34 Weeks

Any guesses how we got her to sit still for this photo?

Why of course, by holding the iPod in front of her face. Lately when she sees an iPhone or iPod close to her, she just grins...... maybe because she can see her reflection in the glass? Who knows...

Annie is officially crawling now! In the past week, her scooting has turned into full belly off the ground crawling, for more than just a second at a time. She seems to prefer sitting herself up and playing to just moving around for the sake of moving though... but I'm sure those days aren't far behind! No signs of wanting to pull herself up, but we did lower the crib mattress just in case!

I think sitting herself up is my favorite milestone so far - Annie is just so cute sitting on the floor, just playing with her toys - I love it! She still will lay on her belly for awhile, but more and more she's just sitting up and playing. I got her the rock and stack rings and some stacking cups to play with (haven't shown her the rings yet though) and those cups keep her entertained for a LONG time - since for her, it's basically 8 toys in one :) Right now, she just chews them and bangs them together. Her most favored activity seems to be crawling over to her basket of toys and taking them all out. Yup, that's it. She can entertain herself with those for about an hour, which is awesome. Usually we don't ever really LET her entertain herself for that long though, since we want to play with her too :)

Needs to figure out that sitting up under the table isn't the best idea :)

She's also getting better at going from sitting to laying down. She gets LOTS of practice with that in her crib when her naps are starting..... how fun!!!! I have to say, it is HILARIOUS to look at the video monitor to see Annie just sitting up, staring at the camera. (it has a little green light, and her room is pretty dark, so she must like staring at it)

We had a much more low key week this week - not too many things planned, which was nice. Annie also managed to just stay at home a few nights this week without having too extreme of a meltdown before bedtime! Last week we avoided meltdowns by going to the store and things like that, but this week we kept her occupied with changing locations, new toys, etc. It was actually quite a nice change! The meltdowns on the changing pad continue though... very frustrating. I'm sure it's just a stage, but I hope it ends VERY SOON!

Annie continues to be bipolar (as Julia commented last week - how appropriate!) with regards to eating - we introduced yogurt to her this week, and she seemed to enjoy it - we just give her plain whole milk yogurt (which I think is pretty gross) mixed with 1oz of fruit (apples, peaches or pears) so she's getting a little more for dinner now. Most nights she finished most of it, one night she cleaned her bowls completely in like 10 minutes, and tonight she ate like....... 5 bites total. under protest. Pretty much the same stuff, every day - yogurt/fruit and an orange and green veggie combo. And yes, it bothers me WAY more than it should when she won't eat! Usually when she's done, she doesn't necessarily get pissed, she just won't even look at me. Just closes her mouth, checking out her tray... or staring out the window, or whatever. Obviously I just need to let it go, but boy it gets to me!

Naps are pretty consistent, in that there are 2 of them each day at about 9:30 and 1:30. Other than that, it's anyone's guess as to how long the naps will be, which is another thing that drives me batty. Sometimes it's 1.5 hours, sometimes 20 minutes. Sometimes she'll go back to sleep, other times she'll freak out when she wakes up and won't calm down at all. I don't so much care if she doesn't sleep very long for her morning nap, but in the afternoon I worry that she will just turn into a cranky mess by 5pm. Usually she proves me wrong! For example - Friday. She woke up pretty early (like 6am), took a 20 minute nap at like 9:30 at daycare, and then when we got home from the surprise visit at work, she went down at 1:30 and only slept for 30 minutes..... which meant she would be awake for 5 hours until bed - somehow she pulled through! I think it was mostly because Liz and Jolene came over to babysit so there were some new people to look at. I've also found that the length of nap doesn't seem to accurately predict Annie's mood later - on Friday she was fine, and today she took a solid afternoon nap but still got pretty cranky. I am pretty much giving up hope of her being a "good" napper - she TAKES naps, which is great - and she goes down very easily, it's just the length of time that is unpredictable... once again, oh well!

Oh my goodness gracious, I almost forgot the BIGGEST news of the week - Annie finally got some TEETH! Yes, plural. On Wednesday night, I was zooming into this photo to see if I could see ANYTHING resembling teeth on Annie's gums, since she gave me a pretty good look - nope, nothing! The next morning, I actually felt her gums, and definitely felt a long ridge, much wider than one tooth - I still couldn't actually SEE anything, but by Friday night, they were definitely poked through, and you can clearly see both bottom teeth coming in! I tried taking a few photos to see if you could see them - but nope, they still aren't really showing up on there. They seem to be coming up fast though, so I'm sure soon enough I'll get to share pics of her chompers. SPEAKING of chomping, I've been a little nervous about breastfeeding since the teeth came in, but so far only one little bite, and that was when she was actually done eating and was just kind of laying in my lap. So now if I even kind of think she might be done, we just stop :) No need to put myself in a compromising situation!

I swear 2 teeth are in there!

For once, we had a low key weekend too - we still managed to fit in some outings, but none too far from home. Here are some photos from our weekend!

Ben got a Burley off craigslist, so he had to give it a whirl (just down the block) - we need to get Annie a helmet, which I'm sure will go over REAL well...

Took a trip to Blue Door Pub last night with Molly and Mia - it was mostly a success!

Ben thought it would be funny to pile all the rest of her food on her spoon, just to see if she'd notice, since she was so engrossed with watching the goings on in the restaurant. For some reason, I find this pic to be one of the most hilarious pics ever.

She seems concerned.

We had Rebekah, Rett and Adelaide over for brunch - as will happen with little girls, Adelaide and Annie have the same dress from Target, so a matching outfit photoshoot was in order! They started out very enthusiastic, as you can see.

Eventually there were some hugs :)

You'd think Annie is looking at something interesting here - oh no, she's just staring in wide eyed wonder at Ben's Zune mp3 player. She stares at it all the time. We have to turn it away from her high chair or she won't face forward..... nut.

Chilling out watching the Vikings game with Dad

Finished up our weekend at neighbor Mia's first birthday party! Someone got all the baby girls little clip on bows - perfect for our 3 mostly bald babies!

The baby photoshoot was a bust - this was the best of the bunch, at least a few are looking at the camera :)

I know they aren't looking AT me - but they look so cute with their little bows :)