Anne's First Photo Session

My mom and I took Anne to the Kiddie Kandids studio in Babies R Us a few weeks ago to have her picture taken. She had her cute Christmas dress and I had a referral coupon from my cousin, Sheila (thanks!) so we hauled up there. I didn't know how it would go, but we gave it a shot and Anne was amazing! She slept on the way up there, and when we got there she was signing for "snack." She was probably hungry and didn't want me to change her clothes and wrestle a huge booger out of her nose, but we did it and she cooperated with the photographer very well. She laughed at their silly tricks and even laid on her tummy (!) for a few shots. They got great smiles and we ordered a fair amount of pictures for Christmas cards and gifts for a fairly reasonable price (so far as pictures go) So enjoy!







I love having a daughter! Shiny shoes and little dresses--it's all too cute!

My Culinary Prowess

I have some interesting cooking tidbits to share today. First, I asked Sam what 2 holiday treats he wanted me to make this year. My mom is the kind of person who makes 5 or 6 different cookies each year just to please everyone, but I am not that kind of person. God bless her, because at least I know I'll get a yummy sugar cookie at her house! So Sam chose peanut blossoms (yum) and the Bugle "ice cream cones" You take a Bugle corn snack, dip the end in white chocolate, and pop an M&M in the top. After he chose I cursed myself for asking him, because I didn't want to make these labor-intensive treats!

So I went to the store, got the stuff, and got started on Saturday during Annie's nap. Since I didn't buy the official red and green Christmas M&Ms, I sifted through the bag I bought and picked out the "right" ones. Then I melted the chocolate and started dipping. I wasn't planning to make too many, because they were for Sam only (I think Bugles taste weird.) Here's how far I got before I was totally tired of doing it:
Then I had an epiphany: I will make Bugle Bark! With a quick flash of wax paper and cooking spray, I had the rest of the melted chocolate poured in a pan, crunched some Bugles on top and tossed on the rest of the M&Ms. Press it all in, pop it in the fridge, and voila! Same taste, one-tenth of the work.

This stuff is lethally sweet, and even I, who likes to eat plain brown sugar, cannot tolerate it. All for Sam!

On a more savory note, here is my awesome chicken fajita pizza I made the other night. It looked so yummy-delicious I had to take a picture. Chicken, peppers, onions, salsa, and cheese. Num-nums. Of course, this is a "good" dinner night. Right now I'm thinking "Hm, I have nothing planned for dinner tonight. Not even any thawed meat." Someone's getting boring baked chicken on his plate...Remember the night I made pizza and keep appreciating me :)

The last attempt

at a good Christmas card photo. If you've received your card from us, you know that none of these made the cut.

1. Happy baby with dad in his sweet camo pajama pants. She loves to cruise the coffee table, with its extra sharp pointy corners.

2. Upside down on Dad's lap, having a good time.

3. Her cute "screamy" smile. What are we watching?

4. Still cruising...

5. "Okay, Mom, that's enough. Get me my milk and put me to bed already!"

Here she is...

The high-stepper herself. She also signs "more" by tapping her fingers together, which to Anne really means "I want a snack" I tried to get her to speak for you at the end, but she did not oblige.

She can walk, but she doesn't really want to. It is funny when we try to stand her on the floor and she just pikes her legs as if to say "No, no, I'll be going on my bum."

Serious bragging

Be forewarned: this is horn-tooting of the highest order, so if you are tired of reading about how awesome our kid is, click away now.

We had our wrap-up meeting with the physical therapy people yesterday. They came to the house to go over Anne's evaluation results and make a plan for the future. On 3 separate occasions they had come to the house to complete various standardized evaluation tests, and yesterday we got to see the results.

Anne did score low for her age in the gross motor category, but we decided she did not need official therapy because she has made big gains since the assessment was done. They are going to check-in with us again in January, and then maybe again in the spring just to make sure things are going well.

Now the good news: Anne scored practically off the charts in all other areas. In the Cognitive category she ranked in the 95th percentile, in Language in the 96th percentile, and in Social-Emotional skills it was the 99th percentile! So she is clearly advanced in all areas (even fine motor) and just needed a bit more time to start walking. Which is what I said from the get-go when I was freaking out a few weeks ago.

To summarize: she's awesome. I claim no credit, as these things appear to be inborn and are naturally unfolding before our eyes.

Video Coming Soon

Anne, up WAY past her bedtime (think 11:00 pm), on our last night in Vegas.

I have to upload pictures and videos on my computer at school, and I left the camera at home today. Tonight is booked up with meetings and dinner dates, so it will have to wait until tomorrow. She walks, she falls, she cries. She's only whacked her head once, which I think is pretty good.

We learned over the weekend that one of Will's friends was a scooter as a child, and he turned out to be a stud athlete and excellent student, so our consciences are soothed just a bit. Hopefully there is not really a correlation between not crawling and academic problems later in life.

We did find a suitable picture for the Christmas card, as well as having Anne's picture professionally done. So now you get two pictures in the card! It worked out to be cheaper to give two pictures than to buy new cards, so we went with it.

So that's what's up with us this week. Christmas is fast approaching and we are hardly "in the spirit" yet. I'll enjoy the Christmas season when school gets out on the 23rd...

A Big Day

Two big things to celebrate yesterday (though one is bigger than the other...)

#1. It was Mikey's "Gotcha" Day. People who adopt kids celebrate the day their kid(s) came home to live with them, so we celebrate the day we got Mikey. The celebration consisted of Mike getting a chunk of pepperoni and a hug. He was 2 when we got him, so sometime this year he turned 4. That's 28 in dog years!

#2 (and much more important than the dog)

OUR BABY WALKED!!!

She did, she did, and we are all elated. Oma got to see it first, then promptly showed me when I picked Annie up yesterday. She took 5 steps right to me! She got a big hug when she got there and squealed with delight. We went to Urgent Care last night (Baby's got pink eye!) and she walked all over the waiting room. She cruised on the chairs, but walked to Sam multiple times. At one point I bet she took 20 steps (they're little steps, but they count!) She still can't pull herself up on things, so she needs some help to get started, but we're making progress.

Pictures and video to come soon. If you live nearby or are coming home for Christmas, stop by and see it in real life :)

Links to Explore Later

Just cleaning out my bookmarks on my school computer. These are things I look at when I have delusions of free time. Oh, summer vacation, when will you be here?

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/11/04/homemade-bread-cheap-delicious-healthy-and-easier-than-you-think/

http://food.ivillage.com/slideshow/food/homemade_holiday_gifts/cake_in_minutes.html?dst=blogher,ntwk_hdln,120808,fd,homemadegifts

http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/mg/vegetable/container.html

Pictures to Tide You Over

A few pictures to satisfy you and to balance out all of the text-only posts of late.

Anne is doing much better with her gross motor things. She can cruise around the coffee table and along the couch with reasonable speed. She HATES to fall, so she is extra careful. Sometimes, though, she takes a tumble and is quite dramatic about it. Buck up, Baby! She can stand on her own (as evidenced in this first picture) but you have to wrestle your fingers out of her hands first. She doesn't want you to let go!
Anne continues to talk and explore. As part of her assessment, her language, fine motor skills, and "cognitive abilities" were tested. She rocked all of those areas. Her language is fabulous, and her fine motor/problem solving skills were also beyond her age. The teacher kept saying "I wouldn't expect her to be able to do this" and then Anne would do it. She can unscrew the cap to a bottle or toothpaste and put pegs in holes. She can also do the "Rock-a-Stack" toy pretty well, though the wooden one she has works better (you can see the Fisher-Price on in this picture on the shelf if you don't know what I'm talking about.)

Look at her: "I'm being naughty, but I'm so darn cute!"

"Mom, you're so funny!" Here's a nice shot of her teeth. She has some bottom molars coming right now, and the top ones are about ready to push through. She has a knack for biting you right on the cuticle when you put your finger in there to check, so watch out.
Anne woke up sick this morning, so we are debating a doctor visit this afternoon or tomorrow. It seems like we are there all the time, and I don't really want to go again if there's nothing he can do for her. On a happier note, we have a Snow Day today, so Mommy doesn't have to work! Sam is home, I am home, and we are being a snuggly family in the snow. Sam is out now getting a new snow shovel. I had to laugh, because I've shoveled the snow this year up until today, and the first time Sam does it BAM! we need a new shovel. "That one is terrible!" he says. Uh, I know. I've been using it. I guess the free shovel that came with our house is not good enough for him :)

One more!

Jeez, every time I log-in to Facebook there's another batch of baby pictures to look at!

Hannah Mae Lindblom, born to my Bodien neighbor Liz and hubby Greg.

So many girls! We're currently waiting on coworker/friend Heather to have her baby, which is also a girl. Everyone we know has girls! Who will Annie date in 20 years? (yeah, I said 20.)

Babies Everywhere!

Three new babies entered the world last week! Well, lots of babies did, but these are the 3 I know:

Jack Bryan Everson, born to my college friend Leah and her husband Tim.

Elias Bennett Nordine, born to high school friends Britni and Carl

Elsa Joy Staples, born to chuch/work friends Emily and Jamie

Yay for new babies!

Vegas Vacation--Day 1

Here we go: Our flight to LV left MSP at 9:30 am, so we left our house just a few minutes after 6. Erin and Todd were awesome enough to drive us to the airport and take our car back home. We kept Annie awake on the ride up there, hoping she would be really tired by the time we got on the plane. It worked fairly well--she was awake while we checked our bags, went through security, and got some coffee for Mommy, who was rapidly becoming cranky and nervous. There were roughly a majillion people at our gate, and every last one of them was getting on our plane. You wouldn't believe how many Midwestern families were going to Las Vegas for the holiday! There were lots of babies, which was reassuring, because it meant we wouldn't be the only people struggling to maintain calm for the next 3 hours.

We got on the plane and got settled. Anne fell asleep on Sam's lap as we found our seats and we thought "Sweet! This is gonna be the best flight ever." WRONG! She woke up as we were taxi-ing the runway to take off and stayed awake for the next 3 hours. She never went back to sleep, which is amazing. She just doesn't like to be held to sleep. So Sam and I took turns entertaining and feeding her to keep her happy, but she had a few moments of unpleasantness when she was crying and kicking the seat in front of her. The woman in that seat was very nice about it and even offered Anne some crackers to feel better. What a saint!

We made it to Vegas and enjoyed the view of the Strip, which looks like it is right next to the runway! Harriet picked us up and we got to the resort and settled in. We met up with more extended family for lunch and then packed up the car and headed to Red Rock Canyon.

**See the note on the right side for the "cast of characters"**

We went to the park with Libi, Dave, Matt, Dani, Chad, Mich, and "Bubbe". We enjoyed the scenery and took some nice pictures. Sam climbed on the rocks with his cousins and had a good time. Anne got kind of tired and cranky, but was appeased by a cup of mandarin oranges (Seriously, fruit cups are the best snacks ever.)

We checked out the casinos that night--we saw Caesar's Palace and The Venetian in good detail. After a nice dinner with Nana and Sarah we packed it in for the night. Anne was so exhausted she didn't care that she was sleeping in the playpen or anything, she just fell asleep. Thank you, God! We were in no shape to deal with a baby waking every 2 hours.

Anne with "Mojave Max" at Red Rocks
Matt, Dani, Dave, and Sam on the rocks. Libi couldn't watch them climbing so high

Anne enjoys a plastic cup while ignoring the scenery.

The fam at Caesar's. We were not the only people with a stroller, for sure.

I thought I was so clever...

...by buying Christmas cards on clearance at Target last year. I got two boxes at 75% off. They're very cute and have nice text inside, and I've been looking forward to sending them every time I see the boxes in my desk. However, I bought the kind with a photo window in the front, and now the pressure is on to get a good picture of the kid to send to everyone! I've been chasing her with the camera every time she wears something remotely Christmas-y. Here she was on Sunday in her cute dress:

Nice smile, but she's trying to eat the toy remote.

Sliding off the front of the ottoman.

Tipping over backwards...

Blink!
She does that on purpose now--when she sees the camera she gives me a forced smile and blinks about 6 times rapidly in anticipation of the flash. Funny girl!

Watch out, Anne. Photo-Mom is coming for you!

More Video

Here's Anne enjoying the fountain show at the Bellagio. Right away at the beginning you see her squeal and bounce. She loved this with the lights and music and water. My kid enjoyed Vegas WAY too much--the constant stimulation! This isn't a particularly good clip--the song is "Big Spender" but most of what I recorded is dialogue in the middle. Just watch it for the cute baby.

Vacation Video 1

This is from Wednesday night in Vegas. We went to the Mirage casino to eat at the Carnegie Deli. The Carnegie, really, is a famous deli in New York that is quite popular with the Jewish community. Since Sam's family is Jewish by heritage, we decided we should go. The schtick there is the giant sandwiches. I'm talking mile-high piles of meat and bread. I opted for a regular size turkey burger, but Sam dove into the experience and ordered the "Brisketball". It contained a whole heap of meat on a few meager slices of bread. People were stopping at the window to watch him try to eat this beast. In the video you see Auntie Mich help Sam put a bit of spicy mustard on the sandwich and then Sam dives in. Enjoy, and more details to follow!

Just the beginning....

There will be many pictures and stories in the next few days all about our vacation to Vegas. Here's one to hold you over: the Westphalls at the Grand Canyon. This is all I wanted on this entire trip: a nice picture of my little family at the GC to say that we'd been there. As you can see it was pretty frosty there, but we had a good time. Don't let Sam's shorts mislead you; it was cold!

And off we go...

I kept delaying this post because I wanted to make Annie a cute onesie announcing our plans, but it never happened, so you get plain text. If you haven't heard, and most of you have, we are going to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving. We will be meeting up with all of Sam's mom's family and having a grand ol' time hanging out together. I wanted to write "Vegas Baby" on a shirt and take Anne's picture to tell you all, but there was just never time for that. We are leaving Tuesday morning and coming back Saturday (attention thieves: our house will be unmanned--help yourself to our cheap-o furniture and sub-par electronics. Take our dog, too.)

Anyone know good things to do with our 1-year-old on a 3 hour flight? I've got finger puppets, a sticker book, regular books, lots of snacks, the thus-far-forbidden juice, and the potent Tylenol-and-blankie combination. Please pray that she sleeps well while we are gone; experience does not show that she's a good traveller.

The planning and packing for this trip helped fuel yesterdays brutally honest post. Funny how stressful things sort of compound and build up and you don't really know how it is going to blow up, only that it IS going to blow up. So I'm planning and packing for a 5-day vacation with a toddler, finishing my semester of grad school (writing papers), working without my full-time assistant (doing the job of two people instead of one), and to top it off, I just started teaching Sunday School to a handful of kindergarteners. They're cute and all, but holy cow there's a lot of prep work to do! Plus Sam is working extra to counteract the time he is taking off for the trip, so he's not home to help much (though he does what he can, especially in the morning.)

I'm not trying to complain--this is the life I lead and most days it's pretty sweet. Just trying to give a little perspective on why Anne's PT mess really freaked me out. It made me think "I don't need one more thing to think about!" I already felt like a dum-dum this week because we totally missed our appointment for Sam and Anne to get flu shots. Sam probably won't get one now, and Anne got hers thanks to Opa. We traded cars one morning so he would have the carseat and took her all by himself to the clinic for her shot. He was surprised at how taxing it is to carry her from the car to the building to the desk to the waiting room. She's no lightweight, I know! Plus now she wiggles and twists around!

I'm rambling and I know it. To summarize: this week has been crazy, I want it to be over, I have 12 items on my to-do list for tonight, and we are in desperate need of this vacation!

Happy Thanksgiving, all! We will miss the Kleinman festivities very much, as well as the Red Wing "Holiday Stroll"(they're having live reindeer this year!). Enjoy your families, remember to be thankful, and color a "hand turkey" just for fun.

Lots of pictures and fun stories to come from our trip to the desert--stay tuned.

Here We Go

Okay, I think I have my thoughts somewhat organized now. We'll see what comes out on my e-paper here.

Annie, as you know, is not yet walking and has never crawled. She's 13.5 months old now, and apparently this is a problem.

Anne is part of the Follow-Along program, a program from our local public health department. Every 3 months they send us questionnaires about what she is doing and we fill them out. Up until the 12 month survey she was doing just fine. However, on the 12 month survey she could not do any of the gross-motor activities they suggested. Because she scored low, the public health nurse followed up with us, and she referred us to the pediatric physical therapist in our school district. They set up a home visit and came to see Anne last night, along with the new-case manager from the Family Center. (It was nice because I know them both, but it was still kind of weird)

They watched Annie scoot, stand, and play. As they watched we talked about the assessment process and what they plan to do next. The PT believes Anne has a "significant delay" in her motor skills and so we are going to have a formal assessment done after Thanksgiving. This involves 3 more home visits and lots of questions about her movement. If her test results show a true delay (as compared to other children her age) we will make a plan for regular physical therapy until she turns 3. They did comment that Annie seems advanced in all other areas: social skills, verbal skills, fine motor, etc. We talked about how she never liked to play on her tummy and the fact that she is a "content sitter" meaning she is happy to sit and play with her toys and isn't super-motivated to move. They also commented on how shaky her standing is and the fact that she still walks on her toes sometimes. All in all it was a nice visit, but there will be much more to learn and do after Thanksgiving is over.

The Mom Perspective: It was a weirdly emotional thing, to have these 2 experts in my house analyzing my kid. I wanted to say "She's fine! She'll get it! She can't be advanced in every area, can she? Something's gotta give if she talks this much." I'm sure lots of kids don't walk right away at the time they turn one. And of course, being in education, when you hear the word "delay" you think "developmental delay" and then you think "special ed." and it makes you panic. The PT said "She's very smart, and that makes me think something (physical) is keeping her from moving. It's not that she can't figure it out, it's that something keeps her from doing it." Great, so she's deformed or something?!?! Or something is hurting her every time we put her on her tummy and that's why she cries? Maybe there's some weird spinal fusion or attached tendon or God-knows-what and she can't move her legs like she should?!?

What is most upsetting is this: More likely than not, she is totally fine. She's making progress each day and is doing WAY more than she was a month ago. So this emotional freak-out is probably completely unnecessary. But this is parenting, I guess: the hyper-analysis of everything, the attempts to take care of your kid that backfire on you (it was good to have her followed by public health, it was good to ask the doctor questions about her walking, it was good to be referred to specialists, but now I feel like crap.) It is trusting God to take care of your kid when you have done everything you can and still don't know how it is going to turn out.

To end on a happier note, she was very charming during the home visit. She stood at the coffee table, she scooted, she signed for "milk" and then drank from her cup. She opened her book, turned the pages, pointed at and said "ball". She sucked her thumb and snuggled and demonstrated "where are your socks?" a number of times. She really is a gem.

She did it...

...no, she didn't walk or anything....

If you follow the links on the right side, you see a blog called "A Year of Crockpotting". It is the work of a woman named Stephanie who resolved to use her CrockPot every day in 2008. She has recently been doing a string of Thanksgiving recipes in preparation for the big day, and yesterday she made a WHOLE turkey! In her CrockPot! I know I am lame for thinking this, but that is freakin' amazing. You must click over there and check it out.

Do it. Do it now!

Baby updates coming soon, as soon as I can organize my thoughts and emotions.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Annie's uncle (her mommy's baby brother) William! He's turning the big 2-0 today, if you can believe it. This marks the end of my parents' long run as parents of at least one teenager. Let's see, Travis turned 13 almost 14 years ago, so that's a long time! I remember when Will turned 13--all 4 of us were teenagers for a few weeks before Trav turned 20. Crazy! So Happy Birthday, Will. You're the best. And I need a more updated picture of you :)

Fun Info

I got these tips in an email from a friend. I've been meaning to post them and log them for posterity here, but it just kept getting pushed back to another day. So I'm doing it now while I'm on hold on the phone! They're pretty interesting and all worth a try. Thanks, Stacey!

Bananas
Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little 'stringy things' off of it. That's how the primates do it.Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

Cheese
Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

Peppers
Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating raw.
Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Frying ground beef
Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

Scrambled eggs or omelets
To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

Brownies
For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.

Garlic
Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

Snicker Bars
Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!

Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low And heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy microwave pizza.

Easy Deviled Eggs
Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, Cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg.
Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.

Reheating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

Newspaper weeds away
Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.

Broken Glass
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.

No More Mosquitoes
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

Squirrel Away!
To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.

Flexible vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

Reducing Static Cling
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and... And TA DA!... Static is gone.

Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car . When the window s fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!

Reopening envelope
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.

Conditioner
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.

Goodbye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed.

INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS
The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I
always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material... I'm
sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like. Well ...

The hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that's what burns out the heating unit.

You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free... that nice fragrance too. You know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box ..well this stuff
builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (and to keep your
electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months.

He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long! How about that!?!

Learn something new everyday! I certainly didn't know dryer sheets would do that. So, I thought I'd share!

Note: I went to my dryer and tested my screen by running water on it. The water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in the mesh screen. I washed it with warm soapy water and a nylon brush and I had it done in 30 seconds. Then when I rinsed it... The water ran right thru the screen! There wasn't any puddling at all! That repairman knew what he was talking about!

And into November

In case you hadn't heard, or didn't live it yourself, it snowed here this week (and last week, too). I could comment on how lame it is to scrape the car, how schools around us had a late start Wednesday but we didn't, or bemoan our lack of a true fall season (and the fact that we never finished raking the yard). But I'm choosing to tell all of you non-parents out there about how sucky it is to put your baby in a giant winter jacket. Worst. Thing. Ever. Okay, not really, but it is annoying. She hates the hat, the jacket triples her width, and you just kind of grab on to any puff of fabric and carry her to the car, hoping she doesn't slip out on the way. And then her little legs stick out the bottom all twig-like and cold. I really wanted a fleece snowsuit for her, but I can't find anything in 18 or 24 month size. They are all for little babies. So for now she remains the Pink Puff and we try to wriggle the carseat straps around her gigantic form.

Oh, and she can't suck her thumb if she's wearing mittens, either.

She's thinking "I sure do have two bone-headed parents. Look at this get-up."

What?!?

We are sorting through some old books here at school, and this one we pulled off the shelf made me laugh out loud. Click on it to make it bigger.

The blurb under the title says "Dinky isn't addicted to heroin, but she does have a big problem. Then there are boys and parents to complicate the rest of her life."

What!?!? This was published, purchased, and checked out? Weird...

Wrapping up October

Well, October has come and gone and we are well into November. Here are a few pictures that were trapped on our camera--I let them free last night!

Probably not the best toy in the world, but Annie really likes these ceramic bowls. I figure they're educational--nesting toys teach spatial relationships!

Just in case you forget which sport Anne enjoys the most...

With her new mobility it has been hard to get Annie to sit still and take a nice picture. I got a good one when she was playing the piano.This is the tired face, blankie in hand...It's weird, she like to hold the blankie in her right hand, which is also the thumb she sucks. I guess she needs one hand free for other tasks.
Anne with her pumpkin, pre-Jack-o-lantern. Her shirt has a Frankenstein on it and says "Little Monster"

Showing off the shirt again. We got it in the Dollar Spot at Target.
Sam with the giant pumpkin he just had to have.
Sam always thinks he wants to carve pumpkins, but halfway through he is tired of it. So we had Karl help. Karl had never carved a pumpkin before, and I was more than happy to give him mine.The results: My pumpkin got 3 bats, and Annie's had a nice little face. Sam messed up on the big pumpkin and we didn't put it out. I managed to break the "lid" of Anne's pumpkin, so it had no top. Between trying to eat dinner, dress the baby, answer the door, and get ourselves out the door, I bet our jack-o-lanterns were only lit for 10 minutes or so! Such a production that was really unnecessary. Good thing we had this cute puppy dog to set next to the pumpkins!
Last year's pumpkins, all done by Sam. We had more time then, since Anne was only 26 days old!
And Annie last year as a sleepy penguin with Oma and Opa. All I really remember about that night is changing a really poopy diaper at a friend's house while we were out visiting and Annie looking at my dad and having a visible reaction of recognition. It was the first time she looked at someone and moved her head and eyes as if to say "Hey, I know you!"

More tricks!

I forgot to add in the last post that Annie is saying "What's that?" when she grabs at the camera papparazzi-style. She also has been doing the baby sign-language for "more" when she is eating. We're not doing a ton of baby sign, but it is nicer than having her scream at you when she wants another cracker.

Also, Sam claims Annie took two small steps by herself last night. I didn't see it, so I don't believe it. She's just so cautious--she's not going to walk until she's absolutely sure she isn't going to fall.

Ginger-Annie is definitely her father when it comes to chatting. Sometimes I can't get a word in edgewise in my own house! And Maddy is my cousin Randy's daughter. Anne has a picture of her with her sister Gracie that she plays with. She loves those big girls!

She walks! She talks!

Annie, walking and talking. She's pushing her hippo and says "Daddy" "Mikey" and "Maddy"

Sorry about the zoom-in on her tush--I bent down to move her hippo away from the door frame.

Enjoy!

One day late...

I meant to write this all yesterday, but it never happened. Busy, busy Mom!

Happy 2nd Birthday to Annie's "cousin" Emma Rae! Really, Annie and Emma's moms are cousins, but it all comes out in the wash. We're just family! We hope you had a good birthday and that you are practicing to be a helpful big sister.

Since Anne and Emma were born exactly 11 months apart, that means Anne was 13 months old yesterday. After 1 month of being 1, we see that she is becoming slightly more mobile and a much pickier eater. We have to be careful not to give her too many snacks or her whole dinner gets pushed on the floor (thank God for that dog to eat the mess for me!) In the mobility department we are seeing some improvement. She likes to stand and can even stand on her own for a few seconds. She will walk if you hold her hands and likes to bend down and play with her shoes. She can finally hold herself on her hands and knees, though she doesn't do anything while she's there. So we are making progress, which is what the doctor told us to look for. And Grandma, I think the shoes are helping!

Our November is crazy busy--there are 30 days and I have something on the calendar for 17 of those days. So hold on to your cyber-hats and get ready for a busy month!

P.S. There will be no detailed comments on the election here; if you are dying to know what I think (and if you know me at all, you already know what I think) you can read the comments I left on Erin and Will's blogs. All I know for sure is that Obama will be President until Annie turns five and (God forbid) Al Franken could be Senator until she is seven (that's first grade, people!) Sam and I decided we should move to the ever-red North Dakota where people think like we do...

Spotted Dog (striped frog!)

That's a line from one of Anne's books, Happy Moose, Grumpy Goose

Here's Annie in her puppy costume. This picture from Oma will have to do for now. We have more, but our camera batteries are dead and unavailable for uploading. Anne was in good spirits Friday night. We had lots of trick-or-treaters to our house and handed out lots of candy (turns out I'm more generous with the candy bowl than Sam is). We walked Annie over to Oma and Opa's where she got a box of toddler cereal bars in lieu of candy. We also went to visit friends Jamie and Emily and stayed too long, so we had to skip our last two planned stops. Anne went right to bed without any serious sugar crash or anything. We can wait a few more years for that.

We also had a nice visit with my grandparents yesterday. We went up to their house and had lunch after church, which was very enjoyable. Sam had never been there to experience the meat and potatoes feast my Grandma can put on, and he enjoyed it very much. Anne slept in the car both ways, though she got a bit whiny near the end of the trip each way. Have a good winter in Texas, Grandma and Grandpa! We'll send you pictures!

Pumpkin Time

There are many more cute pictures from our trip to the pumpkin patch on the Photobucket site. Click the link to the right, then on October 2008 in the albums list.

Anne seemed to have a good time there. She was getting ready for a nap and had peed through her pants (did I have extra? Of course not.) but we coaxed a few smiles out of her. She really liked the petting zoo and the "corn box." It's like a sandbox, except full of dry corn kernels. Her fave in the barn were the baby chicks, all fuzzy and yellow. Sam's fave? The baby goats.

Erin, Todd, and Will came with us, which made it more fun. We teased Todd for not having a fleece jacket like the rest of us. Erin and I had a good laugh when we were all in the store afterwards and pretty much inhaled all of the cheese samples. It was like we descended on it like rats and left the plate spinning as we darted off again. Anne liked the aged cheddar; Will proclaimed the Cajun cheese curds "the best cheese I've ever eaten" All in all it was a good time and we enjoyed the last few hours of having the siblings home from school.

Now go check out her pictures!

Something actually about the baby...

Anne clearly said yesterday "It's hockey!"

Opa has a MN Wild calendar and various pictures in his office, so he's been teaching Anne where to point when asked "Where's hockey?" She's a good pointer, and last night she said "It's hockey" as clear as any adult. All the sounds were present: "h" "ck" and "ee" Genius, I tell you!

I also never gave the run-down of the 1-year well-baby visit:

Weight: 21 lbs, 11 oz (that's 1 lb per month since birth)

Height: 30.5 inches (2 and a half feet; they say a child reaches half his/her adult height by the age of 2, so Anne might be 5 feet tall, plus double whatever she grows in the next year)

Head size: again, off the chart. "Do you cry yourself to sleep on your giant pillow?"

Dr. S. said Anne's verbal skills are "advanced" and her fine motor skills are excellent. She's a bit slow with the gross motor stuff, but she is getting better every day. She got 4 shots and had an X-ray of her hips done just to rule out any problems there (related to her walking). They're fine, she's fine, everybody's fine. She's a happy, healthy girl.

If you were to ask Anne what the best part of being 1 is, I bet she'd tell you "peanut butter" Holy cow, she likes the pb on toast. I think we need to move to a first-course, second-course kind of dinner service, because she'll eat all the peanut butter, drink all her milk, and turn up her nose at any vegetables or meat. And just like that {snap!} we have entered toddlerhood.

More engagement pictures!

Jump on over to Ginger' s photography blog to see engagement pictures of Sarah and Dan. Sarah and Ginger have been friends since 2nd grade, and I got to join their friendship at Bethel. They, along with our pal Stephanie, were my bridesmaids and now we are all going to be Sarah's bridesmaids! She and Dan are super cute together and we are excited for their new life together!

Cute Couple

See more of Erin and Todd's engagement pictures on Erin's blog. Just click the link on the right! They are too cute :)

No-Pants Dance

Anne in the tub, enjoying Dad's games with the cup. We are (apparently) continuing the tradition of using oversized plastic cups from sporting events as bath-rinse cups. It keeps me from being totally livid when someone comes home from a baseball/football/hockey game with a sticky plastic cup. "But I want to keep it!" Grrr....


Dealing with the diaper rash: letting it all hang out. The sore bottom needed some air, so Anne went free 'n' easy after the bath. She was so sad, just standing there, sucking her thumb and whimpering.


Naughty baby! Anne has been a bit "toddler-esque" since her birthday. More screaming, more whining, and more scooting to her room to pull the books off the shelves. She must know that her mother devotes her days to keeping books ON shelves, so she is driven to do the opposite.
Viewing her work with pride. Take that, Mom!

It must be done

I forgot the requisite "one year comparison" photos. Here's Anne at about 3 days old, all orange and sick and snuggly.
And here she is last week in the tub. Look at how her hair is thickening!

Love you, baby! We are so proud of the new things you are doing and learning!