13 Months Old

What a week we've had...enjoying a beautiful warm day on Wednesday and waking up to snow on Saturday...

More exciting than changes in the weather (and much happier, too!), of course, are all the changes in Annie's life. It's amazing to watch how much she is soaking in about the world around her, and as she experiences more and more, she's developing into an even more fun and sweet (if that's possible) person.

This week she surprised us with her joining in on the motions for "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" (she already was quite proficient at "Twinkle, Twinkle" and "Pat-a-Cake"), and her signing "dog" and "fish." She been very interested in using utensils--getting things onto her fork and spoon and getting them to her mouth (which means more mess, but morning baths for clean-up can be fun, too). She's tried salmon, gnocchi, and ravioli and enjoyed them thoroughly. She likes to share her toys and food with people around her, and has started insisting that all of her stuffed animals and dolls get the opportunity to participate in "pat-a-cake" with us.

Annie's had fun playing with a variety of people throughout the week. She went with Papa to visit her Great-Grandma and enjoyed pushing her walker around and charming the residents of the home where she lives. She had another play-dinner-bath date with River, they're seeming more and more interested in what each other are up to, Annie even wanted to help wash his hair at bath time. On the nice day of the week, we enjoyed eating outside at a neighborhood coffee shop and walking around the lake with Lily and Ashley. This evening she enjoyed playing with some kids from church at a young families gathering. It's fun to see how comfortable she is interacting with a wide variety of people, and how happy she seems to be with all of them.

Finally, we've enjoyed watching Annie gain confidence in walking, especially in the past two days. She's gone from taking a few steps at a time with some encouragement/direction to walking whenever she gets the chance. She'll still resort to cruising and crawling, but we've definitely taken a big step to becoming a true toddler as you can see from this (first) video post.

Needless to say, we feel quite blessed at all that the past thirteen months has brought us and look forward to all that is to come...

Peas in her Bellybutton

Annie had a good week--her first molar finally broke through, she's babbling up a storm, still experimenting with the idea of walking--taking 4-5 independent steps here and there. She's quite steady on her feet, but loves the security and speed of crawling and/or cruising.


Highlights of the week include:
-Going to the zoo with our friends Shelly and Meagan. Annie was especially interested in the fish, dolphins, and monkeys.
-It being warm enough to go up to the neighborhood park with Papa to swing, ride on the see-saw, and climb up the slides.
-Singing along with choir, praying LOUDLY with the minister, and entertaining everyone around us in the pews at church
-Playing outside while Eric and I worked in the backyard (tasting leaves and sticks, exploring new terrain)

And, finally, during a diaper change, discovering that a pea from lunch had made it into her bellybutton.

Annie the Accountant

After a very wintry feeling Saturday (snow, cold, strong wind), we were pleased to see the sun (and feel a bit of its warmth) today.

All in all, we've had a good weekend.

We enjoyed time with friends on Friday afternoon, walking at the Mall with Lily, River, Emily, Ashley and Erin--and then all returned here, joined by Eric, Brett and Greg, to have Annie's favorite--gingerbread pancakes--for dinner. After dinner, Annie and River got ready for bed together--impressing each other with their splashing and kicking abilities!


The rest of the weekend was pretty low key, we enjoyed getting to spend time together. Annie enjoyed having a spare bass drum (Eric had borrowed it for a concert this weekend) in the living room to play. She also has experimented a bit more with walking, taking just a few steps at a time (crawling is so much quicker at this point) but doing this a little more regularly. She enjoyed a trip to a local greenhouse where we all pretended it was much warmer than it really is.

Our weekend ended with a trip to visit our tax lady where Annie was quite fascinated by her cats, lamps, and explanations of our taxes. She was invited to join her practice at a later date if she's still interested (taking after the Olsons?!).

We hope everyone had a great week!

Lasagna, Lights, and other loves

We celebrated Annie's first birthday with Minnesota family and friends on Saturday. It was the first warm and sunny (by warm we mean high 50's) day of spring, nice enough that we took her birthday cake outside! Annie had a great time visiting (as did we!) and we all marveled that it has indeed been a year...




At a year, we find that Annie loves:

*lasagna (and cheeses and breads in any form!), and lately she's enjoyed using utensils a bit (we load them for her, most of the time, she gets it into her mouth)
*feeding Mommy and Daddy as often as they feed her
*organizing things--moving toys and whatever else she's playing with around into different piles, taking them out and putting them back into containers
*dancing, dancing, dancing--Eric's expert opinion (with no prejudice of course) is that she has very good rhythym
*bathtime--for her birthday she's received some bath toys that make her want to stay in even longer
*light fixtures--she finds them wherever we are and would like them to be turned on (and off and on and off)
*pushing buttons--on remotes, on the telephone, on the television
*brushing her hair--we always have to have an extra comb or brush on hand when we want to brush her hair so she can join us
*brushing her teeth--she likes watching herself in the mirror as she does so
*putting socks and shoes on her feet--literally on top of, we're happy she generally knows where they go...she also likes to bring us our shoes and help us put them on and off
*sharing toys and food with people she's with
*waving at people--she likes to say "hello" and "goodbye" to people coming and going from our house, to people in parking lots and on the street, to crows and dogs and squirrels
*pointing at objects and hearing their names (whether in books or around the house)
*being outside--when people are leaving our house she attempts to go with them so she can get outside (when it's a day like yesterday or when in Arizona, we're happy to comply...when it's a day like today--rainy--it's a bit more of a challenge)
*going, going, going--in all different forms
*being with her family and friends--she continues to be quite social

She's currently going up the stairs, saying it's time to move upstairs...we think the rain has subsided for a bit, so we've promised a quick walk before dinner!