18 Months

(This photoshoot was just NOT happening today - a few more outtakes below :)

Dear Annie,

Happy half birthday to you!!! As a near-Christmas baby myself, I have always been a BIG fan of my half birthday, so I plan to share that love with you :) As with your last 2 month birthdays, we spent the beginning of today up at the cabin, one of your favorite places, and ended tonight with your first ice cream cone! I'm pretty sure you only ingested about a spoonful of ice cream since you don't quite get how to actually take bites from the cone, but you enjoyed it, that's for sure! When I think back to you one year ago, a fat bald baby taking your very first bites of rice cereal, I am just astounded by how much you've changed in only a year! You are now just such a little girl, not a baby at all anymore. You have personality, and your facial expressions can entertain an entire room. You are CONSTANTLY in motion right now - always puttering about, chattering to yourself. Pretty much the only time you are relatively still is if there is food in front of you, or if you are sleeping.

You're pretty speedy on your feet now, and are quite steady. This month was when I felt like we could stop hovering over you all the time - you really have quite the grasp of your own abilities and are fairly safe. I am certain that there are many tumbles to come in your future, but right now I know that if you get up on something, you will get down safely. You are fine by yourself on the stairs going up and down, and I love how you always know to go down "on your belly" from anywhere. You try to climb a lot of things, but are too short to get much of anywhere just yet - you can get on some chairs, but not all, and if you can't, you stop and look at us and say "up?" (which still sounds like "pup?") Most of the time, you love playing by yourself and don't need or want much interaction with us, but you do like when we are close and watching you, just in case! One of your favorite things to do lately is walk around the house throwing a tennis ball. You're actually getting pretty good at it! You're even better about playing independently when you are with anyone BUT us - we frequently hear reports from your grandparents and Sue, your daycare lady, about how well you play by yourself and what a great kid you are. You DEFINITELY reserve all your cranky moments JUST for us - thanks, Annie :)

Oh, and tantrums there are - you do get very frustrated when things aren't working exactly as you want - for example, one of your biggest frustrations is if a lid won't fit exactly right on a container. You also get quite angry if you are hungry and food isn't delivered to your face IMMEDIATELY! Your increased communication skills have certainly helped with decreasing tantrums, as you now can ask for things, but they are still there. You also are getting possessive, and tell me when you think things are "mine" (however, much of the time they are not - such as your Grandpa's watch... no matter how much you WANT it to be yours!). You've also started to be pretty forceful some of the time, but so far haven't intentionally hit anyone... I'm guessing it will be a matter of days before that comes though.

Your communication skills continue to get better and better - you have learned a number of new words, and I still find it just adorable that you correctly and without prompting will say please and thank you! New words that I've heard in the past few weeks are "chalk" (olk), "clock" (said without the L - ha :), purple, Grandma (mama), milk (very useful!), and FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!! MOMMY! Even said correctly and in context! It is THE GREATEST thing to walk into a room and have you look at me and say "Mommy!!" I love it. You aren't really stringing words together often just yet, but sometimes you will say "Hi Daddy" or "Water please" so I think you're getting close. You can follow simple directions very well, so it's clear that you are figuring out more and more about how the world works, and what things are for. You can identify most body parts and are getting better with a few more animal sounds too!

One really annoying development of the past month is that you really are starting to become a pickier eater, despite all of our best efforts. You have always had your favorites, and still do always seem willing to try things, but you definitely are NOT a fan of plain vegetables. We still can get them in you in most meals, but pretty regularly you decide you are not a fan of what we're having for dinner and just don't eat more than a few bites. Luckily for everyone, there is plenty of time in your life to develop a taste for barley risotto with beets :) When you like what's in front of you, you LOVE eating still. Your favorites are smoothies, where you scream with glee as soon as you hear the blender, and then start crying because the smoothie isn't there immediately (it seems a running theme here is that you need to learn some patience with food :), any form of carbs, most fruits (especially berries), meat, spaghetti or lasagna, and most Mexican type foods. We've recently discovered that you also apparently love sandwiches, but haven't quite figured out how to eat them on your own unless it's peanut butter and jelly. Oh, and predictably you love all forms of dessert, obviously! We've definitely eased up about only feeding you healthy all the time, and you love the treats when you get them.

Despite your love of food, you are still a bitty little peanut. While I think you look perfectly proportional, I'm guessing that when we go in for your 18 month appointment tomorrow, you won't have gained much of anything since 15 months and still will be tipping the scales at about 21 pounds, which is what some of your 6 month old baby-friends weigh right now :) You ARE eating, but you move literally constantly, and likely have inherited a great metabolism from your parents, which you will surely appreciate as a teenager and adult. I'll be interested to hear what the doctor has to say about your small size - it SEEMS as though you are just fine to me, so hopefully that is the case. You still fit just fine into 12 month clothes, although they are finally a bit short. You are wearing 12-18 month clothes and some fits great, but others are falling off you. We'll just have to keep working on fattening you up - ice cream every day!! :)

You are SUCH a joy in our lives, Annie - we just sit around watching you and smile every single day. I feel like the luckiest person in the world because I get to be your mommy.

Love you always,

Mom

Asking to get "down? down? down?"

Show me your teeth! Clearly didn't work as I'd hoped

Annie's first ice cream cone!!! (From Izzy's, of course)

Major props to Nate for delivering these photos to me in about an hour :)

Right before it fell :)

The dress had to come off after this experience!

U2 Concert!

**Warning - this post has a lot of WORDS. I know, not my usual way, but it's my first post not about Annie for MONTHS, so at least that's something exciting!**

This Saturday was finally, FINALLY the U2 concert. Guess when we bought these tickets? Before Annie was even BORN. Back in November of 2009, it was supposed to be my 28th birthday present. Now I'm almost 30 :) The last time U2 was here was the day of our rehearsal dinner for our wedding, so we obviously couldn't go (although I was offered tickets for work... dang! tough choice! :) I'm sure most of you know that Bono hurt his back before the tour was supposed to start and thus it was delayed a year. I'm happy to say that it was definitely worth the wait!

We started off our weekend on Friday night - Annie was originally just supposed to go to Ben's parents house on Saturday night for the concert, but they wanted her to come on Friday so they would have more time to spend with her. AOK with me! Normally I of course love to have my time with Annie on the weekends but I was JUST FINE giving her to the grandparents for an extra night this time :) I know it is just as important for them to get to spend time with her too, and they seriously LOVE it, and so does she! Ben's dad didn't get to our house until nearly 8 on Friday night to get Annie - but she was so excited, squealing and yelling - it was so fun! I love that she's now at the stage of recognizing family, it definitely makes their days when she's so happy to see them!

Saturday, I lazed around on the couch in the morning, watching multiple episodes of Sex & the City like I used to do back in my pre-kid days. It was actually quite heavenly. I have watched the entire series probably 4 times, but really haven't watched at all since Annie was born. I started off at Season 3 (my personal favorite tied with Season 4) and remembered how much I love the show, even if it does have it's many flaws :) After lunch, we packed up to go to the Graves 601 hotel, where Ben surprised me with a room! He had originally told me we were going to stay at the Westin but when I started making firm plans to go to dinner somewhere super close to there he had to fill me in on the secret :) I have wanted to stay there for a night for a super long time, so this was the perfect occasion. Luckily Ben got a deal on priceline because that place is ridiculously expensive!

View from our room - that's Target Center in the foreground - who knew they had a green roof??

We were able to check in early, and I set about making SURE we got our money's worth out of that room by immediately taking a nap and just lounging in the bed - I wanted to save my energy for that night (and it was a VERY good thing I did, as you will soon see...) and the bed was seriously the most amazing thing I've ever experienced - better than ANY other hotel bed by far (Hilton, Hyatt, etc are pretty nice but not even close to how nice this one was).

Amazing showers! I made sure to use this multiple times because our shower at home sucks.


I really love hotel robes

At 5:30, we met the neighbors at Lyon's Pub for some drinks and dinner. Since we were away from the concert, it wasn't that busy which was nice.

We miraculously got a van cab to the concert, and once we got close walked the last few blocks in because traffic wasn't moving. That area is DEFINITELY not built to handle that amount of people! We saw a bit of the opening band, Interpol, who were pretty okay but I wasn't really paying attention to them too much. Our seats were great, directly facing the stage in the lower level (section 119 for those familiar with the stadium). Not super close, but we had a great view of the entire event, definitely.

Walking to the concert. Oh these Lions. We had some good times with those back in college.

I LOVED the concert. It was definitely the best large concert I've ever seen (I've been to Dave Matthews Band a few times, Coldplay, Rolling Stones, and probably more than I'm forgetting because they weren't that great). I'm not really that big of a fan of concerts, honestly, really preferring to sit in the comfort of my own home listening to music, but U2 are such good performers that it was definitely worth the crowds and the standing for many hours, and rain, and the cost of tickets. It started raining pretty hard halfway through, and THANKFULLY some amazing woman behind us offered Ben a disposable rain poncho, which he obviously gave to me, so I luckily stayed pretty dry. The rain was honestly like an awesome special effect and didn't seem to slow the band down at all. Apparently there were some sound issues but I didn't notice in the slightest. The Aquatennial fireworks were going off in the distance (we couldn't see the actual fireworks because we were too far down, but I saw some amazing photos of them over the edge of the stadium from the upper deck) and it was also lightning a few miles away which you could see on the other side... pretty cool! They played City of Blinding Lights, which I was hoping they'd play AS the fireworks went off - but they were a little late :) Still awesome. There was a really cool version of Stand By Me that Bono did with some dude from Somalia, and several times Bono broke into Singing in the Rain. They also did Stuck in a Moment as a tribute to Amy Winehouse - I missed that it was a tribute at that time but saw that later. Ben had no poncho so got soaked, and since he wears glasses really couldn't see anything, but still liked the concert despite not being a U2 fan at all - I'm glad he stuck with it :) They really do put on a great show, so I would definitely encourage forking over the high ticket prices if you are at all a fan for their next tour!

This is one of the best videos I found to see what the experience was like in the rain - crappy audio obviously, but you get the idea! (Side note: I was SHOCKED at all the people recording with their phones in the rain. Hello people! Put those AWAY! It's going to suck anyway! Although I'm glad this dude did I guess)


Look at all the PHONES! This was the first concert I've been to since smart phones became huge (so yeah, it's obviously been awhile) and it was kind of strange/cool to see them all up around the entire stadium.

The real story begins AFTER the concert... so there were approximately 58,000 at the U of M campus, all pouring out of the stadium at 11:30pm on a Saturday night, combined with all the people who were just out normally, and all the people downtown for the Aquatennial.... a bit of a mess. We met back up with Nate & Molly and 2 of their friends they ran into after the concert. Even finding them was tough! We somehow all had to get back downtown, because their car was there, and us and the friends were both staying at the Graves. We decided to walk up 4th Street because at least then we'd be going in the right direction if we found a cab or a bus. Every bus we saw wasn't even stopping because it was so full, and any cabs we saw (which were rare) were definitely occupied. We decided to stop at this random Chinese restaurant on 4th Street because we saw they served beer, had many open tables, and it was open. The idea was just to get some drinks and food and wait it out a bit to see if things calmed down. They ALMOST didn't even let us in because they were closing (it was nearly midnight by then) but they decided to let "just one more group" in, thankfully. We got some food that actually turned out to be delicious (cream cheese wontons! they hit the spot), Ben got an entire dinner for some reason, and then we were back on our way.

Ben's full meal... that he munched on throughout the rest of the night and very much regretted the next morning.

We had decided the bus was probably our best option - left the restaurant, Dinkytown was STILL a mess - no buses in sight (well, we saw one, but it was really far away and didn't even get there in the time we were waiting) and definitely no van cabs to accommodate 6. Sooo we just started walking down 4th Street, again thinking at least we're going in the right direction. We saw no buses the entire time (we walked from the restaurant to 8th Avenue) and no unoccupied cabs. Nate CLAIMS now that he saw unoccupied cabs that we "just missed" but I think he's dreaming. I then suggested we just walk across the Stone Arch Bridge into downtown, because then SURELY we could find a cab. So we did just that, turning on 8th Ave and going to the bridge, walking along Washington - again, seeing no unoccupied cabs. This city does really suck for cabs. By that point, we're still walking and we know we're just going to end up walking the entire way. It ended up being 3 miles, which I mapped the next day. I was in flip flops, everyone still had wet clothes and shoes... it wasn't fun. The only positives were that it had stopped raining and was actually quite pleasant weather, we had company to chat to, and I definitely am not feeling like I need to exercise (as if I ever do) for at least a month.

Starting to walk over the bridge


Just a few blocks left....!

When we finally got to the Graves, the bed had been re-made and our room had been turned down - the most welcome sight in the world! We didn't have anywhere to be the next day so thankfully we got to stay in bed until 10am - AMAZING. The room service was more expensive than I could stomach, so we ended up not doing that, sadly... maybe someday we'll be rich enough to blow $90 on breakfast in bed at a hotel, but I doubt it! The Graves was super nice but I doubt I'd ever stay again unless I got a smoking deal - it really is true that the more expensive the hotel, the less you really get (free breakfast, free wifi, etc).

($90 would be with the mandatory 18% gratuity and delivery charge...)

All in all, it was an amazing weekend - I'm so glad we decided to get a hotel and really do it up in style!

Stuck inside!

The past week has been downright cruel in Minnesota - we all suffer through the long winters hoping for relief in summer, and the past week has been too hot to even go outside. When it feels like 120 degrees outside, that's just too much for me at least. So we've been having to get creative with entertaining a toddler in the house - a little preview of this winter I guess!

One thing I want to remember about this week is that on Tuesday night, when I went over to the neighbor's house to get Annie to take her to bed, she FINALLY looked at me and said "MOMMY!" It was so nice to finally hear her start to use Mommy normally and regularly! A lot of the times she still calls me daddy :) She's been repeating Mommy a lot and saying it here or there, but that was the first real deliberate use of the word. I definitely got a little teary eyed!

We've been making smoothies a lot lately, and Annie has started to recognize the sound of the blender and get VERY excited (and then pissed that her smoothie isn't delivered promptly enough for her) - I finally caught it on video - hilarious!

One of Annie's favorite activities lately is throwing her tennis ball around the house. Her form needs a LITTLE work :)

The one time we left the indoors this weekend was to hit up Liz's new apartment's pool - I of course had a brain lapse and forgot her swim diaper at home, but everyone survived :)

Hahahahaha

Really loves picking stuff up with her mouth recently

So, Annie is a bit of a strange one when falling asleep - she sucks her thumb and also plays with her belly button. Lately she's been doing this also when she's tired, even when she's not in the crib... this is SLIGHTLY troubling for me, since I was hoping she'd keep thumb sucking to only sleeping... I'm not going to try to stop her or anything, but I sucked my thumb until I was in 2nd grade. So yeah, it's a bit of a fear of mine that Annie will be similarly addicted. Time will tell, I guess!

A few other photos from our extremely low key weekend:

First visit to the Children's Museum! We decided to get a membership since it's worth it if you go 3 times... that place is seriously amazing! I loved it as a kid and I'm pretty sure Annie would be entertained there for days.

This thing has gotten a beating and is currently in time out because Annie abuses it so much.

Entertained by the rocking horse at the neighbor's house.

A short time outside with the water table - about all we could tolerate!

Mia and Annie greatly enjoyed the visit to Izzy's Ice Cream

Catching up

Hoo boy, it's hard to be motivated to blog sometimes, but I know I have my faithful readers out there so here I am! A lot has happened since we went to the cabin - but nothing truly groundbreaking, so here are a few photos and short stories that will give you the summary of our adventures over the past 2 weeks. (PS Ben has been awesome about updating the food blog lately, so check that out if you are in need of dinner inspiration!)

A little video of Annie's new ability to blow spit bubbles - lovely :)

Finally ditched the high chair and are just using this booster seat - I LOVE it and don't know why we didn't just get this in the first place instead of the 6 other seat type things we have!

Matching pigtails again! (I need a haircut... bad)

Visited Aaron and Allison's new house (twice now actually) - Madeline and Annie were both VERY excited to see each other again!

Went over to Jake and Allison's house for dinner to see their new patio - Annie pretty much ate watermelon and strawberry shortcake for dinner. Lovely!

Mmm boy was this good - thanks Allison!

When I left the porch she was on the floor with her toys - this is what I found when I returned.

Went to the kiddie pool in the Wabun Picnic Area at Minnehaha Park on the 4th of July - despite Annie's face here, she LOVED it!

Visited cousins later on the 4th!

Joe grilled up some delicious burgers!

Annie had her first ice cream cone - BIG FAN

We visited Sam at the beautiful Amplatz Children's Hospital after he got his feeding tube put in

Annie was extremely enthralled with this duck book Becca read to her

She also LOVED my Chipotle burrito - it's hard to hear, but she kept walking around saying "please" because she wanted more - she'd take a bite, walk around chewing for 5 seconds, and come back - hilarious!

Annie wore her first ponytail

We went to Java Train again with our friends

Saw Scott and Simon - who enjoyed eating Annie's shoulder :)

Went to the Galleria and Southdale to be in air conditioning (got LOTS of comments on how cute Annie is there too :)

Hung out with my coworkers and their babies - including this handsome devil, Malcolm, who is 6 months old and larger than Annie......

That about sums it up! I also talked with a woman tonight for an hour who is doing a food blog study as part of her PhD program - very interesting to think about how blogging has impacted the way I eat and cook!