doesn't cry when it's time to eat or sleep (unless Mama is totally missing the other signs, ha ha!), and is generally smiling most of the time :)  Our little sweetie will eat whatever I feed her, even if she doesn't like it, and has never fussed that I know of over a dirty diaper. 

Anna's quite attached to Mama these days, and pretty much the only thing she'll whine or cry about is if someone's holding her and that someone is not me (ha ha!).  That's OK, though...we're getting tons of time together and I treasure every minute of it! 

This month, Anna sat up on her own!  I still don't feel comfortable leaving her to sit on her own without bonking over, but she's getting better and better each day.  She's especially good at sitting in her bouncey or Bumbo.

It seems like she's getting so big, but actually she just outgrew her 3-6 month clothes and it now in size 6 month and maybe a few bigger ones here and there.  At her six month check-up she weighed 14 pounds, 5 ounces...not quite double her birth weight.  She is tall, though - in the 85%-ile - so I guess she'll be a long, skinny girl! 

We're still nursing and doing really well, but Anna is trying more and more solid foods lately.  She likes peaches, ham and pineapple, and bananas the best; sweet potatoes and peas are not high on her favorites list.  I've been feeding her solids three times a day, and putting a scoop of formula in each meal to give her extra calories so she'll maybe sleep longer at night.  So far, it's working most of the time!  Most nights, Anna sleeps from about 8:00 to about 5:00 a.m. and if she does wake before then, it's only for a paci.  So, not too bad if you realize a month ago she was waking up 1-2 times each night to eat!  Whew!

Although it seems Anna is partial to Mama sometimes, she really does love Daddy-time, too :)  Here they are getting ready to go outside to play with Ben on one of the few chilly days we had last month.

She adores napping with Mark, too...anytime he sits down with her on the couch, they watch TV together for a few minutes and before you know it, she's OUT!

What a joy these past six months have been!  I can't tell you how many smiles Anna has blessed us with - both seeing them on her face and lighting up our faces, as well.  We love you, Anna Boo!

Playin' at the Park

The weather we have had the past two weeks has been HEAVEN!  It cooled down quite a bit over the weekend, so our warm spell might be over :(  So here are some sunny pictures to hold us 'til it warms up again!!  Two weekends ago, we had a fabulous afternoon at Winged Deer Park playing in the sunshine.  I think this is Ben's favorite park to go to...there's everything from rock climbing to slides and swings to throwing rocks in the water at the boat ramp ~ a little boy's dream!!

Anna had fun, too!  She loves riding around with Mommy...

...and we even got a push from brother Ben on the swing!

Got Static?!

Throwing rocks in the lake with Daddy...

High Five ~ Love it!!

Anna ~ 5 months

Ughh, I'm so behind on blogging!  Anna's not 5 months old anymore, but she is changing and doing so much each day, I didn't want to skip over this wonderful month in her life :)  My little sweetie is always smiling, never in a grumpy mood, and really starting to be super curious about all that's going on around her this month.  She is especially taking to her brother Ben!  Maybe because he's another "little" person, I'm not sure...but she just smiles at him, and cranes her neck to see him whenever he comes around.

I think Ben kinda likes Anna, too, but he won't admit it!

Her bigger brothers are crazy about her, and she loves to watch them make silly faces.  Maybe this one looked a little TOO silly, ha!!

Every day, there's something new, it seems!  Her favorite sound to make is "raspberries" ~ here she is blowing some for Mommy :)

She loves riding in the baby carrier....or "the pouch" (as in kangaroo) as we call it. I switched her around to ride on my back for the first time this month since she's getting strong enough now and she loved it even more than the front!!

Anna is still waking up at least once a night to eat, and maybe more for a paci call or two.  Here's her sleeping arrangement.  She's been sleeping like this with the Rock-n-Play in the crib since she got a cold two months ago, and now I'm afraid she's hooked on sleeping all cuddled up!  One day I'll transition her to the crib laying flat, but for now, waking up 2-3 times a night is enough/too much already!

Finally, our sweet girl is growing up too fast already!  She took her first bite of "real" food (Mama's trying everything to get her to sleep a little more at night!!).  It was avocado and she ate it up ~ yippee!!



They say a baby's eyes can change color any time in the first year, but Anna's seem to be getting bluer and bluer...so I think she's going to get to keep them :)  I adore looking at her beautiful blue eyes...reminds me of her Daddy!

Ben v2.5!!

January marked Ben's 30th month, which means he's 2 1/2 years old!  Wow, 2.5 sounds a lot older than 30 months...??  Anyway, Ben is thoroughly enjoying his time being two, and we have loved growing with him as we see what each new day holds.  Sometimes, you NEVER know!!  Ha!

Playing in the snow...he loved eating it!

Hot Chocolate with Mommy after snow play

His favorite show now is Baby Juno.  Unfortunately, it's not on TV, so he watches it on DVD a lot.  It's also on Mommy's iPad, which is a new form of entertainment for him.  He also likes to play Elmo's ABC's and a counting game on there.  Oh, and how could I forget?  Calling Santa.  Yes, in February.  I had an app on the iPad that called Santa and you could "talk" to him and tell him what you wanted for Christmas and it really appeared that he was listening and talking back.  Ben loved it, and still calls Santa every day.  I guess getting ready for Christmas 2012!!

Ben's favorite chore is laundry...but it's definitely not seen as a chore to this little boy.  If I don't save the laundry for him to help me with, there's lots of disappointment around here, ha!  Here he is standing on his stool showing Bunny how to wash the clothes...so cute!

I think Ben is finally warming up to Anna a little bit.  He's always been nice enough, but lately, he's asked me several times to hold her!  Wow!  And he has shared his favorite pal Bunny with her, too, and that's saying a lot!  If my hands are tied for the moment and she's fussing, he'll say, "It's OK, Baby Anna.  It's OK!"

He has his moments, too, though...we are truly right in the heart of the Terrible Twos right now.  Ben's got an incredibly stubborn way about him (where did he get that from??) and is absolutely insistent on being independent in ALL things.  So, this leads to a bit of conflict sometimes when we are in a hurry or something.  As all children do, he tests and tests us on the boundaries we've set for him, just to see what will happen.  Fortunately for me, consistency is a strength of mine (thank you "Strength Finders" we did as a team at Eastman!) so hopefully he gets the same answer each and every time he tests those boundaries!

That's easier said than done, though.  Sometimes Mark or I will come in the room and Ben's doing something odd like eating sugar cereal for lunch.  We'll say, "What's going on?!" and the other one will say, "He got me!  He wore me down and I caved in a weak moment!!  UGH!"  Ha, ha!  It happens!!  Add persistence to Ben's Strength Finder's list!! :)

Last month, Ben attended his first live show!  Sesame Street Live came to Freedom Hall and we went with some of his little friends.

Big Bird was first out onstage.  I was so excited to see his reaction because he had never been to anything like this before!  He watched Big Bird for about 30 seconds and said, "WHERE'S ELMO??"  Ha, ha!!

Elmo balloons available for only $10 (EACH!)



Enjoying the show with Clara, Liam and Sophia

 Mommy and Ben had a fun time watching Elmo, eating pizza and M&M's and dancing.  Afterwards, Ben asked a few times to go back to "Elmo's house" to see him again!!