Talkin on the phone...

Annabelle has figured out the phone. We play with the phone with her sometimes and pretend we are talking to someone then give her the phone. Well, she's finally picked up on it. She'll put up to her ear (backwards, mind you) and will start "talking" into it. She will practically yell into it "ba ba ba" really loud. Here are some pics...

Good view of backwards phone:


Annabelle yelling into the phone:

Bed Head

Annabelle is really starting to get a full head of hair. This also means she is starting to get to major bed head. Below is a picture of her this mornig. It's pretty funny.

It seems her nose is runny. She doesn't have any cold symptoms so I'm thinking it's just the teeth. We were supposed to go over to a friends house today and now I'm not sure if we will. I wouldn't want to pass along any germs unnecessarily. She also seems to react poorly to mosquito bites. They get big and swollen and will eventually ooze (eww, I know). So, I gave her some Children's benedryl to see if that would help. I guess it can either make kids super drowsy or excitable...she is majorly conked out right now so I guess it makes her drowsy (whoo hoo!)....

Smartest Baby in the World!

Ok...so we are biased. Annabelle has really grown these last few weeks. She now has 2 more official words...doggy and ball. She'll point to Bailey and other dogs and say "doggy doggy doggy" and will point to a ball and say "ball." This morning she picked up Bailey's leash and chased him with it, knowing that the least goes with the dog. She also loves to say "uh oh," which is pretty darn cute!

A lot of her toys make music and she knows exactly which buttons to push to get the song she wants. Once the music plays she dances along with it. She has also been pointing to things she wants. She knows exactly where her snacks are in the pantry and she'll squeal and point at them when she wants some. If I ask her if she's ready for breakfast or lunch she'll do a little feet pounding and walk over to her highchair, ready to eat.

She is getting her "one year molars" in. That's what they're called. I don't know why...talking with other moms, those molars start coming in AFTER they turn one. She was a bit of a pill yesterday due to the pain of those molars. She officially has 9 teeth now.

Annabelle has been off of bottles now for about 3 weeks. We have a small bit of formula left over so we have been giving her a bottle of that a couple times a week just to get rid of it. She loves her straw cup.

Here is a pic of Annabelle enjoying her morning bananas...

Good Times.....

This week has been fun. We went to Belle's playgroup on Wednesday. Annabelle played well with everyone. Her friend, the other Annabelle, or Belle as we are calling her, hung out! Allie, Leah and Thomas were there too! Today we went shopping at an outlet center called Potomac Mills. Annabelle rode her first merry go round! I think she liked it. Here are some pics.

The gang at Belle's playing in Belle's tent:


Annabelle and Allie on the Merry Go Round:

Family Visits

This weekend we visited with Auntie Betty and Auntie Jill. They are Paul's aunts, making them Annabelle's great aunts. On Friday Aunt Betty came in from NYC. We all went out to dinner then came back to our place to hang out. In the morning, Aunt Betty woke up with Annabelle, allowing us to sleep in...what a treat! Later that day we took a walk around Del Ray, stopping at the farmers market. We picked up some tasty peaches, cantaloupe, and squash from some local farmers. Aunt Betty chopped up some peaches and cantaloupe...it was SO good. We need to remember to get fruit there more often. I usually buy squash and fresh cheese.

Later that night, we joined Aunt Jill and Aunt Betty along with Goody for dinner. Goody cooked crab cakes (I got a steak!). I made a blueberry pie. I'm trying to perfect my pie crust. It was good but I still have more practice ahead of me. My mom used to make the best flaky pie crusts when I was little.

Annabelle...well, she is definitely miss personality. I used to be able to spend the morning watching her and playing with a little bit of computer time for myself. Not anymore...If I'm on my computer longer than about 10 min she pitches a fit and wants me to play with her. She really loves Bailey. She knows exactly which toys are hers and what are Bailey's. She'll actually bring Bailey's stuffed possum to him to try to play. It really is quite cute. I never wanted to have a child who was afraid of dogs. That's not a good thing, in my book anyway. I'm so happy that they seem to really like each other and even play together sometimes. Bailey is a good dog and I don't give him enough credit sometimes.

She is loving to point at things now. I say "where is the light?" and she points at it. I ask here where Bailey is and she points at him. She'll also point upstairs if I ask her where daddy is because that's where he works everyday. She's a lucky girl...gets to see her daddy a lot! She loves playing with her little farmhouse. Below is a pic of her and daddy playing.

We are working on getting a video of her blowing kisses. When we get it, we'll post it.

Daddy playing with Annabelle and her Farm


Out on a walk


Playing around

Brushing teeth...finally!

We've been meaning to do this as the dentist recently told us to start. So, we brushed Annabelle's 7 teeth. She really seemed to enjoy it, actually. Here are some pictures.
She has been doing a few new things lately. When she hears music, she likes to bop along. Today I asked her where her milk was and she pointed to her sippy cup. On one occasion when she couldn't see it she actually looked for it and found it. She is still loving to blow kisses and twirl in a circle when you ask her to dance.

Opressively Hot Week!!!!!!!

AKKK! I hate this weather. It is tooooooooooo hot. When it gets this hot the city issues a Code Orange air alert. ICK!!!

So, Annabelle is a major goofball. We have taught her to "blow kisses." This consists of her putting her hand in her mouth and then making the blow kiss gesture with a little bit of sound. She loves doing it and has been doing it ALL day. We need to capture it on video. She is also starting to learn how to show affection. What I mean by that is that she'll go over to Bailey and nuzzle against him waiting for him to give her a kiss, or lick. She is very fond of Bailey. Another thing she is doing lately is mimicking. I have noticed her trying to mimick things that we say. I swear she said "wha dat" while I was putting blueberries on her tray. She's got all the motor skills down...I guess the next big thing will be being a little chatterbox. If her babbling is any indication, she will be chatty.

Here are some pictures of Annabelle with my sunglasses, which she will demand to have if she sees them.

Slow Week...

With Annabelle getting over the virus, we haven't done much. We stayed in on Thursday and Friday.

I think this is the first time (not including the holidays or travel) that we went a whole week without seeing any buddies. There were no playgroups this week and swimming and Gymboree is over. We'll have to spice things up a bit next week!

Did I ever say how hard it is losing baby weight? I won't disclose actual weights here, but suffice it to say, I've lost around 25 lbs and still have about 10-15 more to go. I have a 5 lb weight range that I would be happy in. New lesson...eat healthy while pregnant, work out while pregnant, eat healthy while nursing, and start workign out as soon as you can after having the baby. I never realized how hard it was to lose weight. Pregnancy is not a license to eat!!!

On the work front, still waiting for daycare to open. As soon as they say they'll be open, I give the word to work and they get me back on the payroll as a part-timer. I'm actually looking forward to it. Annabelle is SO SO SO busy these days that I actually think I bore her.

Happy Fourth of July!!!!

We hope everyone had a nice holiday! Annabelle woke up and her fever was gone and stayed gone the entire day. Whoo hoo! The day started off with a neighborhood party. Then we went with Goody and Poppy to Washington Golf and Country club where they are members. The club always puts out a good feast and a fireworks display that could rival a city's...it was very impressive. Annabelle seemed to enjoy them after a bit of fright in the beginning. She was a hit at the club, getting many oooohhhs and ahhhhhssss...especially with her little fourth of July outfit on! There was a tall man walking around on stilts which really captured her interest!

Here are some pictures:

Annabelle and the tall man:


Annabelle loves watermelon!

Busy few days...

Sorry for the delay in posts but we've been pretty busy here. Last week we had Gymboree and playgroup on Thursday. On Friday we had another birthday playgroup. The babies in our group have birthdays from December through July. We have one more birthday playgroup and then that's it until December.

On Saturday we went to dinner with some friends. Then on Sunday, Annabelle developed a fever. It seems she is fighting a virus. So, we've canceled a few get togethers. All we can do is give her baby motrin and baby tylenol and try to get liquids in her. Poor little thing. I just hope Paul and I don't come down with anything. I was getting a little stir crazy and decided to take her on a long walk to old town. I took the GPS watch with me and we ended up walking 5.7 miles. Whoo hoo! Makes up for the fact I didn't get to the gym Monday morning since we were up all night with a sick baby.

As for miss Annabelle...she is really running now. I call it running...she moves QUICK!!! She is also trying to crawl onto the couch...she is so short (like mom and dad), though, so I think it will be a while before she can do it. That is a good thing because right now I can leave her gated in the living room area with plenty of room for her to run around in. It will be a whole other ballgame once she starts climbing the furniture.

Here are some pictures from Thomas's birthday playgroup on Friday.




Here is a pic from today with her Tot Tower. She got that for her birthday but I only got it out of the box yesterday.