Wild Girl

This summer is flying by now, and our baby is just sprouting right up into a little girl. For the past month or so, all she wants to do is read books. She'll sit and read by herself, but she especially loves sitting in someone's lap to hear it from them. Or, I should say, hear one word from each page because she loses interest pretty quickly, turns through the pages with lightening-fast speed, and then goes to grab another book for the next round. Her obsession with books is such that even I encouraged her to put down her books and play with some toys instead the other day. I know, crazy. Her current favorites are "Goodnight Gorilla," "Clifford Barks," and "Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb." These are all fun to read, which helps. I could seriously sit for hours and read to her though (and I have). It's so great to see her enjoy something so much, and we love that she's so willing to snuggle up to us right now. We're definitely enjoying that for as long as we can!

She's running a lot lately, and does this thing we call "the happy dance," a cute little stomping jig that she does when she finds a good book that she wants to read, a fun new toy to play with (usually something she's not supposed to have), or if someone gives her something yummy to eat. It's adorable. She's way more interested in playing with the "big boys" than she is with little girls her own age. They're more wild, which suits her personality just perfect.

This past month we've done lots of fun summer things, like swimming, camping, trips to the playground, playing in the backyard. She has so much fun everywhere, she is quite the adventurer. At the playground she wants to walk up all of the steps just like the big kids, and loves the slide the most. When we take her swimming she goes back and forth between the two of us, but she really just wants to take off on her own, she kicks her legs and tries to jump right out of our arms. She loved camping, especially jumping all over the air mattress, doing her happy dance. Now that we have a weekend test run out of the way, we can't wait to take her on a longer trip!

She is definitely a wild girl, loves running, climbing, and jumping, and is fearless. We love what a strong, assertive, but also sweet little girl she is. We can't wait to see what comes next!

Teeth

It turns out Annie has not 1 tooth, but 2 teeth poking out on the bottom. A nice wide ledge of teeth that she tested out by scraping up both ends of her crib. Doh! We decided it was time to start experimenting with some finger foods to use those teeth for good for a change. We started out with american cheese, and oh man, did she enjoy it. She wasn't sure about the chewing and the sharp-ish taste at first, but after a little while she was munching away happily, smiling and laughing and holding it up in the air with joy. I told her that's how I feel when I eat cheese too, it's just not socially acceptable to do that when you're an adult, so she should enjoy it now.

Cheese! from porkchop on Vimeo.

Tonight we tried out some of those Gerber puffs, sweet potato flavored, and she could not get enough of them. So yay for finger foods! Today she also made a grab for Paul's sandwich, so I think she's pretty into this whole eating like a grown person thing!

Bonus video: I love it because it totally looks like she's checking to make sure I'm recording before she starts walking. She's catching on!

Walker from porkchop on Vimeo.

Stinker

Wednesday morning: I'm at work, Paul wakes around 8am to hear not talking, like we usually hear from Miss Annie, but clunking noises, like someone might be working at something.

Not sure what to expect, he walks into her room, where she looks up and gives him a giant "good morning!" smile from underneath a pile of mobile.

The whole thing was unscrewed and off the side of the crib. Of course he wants to believe she's a genius and figured out how to work the screw (it's big and plastic), but I think it was more of a pulling at it until it popped off sort of thing.

Either way, mobile days are over and the crib is looking rather plain without it!Stinker.