Anne thinks "boo" is the funniest sound she's ever heard

Best of the 7-month pictures (and we haven't even gotten to Christmas yet)

Monthly birthdays ...

Ho ho ho!

Anne is 8 months old on the 26th, so here is her 7-month picture, just under the wire. We'll post a few more soon -- she looks like a little girl instead of a baby in these photos.

New cup

A girl who loves to step on the scale ...

Anne is all smiles for Dad while he gets her ready for bed, a ritual that includes her nightly weigh-in ...

Christmastime is here

Anne went to her Aunt Beverley's house for her first Christmas party this afternoon. She was especially interested in Beverley's dog, Layla, who is a perfect first dog pal for a baby: Layla is gentle, reserved (so much so, we couldn't get her to pose for a photo) and not interested in babies at all. Anne smiled so much at Layla, she wrinkled her nose. And when Layla leaned toward Anne to investigate a toy, Anne reached out for her.

Erin Nephew Photography, 7 months

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Peas!

Anne has tried lots of yellow and orange veggies, so now it's time for some green ones. First up: peas. Mommy was skeptical. Mommy hates peas. Mommy's mom hates peas. Mommy kept this information to herself, though she did warn Daddy that Anne might spit them out. Nope. Anne wasn't as nuts for peas as she is for sweet potatoes and winter squash, but she happily ate them on Sunday for the first time.

Build-a-baby

Anne met two of her oldest friends for a playdate Saturday at the National Building Museum. She was cranky because, for whatever reason, her morning nap ended too soon. (Sore gums may have awakened her -- Anne's second tooth finally arrived in the five o'clock hour Sunday morning.)

Her pals Ellie and Avery (pictured without Anne) did their best to charm Anne and kept her from melting down for more than an hour. The good news is that Anne fell asleep on the way home, stayed asleep while Mommy and Daddy moved her from her carseat to her crib, and slept for just under three hours.

We still must choose our outings carefully, according to her doctors. It's important to help keep her healthy throughout this first cold and flu season. But now that Anne is sleeping and napping fairly well, we are venturing out more and more. Anne also went to her first story- and song-time this week at the public library in our neighborhood and loved watching the other kids, the songs and the clapping.

She's also getting used to her sunglasses. Of course they are stylish. But if Mommy needs them, then Anne needs them to protect her baby blues, too!

The first six months ...

Six months!

Look for the tooth on her lower right ...

Lots of news! (video)

Anne is becoming such a big girl -- where do we begin? Let's see, biggest news first: Anne has a tooth! Daddy thought her gums looked discolored last Wednesday night. Mommy noticed her sucking her tongue and lips like an old lady without her dentures on Thursday morning, stuck her finger in Anne's mouth, and voila! There was the little tooth! Next, food. Her rash was better (though not completely gone -- doctor thinks she has a little eczema) on Thursday, so we started with oatmeal, since rice cereal seems to have triggered the rash. Anne says forget rice, oatmeal is GREAT! Then on Tuesday, Anne tasted her first vegetable -- sweet potatoes. They were a hit! The last news is really about Mom -- she took off last weekend for her annual father-daughter trip to New York. Grandma Gloria stayed with Daddy. Anne slept well, ate well and smiled all weekend, and she was all smiles when Mommy got home. (Mom and Granddad saw three wonderful shows and ate at Daddy's favorite restaurant, Becco, and had a grand old time.) Here are some pictures of Anne and her sweet potatoes, plus a video of Anne trying oatmeal for the first time (with Mom's own baby spoon). Anne's cousin Dondi says kids like oatmeal much better than they like rice cereal.

Six-month picture is coming soon ...

Meantime, here's a look back!

Kissy-face with Dad (video)

Sorry -- the picture is dark, but the video is still sweet!

Roly-poly (video)

Our Anne has just started rolling from back to front ... and again to her back. In part, we think it's happened because we adopted a tough-love approach to sleep. She needed to learn how to go to sleep by herself in her crib, without being rocked by Mommy and Daddy and without being swaddled.

Now she's more free to move around, i.e. roll around, in her crib, and we wait awhile before coming to check on her if she's fussing.

Anne and Ellie

Anne's friend Ellie came over to play on Friday. It's always exciting to see Ellie, but it's especially exciting now because Anne finally looks the same age! Ellie is a month younger, but she was full-term and was due around the time Anne was supposed to arrive. This means she looked older and bigger in earlier pictures, like the one where they're in yellow, which was taken in July.

BOO! (video)

Sorry for the lateness in posting these: Anne's Gram Sheri sent a Halloween dress that was so cute, it's scary. See the witches? And their brooms? And their cauldrons? Gave us shivers! (Behind-the-scenes video from our photo shoot included.)

Anne is rollin', rollin', rollin' ...

Anne has started rolling from front to back and from her back to her side. Fun!

If her face looks a little rashy to you in this video, well, that's because it is. Her doctor thinks Anne may have an allergy to the rice cereal she has been enjoying so much since Thursday. We're skipping the cereal for a few days to see if that's it -- glad we went slowly and haven't introduced more foods yet! If the rash gets better, then we'll try oatmeal or barley.

Fun with rice cereal

Here are some pictures of our cereal-eating peanut to go with the video below.

"You were wondering if I might like some real food?" (video)

Anne's doctor said it's time to start solid food, so today was the day! Anne eagerly reached her head up and opened her mouth for rice cereal. She knew exactly where it should go ... she just wasn't sure what to do once it got there.

Anne at 5 months

Our peanut is almost six months old, so here is yet another picture just under the wire. She now weighs more than 13 pounds -- 10 pounds more than her birth weight!

Anne is growing and changing every day; her daddy went on his first out-of-town trip last week, and when he returned, she was much chattier (and also much more willing to be put down for naps; naps are still elusive sometimes, but getting longer).

What can Anne do as she nears the six-month mark?

Smile, laugh and giggle

Babble with lots of vowels and some consonants

Grasp toys and bring them to her mouth

Hold her feet (this is very new) and try to pull her socks off

Stand supported

Be pulled by her hands to sitting and then standing positions

Suck her thumb! (She's in the early stages)

Roll from her front to her back (but not consistently yet)

Roll from her back to her side (but not consistently yet)

Grandma makes me laugh ...

She loves the girorse

Where does this baby end and her grandfather begin?

Peanut is four months!

Well, she's FIVE months as of this weekend! So here is her four-month picture, just under the wire. She's also a 12-pounder now. We thought 12 pounds would be the magic number in terms of sleep (she's a good nighttime sleeper, but not much of a napper). Boy, were we wrong!

While we're at it, we'll include a look at how she's changed since coming home.

Stay tuned for more photos ...

Anne had a professional photo shoot on Saturday, and oh, my, did she ever have fun! We'll have all the pictures in a few days, but for now, here's a sneak peak from the photographer, Erin Nephew, http://myartyourmemories.com.

Anne and Avery (video)

Anne visited Avery today, and what a good time she had. Avery was very chatty and explained how funny her mom is, and she showed Anne how she can roll onto her side. Avery's dog, Massie, washed Anne's feet. Anne had such a good time, she took a nap in Avery's swing! Anne and Avery have been neighbors right from the start; they were in the NICU together before coming home, and now they live just blocks apart.

Beautiful day for a visit to the park

Anne is a great big girl who is doing all sorts of things, from lifting her head up to (sometimes) pushing her binky back into her mouth to sleeping in her crib. But she's not yet a good daytime napper. Mom is working on the Baby Whisperer's Eat-Activity-Sleep routine ... with limited success. Today, Mom and Dad decided our activity would be a trip to the park.

Anne's daddy is so funny (video)

Anne likes to laugh and has quite the vocabulary already. See?

Anne meets big girl Alexa

At long last, Anne finally got to meet our friend Alexa, who is about to turn one year old. They discovered a shared interest in crib mobiles. Anne was interested in Alexa and smiled at her several times. Of course she did -- Alexa is the smiliest girl we know!

"Hey, this guy looks kind of like my granddad Tom ..." (Video)

Uncle Eddie came for a visit recently. Make that GREAT Uncle Eddie!

She's three months old! (Well, almost four ...)

We've squeezed in another photo session at the last minute. Mom actually does this on purpose; preemies like Anne tend to develop and are judged based on their due dates instead of their birth dates for a long time, sometimes until they are toddlers! So Anne is really much more like a three-month-old baby.

Anne saw a developmental pediatrician at Children's Hospital a couple of weeks ago who said she is, indeed, developing very nicely according to her June 1 due date. The doctor wants to see her catch up in the coming months to her April 26 birth date. (She described Anne as a beautiful baby girl who happened to have been born a little early ...)

All that said, here is our peanut at three months!

Bathtime with Grandma (video)

Her Sunday best

Anne weighs 10 pounds now and is finally fitting into some seriously cute outfits ... like this one from Grandma Sheri. She's ready for church and sitting in her new-to-her swing, which she loves. Her friend Ellie wasn't in love with it, and Ellie's mom saw how much Anne enjoyed it, so Ellie's parents brought it to Anne the next day.

Anne loves the swing so much, she cried when Grandma Gloria tried to take her out of it last night!

The many (smiley) faces of Anne, UPDATED!

Story time with the peanut

The book that makes Anne smile most is "The Carrot Seed," given to her by Aunt Sarah.

Triple play

Anne is now three months old, AND she has tripled her birth weight. Tonight she weighed in at 9 pounds, 6.3 ounces (Mom rented a highly accurate scale because she worried about whether Anne was eating enough, especially with her recent switch in formula).

Here she is sleeping in her crib for the very first time. It was only a nap, and it lasted only a few minutes. But she woke up smiling, so it's a good sign of things to come.

Granddad time

Anne had some quality time with Grandpa Tom over the past week. He took her to do his favorite thing -- seeing art. We went to see the wonderful Norman Rockwell exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and we went to see a photography show and (very important) eat lunch and gelato at the National Gallery.

He also took care of Mom and Dad, cooking them a steak dinner and cooking Mom pancakes every morning. He was a whiz on KP duty. And he was very good at feeding Anne, who got very fussy on her old formula and didn't like the taste of her new formula. We were sad to see him go!

It's hard to have Anne's grandparents all living so far away. But the Grandparents' Suite is always ready and waiting for them ...