It does snow in Virginia!

Cruising!

Slam dunk!

About a week ago Anna started playing with her toys in a new way. She now seems to have a sense that certain toys go with other toys. For instance, the basketball goes in the hoop, the gumballs go in the gumball machine, and the zoo animals go on the zoo. Of course she also likes to test out some other combinations - like what happens if the penguin goes in the basketball hoop or the basketball goes in the gumball machine? I've also seen her playing with random toys in a more "organized way." Like this morning I gave her 2 identical pans to play with and put her basketballs into one of them. She must have moved the basketballs back and forth between the two pans 7 times. The most amazing to me is how she plays with her puzzle pieces. She has a large wooden puzzle that she got for Christmas with five puzzle pieces. Previous to this week she just liked to take them all out of the puzzle and play with the pieces, chewing on them and clapping them together. But recently, after taking them all out of the puzzle, she's been stacking them all back on top of the puzzle, not in their slots, but just resting on top of the board - so cute!

A few other cute pics:

Who's older?

You may remember this picture taken last summer when Anna was 7 weeks old and Clara was 4 months old. Well, here's an updated shot:

Matt still thinks that Clara looks older, but they are certainly "growing closer" in age. In fact right now they seem very similar in age because Anna can now crawl very well and Clara is certainly more stable on her feet than Anna, but not walking...yet.

Now, I know that Anna still looks older than Liam, but there is certainly less of a difference now compared to last October.

And finally, Anna has a new friend, Lily, who came to visit us for the Giant's playoff game. She's clearly older than Anna (by 4 months), but someday I'm sure it will be hard to tell:

Cousin Liam's Baptism

On Tuesday we got back from a week in Albany for Liam's baptism and visits with family and friends. We had a wonderful week spending time with everyone we love in Albany :) Some pictures from Liam's big day:

First word by the little wolf

On Saturday Anna said her first word: "Dada." Now she doesn't know what it means, but she knows it's fun to say. By Sunday she was practicing, "Dadadadada" all the time. "Dadadada" is certainly her favorite thing to say, but we have also heard, "Nana" (pronounced as if it rhymes with Dada), "Lala," and "Yaya." Also, she's started clicking the roof of her mouth with her tongue, which is neat, but the best is when she does this "double-click," which sounds just like a cricket. We actually can't figure out how to do it - maybe it only works if you don't have any top teeth. Well, I should say barely have any top teeth. Anna now has one, maybe two, little points of teeth on the top of her mouth. The one that is definitely in is not one in the middle. It is just to the right of her top bunny tooth. When she giggles and you can see it poking through, she looks like a little wolf with a fang :)

First fort

This week we've been constructing forts for Anna with the coach cushions. The first fort was not a big hit right away:

I'm busy right now, Dad, maybe later

However, once we got her to check it out, she ended up liking it. After the forts we moved onto cushion tunnels. One of us sits on one end of the tunnel with her and the other tries to coax her down the tunnel. She's usually a little hesitant, but once she goes into the tunnel, she giggles and laughs the whole way through.

Behind the photo shoot...

So given that Anna has trouble sitting still for too long, you may be wondering how we got all those great pictures below. She crawled up the steps to the dining room, turned around, sat down...and she was stuck there! I got a good grab of the back of her overalls & Matt happened to have the camera nearby. Now the funny part is the explanation for a few of those faces...the ones that you can't tell if she is smiling or upset. We think that might have been her first attempts at smiling on purpose. Probably a coincidence, but every time Matt said,"smile," she squinted her eyes and made that forced little smiley look. Then we showed her the pictures on the camera and she got so excited. It was so cute!

Oh, fresh juicy pear...

A new study...

Get out the vacuum and the broom...

Although Anna is still struggling to get her finger foods into mouth, she's made a lot of progress getting leaves, dirt, pine needles, and strings into her mouth off the floor. So if you come to visit us you can admire our very clean floors :)

2008 most popular baby names

According to a babycenter article, Anna was the 32nd most popular girl's name in 2008.

Bowling scores revealed:

Matt: 157
Sarah: 57

I guess when I said we had fun hitting strikes and spares, I only meant one of us....

Big girl foods!

Since we first started feeding Anna solid foods about 4 months ago, she has happily eaten most of what we have given her. In the past few days she's become a little choosey. We think this is due to the fact that she has become less interested in mushy foods served on a spoon and more interested in small bites of food that she needs to chew. I guess these are referred to as "finger foods," because babies can pick them up with their fingers and feed themselves. However in Anna's case it's not quite her fingers that are doing the feeding yet. She is trying to feed herself though. Yesterday, with her first experience with cheerios, she came so close to getting one in her mouth herself a couple times.

So right now Anna's finger foods consist of pear (her favorite by far!), banana (which you may remember she would not eat in the mushed up version a few months ago, but she loves in small bites), carrot, potato, peas, and cheerios.

So how does Anna show her preference for these fine delicacies? Well, yesterday when her grandparents visited on the way back from North Carolina, Anna didn't want her lunch. So her grandpa peeled a pear and let her take some little bites off it. Now when it was time for dinner, she didn't want to eat her fine oatmeal and mashed lima beans so we took her out of her high chair and set her down to play. She crawled right under the counter in the kitchen where the fruit basket is stored and started motionning and reaching for the pears. Matt & I could not believe she remembered this, but we peeled the pear and managed to get her to eat bites of her mushy food in between pear bites. At lunch today she would only eat her mushy rice cereal and mushy carrots in between bites of banana and cheerios. It's a good compromise, but I can't figure out how we reached this negotiation without sharing a common language!

Well, for dinner we're going to give avocado a second try - this time in bites!

Changing Table Maddness!

Over the past few weeks Anna has become less and less interested in laying still while she gets her clothes and diaper changed. When we were in Albany at Christmas I kinda thought it was because she was laying in the middle of a big bed and she was interested in exploring. However, in the past week it's gotten worse. At this point if Matt & I are both home we always change her diaper together - one person to entertain and one person to change. A few times while Matt was working this week I had to just skip her before nap diaper change because she was so difficult before it even started. Now if her diaper is just wet, I don't feel too bad about this, but if her diaper is more than wet that's when the real trouble starts. I would say 3 or 4 times in the past week Anna has flipped over to her stomach while her butt is covered in poop, which really makes things interesting. Like this morning. Anna woke up and I went to change her. Right as I got her diaper off and went for the first wipe she did the flip over. I picked her up quick, bare, poopy butt in the air, and with no where to put her, we woke Dad up from a deep sleep to come wipe the butt...sorry Dad!

Matt & I have tried to teach Anna appropriate changing table behavior. This is pretty funny. As soon as she does the flip one of us picks her up looks at her face and firmly explains that she needs to lay on her back while she gets her diaper changed. This apparently, is hilarious, because it always makes her burst into laughter.

Hopefully this is a phase. If not hopefully Mom & Dad will gain some new skills - fast!

New Year's Bowling

Matt, Anna, & I went bowling today. We all had fun - Mom & Dad hitting strikes and spares and Anna people watching and bowling ball watching. So here's a question for everyone. Mom & Dad bowled scores 100 points from each other. What were the scores and who do they belong to?