Real Food!

The past week has been Anne's introduction to real food. She eats 5 times a day: 2 bottles, 2 baby food, and 1 finger food. So far she has tried (and loved) scrambled eggs, grilled cheese, tortillas, green beans, peaches, bananas, pancake, and the aptly named Annie's Natural macaroni and cheese. She's getting to be such a big girl and is a very good eater! Here are a few shots of her first night with an egg. Oh, and she's also mastered her little sippy cup and slugs down whatever we put in it. It's really amazing; one day they can't do something and the next day they can. So maybe she'll wake up tomorrow and crawl across the room....Hey, a mom can dream, right?

This is my favorite--what is with the angry eyes? She's never mean-looking, but apparently she wants to eat in peace.

"New" House

Oma and I have been slaving away this week painting our stucco house. Last summer we painted the trim, so this summer it was time to tackle the rest of it. I'll spare you the details, but here's a summary:

Stucco=the Devil's masonry.

Here's a couple before and after shots. Notice the paint, new shutters, and trimmed bushes. Thanks to Oma for painting and Sam and Karl for putting up the shutters.

There are still many things to do, but the paint makes (in my opinion) a huge difference in how it all looks. No more dingy white!

Weddings!!!

Erin and Todd are getting married! Look at how cute they are:




Hmmm...how 'bout this one:

Geez, guys. Here's a good one from the Colorado year.

Aaaw, so cute. I'm super excited to be Matron of Honor, and Anne gets to be flower girl! Hopefully she'll walk by then :)

Since this really is Annie's blog, here she is with Todd for the first time.

Todd, she's not a robot in disguise.

Yes, I posted bridesmaid dresses a while ago, but those were for my friend Sarah who is getting married in June. We went shopping today and picked Dress #5 from the list I put up. So two weddings this spring/summer. How exciting!

Baskets, Bathing, Biscuits, and Birthdays

A mega-photo post for your viewing pleasure.

Annie has been most delighted with a wicker basket we got for her. We keep an assortment of toys in the living room for her now and she pulls them out and plays very well. Her favorites are the "Head to Toe" board book and the ice cream bucket. In the pictures she also has her beloved Cheerio tube. Good thing she hasn't figured out how to open it...

This is a terribly framed picture, but it looks just like one of my sister when she was about this age. When I saw it I was taken aback at how much Anne looks like Erin. The poor photography is due to holding the camera to one side and getting Anne to smile at me instead of looking curiously at the lens.
Pool party! Anne is the proud owner of an inflatable wading pool, which we tried out last night. She played quite well for almost an hour with her new bucket, boat, and ball.

Due to the heat and our lack of air conditioning, Anne has taken a minimalist approach to dressing. Here she consumes a messy teething biscuit in only her diaper and a bib.

When she thought the biscuit was gone she freaked out! Instant tears and screaming.
She continues to be upset even though her treat is in her mouth.


Last but not least, happy 22nd birthday to Auntie Erin!!! She's the best and Anne loves her. We're having birthday dinner tonight, but the real fun is Erin's trip to Colorado to visit boyfriend Todd. She leaves tomorrow night and is very excited. Happy Birthday, Erin! We love you!

Food Issues

We've been trying in vain to introduce Anne to some chunkier baby food recently. She's normally a very good eater, but it seems anything with little bits in it is not okay. We've had 2 battles on this front: the first happened on a recent shopping trip. We sat Anne down in the highchair and broke out a jar of "Chunky Blend Vegetable Beef Pilaf". Everything in there was food she had eaten before. It was basically squash, beef stock, and brown rice. One bite, yucky face. Two bites, the "what are you feeding me?" face. Three bites, a gag. Four bites, several big gags that resulted in Anne throwing up all down the front of her dress. Sympathetic mother that I am, my first thought was "You did that on purpose!" I guess she didn't like it, but come on. Eat the food, drama queen.

We repeated the scene the next night at home with a jar of "Chunky Blend Chicken and Stars" I thought "Great, chicken. More mild, has some little pasta in it. She'll eat this one." I should've known better than to think such a thing. We had the same stubborn refusal, so Exasperated Mom showed up and said "Fine. Don't eat. Go nuts." A fine parenting moment, I know. Anne commenced playing in the food for about 10 minutes making a grand old mess and then consumed her weight in Cheerios to make up for the lost calories. Here's a few pictures of the melee.

Good thing I'm so cute!



Mikey got to enjoy the spoils. Check out our sweet green carpet!

Not a Baby Post: Wedding Stuff

1.
2.

3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

8.
9.
10.
11.

Trip to the Lake

We spent the last weekend in June with Sam's dad and stepmom. They have a campsite on a lake between Fairbault and Mankato. It is a great place to spend a night or two and play on the water. At least, it is if you don't take an 8-month old baby with you. Here's a timeline for the 27 hours we were out of the house:

Saturday 5:30 pm: We leave our driveway (Sam works on Saturdays)
6:30 pm: Anne begins screaming in her carseat for no reason. Blankie is no help.
7:30 pm: We arrive. Anne cries. We set up the pack-n-play and try to get settled.
8:30 pm: Anne eats and lays down. Cries herself down and sleeps
9:00 pm: Anne is startled and wakes again. Mom comforts her, but she won't sleep.
10:30 pm: Anne back down to bed, Mom asleep, Dad galavanting around campsite.
11:00 pm: Dad comes to bed, family sleeps
1:00 am: Anne wakes, Anne eats, Anne cries
1:30 am-3:30 am Anne cries, we drive her in the car, and we end up sleeping in the car with Anne on my lap. Happy fun time!
3:30 am: Anne wakes to eat, cry, and go back to sleep
6:00 am: Anne is up for the day. Dad takes her so Mom can sleep an extra hour

The morning went fine after that; Annie got a good nap in around 10:00 (Do you think she was tired?!?)

Drama began again around 11:00 when we headed out on the boat. Anne HATED her life jacket and cried the whole time she had it on. We discovered that Little Swimmers are not actually swim diapers, per se. How did we learn this? When pee ran all over my lap and down my leg. Apparently the ability of the "swim diaper" to not bloat in water like a regular diaper comes from the fact that they are not actually absorbant at all. They are just a holder for poop, should that be necessary. Eeew.

So, we continued our boating, Anne screaming through a chanel lined with houses on either side and a 5 mph speed limit. She slept, she ate, we swam, she cried all the way back to the campsite. So much crying! Thankfully she slept when we got back so we could play a few games and have dinner before packing it all up and going home again.

Lessons learned: Little Swimmers are gross and useless, babies hate different beds, babies hate life jackets and boats, and babies like coming home for Tylenol and prune juice to make their problems go away.

Annie with Grandpa and Grandma and a rare weekend smile

Anne models her pink swimsuit with Daddy

Driving Grandpa's golf cart

In the evil life jacket (with swim diaper, swimsuit, swim cover-up, and sun hat)

Taking in the lake with Dad

Three generations of Westphalls driving the boat (not really; we weren't moving)

(Gasp!)

I can't believe I had two blog posts in a row where Anne is wearing the same outfit! The horror! I'll have to put together some new pictures for you to show the depth of her wardrobe. Check back soon :)

Girly Girl

Karen's post about princess crowns made me think about how girly Anne can be. I realize she's just a baby, but there are some times I think we've got a real diva on our hands. For example, a guaranteed way to get a smile is to take Anne to the bathroom, get out her hairbrush, and brush her peach-fuzz hair while she watches in the mirror. This morning she played with a pile of her clothes; I assume she was evaluating each outfit for future wear. And here's a few pictures of her playing "dress up" yesterday. I gave her a pile of her shoes to play with and it kept her busy for quite a while!

Look at all my shoes, Mom! (And that's only half of them!)


These sandals have excellent arch support...

I love my shoes and hat (she actually hated the hat--too small)

And just for kicks, I put the plaid ballet flats on the dog. He's so funny; when he has clothes on of any kind, he will not move. He has a doggie sweater and sweatshirt, but when he has them on, he stands perfectly still. It's like he's saying "I'll tolerate this, but I won't indulge you any more by doing something cute."