Our One Year Old

Eric and I spent most of the day in awe that it has been a year since we welcomed Annie into the world!


We had a good day together (in spite of the fact that Annie seems to have her first set of molars--yuck!--coming in, poor girl). Having just arrived home from Arizona last night, Annie was on Arizona time and slept till 8:30 this morning, so she missed breakfast with Daddy. She and I had a little breakfast and some playtime together before going to pick up Eric to take him with us to music class (a birthday treat for Annie!). She introduced Eric to all of her music class friends and showed him all her new skills (her teacher assured Eric that Annie will be the talented musician in the family). Then we all had lunch together at Maria's Cafe where Annie enjoyed her favorite meal--pancakes--and waving and smiling at everyone else in the restaurant. After her nap, we had more playtime and then welcomed Daddy back home for some playtime and dinner and a birthday chocolate chip cookie!



She is a pretty incredible little girl, full of energy, very observant, more and more intentional with actions and sounds; she loves to be with people and to make them laugh with her, and we are amazed each day at all that she is becoming! What a wonderful year...

Ahhh...warmth...

To welcome in spring and say goodbye to Annie's first year, we've been enjoying:

...the warmth of the Arizona sun, the feeling of grass under our feet (it took Annie a little bit to get used to this!), the smell of citrus blossoms, the sound of birds chirping...you get the idea...we are enjoying being outside!






...time with lots of family and friends. Annie has particularly enjoyed playing with her cousins--Elliott and Kate--they all seem thoroughly entertained by each other! Annie's showed everyone how adept she's become at cruising, standing on her own, and generally getting where she wants to be. She even has taken three steps all by herself!





...celebrating Easter and Annie's first birthday (a few days early!).

We're almost there...

to Annie's first birthday, that is.

We are having such a fun time with this age, but it is also so weird to think about how quickly she's growing. We're alternately excited about the next phases (first steps, growing communication, college, etc.) and wary to let this time pass...to not see her crawling around the house will be quite strange.




Some of her new joys are:

1. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star...Last week it was playing on the Annie's favorite radio station (http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/services/wonderground), and I realized she didn't know it, and that made me feel like I was neglecting my duties. So, we started singing it, and doing the motions for it...Now, she often requests it (by lifting her hands up and making them "twinkle") again and again and again.


2. Sorting our DVD collection...she loves taking them off the shelf and putting them on, though today was disappointed when she discovered that I couldn't read them to her (they are shaped quite like many of her books, it's an understandable mistake).

3. Having us help her walk...This has replaced stair climbing as her favorite means of exercise, she's getting quite good, though sometimes her excitement becomes overwhelming and her top half of her body seems to be far in front of her feet. She especially loves the opportunity to motor herself (be it with this "walking" or by crawling) to her bath. Once we've got her undressed in her bedroom, if you ask her, "Annie, do you want to go to your bath?" She will take off as quickly as she can move and won't stop until she's peering into the tub.

She, of course, continues to be a joy to us, and we can't wait to celebrate spring with her!!! Oh...to play outside...

Keeping warm...

We've had the coldest February we remember in awhile here in Minnesota, and so we've had fun trying to keep all of us entertained indoors. Luckily, Annie's antics, a festive Valentine's (and Arizona Statehood Day, of course!) week, a trip to South Dakota, and a visit from Jenia's parents (who remind us daily that if we were in Arizona it would be 77 degrees as opposed to the ridiculous subzero temperatures we've had) have kept us busy.

As Annie approaches eleven months, she is increasingly confident in her mobility, and here and there will even stand by herself for a few moments. In recent weeks, she's found two new loves: rocking and paper. Before my parents arrived, she was enjoying rocking in the big rocking chair in her room, but when my parents got here they had with them a rocking chair my grandpa had given me when I was little, and Annie is enjoying that even more. With paper, well, she loves every aspect of it. She loves the sounds it makes as she crinkles it, she loves to look at the pictures on it, she loves to rip it into tiny pieces which she then carries all over the room with her, she would love to eat it if we let her...Our magazine basket is now one of her favorite spots in the living room.

Annie has enjoyed having lots of time with Grandma and Grandpa, and has been entertaining them with her wide variety of silly faces, sounds, as well as her frequent dancing, waving, and clapping. Bath time is becoming more and more of a treat for Annie as she's discovering the joys of splashing. Her new music class has continued to be a blast, Annie is very outgoing and comfortable with all the kids and the teacher, and enjoys interacting with them as much as possible. In whatever she's doing, she loves to get people to laugh and smile, and we of course do so often in her presence.

Last weekend, we traveled to South Dakota for Annie's cousin Kate's baptism, and had a great time playing with cousin Elliott and Kate. It's fun to watch Annie interact more and more with Elliott and to watch her fascination with Kate (who she pets a lot). Kate and Annie are just 9 months apart--right now that seems like a whole lot--but as they get older, it's fun to think they'll be so close in age.


We are quite relieved that warmer temperatures are being forecasted for the weekend, and are planning on spending some time outdoors!! (I know I've been in Minnesota too long when the 30's feel like a warm up...)

It's hard to believe next month Annie will turn one...

We're all a bit older...

Since our last post, our family has celebrated birthday week: Jenia turned 30, Eric turned 33 and Annie hit the 10 month mark. As usual, we all enjoyed the festivities, relishing the time with family and friends, and with just the three of us as well--we had tasty birthday breakfasts (gingerbread pancakes are a new favorite of Annie's!), Eric and I both got to try out our baking skills, Eric made a tasty (from scratch!!) cranberry angel food cake for me, and I got try my hand at french silk pie for him. We especially enjoyed day time together as Eric started full-time his new job in the tech department at a local college this week. Annie and I are VERY excited at the prospect of having him home in the evening for dinner and the bedtime routine, but we will very much miss having him stop in during the day.



The real excitement in our lives continues to be (and I doubt that it will ever cease to be!) Annie. She is now an expert crawler, expert puller-upper--even on sleek surfaces, perhaps the effect of reading her gecko book too much, expert stair climber (up not down), and she is contemplating cruising, making half-hearted attempts here and there. She loves to explore every corner and every surface of the house, which keeps us on our toes for sure!


She has always loved books, but is increasingly fascinated by them. She is definitely showing preferences, having not only favorite books but also favorite pages that we get to turn to again and again. She's recently combined her love for music with her new motor skills, and loves to pull up onto the piano and play little songs for all of us. She still loves dancing, and seems to especially enjoy hip-hop music (we listen often to a public radio station that has a great eclectic mix of music)--when crawling and the music comes on she'll stay on all fours but just lift one arm and move it in time to the music, it's quite a riot to watch!

We started a new music class last week. It is one for the next age group, and she is on the younger end of that group. It was fun to watch her watch the "big" (15-18 month olds) kids move around with ease and interact in a much more complex way, and it will be interesting to see the impact this has on her!


All in all, she continues to delight us. It is quite an exciting time seeing this little personality emerge more and more clearly. Her curiosity and sense of adventure are clear motivators for much of her day, and her sweet personality and goofiness keep us smiling!

Brrr...

Annie's having her first real taste of cold this weekend, with temperatures this weekend not supposed to get above -1 degrees (and then wind chill makes it even lovelier--negative 20 and the like). We bundled her up for church this morning and she seemed to do quite fine, complaining far less than I did. We have kept a pretty low-key weekend, not wanting to venture out too much. Last Tuesday when it was still a balmy 20 degrees, we all went for a walk--Annie in the new back carrier which she seems to just love!!!

This past week has not seen any major milestones, instead we've seen her sharpening the skills she has...She can get around the house now with ease, and is becoming more and more proficient in pulling up. She thinks games of chase are quite exciting. Needless to say, the baby proofing continues. We keep experimenting with new finger foods, one of her new favorites is tofu.

Annie has always been quite the little talker, but it's been fun in recent weeks to listen to her wider and wider range of sounds, some of them quite sweet sounding, others down right goofy. Mealtimes can turn especially silly. This week we've also worked out perfecting the wave, she's been waving "hi" and "goodbye" for awhile now to Eric as he comes and leaves for work during the day, she loves to sit in the big picture window in the living room to do so. For awhile, it seemed she couldn't transfer the wave beyond the picture window occasions, now she'll wave like crazy whenever anyone says a word anywhere close to "hi."

We are having quite fun with her developing independence, she is so very clear about what she wants and doesn't want, and it's been incredible to watch her learning to express this.

The Clean Plate Club

Well, Annie's been reinstated as a member. Her membership had been revoked about a week and a half ago when she started making it clear that food delivered to her on a spoon was incredibly undesirable. The only thing she seemed interested in eating was Cheerios. Now, for a little girl who'd previously eaten anything we'd give her, this took us by surprise. After some meals where we'd get one bite into her and then rely on the Cheerios to fill her up, the light bulb went on. We have a nine month old, who--right on time with everything we've read--is expressing her independence at mealtimes. We attempted to let her feed herself with a spoon, but that was a disaster. The answer to our dilemma was then: dice it. Diced sweet potatoes, apples, avocados...basically, anything she's given to pick up and feed herself, she'll eat. Once again, she's finishing well-balanced meals. She gets to feed herself, that makes her happy. She's eating a variety of foods, that makes us happy. All is well.



In other Annie news, to celebrate her Uncle John's birthday last week, Annie started crawling! In the first few days it was definitely just to get something: a toy, her mommy. But, as the week's progressed it's been more about exploring her little world. This has led to some pulling up, some attempts to climb stairs, and other such fun. Needless to say, we will be spending time this weekend crawling around ourselves, to make sure that all is safe for her.

Besides this, we've been attempting to get back into a routine after holiday craziness...We so much enjoyed being out and about and seeing friends and family, but this weekend are enjoying relaxing...