Unbelievable!

Even though I see Abby & Anna everyday, I still can't even believe this video:

When did Abby get big enough to go in a riding toy?? When did Anna get big enough to push her??

Okay, so Anna really is big enough to push Abby in the car. However, Anna is not big enough to babysit Abby. Everytime we drive by some basketball courts near our house Anna tells me the following story: "One time Mommy was a teacher and Daddy was playing basketball and I stayed with Abby." Really? Daddy hasn't played basketball since the fall and Mommy hasn't been a teacher since 2008. How did you create this story?

Grandma & Grandpa visit!

This past weekend Grandma and Grandpa came for a visit :) We all had a great time spending time with them. Anna & Abby played a lot of toys and games with them, Anna went on a special trip to have breakfast at their hotel, and Mom & Dad got to go on some special dates. Thanks for the great visit!

Anna's version of Go Fish

A few weeks ago we bought Anna a set of Curious George card games. The set came with three packs, one to play Go Fish, one to play a version of Rummy, and one to play a version of Old Maid. She can play an easy version of each of these games and has enjoyed playing them quite a bit. Just like the books that Anna "reads"* and the puzzles that she does**, she has also created her own way of playing with these cards. She pulls out her favorite cards from each deck then asks you if you want to play Go Fish. She then leads you through a number of steps involving choosing cards, trading cards, and making "matches" (none of the cards in her set of favorites actually match). At the end both you and her count your cards and a winner is determined. It's so cute to watch her creating her own rules. It's cute to realize that from her perspective the rules to this game make just as much sense as the games we have taught her.

* Anna spends a lot of time "reading" her books. In some instances, she has learned the story almost exactly and she retells it almost word for word. In most instances, however, books contains elements of a many stories she has recently heard. For instance, in the most recent reading of Curious George and the Parade, there was a birthday party in the middle of the parade!

** Anna loves doing puzzles. However, sometimes, she chooses a favorite part of a puzzle and only does that part. She might do this favorite part 3 or 4 times in a row. Then she might take the pieces from the favorite part, put them in the lid of the box and carry them someplace else. This can be a little difficult for me to keep track of, but I find it cute. When it gets to be a little too much is when she starts taking her favorite pieces from multiple puzzles and putting them in the same box and carting them around - like up to her room for a picnic - ahhh, this level of entropy can be a little too much for me to handle.

Happy Birthday, Abigail!

Today is Abby's 9 month birthday. She went to the doctor this morning for her 9 month appointment. She is now 17 pounds and 27 1/2 inches long. Matt & I had to fill out a survey about her last night to bring to the doctor and the doctor said she "excelled" on the survey. So I guess that means she's doing great or her parents have rose colored glasses - ha, ha. In all seriousness, though, she is doing great. Currently, she loves to stand up while holding onto something. For a while she would actually cry if she wasn't close to anything to pull up, but I think she has figured out just to crawl somewhere and pull up. In the past couple days she has even started letting go. I don't think she is necessarily trying to "stand." She just gets busy playing with something and lets go so she can work with both hands. She falls immediately, of course, but she keeps trying.

She is following Anna's footsteps with her love of Matthew Van Fleet books. Her favorite book is probably Cat because she likes the cat toy that squeaks. As soon as we start reading the book she just starts slapping the part of the book with the squeak toy even before we get to the squeaking page. She also like the books, Dog and Tails, also by Van Fleet, and any other books where there is cool stuff to touch.

At the dinner table she is busy learning to pick up food by herself and put it in her mouth. Right now Cheerios are a little too hard for her to chew, but she loves rice krispies. She's also been eating little pieces of pear and sweet potato. She has a little picture of a dog on a piece of plastic that she plays with at dinner. Sometimes she hides behind it and peeks out at us. She gets so excited when we say, "peek." And this morning at breakfast she and Anna played a game of "peek" using the rice krispies box.

Happy Birthday, Abigail! We love you so very much!

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? :