Miscellany

Isn't she just the cutest? We pulled my old rocking chair out of "storage" (which is pretty much everywhere we look these days). Anabelle loves it! We keep it in the bedroom so she can watch her show in the morning while I get ready. She even taught herself to rock in it and in the big rocking chair. Such a big girl!

Climbing is our favorite thing to do these days. It's pretty common to find her crawling between the kitchen and living room shelves, like this. Today, daddy found her climbing up her rocking chair, trying to get onto our bed. It's only a matter of time before she'll be doing it with ease!

Anabelle loves having Papa living next door! He and mimi are spoiling her like crazy.

1st Birthday Bash

Busy times! But I knew you wouldn't want to miss Anabelle's party photos. We kept it pretty small so she wasn't too overwhelmed (and we weren't either). But she had a blast! She loved the attention, of course, and enjoyed getting to play with her grandparents, aunts and sweet friends. It was the perfect day for a party, and we were thrilled to celebrate the big O-N-E!

These first two photos were from her actual birthday.

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Yummmm! Actually, she just barely ate any icing. Not quite a sweet tooth, yet.

The Abbys

And our best attempt at a family photo. She was too excited to sit still for us.

A pink dump truck? For ME??? :)

And she LOVES her new trike!

So much fun in one day. So many wonderful people who love our baby. Such awesome memories. Thanks to everyone who loves our girl! xo

11 Months

So many changes happen on a daily basis, it's hard to keep up with this girl. She amazes us. She brings us great joy. And she gives us a thousand reasons to thank God on a daily basis.

Anabelle is 11 months old. We can't believe it! (Actually she's one week away from one at this point!!!) Here is a short list of things she can do at this point:

• Cruise along any furniture she can get her hands on
• Walk with her walking toy
• Walk holding on to just one of our fingers
• Sign "More," "All Done," "Thank You," "Please"
• Blow Kisses
• Play Hide and Seek
• Play "So Big"
• Wave "Hello" and "Bye bye"
• Say "Momma," "Dadda," "Papa," "Meh Meh" (for Mimi), "Bye Bye," and lots of other sounds that mostly sound like "tooka tooka tooka"
• Imitate any words we say
• Point at everything
• Clear out a drawer in 2.5 seconds

I hardly have time to sit down and post these days as we close in on her birthday, birthday party, our house being finished and wanting to be outside more. But I know you want to see her, so I'll do my best to keep this up!

p.s. An addition to milestones is that she has maintained her 25 lbs for the last four + months. No gaining. She is getting taller, though, as a lot of her shirts need to be 2T to cover her torso. Yep, 2T! She's still mainly in 18 month pants. I'm guessing she's still off the charts for height, and probably weight, too. We'll find out soon. My baby turns ONE on Tuesday!

Playing with Daddy

Anabelle is a true daddy's girl. Whatever he does or wherever he is, she wants to be right there with him. He can always get her to smile. She absolutely adores him.

It's only fitting that she try to be like him in the gym...
And on the ping pong table...

Next on her list of "to-dos" is walking! She loves to walk with someone holding her hands. She can pull herself up on any of the furniture and has started to cruise a little bit along the couch. It's amazing how quickly that happened.

Go, girly, go.

Ten Months!

Anabelle turned 10 months old last week. We can't believe we're already planning a birthday party for her! This month has brought an incredible amount of changes for all of us. Anabelle is crawling everywhere, pulling up on anything she can, standing at the couch, her toybox, her playtable, etc, and even beginning to walk along the side of the furniture. Yikes!

She is so bubbly and full of life. We love listening to her jabber nonstop! She has most of the consonants down, loves to say "dada" and has just started saying "ticka ticka." It's precious to hear her little voice. My favorite is to watch her in her carseat. She raises her eyebrows and moves her mouth like she's talking, but no sound comes out. I'm pretty sure she has imaginary friends!

She's eating every food imaginable. Although, lately, she won't eat much at any meal. She's still super "healthy" and plenty happy, so we aren't concerned. She has been through 5 rounds of antibiotics for ear infections since Christmas so we met with an ENT finally. After an evaluation, we decided she needs tubes in her ears. April 1st is the date, and we're hoping for a little girl who feels great all of the time and one who naps like an angel!! (Wishful thinking??)

On top of ear infections, she's popped out tooth #7 this month, and #8 is bursting at the seams. That makes four on the bottom and almost four on top. No wonder she can eat anything! I'm afraid we're about done with cereal and baby food because she much prefers feeding herself whole food. But that's perfectly okay, and usually much easier on me.

We are having so much fun with sweet Anabelle; which makes us so excited for whatever comes next. We're hoping to buy a bike seat and a swingset soon to teach her how fun spring can be! A baby pool and swimmies for the big pool are in store for her birthday because summer will be amazing with our little toddler!

Right now, we will just enjoy our quick crawling sweetie at 10 months old!

On The Move

Just after Anabelle turned 9 months old, she started scooting on her belly, which quickly led to full out hands and knees crawling. It's been so much fun (and work) to watch as she progresses. She's learned how much there is to explore in the new house. Fortunately, she hasn't found the stairs yet!

And, she's off!

Our ottoman has made for a great barrier between her and all of the fun electronics on our TV. It was a grand idea to think she'd hear "no" and stay away, but even with an ottoman and pillows surrounding it, she still manages to find her way to the Wii every now and then.

The glass shelves, dividing our family and living room, that once held family photos and candles now hold hard books and baby toys. But Anabelle loves pulling herself onto the lowest shelf and watching me work in the kitchen.
And the bathroom is a world of wonders! All of her bath toys are strewn about, and when she gets bored with them, she discovers mommy & daddy's fun bathroom toys.

I think the caption for this picture is "Busted!"

She is on the Move!

It's not much of a video, but I captured a few seconds of Anabelle's latest achievements on my cell phone while in our bathroom. She is crawling! She has been scooting on her tummy for a few weeks, but as of Monday, she is a full out crawler. She still doesn't go far. I don't know if it's because she doesn't know she can, or because there's nothing really interesting outside of our living room. Either way, I'm okay with keeping her contained for now.

It's amazing to see the transformation of her from an immobile baby to a grown up little crawler. She gets so excited, too, when she is on her hands and knees. It's a whole new world from her new perspective, and it is a great one!

Nine Months Old!

Anabelle's caption: "I can't believe I am NINE MONTHS OLD!!!"

We can't believe it either, baby. But you sure are pretty! And growing so quickly.
And mommy & daddy finally got smart. We put the sign in a plastic display holder so you can't crumble it up and eat it.

Miss Anabelle turned 9 months old last week. At her well baby visit (this week), she weight 24.6 lbs and was 30 inches long. We asked where that put her on the charts, and she is off of them. Dr. Miles said "above 95th percentile" and showed us the chart where her dot was nowhere near the shaded area.

She's a big girl! People tell us that all the time... "Wow, she's a healthy girl!" "She doesn't miss a meal, does she?" "Look at those cheeks!" "What are you feeding her, mom?" The list goes on. She started off big (almost 9.5lbs) and has maintained a healthy gain. Her pjs are now 18 months. But she is awesome. We wouldn't ask for anything different. She makes our faces and our hearts smile on a daily, usually hourly, basis. We love her laugh, her smile, her silly faces, her intelligence, her squeals, her chubby baby thighs, her kisses and on and on. Happy nine months, baby, to all of us!

If you give a baby a toy...

she'll play for 5 minutes.



If you give a baby and entire toy box, she'll play by herself forever.

Well, maybe not forever, but for a much longer time! Since she doesn't nap well, I've been trying to figure out ways for her to stay entertained for longer so I can get things done during the day. She's also going through a clingy phase, so I need to be in sight often. I could keep her occupied for a while with different toys or a video, but after 5-10 minutes she needed interaction.

After watching her continually crawl to our "toy box" (or wire cubby thing we're using temporarily) multiple times, I decided to bring the toy box to her. I set it on its side so she could get to every toy inside and VOILA, she was happy for an hour! I was in and out, hanging nearby, but she loved having access to so many fun things. And I was happy to have extra freedom.

These PJs Were Made for Walkin

and that's just what they'll do.

NINE?

I just got an e-mail from Babycenter.com saying "Your baby is 9 months old." NINE? I have no words, just a few mommy tears...

Bubbly Girly

Splashing in the "new" jacuzzi tub has made Anabelle's bath times so much fun. She especially likes the massive amount of toys that fit in there and how many bubbles are produced when the jets are turned on. Its purpose has officially progressed from cleaning to entertainment. Fingers and toes get pruny. Hair gets bubbly. And toys get a workout!

She especially enjoys the big bath without the bath seat. But after five or ten minutes of bending over the side of the tub, we quickly feel the aches of being "old." And then we're thankful for the bath seat.

After-bath is just as fun. She loves reading her Nemo book, and we love lotioning her all up.

Smiles

Anabelle's big cheesin' smiles haven't been quite as frequent, especially in photos, lately. She's toughed out two ear infections, a yucky cold and now is cutting both top teeth. She gives us plenty of smiles and giggles and belly laughs, still, but when the camera comes out they disappear.

Thankfully, though, I've learned to play peek-a-boo behind my camera to get her to smile. Here is my sweetie loving her Cheerios.

It's been 3 months since she started cereal. (Please note she is wearing the same top three months ago! She might be starting to average out now.) These days, her meal options are endless. Mike made delicious guacamole for the Colts' game Sunday, which may just be Anabelle's favorite food! She loves flavor, just like her daddy. She also loves chicken, cheese, yogurt, bananas, whole wheat tortillas and any other food she can feed herself. It's so much fun!

8 Months Old

The girl is SO busy, this is the best we could get without her eating or annihilating the paper. The bunny is below her shoulder! Remember seven months ago....

Giggly Girl

Our sweetie is full of smiles and laughs. She's even discovered a toothy smile that doesn't show off her tonsils. Some are accompanied with her signature nose scrunch, and then your heart just melts. One of her favorite games for a while has been Peek A Boo. It entertains her to no end! Even more entertaining is when the "Peek a Boo-er" is extra dramatic with the game. If you watch, after 25 seconds, I got more dramatic (which you can't see) and she started cracking up more (which you will thoroughly enjoy).

We do just about anything we can think of to make her smile and laugh!

Christmas Excitement

I am on an uploading videos kick, so bear with me. Here is the reason why Christmas morning was so wonderful. She got so excited over her gifts, and especially this book we got her! So precious...

Shakin Things Up

Anabelle has learned to shake her head "no," and it is hilarious when she does so. It started mid-November, when Mike was shaking his head no, and she mimicked him. Since then, she mimics it often and even more often just starts shaking her head back and forth. We can't help but laugh out loud, which I'm sure just encourages her more. It's been a challenge to actually capture it on camera, since she becomes so enamored with the camera and forgets everything else. But I caught it! Laugh along with us!

Santa, Baby

As you can tell, Anabelle's first visit with Santa went very well. The girl has never met a stranger! She loved him. Memories were made. I cried... She is SO MUCH FUN!

Biter Biscuits

Among many other first tries of foods, including peas, green beans, sweet potatoes and peaches, Anabelle had her very first "biter biscuit." Her sweet friend, Addie, shared them with her since Addie has all of her teeth now. I must preface the pictures by telling you that Anabelle has never smiled, not once, while eating. She is a serious girl a lot of the time, and eating is definitely one of those times. We can tell when she likes her food by the speed with which she eats it. Smiles are not even a consideration.

If you watch the pictures, you can see she loves this. No smiles, but she demolished it in minutes. So fun to watch!

6 Months!

Anabelle turns 7 months old tomorrow, so I figured I should post her 6 month bunny picture. It's the last one against pink walls. *sniff*