Playing in the snow!

After 6 days of feeling sick, Anna finally woke up this morning, ran into our room, and said, "Let's make waffles!" We're so happy that our sweet little Anna is feeling better and is back to her usual playful self.

We had a special treat this afternoon as the weather warmed up to 45 degrees and the sun came out. We all headed outside to enjoy some fun in the snow.

Anna and I built the snowman below. I did a lot of the work, but Anna thought to add the scarf and picked out the rocks for the eyes and mouth.

Lately, Anna has not been a big fan of getting her picture taken, but she was excited to pose for this picture with her snowman. It's so nice to have a picture of her where she is smiling and looking (well, at least trying to look) at the camera.

3rd tooth!

Tonight when I noticed Abby was eating more of her hand than her carrots, I checked for any new teeth and felt a little point. I think it is her right eye tooth - or maybe just the tooth to the right of her top bunny teeth. It also felt like there were one or two other bumps so maybe there will be another soon!

I just looked at older blog posts to see when Anna got her 3rd tooth. Just like Abby, Anna got an upper side tooth third. I found the post where I first wrote about it and it turns out Anna was about the same age as Abby is now. So although many things are very different about Abby compared to baby Anna, they seem to have the exact same pattern for getting teeth.

Pretend Play

Anna has been sick this week, which has resulted in a few trips to the doctor. Consequently, she's been playing doctor a lot at home. She likes Abby to play with her:

So maybe Abby doesn't really know that she's pretending to be a doctor, but she did do something really cute yesterday that I think was her first "pretending." She had this little piece of cloth (it's a doll blanket in a dollhouse so it' really small) and she kept rubbing it on the dollhouse then rubbing it on my face. Then she did her face a few times. Every time I said, "Oh, thanks for wiping my face," she would get a big smile. I'm not sure what she was pretending to do. I'll have to ask her next year to think back and explain it to me :)

Playing dress up and pretending to be a...

Well, I'm not exactly sure, but it sure is cute!

And finally, pretending to do laundry or actually helping? :

Holiday photos continued

Grandma sent me a bunch of great pictures from the holidays so I thought I would share:

dancing to Daddy's piano music

more music - this time from Abigail!

Anna & Santa!

Merry Christmas!

Anna learned how to flop down the stairs on this trip - wee!

Daddy & Abby :)

Mommy & Abby :)

Abby the Chef

Abby has been busy pulling up on everything - the couch, coffee table, toys, and steps. Here she is preparing a delicacy in Anna (and now Abby's) play kitchen:



Another cute picture. (Taken after she prepared another delicious dish in her own mini kitchen!)

Did you have a nice Christmas?

Last week while Anna, Abby, and I were out for a walk with Anna's new tricycle we saw a cat. I pointed it out to Anna. She hopped off her tricycle, walked up to the cat and asked, "Did you have a nice Christmas?" The cat scampered off and Anna ran after it yelling, "Did you have a nice Christmas?" After a few minutes Anna came back. I asked her if the cat had a nice Christmas and she said, "I kept asking, but he didn't answer me."

Waving

About a week ago we were at the grocery store and on our way out one of the people working at the store waved to Abby and said good-bye. Then I heard her say, "Oh, your waving back!" Really? I looked down and she was right, Abby was waving back. Before this there have been a couple instances where Abby's arm moves in a way that you might think it was waving, but I would say this was her first official wave. Since then she's been busy waving to everyone - visitors when they leave, strangers at the store, and all of us here at home. I just took her upstairs for her nap and said, "wave good-night to Anna"...and she did!

Let's pretend it's spring

We had a couple warmer afternoons this week. Anna was thrilled to be able to ride her tricycle outside. Two times she rode it all the way to a park near our house and back home again. Both days Abby was equally as thrilled to spend some time swinging while we were at the park:

Christmas in New York

On Saturday we got back from a great trip to Albany. We had so much fun spending time with family and can't believe how quick it went. Anna had lots of fun hosting birthday parties and dance parties, doing puzzles, helping grandma bake, going on special trips with Nana, playing new and old games, and reading new and old books. Abby had a great time learning how to shake hands, pounding on her tray and drums, knocking down block towers, and learning how to climb the stairs. Mom and Dad had fun on some special trips out to eat, playing with Grandpa's new toy - a remote controlled helicopter (how did we not get into this sooner?), playing with Aunt Becky's new game, Quelf (highly recommended), and going bowling. We had so much fun we almost missed our fight home (yes, we were a little late getting to the airport, but here's some advise - don't plan on bringing sealed boxes of toys home after Christmas - not popular with TSA.)

Is that Santa or Uncle Pete?

Aunt Marty is so fun!

Aunt Mary is so snuggly :)

Hanging with my cousins :)

Making cupcakes with Grandma - my own recipe!

Happy Birthday, Abigail!

Abby is 8 months old today! New this month is more locomotion, a little talking, and playing games! Abby still uses her military crawl, but she has gotten a lot faster. Before we went to Albany for Christmas I could put her down with some toys near the kitchen and not worry about her leaving that area. Now she books for the stairs in a few quick seconds. She is busy pulling herself up to a kneeling position and sometimes even onto her feet. She can climb up the stairs with a little help.

She has been busy making all kids of sounds: "Ma, Da, Tha, Ra, Na, Ba" and I would say that she has already said her first few words - "Mama" in connection to me many times and once I heard her say "Anna" when someone was calling Anna's name!

She has a new game she likes to play where she holds her hand out to people so that they will take her hand and hold it or give it a kiss. She also has learned a few other games recently - slapping her tray or a drum to imitate someone else doing it and knocking two blocks together - either by holding both or by knocking a block in her hand to someone else's hand. She still loves peek-a-boo, tub time, and being around people.

She is such a joy and a blessing to our family and we are thankful everyday that she is ours.