Dancin'

Starting to boogie a little bit...


Dancing from porkchop on Vimeo.

Dancing 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.

The Feet Thing

Annie went to the caridiologist this week to get the whole "cold feet thing" checked out. In a nutshell, it's very common for babies to have cold feet and hands because their circulation systems are still maturing. It's even common for them to turn all sorts of colors, like hers were doing. Before he told me this I told him how her feet were bright purple while we were in our pediatrician's office, and he smiled at me expectedly and said, "and what did she say?" I said, "she was concerned, and that's why we're here." He looked baffled and said, "well, she should have told you that it's absolutely normal." Sooo, basically we paid for an ultrasound and all sorts of cardio testing to be informed that it was something that is very common and will go away.

I don't know, I still think it's good that she's so thorough and makes sure we look into things, just in case. It could have been a much different story, and I'm so glad it wasn't! And it is nice to have a doctor who hears things and does her best to prove that it's nothing, rather than blow it off. Because I've heard horror stories. So I'm still glad we went.

It also was kind of fun, to be honest with you! It was a pediatric cardiologist, so there were toys everywhere and the nurses and doctor were so good with kids. They loved Annie, she charmed everyone. She has this thing where when we introduce her to someone, she smiles really big and holds her arms out to people to be held by them, and my lord, people LOVE. IT. I mean, who wouldn't love a baby who is so friendly? The nurse who prepped her and ran the tests was awesome. She sang to her and played with her through the whole thing, Annie didn't even mind having 20 stickers with clamps hanging off them pasted all over her chest or blood pressure cuffs on her arms and thighs (little baby cuffs, so cute! Oh, and the nurse theorized that she might not even feel the leg squeezing since her thighs are so chunky. He.) Then we went to see the doctor, who was equally awesome. Very reassuring, knows his stuff, great with kids, genuinely seems to love what he does. Can't do better than that.

He said it was still good to have her in so she could get a full heart workup. The only issue he found was a murmur. He said it has a very "musical tone to it," which Paul found hilarious. He said he's not concerned about it and we shouldn't be either, that it shouldn't cause her any problems, and that he just wants to see us next year to check it to make sure it's still nice and musical. (He didn't actually say that last part, I just imagine it's something he would say.) So we go back next year almost to the day. I've got to be honest, I'm looking forward to seeing these people again, that's how great they were!

Funny story, I told my mom that the doctor said it was so common it has a name, but he didn't write down the name, so I couldn't remember what it was. So Paul acts like he's thinking about it for a minute, and says, "Hmmm...I'm pretty sure he called it 'Pediatrician Paranosis.'" He. Poor Dr. M. Seriously, we're glad she's thorough!

This week Annie is saying "Ba ba ba ba" over and over again, and if you say it to her, she'll repeat it back. Yesterday she threw in a couple of "Pa pa"s and "Ma ma"s. Thursday Wendy said that she was crawling towards a big book on the floor and when Wendy said "Annie no!" and she stopped crawling and headed back to Wendy. Wendy was amazed. I was surprised too. I've been working on it since she started crawling, and usually when I say "Annie....no...." in a firm tone, she stops what she's doing and looks at me, but she'll go back to it. I'm very excited that she's starting to get what it means! Especially since she's so active--she crawls from the living room to the kitchen now, and there are a lot of no no's out there. And I'm afraid walking is going to be here before we know it: when she's standing she takes steps. Paul said she went from one end of her crawl and cruise to the other the other day. Lord help us. I'm still hoping for a couple more months.

So this whole "understanding words" thing means that I really, really need to focus on cleaning up my, ahem, language. I will be on the lookout for some good, catchy alternatives to the usual swear words I throw around. Which have not been good lately. Oh no, they have not been good. Hopefully something will stick soon!

The Holiday Post

So I suppose it's about time I wrote about Christmas. This is also the longest we've left the tree and decorations up. Guess I'm having a hard time believing it came and went so quickly!

We were so excited for our first Christmas with Annie. In the week leading up to it, she started creeping, then crawling, then discovered a love for wrapping paper. Perfect! Christmas Eve my family came over for junk food dinner and sibling gifts, per tradition. We had yummy french bread pizza, chicken wing dip, marinated mozzarella, and lots and lots of desserts (cookies and monkey bread, YUM). Annie had a blast playing with her aunts and uncles and grandma and grandpa.

Christmas morning we woke up and opened our presents from Santa. She had a grand time helping rip the paper off. We made the rookie mistake of leaving her big gift in the box rather than assembling it before-hand, so we quickly put that together so she could check it out. A few weeks before Christmas I saw a commercial for a crawling/cruising/standing toy from Fisher Price. I had to have it, it was so damn cute. And she loves it, so yay! Paul stood her up to see the monkey at the top the first time she played with it, and within days she was crawling right over to pull herself up to play with him, and pulling herself up to stand on pretty much everything else too. We have a super baby, I'm telling you.
So after playing hard with her new toys, she promptly passed out and slept through present-opening at Grandma & Grandpa's. Luckily she woke up before my mom had to leave for work. She got lots of great presents from Grandma & Grandpa: a car/walker, a puzzle, a book about what snowmen do at night (one of Kev's old favorites), a stacker toy, her first baseball tee, a gloworm that she really loved and needed us to take it out of the package immediately, and her very favorite, a package of popping blocks. She hasn't let those out of her sight since!
Christmas dinner was delicious as always, desserts were fabulous, and the game playing was so fun we ended up staying until 10! We played lots of Meg's Wii and lots of Apples to Apples, a gift from my parents. Annie took a mid-day nap for an hour or so (her Dad slept for 3 hours!!) and then took a 3-hour evening nap. We think she thought it was time for bed, because she doesn't usually sleep that late for evening nap.

Friday after Christmas Paul's Mom and Harvey came over for a spaghetti dinner and presents. Annie got more fun presents (a singing puppy, a top, a butterfly, a couple of outfits) and we had a yummy dinner and some grape pie for dessert. Annie had a great time visiting with her Grandma and ripping into some more wrapping paper. New Year's Eve turned into a celebration of our first year of being parents: instead of our usual wild parties (not really), Annie and Griffin had a play date and the parents and Uncle Kris had some yummy pizza and Apples to Apples (an easy game to play in the living room while corralling crawling and toddling babies). Fin lasted until 9:45, which amazed all of us! Kris stayed on and played some Texas Hold Em with us after Kelly, Mike, and Griffin left. We all had a great time, and it was a nice, relaxing way to ring in the New Year as a family.

Annie torturing poor Griffin, and then Fin telling her to just stay in that exersaucer already:

So now our baby is 7 months old and she is crawling and standing all over the place. I am amazed and proud at how strong she is and how quickly she is learning how to do these things, but at the same time I'm hoping it all starts to slow down just a little bit. I don't want her baby-hood to pass by too fast, I'm enjoying it way too much! But at the same time every time I see her do something new I get a flash of all of the great stuff still to come, and I am so excited to watch it all play out. Oh yeah, and in other news: our bathroom sink broke on Christmas Eve, so everyone had to wash their hands in the kitchen sink all night. This past Friday, Paul's muffler fell off in the intersection before our house on his way home from work. Then the same Friday night we came home from celebrating Paul & Kaggie's birthday and our furnace was not working. So there are our 3 things, that's enough for us, okay universe? Counting our blessings: Paul got a beautiful new bathroom sink installed in time for our New Year's Eve gathering, we were able to get a new furnace installed in just a few hours the day after it broke by some very nice men from Crossfield (who saw we had a baby and made sure we had heat again as soon as possible and for no payments/zero interest for 9 months, thank god), and Paul rarely drives his car, so it's not an emergency to get that fixed. But still, hopefully that will be the end of it for us for a while!

Videos of Annie opening and playing with her presents are here: http://www.vimeo.com/porkchopandpaul/videos

This one is my favorite:


Annie's New Crawl and Cruise from porkchop on Vimeo.

Goodbye, Hello

Goodbye 2008! You were a great year, our best ever.Hello 2009!

Hello crawling, standing baby! Where did you come from so fast??

Crawling from porkchop on Vimeo.

Standing from porkchop on Vimeo.

How we knew it was time to lower the crib...

Yikes.

Time to Lower the Crib!! from porkchop on Vimeo.

6 Months, Sympathy

Annie turned six months old this past Thursday, which is unbelievable to me. She is wearing outfits that looked huge to me when I first put them in her dresser. It's all going so fast, but it's so much fun. She is very chatty now, plays peekaboo, and prefers that we leave her toys in her bucket so she can pull them out herself. She can stand while holding onto something, she has such strong little legs. She has also been very mobile lately, rolling around like crazy (both ways now, thank goodness!) and getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth. We're thinking it won't be long before she starts crawling, lord help us all! She's very much drawn to things she can't have (like all babies are): paper, diaper cream, my mom's VCR. This should be an interesting ride.


Moving from porkchop on Vimeo.

Yesterday she started veggies! We tried squash first, and she seemed like she liked it, gobbled it right up with only a few "what is this" faces. She gets excited when I come over with a bowl and spoon now, so that's a good sign. Hopefully she'll be a good eater!

Funny story: We were in Old Navy yesterday looking for pants, since she's outgrown her old ones. She woke up from her nap a bit cranky, so I decided to take her to the dressing room to feed her. We've never done that before, and she was all excited when she figured out what we were doing. She would eat for a few seconds, then pull off and look up at me with a huge smile. She was enjoying herself immensely, until a very unhappy toddler entered the dressing rooms. He was crying and crying, and as soon as she heard it she pulled off and looked up at me with huge eyes and a startled expression. I told her it was okay and she went back to eating for a few seconds. But then he kicked it up a notch, and I don't know if she felt sympathy for the kid or if she just didn't like the way his cries were echoing in there, but she pulled off and started screaming immediately. It was such a sad face, which of course was hilarious to me. Poor baby, here she is all freaked out and her mother is laughing at her. It was too funny though. I had to sing a few bars of rubber duckie to calm her down, and just kept singing a few lines each time she seemed like she was getting upset again. The kid and his mom left after a while, Annie finished eating, and she was much happier after that. Too funny though. I like to think I'm raising a compassionate child, more compassionate than her mother anyway. ;)

This one is also titled: Why Babies Don't Sleep With Blankets.


Annie vs. Furry Blanket from porkchop on Vimeo.