12 Months

Surrounded by your new toys

Dear Annie,

A whole year! What seemed like forever away was actually here in an instant. While the first few months of your life crawwwwwwwled by, the last few months have really flown. You are such a fun little person now! We visited the doctor today, and even though you're a BIG TODDLER, you are still quite the lil peanut... except for your apparently massive head :) You top the scales at 19lbs, 1oz, and are 28.25 inches long (18th and 25th percentiles) and your head is 46.2cm, 82%.

You are turning into quite the chatterbox, even the doctor noticed today. You don't have any definite words yet, but you're getting quite close. Several times, I've heard you say "hi" in the appropriate context, as well as "bye", but I'm still hesitant to call those real words, because you might just be imitating us still. You have lots of noises like "bleschjdoa? ahh! oblidida goo!" that are quite entertaining to us. Your favorite thing to say is "daddy" but you say it to everything, not just your dad :)

Moving around has gotten more exciting this month. You pull up and cruise around furniture with ease, but still haven't let go for more than a few seconds (unless you are bracing your large belly against something for balance). Sue, your daycare lady, thinks you will be walking by the end of our trip to Mexico, but I think you're still a few weeks away at least. You DO NOT!!! like it when people try to stand you up or walk you around while holding their hands, you just REFUSE to put your feet on the ground. You only like to stand and walk on your own, thank you very much!

As I've said before, you are quite a content little child. You can occupy yourself for very long periods of time doing what seems to adults to be pretty boring stuff - your favorite activities are shaking your maracas, taking things out of the cabinets and putting them back in, and really taking anything out of anything and putting it back. We find some of your toys in very odd locations - your sippy cup in the cabinet with the pots, your baby doll's bottle in a basket on the bookshelf, etc.

We are still nursing twice a day, and I'm so proud to have nursed for a whole year. We did it together, little Annie! You really like nursing now, and get very impatient when I sit down in our spot with the boppy - you want to be nursing IMMEDIATELY! When you are want to switch sides or are done, you look up at me and shake your hand in the "all done" sign - which is MUCH preferred to screaming! You started refusing to drink a bottle this month, so we just give you milk in a sippy cup all day. You aren't a huge fan yet, but we'll see if you start to enjoy it more later. You LOVE food - LOVE IT. Sometimes I think you'd eat all day long if we let you. You will eat nearly anything that we give you, but your absolute favorites that we reserve for the end of a meal so you'll eat other more nutritious items are bananas, graham crackers, toast with cream cheese, any kind of cheese, cheerios and grapes. You really like hummus, spaghetti and a lentil veggie stew we just made as well! Sue comments on what a great eater you are, she says we are very lucky. We know your willingness to try everything might not last forever, but we're loving it now!

You have had kind of a rough past few weeks with what seems to be teething as well as a bad cold. No new teeth this month, so you're still at 6 (4 top, 2 bottom), but LOTS of drooling and some crankiness! This has affected your sleeping - while you still are in bed from 7pm-7am or so, you have been waking up crying quite a bit at night. Usually you go back to sleep within a minute, but sometimes you need us to cuddle with you for awhile, which we are happy to do sometimes. We love rocking with you and cuddling, because you usually prefer to be on your own. You are still doing one nap a day, but usually it's now about 1.5-2 hours.

I think you had an awesome time at your birthday party yesterday - you were very smiley, and enjoyed all of your new toys. Most of your family and friends were there yesterday to celebrate you, Annie - they have all loved watching you grow up this year! You bring such joy to everyone's life that you are around - you truly are a wonderful little girl, and we're so lucky that we get to be your parents.

We love you, baby girl!

Love, Mom

You aren't ALWAYS happy - but don't worry, soon after this you perked up (see above photo)

A little slideshow I made to commemorate your first year - somehow I crammed it all into 9 minutes!

52 Weeks

The last weekly post. I can't believe it! This year has gone by so quickly (or at least, the last 6 months have!) and tomorrow, my baby girl is one year old. We had her birthday party today, which was AWESOME, but I'll save the party for another post. I'm pretty exhausted from that, so this will be a short post! Check out how much Annie has changed through the weeks this year - the first one is her "official" photos, and the second are my favorite outtakes from the weekly photos :)

Just a few things I want to remember about this last week of Annie's first year. As I wrote last week, it was a rough end to the week, which ended with Annie waking up like 12 times on Sunday night to cry for a few minutes and have a hard time falling back to sleep. This is really not like her usually, so I decided to take her into the doctor on Monday just to get checked out. I knew she was getting a cold, but wanted to make sure there wasn't any ear infection. There was not, so it was kind of a waste to go in, but it did ease my mind. Annie did have kind of a bad cold for the week, she was super hoarse and sounded pretty funny. Thankfully, she was pretty much over it today for her party, just a runny nose, and hopefully will be feeling good for our upcoming trip! She still has been waking up a few times a night but will put herself back to sleep. Now if only WE could fall back asleep as quickly, but oh well...

After a rough night of sleep, still pretty cheerful with her maracas! (I don't think Ben knew I was recording :)

Please wipe my noise! And wring out my soaked onesie!

Annie has definitely started gesturing toward things she's interested in the past few weeks, and today was NEARLY pointing, but doesn't quite actually stick her finger out yet :) She's pretty much there though, and is definitely getting that if she gestures toward something, I'll tell her what it is, or give it to her if it's appropriate. It's pretty cute, and just one more way where we can tell what's going on in her little mind!

One of the last days of Ben's beard. Thank god!

We started signing "more" and "all done" around 9 months old or so, and I mentioned in my 47 Week post that Annie was starting to sign "all done" - well, I think she really is starting to get it. She looks up at me when nursing and signs "all done" when she's about done with one side, or done completely. She clearly understands that when she makes that sign, SOMETHING changes, because she does it in the morning when she wants to get out of her crib, or during diaper changes :) like, yeah, I'm all done with this! Finish up! It's so awesome to be able to communicate somewhat with her now. She does seem to be understanding so much more - I can ask her to give me something, and she'll actually do it, and sometimes if we say her name and tell her to come over somewhere, she complies.

Annie has been doing better with drinking milk this week - Sue stopped bottles completely at daycare on Wednesday, and it's clear that Annie is much hungrier for dinner and other meals now. She drank maybe.... 2-3oz total yesterday, and maybe 1-2oz today of milk, and a few oz of water too, along with nursing twice. So I guess that'll have to be fine. She does eat a HUGE amount of food now, it seems to me at least. She doesn't seem to hate milk either - she will drink it, just not a ton at a time. We have her 12 month visit tomorrow so I'll bring it up, but I'm guessing it's fine. Because, really, there's not a lot else we can do - she's a pretty independent little girl, and she is very resistant to doing things that other people try to coerce her into doing without her consent, so when she wants to drink, she will!

I think that's about all I can muster up tonight. Here are some photos from our week!

I had a lot of baking to do, so Annie had to spend a lot of time entertaining herself in the kitchen! Luckily she's pretty good about it most of the time.

Annie's very first birthday present, some $$ from her Great-Grandma!

Pizza and playtime with Madeline on Friday night

Checking herself out in the mirror in her Pat the Bunny book

Blueberry face watching us cook on Saturday!

Enjoying some pancakes with blackberry sauce

Annie always takes her bow off immediately, but then tries to put it back on - ha

Didn't want her to ruin her dress, so I put her in this fleece vest

Reading with Grandpa before the party

Annie's new chair - a birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa!

We'll have to work on the safe way to get out :)

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

As I get ready to embark on a cupcake making marathon tomorrow in preparation for Annie's birthday party on Sunday, I remembered that I never shared these awesome cupcakes I made for Maria's baby shower (featured briefly in this post). I chose them because I have recently come to love snickerdoodles more than almost any other cookie, especially the ones from Nelson Cheese & Deli. As per usual, I found the recipe on Annie's Eats.

These are a bit more work than standard cupcakes, with the additional step of making snickerdoodle cookies - I thought it was worth it though, without the cookie these cupcakes would have been tasty but kind of boring. I went with a standard buttercream frosting instead of the seven minute frosting Annie used because I didn't want to risk the egg whites with a pregnant woman. This frosting didn't make QUITE enough to frost all the cupcakes though (at least with a decorating tip) so I'd recommend increasing the recipe - 1.5x should do the trick. Plus after this debacle, I'm still frightened about anything that involves whisking egg whites. The only disappointment for me was baking the extra snickerdoodle cookies for too long so they ended up crispy instead of soft :( Everyone loved these!

Flashback Birthday Photos

With Annie's birthday approaching, my dad was checking out some of the photos from my first birthday... it is a bit eerie how alike Annie and I look! It makes me happy to see pics like this, since NO ONE thinks she looks like me now :) I am still very happy that she inherited Ben's baby blues!

And for good measure, here's one of Ben from his birthday! Nice bowl cut on Becca ;)

51 Weeks

This would definitely be what classifies as a rough week in our household! Nothing too terrible, of course, but it wasn't a barrel of laughs or anything. SOMETHING is up with Annie lately, and I'm just going to go ahead and blame teething because.... she can't tell me what's wrong. She has been a drool machine, sticking her fingers in her mouth, putting her lips over her teeth, etc, so it seems a likely culprit for her crankiness. Just today she finally seems like she might be getting a bit of a cold too. Since everyone (including me and Ben) has been sick right now, it seemed inevitable that she get sick too. I just want her to get it now and get it over with before her birthday.

Playing with her favorite toy, the scale. She likes to crawl into the office to find it.

Luckily Annie was willing to play with a remote for awhile while I rested on the couch on Monday

All week she's been waking up at least once, if not as many as 5 times a night just to scream for maybe 20 seconds. By the time we even look at the monitor, she's done, but it still wakes us up and it doesn't appear that she's getting too restful of sleep either. One night she cried for awhile and could not be consoled so I did end up giving her tylenol and nursing her. I know I shouldn't do that, but it just is too sad to listen to her cry like she's in pain like that :(

We went to visit Marianne and Kurt to meet their new baby boy Miles on Tuesday night - Annie had on her pissy pants.

Perked up a bit when she got to see Miles close up

This weekend she's been kind of a mess. Just in general cranky, whiny, and will not drink ANYTHING. Like, nothing. I nurse her morning and night, but we are trying to get her to drink whole milk, or even breastmilk in a bottle and she just refused. So yesterday we decided to just stick with the sippy cup. She knows how to use it, so if she's thirsty, she'll drink. It is STRESSFUL to do this though, because I just feel like she's going to dehydrate herself. Thank god I'm still nursing at least twice so I know she's getting that. She'll drink water occasionally, like maybe 1-2oz all day, and both days had pretty much no milk all day. Ugh. I just don't know what to do. I don't think Sue (daycare) will be willing to just cut the bottles cold turkey, but to me it seems like what needs to happen for her to figure this out. We'll talk to her tomorrow and see what's up. I'm glad we have a doc appt on Friday so we can talk to him about how much milk she really needs, and what to do when I do stop nursing completely. I'm scared to stop now - Annie seems to really love it now and it's just such a comfort to me knowing that at least she'll willingly drink something substantial twice a day.

Angry yesterday because she couldn't figure out how to move in those constricting jeans

Much happier with some leggings on, and visiting with Aunt Liz

We also are trying to be firm about meals, as in she gets what we give her and if she doesn't eat it, that's it. Usually she's sort of willing to try things, but sometimes not. We aren't giving her anything crazy either. We decided that if she starts crying in her high chair and won't eat whatever we give her, then mealtime is over. She won't starve herself and I don't want her to start seeing mealtimes as this stressful thing. It is one thing to TELL myself that she won't starve, and quite another to actually believe it, however. I can definitely see why people start just giving kids what they know they'll eat because there is NOTHING more maddening than giving a kid something and them getting pissed off about it. It was mostly lunch this weekend that wasn't going well, she actually ate amazing at dinner - tonight she ate an entire adult sized portion of lasagna, a homemade cheese cracker, grapes and a carrot mini cupcake. That's a crap load of food, considering she had a half an avocado, grapes and graham crackers for a snack just a few hours before that. So I guess with that and her yogurt for breakfast, she's just fine. I also read somewhere that you just have to make sure their diet is balanced over the week, not day by day.

Is that a SMILE?! Annie was actually quite pleasant as long as we weren't at home...... lovely :)

I was kind of freaked out about introducing peanut butter and other nuts, but Annie had pretty much all varieties of nuts today and is still breathing and not exhibiting any hives, so apparently it's all good :) She had a few bites of Ben's peanut butter & jelly sandwich for lunch before refusing to eat anything else, and loved that. We also introduced eggs last weekend which went fine too. It is such a relief that she's not allergic to anything so far. Seeing what Becca and Joe will have to go through with Sam and Grace and their PKU makes me extra thankful for just the ability to be able to feed Annie normal food.

We had our first birthday party for the mom & baby group tonight - it was so fun - we haven't seen these babies since October because our last gathering was supposed to be on our snow day. Will is the oldest, and he's the only one truly walking so far. John is the next oldest (one month older than Annie) and he's taking steps here and there. A few others are standing independently - it's so fun to see how these babies have changed! John is a wee bit aggressive, and kept trying to bite all the babies... it was giving his mama a panic attack. This panic attack prompted all of us to say how we just wish there was a way we could be guaranteed that they'd turn out okay. I just want to step into my time machine and see Annie at 30, happy and healthy and still having a good relationship with us. If only...

Can we just briefly talk about how Annie's outfit is the cutest outfit ever?

Annie was NOT pleased with the cake at first

But after she got a taste, she devoured it

Moms and Babies! My how they've changed since this...

Ben and I were both really stressed out and anxious this weekend with respect to Annie. It's been really busy at work, and with the big birthday bash next weekend and our vacation to Mexico shortly after that, there is just so much going on. A few times we were both thinking that being a parent just sucks sometimes. Then Annie can sense our anxiety and she starts getting more whiny and it's just all around not fun. Then I start thinking, is this life now? Is this the way things are going to be? But I just have to remember that nothing, bad or good, lasts too long with an almost one year old. Everything is a stage and will pass. One of the highlights of this weekend was after Annie's lunch meltdown today. I was just holding her and she was crying and just exhausted and finally she lay her head on my shoulder and went to sleep. So instead of laying her in the crib, I just rocked with her in the glider for an hour and a half while she slept on me. I think the last time she slept on me without nursing was probably when she was like 5 months old, so it was just awesome. Even though it happened after a meltdown, even though it wasn't that comfortable, I just loved knowing that she was close to me and relaxed, finally.

50 Weeks

I am delayed in writing this post because I felt like CRAP last night! Not sure what's up, but after 11 hours in bed, I'm feeling better. Ben was at a guy's weekend up at the cabin, so Annie and I were flying solo. Although Annie is really easy, it still wears on a person after a few days!

Luckily, my family could come over on Saturday to hang out with us

We went to Egg & I, and Annie chowed down

Once again, this week was pretty low key - Ben and I have been talking about trying to do more family meals, instead of Annie eating immediately when we get home, and then Ben and I eating after Annie goes to bed, on the couch. This is mostly my fault, Ben would totally eat at the table, but I have been bad about wanting to check the internet while eating. It's tough to time out meals so that all of us can eat though - by this point, Ben and I are pretty used to eating at 7, so we aren't really hungry earlier. I think if we can get Annie used to eating around 5:30, that should work well. It can be a struggle finding meals that are that easy to prepare, but we should be able to do it. I just found weelicious this week, and starred about 50 recipes that look like something all 3 of us would enjoy - I'm excited to try them out!

Annie has found new love for this toy, and is now playing with it as it was intended

Since her top teeth came in, occasionally Annie gets into a kick of grinding her teeth - it is SO gross. One of the nights we were eating together, she ground her teeth really loud and Ben yelped - then Annie looked startled and cried.... but she also could have been hurt by that teeth grind too, yuck!

Annie has now figured out how to open drawers and cabinets - she sat in front of this one for about 30 minutes, just opening and closing it, and taking the steamer basket in and out

We've continued putting out a sippy cup of milk at meals, and are having Sue do the same thing at daycare. Annie is still not a fan. She will sometimes take a sip or two, but as the week went on, that was more and more rare. Annie likes drinking from straws and from open cups, so I tried that with the milk too, but she just lets it dribble out of her mouth. I also added an ounce to one of her bottles, and that was was particularly hard to get her to finish. I'm going to talk to the doctor at her 12 month visit, but I'm planning on just keeping on with the milk with meals and figure eventually she'll catch on.

Annie is definitely getting better at cruising this week - she's a lot faster, and will round corners and go between furniture (shakily) now. A few times in the crib when we're taking her out, she'll lift her arms to be picked up, and forget that she's standing - she usually only lasts a few seconds before she plops down on her butt though. The thing that really gets her going is obviously the iPhone :)

I asked Ben if he thought she was different after he came home from his weekend away, and he said that she sounds different - I think that's true - her babbles are really starting to sound more conversational, if that makes sense. Like she looks like she's really trying to communicate, instead of just making noise sometimes.

Here are a few more photos from our weekend!

Annie and I went to the grandparents house to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday - we went to mass first, and Annie did GREAT! She also got to meet her cousin Grace for the first time!

As you can see, she was THRILLED about it :)

Adelaide's 2nd birthday party was yesterday, and Rebekah made play doh for all the kids - Annie wasn't quite sure what to do :)

Happy 2nd birthday Adelaide!

Annie loves going to Adelaide's house, since she has all the COOL toys :)

Lucky Annie got a few bites of Adelaide's birthday cake - she was PISSED when I took her away from the table!

2010 in review

I know I'm several weeks late on this, but after seeing one of my favorite blogger friends post this list, I wanted to spend some time reminiscing about what truly was hands down the best year of my life.

1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before? Gave birth. Was responsible for another being. Sustained said being with only milk from my body for 6 months, and am still at it with the addition of solid foods today.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I'm not into resolutions, but I have been trying to keep up with my mantras of staying positive and trusting and respecting Annie.

3. Did anyone close to you have a child? Hoo, boy, did they ever! It was a true baby boom around here. Laura, Mindy, and Becca all had children in 2010. Several more in the works for 2011 with 2 already making their appearance!

4. Did anyone close to you die? Ian Gregory, one of Becca and Joe's triplets, died in utero at 29 weeks gestation.

5. Where did you travel? Up to the cabin, a few times. To Duluth for our 5 year anniversary. A pretty light travel year, but it looks like I might be making up for that this year!

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010? The ability to sleep again.

7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory? January 31st. Obviously. April 26th, when Ben and I both returned to the working world. October 29th, when Becca had her babies. [Edited to add - December 18th!! The day my little sister got married. The biggest day of the year, obvi]

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Keeping Annie alive.

9. What was your biggest failure? I'm not one to dwell on failures, and honestly there is nothing that happened last year that should even come close to qualifying for that.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Thankfully, no, unless you count the 9th month of pregnancy as an illness or injury. Which, yes, kind of, I guess. I suppose the aftermath of giving birth could also count as an injury.

11. What was the best thing you bought? Probably my "new" car - a 2003 Honda Accord. Ben really was the one who picked it out, but my name was on the check too, so it counts.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Ben - he really is the best husband and father in my eyes. There was never a doubt in my mind that he'd be awesome at this, but he's really so much better than I could have even hoped. So patient, and understanding, and the love he has for Annie is amazing to watch unfold.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Honestly? I've clearly been pretty absorbed in my little family this year, so I have barely paid attention to a lot of the outside world. As painful as it is to admit, probably those that got me most riled up were strangers on message boards. Sigh... Or the comments on the New York Times Motherlode blog. Those are always good to get my blood boiling.

14. Where did most of your money go? I don't know, Ben deals with that stuff :) I assume: mortgage, bills, Target. More Target. Carters.com. Oldnavy.com. Oh, and the car was a big one too I suppose. We still have been managing to save a lot, which is great.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? I got really excited watching Annie become a person. I've been reflecting a lot on her past year since I've been diligently working on a slideshow for her birthday party, and it's just incredible to remember that she was once a tiny blob who couldn't even control her movements, and now she's this little girl who can move with intention and is pretty quick. She understands who I am, and is so excited to crawl over to me when I pick her up at daycare. Watching her transformation has definitely been what I've gotten most excited about this year. I also get a large amount of excitement over new blog posts from my favorite blog friends, planning parties, sales on cute baby clothes, bagel Fridays at work, and helping my friends to learn about things I love, as I mentioned in this post.

16. What song will always remind you of 2010? I'm not a big music person, although it is on a lot at our house. I think my "mainstream labor" playlist will always remind me of the first part of this year that I spent at home with Annie, because it was constantly on repeat. Also "The Weight" by The Band, aka "Take a load off, Annie" :) because we listen to that one a lot around here, too.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder?b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer? a) definitely happier, although I wans't UN-happy in 2009. The happiness has just grown. b) thinner, which isn't too big of an accomplishment, given that I looked like this at the end of 2009. c) I'm not sure. Probably in overall assets, richer...? But not by much, that's for sure.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Actual sleeping in my bed, instead of laying in it awake, wanting to sleep.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Worrying about stupid things that aren't a big deal. I think I have done a good job of getting more laid back about things and trying not to let my anxiety get the best of me, but it's a constant struggle!

20. How will you be spending Christmas? Done and done.

21. Did you fall in love in 2010? Yes - with my little Annie. It took me awhile to honestly be able to say that, but it happened and keeps happening every day.

22. What was your favorite TV program? I fell out of love with TV this year. I really didn't watch much of anything. The only one that continues to suck me in is Gossip Girl.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? No - just the same old, same old :)

24. What was the best book you read? I didn't read much this year, but by far the best book I read was The Help.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? This question implies that I HAD any musical discoveries, which I didn't.

26. What did you want and get? Too many things to list. To start out the year, I wanted to give birth without any drugs, which I was able to do. I wanted to breastfeed Annie for at least 6 months, which I did. And more petty things, I wanted new boots, which my mom gave me for my birthday.

28. What did you want and not get? Honestly, nothing major is springing to mind. I really did have a great year, I guess!

29. What was your favorite film of this year? I went to one movie all year - Sex and the City 2, and it wasn't that good. I watched a few on Netflix, one I remember liking quite a bit was Sherlock Holmes.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 29, and I went out with many of my friends to Maxwell's - it was really fun! Everyone was gone by 10:30 - we really are getting old :)

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? If I wouldn't have had any sleep issues - it really does make life a lot worse.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010? Ha. Haaaaaaaaa. Fashion, what's that? I guess my fashion concept is - jeans or plain colored pants and a long or short sleeved solid color v-neck top. And the most inconspicuous comfortable shoes possible. That's about it. I got a few fun things for my birthday and Christmas, so I'm trying to make a bit more of an effort with my appearance this year.

33. What kept you sane? Ben. My friends and family. The internet. My awesome coworkers.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Have really lost touch with the celebrity world, which is a good thing. I used to spend FAR too much time reading Perez Hilton, and I'm happy to say I don't care at all anymore! I still love Matt Damon, though.

35. What political issue stirred you the most? Usually the more I know, the madder I get, and the more helpless I feel, so I chose to remain blissfully ignorant this year. Issues surrounding parenting and babies were most interesting to me.

36. Who did you miss? I miss all my friends that don't live here anymore - Chelsea, Erin, Diane, Nicki, Sonja, and more I'm sure. Although I get to see them sometimes, it's not the same! I miss some friends who I've completely lost touch with - I rarely let that happen, but sometimes lives are just too different to have a meaningful relationship anymore. I still definitely miss them though.

37. Who was the best new person you met? I "met" lots of blogger friends - I won't even list them for fear I'd forget someone, but I love getting comments from them and also reading about their journeys through parenthood! I was glad to meet a lot of new babies this year too - Nathan, Abby, Grace and Sam!

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010. Just chill the F out. Or as Ben says, CFO. It's probably the most important thing I can repeat to myself all the time.

49 Weeks

This was a pretty low key week in our household - finally! We spent the majority of the week at home, but had enough outings to keep things interesting.

I gave Annie some cheerios in a snack cup while we were eating dinner one night - she was enthralled. That thing is DEFINITELY coming on the plane with us (and being hidden until then) when we go to Mexico

I was noticing this week that Annie definitely is pretty clingy on weeknights - she's always been great about playing by herself but now she wants us near her and interacting! I love doing that on weeknights of course, because we aren't with her all day and we get such a short amount of time with her those days anyway, but I also know that it's really important for her to be able to play on her own sometimes too. I've referenced Janet Lansbury's site a few times here, but this article in particular is what really got me to understand the actual value of independent playing - especially #5 - observe, don't interrupt. This is where I have a hard time when I'm playing with her - it's SO hard to not show her the "right" way to play with things, or show her how things work. I do think it is much more valuable when babies and kids can figure out on their own how they want to play without being taught, so I am trying to be better about this, especially on the weekends. I mostly have the issue of figuring out what I SHOULD be doing while she is playing - I need to be able to see her most of the time, and I don't want to sit on my laptop or my phone all the time. And as much as I like watching Annie, after about 20 minutes, I start getting pretty antsy. I guess I could read a book again. What a concept :)

A few times this week, Annie will hold her baby this way and rock back and forth - pretty adorable.

Along the same lines, it is also hard to not "show" Annie how to do things like walk, or push her borrowed walker. We've never walked Annie around by holding her hands (I tried once and she just sat down anyway!) but we did stand her up at Mia's walker to see if she'd push it today - she did walk with it for awhile, but it's clear that she isn't quite ready - it was going way faster than she could walk, that's for sure! Ben and I said we wouldn't do that - but the temptation was too strong :) I KNOW she will walk when she is ready, and I don't want to force her - it seems like even if you try, they still won't really walk until they are ready anyway, so no sense in causing everyone stress! I'm truly not worried about that element of her development at all, as I mentioned last week there are other stupid things causing me anxiety instead - although I'm getting better about that too :)

This is what happens when Annie is left to her own devices for the entire morning

Every night and during her nap, I tidy up - so it's like a whole new toy store for her each time she wakes up :)

I've mentioned before that Annie is NOT a fan of being read to - well it seems that is slowly starting to turn around! There were several times this week where she sat still and paid attention to a WHOLE BOOK - that is real progress, people! She has always liked paging through them herself - but this week, she let both Ben and I read to her several times without losing interest or crawling away. The winning books this week were Tails, Kisses, and Puppy Love. They are all much more interactive, and have things Annie can pull and feel so she seemed to like that a lot.

We introduced whole milk this weekend - Annie is not a fan. We got a little individual bottle of it, and I gave Annie about 2-3oz of it in a sippy cup with each meal this weekend. I think she took 5 sips total maybe, and that was by mistake. She didn't cry, she just made a face and looked a little surprised. I'm hoping if we keep at it at every mealtime she'll eventually get used to the taste. I really don't want to deal with mixing it in her bottles - she has issues taking those as it is and I just want to be done with bottles when my freezer stash runs out anyway. I read a lot of conflicting information about how much milk babies/toddlers need anyway - we're still nursing morning and night, and we can manage to force Annie to have about 6oz of breastmilk over the rest of the day (split into 2 small bottles before and after her nap) but that's it. I can't imagine she's getting much more than 6oz when she nurses, so that's only 18oz all day. I'm going to ask the doc about it at her 12 month appt, but I'm just going on the assumption that she'll drink when she's thirsty and eat when she's hungry at this point.

One other update - Annie's cousin Grace came home this week! We haven't been by their house to visit her yet, but we're all so excited she's home - now Sam just needs to catch up - hopefully in a few weeks!

This is a truly THRILLING (not at all) video of Annie eating - I usually just put her food right on her tray for her, but I gave her a bowl that night just to see what she'd do - she lasted a few minutes before it was dropped on the floor :) There are some babbles in the video as well.

Ben loves carrying Annie in the Ergo - she's actually willing to cuddle!

Annie's favorite pose in the Ergo