Thanksgiving

Among the many, many things I am grateful for:


Our warm and cozy little house.

A happy and healthy family (swine flu has come and gone, we've conquered that!)

Cups of tea on overcast fall days.

Time to read and make homemade gifts.

A sweet baby girl who loves reading, skipping, laughing, and snuggling.




Happy Thanksgiving!

Things I Will Want to Remember When I Am Living With A Surly Teenager: Installment 5

The way you'll spend hours snuggled up with us on the couch reading story after story, and then every once in a while look up and give us kisses to thank us for reading to you.

Fall (So Far)

First Words

So Annie's having a bit of a language explosion lately. Over the past few weeks she's picked up several words, and has been babbling like crazy. She listens to us talking to her and then every once in a while she'll hear a word she'd like to try and goes for it. It's super fun to see and her little voice just melts me.

Here is a list of her words, somewhat in order of appearance:

Dog
Da, Daddy
Mama, Mommy
all done (this is her most frequently used expression)
Hi Da (she says this to both of us when we enter a room)
Hi (this is usually whispered for some reason)
on
kitty (started off sounding like "tia", but now sounds like "ti ti")
shoes
what's that?
baby
uh-oh
drink
jeans
keys
stinky
owl
bubbles (just said this one today!)

She also says "vroom vroom" when she plays with toy cars, which I attribute directly to all of the little boys at her day care. My favorite though is the way she always says "OHHH!!!!" when someone drops something or trips. Then she laughs hysterically. People at the grocery store always like that one. ;)

She understands way more than she can say, of course. She follows directions (like picking up her toys, bringing us a book, sitting down, etc.) and she can answer a bunch of yes or no questions by nodding and shaking her head. Makes getting ready for the day and mealtimes much easier, let me tell you! She's been learning her body parts and animal noises, and has been "singing" a bit now and then. Lately she's also been carefully placing her puzzle pieces in the right spot. It's really amazing watching her learn all of this stuff. Sometimes you can really see the light bulb going off.

Enough babbling. Here are some illustrations by Miss Annie herself:

Talking 9.24.09 from porkchop on Vimeo.

She's Got Skills 10.2.09 from porkchop on Vimeo.

A Genius I'm Telling You! 10.2.09 from porkchop on Vimeo.

6th Anniversary

Last week for our 6th anniversary we took a short trip to the Adirondacks. The mountains are our favorite place. We try to go every year, but missed last year. We knew we couldn't go another year without seeing them, at least for a short while. We went back and forth on tent camping or cabin renting, but when we saw that the nights were going down to the 30's, that made our decision for us. We drove up to Old Forge Saturday after Paul got out of work, found a cute little cabin at the Old Forge Camping Resort, and cozied up for the night. The weather was perfect for outside eating and a campfire. And marshmallows. Lots of yummy marshmallows.Annie fell asleep on my lap for about an hour during the campfire, but was wide awake when we got to bed. We forgot the pack and play and she was oh so excited to share a bed with Mommy & Daddy. (The dogs slept on the set of bunk beds, they seemed to like having their own bed to snuggle up on!) It took her a while to settle down. I read her some books and then turned out the lights. She bounced around for a while. She finally was still for about 20 minutes or so, but then she popped up, got reaaaalll close to my face, and whispered, "hi." Seriously hilarious, it was all I could do not to laugh. But I managed to not move a muscle, so she laid back down and finally fell asleep, her feet up on my belly. Apparently I make a good footrest.

In the morning I rustled up some microwaved breakfast at the main lodge and we ate out of the rain on our cozy little porch, complete with wooden porch swing. After check-out we drove up through the mountains, stopping at our usual spot, Long Lake & Lake Eaton. The drive through the park was gorgeous. The leaves were at their peak and it was all gray and wet. Just a perfect fall day. Another great way to celebrate the anniversary of our little family!

Things I Will Want to Remember When I Am Living With A Surly Teenager: Installment 4

How you watch me carefully when I'm singing "I'm Yours" (by Jason Mraz) and then try to sing a bit before getting all giggly and giving me big kisses. You sure do love that song. And I sure do love singing it to you.

Summer's End

Fall is coming and I'm getting that old "longing for apples, soups, pretty leaves, and pumpkins" feeling back. It's my very favorite time of year and I'm really looking forward to it. We've also been really enjoying summertime this past week or so. We crammed a lot in over a few days, but it really all felt very slow and relaxed and fun, exactly how summer should feel.

The Fair

Powers Farm Market

The Zoo

The Pier

Garage Sale Finds
A Cookout and Campfire

All in all, the perfect close to summer. Now on to September!