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!

Pictures

I have rearranged Anne's photobucket site to be more organized. If you follow the link above, you'll see a list of albums on the left. They are labeled by month and year. Sadly, I cannot arrange them chronologically, only alphabetically. You'll find all of the pictures there!

More pictures

Just a couple of shots Oma took at daycare recently. Here's Anne's striped dress paired with her striped legwarmers. This is also Anne's pose recently; it is how she scoots on her rear end. Kick the legs, pull butt forward. Kick the legs, pull butt forward... She also loves doors now. Open, shut, open, pull things out. She must be watched at all times!This is Annie with our friend Abby. Abby came to daycare from the time she was a little baby, followed by her 3 siblings. She was my first serious babysitting job when I was younger, and now she is in 8th grade! She still comes by every once in a while and I'm glad she gets to see Annie regularly. Their family has also generously shared some of their old toys and clothes with us (3 of their 4 kids are girls). Thanks, Abby!

The Birthday--Part 4 (Conclusion)

Annie enjoyed opening her many gifts, though she was more interested in scooting around the floor and playing with tissue paper. She received great new clothes, shoes, books, and toys. Oma even made her an ABC scrapbook with pictures of her first year. Overall it was a great party for our wonderful baby!Anne rudely checks the price tag on her new outfit. We must teach her some manners!
Godzilla!!! Sam set the camera on the couch as Anne tried to pull herself up and get it (she failed)
The aftermath: After "messing" all over her shirt and tights, Anne changed clothes and we packed her up in the car (Steve and Mel wanted to take us out for dinner.) Anne promptly crashed from her party high and slept in the car. This also shows another perk of being one year old: your carseat faces forward!
When we returned home Anne enjoyed scooting around with her balloon. Nothing but smiles!

The Birthday--Part3 (The Cake)

We sang "Happy Birthday," we blew out the candle, and Anne dove into her treat. She was a bit hesitant at first, but once I put some frosting in her mouth she was interested.




Thanks, again, for the great bibs, Teresa! They are awesome!
Anne had a great felt birthday hat, which is where the caterpillar cake design came from. We will definitely be saving that hat for future use by siblings. So cute!

Mom note: I have two scoops that I bought at a Pampered Chef party last spring, and they were the best tools for cupcake making. The bigger one is just the right size (3 tablespoons) for measuring cake batter into the muffin tin, and the small scoop (1 tablespoon) put just the right amount of frosting on each cupcake. No mess, even baking, and easy clean-up. I'd recommend these as a cool wedding gift for under $20. They are amazing for cookie dough and mini-muffins, too.

The Birthday--Part 2

The preparations began right after church. Here's Anne's "cake" which is really an arrangement of delicious cupcakes. As you will see later, it matches the caterpillar on her birthday hat. The white cupcake was the one she actually ate (thanks to Arlis at work for pointing out that we didn't need her birthday dress to get all stained from food coloring.)
Cupcakes for all. I must confess that this is the first time I've been really grateful for the pretty serving dishes we got for our wedding. The platter, cake stand, and a nice glass pitcher really make things look nice. I also appreciate the matching coffee mugs I could put out by the coffee pot. Thanks to everyone, again, for the nice gifts!
Annie waits for the party to start. She got all off her schedule and was CRABBY for an hour before we finally got her to go to sleep and stay asleep. As they say, the best laid plans....
The birthday booster seat, just waiting for the baby. Seriously, she would've been happy with just that Mylar balloon all day. Did you know you can get those at the Dollar Tree? Heck, yeah! What a cheap thrill for a baby/child to get a balloon for only $1 that lasts for two weeks.

I Wanna Ride the Pony!

She can't get this thing out of reverse....

The Birthday--Part 1

So Part 1 is really pre-birthday activities. We'll get to the good stuff soon, I promise!

Annie attended the RW homecoming game last Friday. I felt like a sad townie for being there and I wanted a sign that read "My husband is a coach" so people knew what was up. Anne was pretty good and had a fun time flirting with baby Jarek. Sam was not happy when I informed him they tried to hold hands. Here she is standing on the fence near the end zone, which Northfield visited a few too many times. She was all bundled up in pink, and Jarek was her opposite in all blue.

Standing practice! I had to take Anne's picture because Great-Grandma Joye bought her some new shoes for her birthday. She's been working on her standing and getting better. She was also dressed like Oma: jeans and a turtleneck!



New shoes--they'll never be whiter! Thanks, Grandma!

New Floors

When we bought our house, we knew our white carpet was not going to last long. After Mikey made repeated visits to a particular corner of the loveseat, it was time to take it out. No one wants a house that smells like dog piddle. So out the carpet went, a bit sooner than planned. Here are some pictures of the before-and-after. The "before" is really "midstream" because Sam started whipping the furniture around before I could snap a picture. Seriously, he can lift our loveseat and carry it across the room all by himself.

Goodbye, dingy white; Hello shiny wood!

Not that slipcovered hand-me-down furniture is ever going to look super great, but it looks better on the wood. White carpet is so formal, and we are NOT formal people, so the bare wood/area rug look helps with the casual, lived-in look we having going on. Yeah, that's what we'll call it...

Random Miscellaneous

I have access to many magazines at school, some of which I choose to read while supervising study hall in a different part of the building (away from my computer--gasp!) One favorite is "Family Handyman" which features projects and helpful hints for the DIY homeowner. I read a particularly good tip about putting a power strip in a bread box to hold cell phone chargers. Those things are so ugly, but so necessary. Anyway, I went out looking for a bread box for Sam to drill a hole in, but instead found this great basket. It is designed to hold extra toilet paper, but it was just the right size and shape for this application. Plus it was only $4 at Wal-Mart. It sits on top of the microwave, looking nice and neutral, but the cord for the power strip sneaks out the side and around the back to the outlet. Cell phones live inside when they need a power boost.


Gross mess contained! Woo hoo!

If you read Randy and Karen's blog, you know about Karen's great finds at the One Week Boutique--a sale of used kid's stuff in the Champaign area. I was totally jealous of the giant emporium of cheap things, so I found my own! The Minnesota Valley Mothers of Multiples (MOMS) had a sale at the end of September and I got some great things to round out Annie's winter wardrobe. Below are the clothes we got, and we also picked up a pony on wheels for Anne to ride. Big kudos to my mom, who came along with us and scored some great toys for daycare and helped me keep Anne happy. I'm planning to hit the spring sale as well, though I might arrange a caravan of moms and leave the kid at home. A gym full of crazy, deal-hunting moms is not a good place to navigate a stroller...
New clothes! My favorite is the fleece-lined jeans--where can I get a pair for myself?

Help This Baby!

She is so very cute but in much pain. Her runny diapers have created a diaper rash that cannot be contained. Does anyone have any ideas beyond the basic Desitin/Balmex/Butt Paste routine? She is hysterical when we change her and it is so sad (and also SO frustrating when she kicks and rolls all over--she kicked Sam's hand right into the dirty diaper on Sunday). I'm calling out to the veteran parents out there--help this baby!

P.S. Is that picture not the cutest thing ever? It was like she was "smiling for the camera" for the first time.

I'm working on it...

I have so many posts bouncing around in my head right now, but no time to share them with all of you! Most notably, Anne's birthday was yesterday, and there are pictures to share, but I've not uploaded them yet. We are holding a Scholastic Book Fair at school this week, and I'm getting behind in my grad school homework, so blogging will just have to wait. In the meantime, know that Anne's party was wonderful and she was a delight the entire time. I can't believe my baby is 1 year old!