Easter!

Happy Easter!  I hope you all enjoyed your day.  We certainly did.  The weather has finally decided to consistently give us beautiful Spring days.  Luckily Eric and I both have 3 glorious days off AT THE SAME TIME.  Its and Easter miracle, really.  So we have been enjoying our backyard and orienting A to the grass, something she wasn't so sure of at first. 

Notice how her hands are raised in each picture?  Her desire to be mobile finally trumped scary grass yesterday and she was quickly crawling around outside as she does in.  I'm just so excited to have the nice, baby-friendly weather back.  I have lofty goals of frequent park visits, hikes, and general outdoorsy fun this summer. 

We recently visited the Easter bunny, as I suspected, it did not go so well. But, hey, can you blame her  Even as easy-going as she is, the Easter Bunny is pretty scary!  Especially this slouchy one.  So, Mommy had to get her picture taken too.  Even though this pic is blurry, it gives a good gist of how she felt in regards to the rabbit

She did become resigned quickly and we got a decent photo.  When she gets a little older I'll remind her that the person under the costume isn't really scary at all

Circa 2006

Here are some more photos of her sweet Easter Dress

Easter morning dawned sunny and beautiful, although we didn't know it right away since it was 5am when Annalise decided to start her day!  This early awakening sunk our plans to attend church since she was in desperate need of a good nap.  But we did enjoy watching her with her basket

Just wait, those plastic eggs will be SO much more fun when there are treats inside!

We had a lovely dinner with some friends, I stopped taking pictures though.  I did dye Easter eggs this year, it will be way more fun when my daughter can participate, pretty anticlimactic when done alone!

I hope everyone had as splendid a day as we did!  Oh, I almost forgot, I also won the round of Settlers of Catan that we played!  And it was only my second time, yay me!  Ok, now we are going to get outside and enjoy the day!

Guest Room Revamped and 3/4 of a year

My sweet little girl was 9 months old yesterday!!  Unfortunately she is not posing as sweetly for pictures as she used too, we tried our best though!

She had her check up yesterday as well, clocking in at 18lbs 12oz and 27.5inches, back up to 50th percentile all around.  She is beautifully perfect, to quote her pediatrician.   She is a super fast crawler and loves to babble.  Her most recent "trick" is waving.  She's oh so much fun and keeping us on our toes!

Next topic: When we moved into our house it really didn't require much work, which was one of the draw for sure (especially when moving with a 4 week old!), we really liked (most) of the paint and the only room we altered right away was the nursery.  The exception was the guest room.  It had previously been the nursery for a little boy,

The Baseball Room

Cute idea, but not really suiting our current needs.  My parents came to visit and graciously offered to paint for us.  It turned out lovely and we are SO greatful!

It's now one of my favorite places in the house (as well as the cat's!).  Come and visit!

Bad Blogger

Wow, I knew I had been slacking on the blogging but didn't realize I had THAT much catch up to do until I logged on and saw my last post from the end of January.  Oh, well, such is our life now with busy careers and a time-sucking daughter (and I mean that in the best way).  So here is an update in pictures.  Ok, well, February..

Starting to realize she can remove the headbands :(

1st Valentines Day, the dragons tail is delicious

1st BBQ at V-Day dinner, she LOVED it

Ok, February was a short month, it was cold, we played inside a lot, baby starting to get into mischief.  On to March..

Time is going way too fast!

A Started pulling herself up!

My Dad popped in for a quick visit

And we played dress-up!

We visited some more breweries

Up to 16 I think, A and Daddy in matching Phish shirts

The binky connoisseur

1st swimming pool!

1st St. Patricks Day!  Too cold to watch the parade though

Mummu and Papa came back!

Big girl on the slide!

My baby girl

Why, yes, those ARE hippos on my onesie

Silly girl!

I think that about covers it!  Life is good.  We have both been working a lot so a parent visit couldn't have come at a better time.  We even got to enjoy a night away for our 5th wedding anniversary!  A keeps us busy as she is constantly on the move now that she is adept at crawling.  We think she has said "Mama", "Dada", and "Khee" (kitty), who really knows though?!  She loves to eat and hasn't turned her nose up at any food we offer.  She is pretty amazing.   I've got more to share so hopefully I can give more details if I post more frequently, I'll work on that...

January Bleakness Made Merry

We rang in the New Year with my mom and step-dad arriving for a visit.  Well, let me rephrase that, I ACTUALLY didn't ring in the new year as I was sleeping and had to work the next day, but I rang in 9:30!  It was wonderful having them here.  Being as it was January we didn't do much except baby snuggle, which I think was ok with them!

Trying to crawl

Modeling some Christmas gifts

During their time here we celebrated Miss Annalise's half birthday! 

At her 6 month check she clocked in at 15lbs 10oz and 26in.  50th percentile for length but dropped slightly to the 25th on weight, the doc says not to worry though since she is so active.  As is evidenced by the above photo she is starting to crawl.  She hasn't quite gotten the hang of the traditional crawl but is a master of the army crawl.  Nevertheless she can get to the dog bone she desperately wants at rapid speed.  She is full of giggles and smiles and is really just a delightfully easy baby.  She has her two bottom teeth coming in and hasn't even complained about it.  I am so in love I can't stand it sometimes.

Since she hit the 6 month mark it was time to start food.  We decided to go with the Baby-led approach after seeing how easy it was for my nephew.  It just makes sense to me.  She is still getting all the nutrients she needs from breastmilk so any food at this point is just bonus.  So why not let her explore and learn to enjoy food?  It is super simple and just cuts out the puree stage.  So we just feed her basically what we eat, just cut into baby-manageable sticks.  It's pretty fun to watch her, and, as evidenced by what comes out, she seems to be actually getting some food down!

First attempt on Christmas with Broccoli

Thoroughly enjoying pasta w/ sauce

  So, if you are looking for an alternative to spoon-feeding your baby bland purees, I highly recommend this method, read the book (Baby-Led Weaning... by Tracey Murkett), it just made sense for us.

Last week we took our first trip with A to visit by brother, sister-in-law, and my two beautiful, giant, nephews.  A visited the cockpit of course

And she really did great on the plane.  I'm glad there were two of us though, I don't know how I would have managed solo!  We had an amazing time, although it was too short, as always.  My nephews were so incredibly sweet with their baby cousin, taking turns holding her.  I think my favorite quote of the weekend was when my younger nephew was told to stop touching/messing with the baby when we were in the car, his response was "I just want to pet her!" 

Really trying hard not be jealous!

But really helpful too!

My 3 loves

Tantie's lap is happy once more

Very important to keep babies warm

Enthralled by her big cousin

It was just such a wonderful visit, but also heart-wrenching that our kids don't get to see each other all the time.  Luckily we already have our next visit planned. 

That about sums it up!  We are back to work and delving in to our new positions (oh, did I not mention it, Well, I took a permanent charge nurse position at work) and trucking along while watching in amazement as our sweet baby girl grows up before our eyes.