Christmas day

Here are pictures we took of Anne playing with her presents on Christmas morning. Not the best pictures ever, but you get the idea. The little red dress with her name embroidered on the collar is from Gram Sheri. She loved it -- she twisted and twirled and spun all over church to make it balloon out. It seemed fairly clear that Anne felt really pretty. The bow in her hair has a letter "A" on it, too.

Click here to view these pictures larger

It's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you

Anne could not have enjoyed Christmas dinner more. Her best friend C was over to spend the evening with her. When Anne likes someone, she sits on him or her. Hence this picture. The girls were giggling and shrieking and playing all evening. They're not supposed to really play WITH each other at this age, but these two seem to.

Ho ho ho (video)

We'll post more pictures from Christmas morning, but for now, here's a video of Anne playing with her new tea set from Uncle Sam and Uncle Chuy. Anne loves teatime!

Santa Claus is comin' to town

I was worried a visit with Santa might not necessarily go well. But Anne thought Santa looked like a jolly old soul. She walked right up to him and raised her arms to be picked up. I think she told him she wants crackers and Elmo for Christmas.

Anne's got the moves (video)

Anne's been taking music and movement classes since September. We just started a new "semester" last week, and we were listening to the CD tonight. In the video, Anne gets up to look at herself dancing in the reflection of the fireplace door.

(Today's were our best pigtails yet!)

The kissing bandit (video)

Anne knows what kissing is, and she likes it. Here she is kissing her girlfriend C. They had pizza for dinner tonight with their parents (Anne is still holding hers in this video). Anne usually goes for people's lips -- sometimes she won't stop trying to plant a kiss on someone's lips even if they've offered a cheek.

Anne says "I love you" (video)

And today is also brought to you by the number "4" (video)

Daddy and Anne have also been working on the first number she's been interested in, "4." For reasons she can't explain, that's Mom's favorite number.

She's actually been demanding that Mom make her cookie jar toy (from Gram Sheri) say, "4." Anne acts a lot more shy than she is in this video!

She's wearing a little scarf that Mom loaned her. As mentioned, Anne likes soft things and occasionally likes to accessorize with a softie.

Today is brought to you by the letters A, B and sometimes C (video)

We're skipping ahead from Halloween to now just because Anne is doing some sweet things we don't want to forget.





First, when she woke up Sunday, Anne started singing, "ABC" for Mom. She'd been working on it with Daddy while Mom worked on Saturday. It seems hard for kids to say three syllables at once. You can't quite hear the "c" when she says it on this video -- she has been getting a little more shy and quiet with the camera. But you can definitely hear lots of "a-b!"

Big changes

Mom finally went back to work at the end of October. She's only working two days a week -- Thursday and Friday, or Friday and Saturday.

It's a big change for Mom, but not so much for Anne. Her nanny is Lucia, who has helped to take care of Anne since a couple of weeks after she came home. In fact, the most upset Anne has been was when Lucia went home at the end of Mom's first day back to work. Anne loves Lucia to pieces.

Like most little kids, Anne has trouble with the "L" sound, so she usually calls Lucia "Noo-noo" or "No-no."

This is Lucia with Anne when the weather was still warm outside.

BOO!

Our little piglet was, well, a piglet for Halloween! She also had a spectacularly spooky Halloween dress, too. All from her Gram Sheri!

Tiptoe through the pumpkins (video)

Once Daddy got home from his conference, we took a trip to the pumpkin patch. There were pumpkins galore, scarecrows and a corn maze, apples, gourds and a couple of roosters. The rooster was the first animal sound Anne learned to make.

The difference between ours and Anne's (video)

Anne often wants what we're eating, but she usually understands (or is diverted) when we talk about the difference between hers and ours.

Anne and Mom reach a milestone

We made it through 7 full days without Daddy in mid-October, by ourselves without any help from grandparents or from Lucia, Anne's nanny. Anne was in a great mood all week. Mommy got smart and napped when Anne did. We spent most of our time at the park because the weather was great. The week was a reminder of how much Daddy does with Anne and around the house. He was sorely missed.

We started off the week with an overnight visit from Anne's Great Auntie Peg and her Great-great Auntie Mary Ellen. They had a wonderful time with Anne, and we were so glad to have them. We took pictures during this visit, but Mom is still looking for them and will share when she finds them.

Anne and the giant eraser

A lot of people didn't know what this sculpture was supposed to be when it was posted on Facebook. It's at the National Gallery's Sculpture Garden, where Anne and her girlfriends C and S had a lovely visit several weeks ago.

Anne's BFFs

These girls to the left and far left of Anne are her best girlfriends -- I will call them C and S, since this blog is not password-protected and they're little kids and we didn't talk to their parents about blogging.

Anne likes to do a roll call of her friends several times a day, and these two always start off the list. The girls get excited when they see each other and sometimes squeal like, well, girls. Anne and C have been kissing hello and goodbye for about a week.

Of course, you can always accessorize ...

Anne loves anything that is soft and resembles a blanket -- a scarf, an actual blanket, her sleep sack, her dad's fleece jacket. Her daddy calls them all "softies." So Anne asks for them when she sees them: "SOF-teh!" If it's a blanket, she flops down on it and pretends to nap.

Fun with food (video)

Though Anne would like nothing better than to walk around the house snacking all day, we try to keep her in her high chair for meals and snacks when we're at home. So she spends a lot of time there! She loves whole fruit -- in the pictures, she's eating a peeled mango. And she likes to play games and sing while she eats. Who doesn't? The video is of Anne playing peek-a-boo.

Anne is back!

We've been woefully inadequate when it comes to blogging for the past couple of months. Anne is on the move, and we have lots going on in our house! We're going to get back on the ball.


Here's a picture of Anne enjoying a coconut popsicle with her dad. It's not popsicle weather, really -- although that doesn't stop either of them -- but this picture is from September, when we took an unintended break from keeping everyone updated.

Popsicles are a good example of what Anne likes to eat -- anything Mom and Dad are eating. We're lucky she's not picky, at least not yet. Popsicles also helped with the pain of teething, which Anne has really struggled with.