SML 08

in our bathing suits, on the boat, in the lake, playing washers, ball and frisbee, reading, walking, eating, packing and unpacking groceries (one of anna's newest past times-grocery shopping with items around the house), swinging in the hammock, laughing, watching movies, playing games until the early am but most importantly just being together!

QT...

with mommy and daddy!

The one and only niece!

Anna is loved well.

Spotlight!

Yes, without a doubt Anna was the spotlight for eight adults these past few days!

On a final note...

"BBOOOOAT!"
at least a hundred times our sweet little girl puckered those lips and screamed this word!

Learning to folllow directions...

These pictures are perfect examples of how our little girl is growing physically and enjoying the freedom of being very mobile. She doesn't just walk anymore but almost runs. We have had some close calls with some of her crawling and scooting friends as their hands and feet are often in the path of our barreling toddler. Anna headed straight for the slide at the park and wanted to go down the slide over and over again. However, our fearless little girl will not venture on a swing, even though almost daily we push her empty one in our front yard and she says "wee" from the ground looking up. Even her baby doll has taken a ride in the swing hoping to lure Anna. Our almost 15 month old is learning to follow directions, which has been fun to watch over the past couple of weeks as well as very helpful. Some of her favorite phrases to follow are...
1) To close the refrigerator door (really any door but we often ask her to close the refrigerator door or our shower door).
2) To sit down. Now we just have to get her to learn to stay seated.
3) To lay down when you say night-night. She will lay down anywhere-outside or one of her favorite places, the cold kitchen floor.
4) To smell or in her case sniffs as loud as she can with puckered lips anytime we see flowers.
5) Her most recent trick is if she has a dirty diaper and you ask her, she will then make her way to her changing table and wait to be picked up. If only she would always stay happy during the changing process.
6) Anna has her bedtime routine down pat. After dinner we will ask her if she is ready for a bath. She will then make her way to the bathroom. After bedtime reading with daddy he will stand her on the floor and tell her to brush her teeth. She will then make her way to the bathroom. After her teeth are brushed she makes her way to her crib and waits for us to put her down.
7) Her Aunt Mary Beth taught her to look under the bed for my parents cat when we were last at the lake. However, Anna instead of turning her head to look will stand on top of her head. It is quite a site to see. We were talking on the phone to Aunt MB one day after being back and all of sudden Anna was standing on her head. I couldn't figure out what she was doing for the longest time but realized she was "looking under the bed." It has made for some fun forward rolls.
8) Of course Anna still gives plenty of kisses when asked as well as without being prompted! She is surely lovable!

Front Yard Fun....

Most days you can find Anna and me in our front yard playing. Often it is around lunchtime or 5:30pm, waiting for daddy to arrive. A week or so ago we were sitting out front when I heard Anna say "heyyy da." I knew it was not time for Kevin to be home so I turned to see who she was speaking to. As I turned, a green SUV was passing our house. Anna amazes me daily with the knowledge she has and the ways in which she is able to grasp things. Daily her vocabulary is expanding. Here are some of the words she has mastered and repeats back often...done, down, side (outside), all gone, no (loves to say no, no, no), ma, dada, nigh nigh (night-night, which is for nap time or bedtime), nana (banana), bye, hey, hi, ball, bah (bottle), wahhr (water), boat, raaa (rock, in which she will go to a chair that rocks and begin to rock it). Last weekend at the lake Anna was mesmerized by the boats. From almost any place in my parent's house you can see the water. Anna quickly learned they were called boats and as soon as one came into sight she blurted out BBBOOAT as loud as possible. Meal time was especially fun as she could see all the boats pass from the kitchen windows. Shortly after we got home we were outside and one of our neighbors started up their lawn mower. Anna quickly looked around and said, "bbboat." She associated the loud noise to the noise the boats made on the lake. It surely is fun to watch her little brain begin to sort through and put things together.

From one Fourth to another...

Wow, how our little one has changed and grown in a year. The top row is of Anna at the lake, July 4, 2007 and the bottom row is this year at the lake. Notice Anna asleep on Grandmommy's shoulder in 2007 and in 2008 she is wide awake as she swings in the hammock!

Lake Fun (part I)

Anna had a fun-filled extended fourth of July celebration with family. She spent the weekend looking for boats out the windows,

walking many steps,

exploring with grandaddy,

eating, eating and eating (some of anna's favorite foods is anything green-green peas, green beans, zucchini and any type of fresh fruit, especially cantaloupe and watermelon),

Lake Fun (part II)

wearing a life preserver for the first time (thanks cousin Joy) as well as swimming in the lake for the first time,

lots of quality time with mommy,

lots of kisses, especially from Aunt MB and Uncle Carlos

talking to daddy on the phone and giving him lots of kisses over the phone! We surely missed you!

Tiny Feet...

One of Anna's favorite past times these days is to be outside or as she says it "side?" as if it is a question. We have spent hours in our front yard. Last week as I watched our sweet girl play, I noticed her tiny feet and the tiny shoes that covered them. I just kept staring at her little shoes and thought one day they will not be so little. I even decided a picture of her foot needed to be taken. Anna seemed so innocent and so unassuming this summer day in particular as she played in the grass.

However, the same little girl with those same sweet feet wasn't so innocent only a few short days later. We were heading out of town for the fourth and I realized I had not packed Anna's white sandals. I searched high and low for her sandals, even thinking back to the last time she had worn them, which had been Sunday to church. I even thought that her daddy might have taken them off her feet when he put her in the car and peeked in his car with no such luck. Daddy confirmed that he had not seem them since Sunday and thus we made our way out of town with no sandals. As I scurried around the morning of the fourth getting ready to depart, Anna entertained herself in her room. I happened to walk by her room as she was closing the top to her Diaper Dekor. My motherly instinct told me to peep in the dekor, where I happened to find one of Anna' toys. I didn't think much about it at the time, except for the fact that we were going to have to train miss Anna not to put toys in the dekor. Only a few days earlier she was at her friend Grayson's house trying to put Grayson's toys in her dekor. It wasn't until we were on the road that I realized there was a good chance Anna had thrown her sandals in the dekor sometime earlier in the week. I racked my brain trying to remember when we had thrown out the diapers. I knew we had thrown out some on Thursday night as we did not want them to sit while we were gone but I also remembered throwing away a bag full on Sunday. Knowing our trash cans were emptied on Monday I hoped that the sandals were not in that bag. I knew there was a good chance that our neighbors would put our trash cans on the street Sunday evening while we were away so I knew I needed someone to go through our trash to see if the missing white sandals happened to be sealed in with all of Anna's dirty diapers. Becca, a faithful friend was up for the challenge. I had forgotten that the bag of diapers had actually been thrown in our kitchen trash bag. Becca, you truly are a servant and there aren't enough words to thank you for digging through our trash. Low and behold Becca did find both sandals. This is what greeted us at the back door on our return home. Yes, still tiny but not so innocent and very, very stinky! Wonder what else our Anna has thrown out with the trash?!