Our little chatterbox

Anna has had quite a bit to say the past couple of days.  I was lucky enough to capture some of it today.



Pictures will be coming soon.  I promise.

Mirror Mirror

This seven-month-old little lady is the fairest of them all around these parts.  She seems to agree.

Our little green machine...

Happy St. Patty's Day from our favorite little green M&M!!!

It was her very first and she was very excited about it!

We hope everyone found a four-leaf clover and didn't get pinched!!!

Six months!!!

Our little lady is a half a year old...

 

...and growing up can be exhausting.  

Lately:

She loves tags.  If we give her any toy with a tag, she'll find it and play with it.  

If her pacifier is hooked to her, she has learned how to grab it and turn it the right way and put it in her mouth.  

She hasn't mastered eating solids.  We're working on it.

She's a busy body.  She always has to be doing something. Playing with something, reaching for something grabbing something.  If you're holding her and she sees something she wants she'll lunge for it.    

She is becoming very vocal.  She's started to say her ba ba bas.

She's sitting up like a champ.

She's a champion sleeper.  She's in bed by 7:00pm and will sleep until 7am with two naps during the day. 

One of our favorite things is that she's easily amused.  She'll laugh and squeal over any little thing, especially in the morning right after she wakes up.  It's the greatest thing ever. 

Sometimes we even dress alike.  This was totally by chance too.  I got dressed then got her dressed and noticed hey we're matchy matchy.  

Rice cereal time...

So, we decided it was finally time for Anna to start eating rice cereal.  She'll be six months in just a week so today sounded like a good time to give it a go.  Here are the pics of how it went.  You can judge for yourself how you think she liked it.   

Happy V-day!

One year ago we saw our little lady for the first time and it was the best Valentine's day present ever.

To hear her little heartbeat was one of the most incredible things Chris and I had experienced up to that point in our lives.  She was only the size of a lima bean but, we already loved her so much.

Then, five months ago, we finally got to meet her and it was an even more incredible experience.  This little person had been a member of our family for the better part of a year and now, we were holding her.    She finally had a name and we loved her so much.

Now she's five months old!  My how time flies.  We never could have dreamed what a blessing she would be to our family.  She is such a good baby.  She makes us laugh every day and has the sweetest temperament about her.  She is also the greatest little valentine!

Enjoy some pics from our mini V-day photo shoot and some facts about our little lady.  

Blowing bubbles with her mouth is one of her new tricks.  She also thinks it's hilarious when you do it back to her.  

She tries to weasel herself out of the bumbo. 

She is not sitting up entirely on her own but she'll be there before we know it.  

She has a great smile and an even greater laugh.  

She's just a really good girl.  

Other facts to remember about five month old Anna:

• She's starting to take consistent naps.  One a couple hours after she wakes up and another around 3pm.  
• She is doing better with tummy time but will roll from her tummy to her back as fast as she can.  She can roll from her back to her belly but she doesn't do it too often.  She does like laying on her side and has discovered that its fun to sleep that way.    
• She is a tall girl.  She is growing out of a lot of her 3-6 month clothes lengthwise that would otherwise fit her.
• Her hair is growing in pretty well even though it is only peach fuzz at this point.  
• Our friend from church who has three kids watched Anna for a couple hours this week.  She said that her boys were such aggressive eaters and that Anna was the laziest eater she had ever seen.  We knew that she gets distracted while eating but it was funny to hear it from someone else.  If there are things to look at or anything else going on, eating takes a back seat. 

We had a lovely Valentines day.  Last year after our first appointment with the OB/GYN, we celebrated with lunch at Phil's BBQ, one of our very favorite places to eat in the whole world.  

We thought it would be a fun Vday tradition so we headed down to Phil's for lunch.  The service was incredible and the food was even better.  They usually have lines out the door but there was the perfect crowd today.  If you haven't been there and you're ever in San Diego, we highly recommend it.    

Another thing we love about Anna is her love of looking around.  She's definitely a people watcher.  If she has something to look at, she will be happy for hours.  And she was.  She didn't fuss the whole day.  

Here's a little clip of her people-watching during our lunch.  If you listen closely, you can hear the sound she makes when she's really happy.  It kinda sounds like a barking seal and I love it.  

After lunch, we headed to Balboa Park to take advantage of their free admission Tuesday.  Every Tuesday, entrance to various museums are free.  We were able to walk through the Museum of Photographic Arts.  It was pretty cool.  

Does Anna rock those shades or what!?!

We walked around and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and the beautiful day.  

And apparently, they had some daddy-daughter secrets to share.  

Another thing that made our day were these ladies who, I'm guessing, are twins. They were so adorable in their matching heart sweaters, pants and hair.  So fun.  

We had a fun day and send out lots of love to our family and friends who we love so much!  We hope your Valentine's Day was marvelous!

One month older!!!

It's a little past her actual four month old date but yay! Anna is four months (plus).  I remember a friend from church telling me that even though she loves them always, four months to nine months is her very favorite ages of her kids.  I can totally see why.  Anna is getting so much personality and I've said it before but it continues to be true: she gets more fun every day.  It's been so wonderful to see her grow from a newborn to an infant.  We just love her so much.

A few four month facts about Miss Anna:

She is holding her head up like a champ.  She's been doing this for a while but she's still getting stronger and stronger every day.

She tries to sit up but it just looks like shes doing crunches. I think she'll be sitting up in no time.

She loves her hands.  She looks like she's plotting some evil scheme when she plays with them.

She has discovered her feet. She loves to lay on her playmate and play with them. She turns into a little stinkbug.

She's laughing and smiling a lot.  It's so fun to watch because when she smiles or laughs, it's like a whole body reaction.  Her hands come in and her head tilts and if she's laying down, her feet come up.  It's the best thing ever.

She loves to look around.  If we are at a store or out somewhere, she loves to have the cover off of the car seat or be out of it looking around.  If not, she gets fussy.  Also, sometimes when we feed her, we have to take her into a dark room to be able to focus on eating, otherwise, she is way too distracted.

She loves to look at herself in the mirror and see how cute she is.  If she gets fussy, taking her to the mirror and letting her look at herself calms her down.

She's still a great sleeper.  She's sleeping around 8-10 hours at a time during the nights.  Great for everybody involved.

She loves to have things over her face.  She has a blanket that we call the magic blanket.  If we put her on it and flip it up over her forehead to make her a fort face, she'll fall right asleep.  She will also bring toys up to her face and snuggle up to them.

She loves her family and friends and is very social.  Over Christmas, we were fortunate enough to be able to spend two weeks with each of our families.  I don't know who had a better time, the family who was able to spoil her or her who was very spoiled.  .

She still hates tummy time.  It's her greatest weakness.  She'll cry and cry and cry until we flip her back over.

She has a great little voice and loves to say her "a-goos".  She loves to hear herself and will ramble quite loudly for quite a long time.

She LOVES the tv. If she is not facing it, she'll try and turn her head and look at it. (See the first picture for an example.) Her favorite is Baby Einstein.  She goes crazy for it when its on. We're very careful to not let the tv be our babysitter but she would love nothing more than to watch it all day.

She had her four month check up today with the doctor and did great.  She weighs 14 lbs 9.5oz (63rd percentile), height 26 inches (93rd percentile) and her head is 16.85 inches (87th percentile).

And now pictures and some videos: