A double-digit birthday

Anna is 10 months old today - Happy Birthday Anna. Here's what's new in the past two days:

1. Anna loves grilled cheese (well cheese melted on bread, which I think will pass for "grilled cheese" until Anna is old enough to realize "real" grilled cheese is fried with butter. Since our friend, Thomas just figured this out at age 4, I think we have some time.)

2. Anna likes to carry stuffed animals around with her - like around the house, out the door, in the car, at the park, on the swing, etc. - and if you take them away she engages in some serious skwaking.

3. On Wednesday Anna put food in her mouth with a spoon for the first time! It was definitely intentional, but also pretty difficult for her. I don't think she'll be doing it regularly for a while.

new sunglasses

Anna has always been fascinated with sunglasses and now she has her own!

trying them on

taking them off and inspecting them

just looking cute

and even cutier :)

Drumming, dancing...

oh, and playing with toilet paper:

First time on Daddy's shoulders...

I can stand with one hand...

which makes one hand free to find things...

My new favorite mammal is the badger!

Today we headed into DC to check out the Natural History Museum, which I must say is a really cool museum. And actually, Anna thought so too. Her favorite part was the mammal room where she could get a good look at tons of stuffed mammals. Anna loves animals, but is always annoyed when they don't stand still long enough to get a good look. However, at the mammal room, they seemed to obey Anna's wishes very well :) She also like the discovery room, which was filled with items she could touch and explore:

checking out some model animal parts

This crocodile is so much bigger than the one in my zoo!

playing a traditional African instrument

After the museum we walked across the mall to the car and this photo moment presented itself:

A visit from Nana!

Nana is visiting us right now. Anna is having a wonderful time playing with Nana around the house. We've also been to an outdoor playground, indoor playground, shopping, and out to lunch!

Sharing a favorite book with Nana:

This is Stanely, the Whippet, Nana

Our busy social life!

Anna & I have joined two new activities in the past month - a new playgroup and a music class. We've been having a great time at both! We have a second playgroup that we've been going to for a while. We like that one too, but it's hard to attend because it falls right in the middle of Anna's morning nap. Our new playgroup is great. First because we've met a lot of nice people and second because all the babies are about Anna's age - between 9 and 15 months. This is great for Anna and it's good because the other babies nap about when Anna naps. Our music class has been great too. There are two other babies Anna's age (one of which is also in our new playgroup) and 6 or 7 other 2 and 3 year olds. Anna really seems to like the class. She is mezmarized by the instructor. She often will crawl up to her and just stair at her singing or playing the guitar. We have a CD of the songs that we sing in class and Anna has taken to dancing a little when we play her favorite ones. She also enjoys instrument time, where she gets to bang on the drum and shake different objects that make noise.

Between both of these classes plus some extra playdates with other moms and babies, I really feel like Anna has become more comfortable around other people. This week at playgroup everyone was hanging out in two different rooms and Anna kept crawling to the opposite room from me. I would then go follow her and she would ditch me again. I was so happy that she was able to explore and look around without continually wondering where I was!

Swinging!

Today is a tease. It's 65 degrees and sunny and I have the urge to pack up all my winter clothes and reorganize my closet with skirts & shorts. (But wait, all my spring clothes from last year don't fit so what I really need is to go shopping!) But wait again because it is only Feb. 11th. So we just need to enjoy today and remember it is foreshadowing good things to come!

Today we went to the park with friends we met at music class. Anna had a great time swinging, sliding, and playing in the sand. I finally remembered the camera so here she is in all her swinging glory:

a

Goodnight Moon

Both Anna & Daddy still love to read stories before bed. Two of Anna's new favorites are Goodnight Moon and Cat

Little wolf

By the way, the little wolf now has two fangs on the top and no top bunny teeth.

Are you a baby or a little girl?

As much as I hate to hear the little fusses or yelps that Anna has sometimes made as I left her in her crib to go to sleep, her recent behavior seriously pulls at my heartstrings and yet it is so wonderful at the same time. For the past few days, as I take Anna to put her in her crib, she pushes off from looking over my should so she can look right at me and get my attention and she just starts giving me tons of open-mouth wet kisses. In the past I've always told her "good-night," "sleep well," "I'll see you when you get up," but without too much eye contact and just sneak out. Now as I put her down she's intent on continuing to look right at my face with her arms outreached for a hug as she stays in a kneeling or standing position. Now I'm forced to look right at her sad, desperate face as she attempts to keep kissing me and begging me to pick her up again. Instead of my previous 3 short phrases I find myself repeating "I love you's" and "sleep well's" as I try to move her arms into the crib, give her one last hug, and leave her. It's both so hard, and so amazing because I feel like she finally understands that we're saying some kind of "good-night" to each other. I'm sure there will be many more phases in our good-night routine, but this change makes her seem so much more of a little girl to me.

Along those same lines, Anna has recently been having fun with "fun" activities. Of course Anna has found her own fun for months, but only recently is she starting to get "traditionally fun" activities - like a playground or a zoo! While Anna laughs and smiles a lot around the house, she is often more timid in strange places. Since November, when we took her to a park for the first time, we've been taking her to a number of different parks to go on swings and slides. Matt & I always got real excited about it, but Anna has always been, well, subdued...until Thursday. On Thursday we met another mom & two kids at an indoor playground and for the first time Anna seriously seemed to enjoy playground activities - like going down a slide. She can't go down the regular way yet because she just falls backwards, but she can go down with another person or feet first on her belly - both elicited big smiles! Then today Anna visited both the zoo and another playground, where she was excited to see the animals, fussed upon leaving various animal exhibits, and giggled profusely while going on a swing. It sure is fun when you take your child to an activity and it's not just you & your spouse giggling on the slide :)

just a sweet little girl...

When Mom's not looking...

Daddy is so fun...

tub time with Daddy

home alone with Daddy