House, Muppets, and Library

We recently got back from a trip to Albany. On the trip Anna enjoyed three new imaginary worlds. Here's what I know about them, although Anna probably knows more:

House:

To play this game, you first need to get Grandpa to get the umbrella out. Then you collect any friends who will be joining you in the game. (In this shot, it is only Cookie - a small house.) Then you gather your food (blocks). First you eat the food (make sure to share with everyone), then you clean up the food, then you go to sleep. Then you get up do it again...and again, and again...

Muppets:

These figures are actually part of Uncle Dan's Muppet Chess set. Anna became quite attached to them and a book entitled "Muppet Babies Through the Year." She liked to hold the figures and read the book over and over again. She also just liked to set the figures up and move them around. We ended up showing her the movies The Great Muppet Caper and Muppets Take Manhattan. She really enjoyed them - especially the scenes with tons of muppets singing and dancing.

Library: The video shows the whole game. Just imagine that repeated over and over and over again...

Posing with her friends

Anna loves to sit on the steps with her friends and she'll even pose for a picture - well, as long as one of the friends takes the shot instead of Mom. Here she is with Buttons Bear, Cookie Monster, Woobie, and Aqua Bear.

If you double-click the picture and look at the larger version you can see her two new lower eye teeth, which she just got in the past few weeks. She now has 14 teeth!

Preparing for hibernation

Last year around this time we reconfigured our dining room to make a better play space for our new crawler. We haven't really had significant changes to Anna's play space since then until yesterday when we bought a "toy organizer" (red, yellow, green and blue object below) and a toy chest to reorganize Anna's toys in our family room. I decided that the fact that both these changes took place in late fall is not a coincidence. It's the season for preparing to hibernate - for realizing you are about to spend a lot of time indoors and looking around and figuring out how to make it better. Anyway, all three of us are happy with our new organized space:

*note Anna is sleeping right now and this is not how it will look 5 min. after she gets up

Halloween and other fun pics

Here are our Halloween pictures and a bunch of other fun shots:

a family snuggy

visiting Cox Farms with Grandma to get ready for Halloween: farm animals, apple cider, pumpkins, and...

huge slides!!

The ladybug! (Yes, Anna is taking her antenna off. This is actually the only picture I got with the antenna because she really didn't like that part.)

Yes, the back of the costume is more interesting than the front :)

At playgroup Halloween party. Anna actually sat nicely in that chair for about 10 min. while other toddlers where continually replaced in the picture so we could attempt to get a shot of everyone. I think this includes everyone at the party, but I can't say for certain.

ummm, which one should I choose?

romping in the leaves with Daddy :)

Anna was Cookie Monster on Halloween night - a much better costume to be outside in. Here she is posing next to her favorite Teddy Bear...wait, no, that's Liam!

Halloween night was very rainy, but Anna still loved trick-or-treating. In the days leading up to Halloween she had been playing a game where she knocks on doors and people open them for her. So she was quite prepared. Anna caught on after the first house that she would be picking up treats at each house and was a little disappointed when it was time to go home.

Showing off her loot after a successful trip around the neighborhood

Anna doesn't really understand that her Halloween treats are edible, but she enjoys carrying them around and moving them in and out of her jack-o-lantern.

Just enjoying a nice fall day with Mommy

Cookie Monster or a lady bug?

A while ago I decided I was going to try to make Anna a lady bug costume for Halloween. As of a week ago, I still had not started the sewing so when I saw a cookie monster costume available to borrow at a mom's group, I snatched it quick. (Cookie is Anna's second favorite Sesame character after, of course, Elmo.) I think having the backup costume gave me the confidence to actually take a stab at the lady bug, which I have since finished and I must say, it came out quite good. So now Anna actually has two great costumes for Halloween - both of which she likes talking to, playing with, and moving around the living room and neither of which she really likes having ON, but I was able to snatch this shot when I was making sure the Cookie Monster would actually fit:

Old-fashion popcorn

A couple nights ago we made "old-fashion" popcorn. That's right, plain kernels in oil on a saucepan in the stove. I had actually never done it like that before (well, at least that I remember). I do remember making popcorn in a hot air popper, which is a favorite memory from visiting Grandma Jane as a kid. Fortunately, Dad remembered making popcorn like this as a kid so he served as the expert. It was fun and everyone liked it! A perfect treat to eat during a Yankees playoff game!

Go Giants!

Uncle Pete and Anna sporting their matching Giants jerseys before the Giants v. Raiders game: