Hanging with Cousin Liam...

While Anna has always been interested in Liam, Liam noticed Anna for the first time on this past trip to Albany. A few photos & movies of their interactions:

holding hands :)

Is this another cousin?

I'm ready for Santa!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Anna, Matt, & I have had a wonderful time visiting family for Thanksgiving! Here are a few great pictures from the week:

exersaucering before we left Vienna

couch time with Grandpa and Uncle Pete

story time with Great Grandma Jane

Nana lets me play with the remote control!

Liam says, "You won't be twice as old as me forever, Cousin Anna!"

It's cold in these northern parts!

Grandma is funny!

hanging with Aunt Diane

Uncle Danny doesn't always look so funny :)

Story Time

Since Anna was about 3 months old we've been reading stories to her before bed. Until recently, we've laid her on her back on our bed and held the books over her head. This has worked really well until a few days ago when Anna realized she might rather roll over, rock back and forth, "crawl" around, look for Filmore the frog, etc. So here is our new and improved reading position:

The book that Matt is reading to her, Dog, is certainly one of her favorites. Apparently last night it was the only one she wanted to hear...over and over and over again.

The definition of crawling continued...

On Monday night Matt & I noticed how much progress Anna had made toward crawling. We both thought that actual crawling would be coming very soon. We even placed a little bet. If Anna crawls before she goes to bed on Friday, I win and anytime after that Matt wins. So of course this bet involved Matt & I creating a strict definition of what it means to crawl: on your hands and knees, moving one hand than the other hand in a row along with the corresponding legs (and yes, Aunt Mary, this means you never crawled). The other rule was that we both had to see it. Now, on both Tuesday and Wednesday I saw Anna do this, but of course that doesn't count for our bet. So we'll see if she can pull out her true crawling moves for Dad by Friday.

Although she has not perfected true crawling, Anna is mobile! Her preferred method of locomotion is using the 1980's breakdancing move, the Worm:

In case you are curious, the object of Anna's desire is the packaging for some new toys I got her. She does actually like the toys too (some balls that make little noises), but she did like the packaging more. Today, now that moving is a little easier for Anna than yesterday and Tuesday, she will move to get a number of objects, but yesterday there was a short list of desirables worth the effort. One of them was the tag hanging off the end of her car seat (you can see it in the movie above). A second was the tray to her Bebepod chair. Yesterday she was worming across the room to get these two items (and only these two items). It's funny to see what strikes her fancy :)

Anna's critique on new foods this week:

Avocado - thumbs down
Banana - thumbs down
Zucchini - thumbs up!

First hair cut

On Sunday Anna had her first hair cut. There were a few hairs --- actually her newborn hair --- that had just grown long enough to get in her eyes. We didn't cut much so it's hard to tell, but here are some before and after shots:

Last weekend at our picnic

Yesterday during a tense moment in the game

As I said before, it's hard to notice, unless you are Anna and you no longer have wisps of hair stuck in your eyelashes.

Twins again!

A little harder to tell apart this time...