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!