Anna's Guide to Making One's First Jack-O-Lantern

Before making your first jack-o-lantern it is important to inspect your pumpkin:

Make sure it looks right:

Make sure it has a good feel:

Sing to it a little:

And most important...make sure it tastes right:

Next you need to explain to your pumpkin carver how you would like it to look, but make sure you have the final say.

You see this section here, this needs a little more work:


Yes, much better:

When you're done, make sure you take time to appreciate your work:

And when your pumpkin carver is not looking, try to dive inside:


Congratulations! You've carved your first pumpkin!

New Foods

In addition to rice cereal, oatmeal, peas, and green beans, which I think I've written about, Anna has also now had squash, sweet potato, barley cereal, and carrots!

Happy 1/2 Birthday Anna!

Anna is 1/2 a year old today!! I can't believe that 1/2 year has already gone by since Anna was born. On the one hand, I feel like she's been with us forever. On the other hand, I feel like she has grown up so fast! Here she is 6 month ago today:


And here she is today with her friends, Addie & Clara, celebrating her first 1/2 year:


Anna had a great time today watching Clara crawl and Addie walk!! She's sporting her new little jumper she just got from her Nana, who she got to spend lots of time with this past weekend in Hartford, CT. Mom & Dad had a wedding there and Nana met us there to take care of Anna. Seeing Nana was wonderful and the wedding was lovely, but it turns out Anna was not so hot on 2 plane trips & 2 nights in a hotel in just 3 days. She does seem to be glad to be home and back to her routine for her birthday :)

Go Giants!

We had a great time hanging out with Uncle Pete the past few days. On Sunday we all headed off to Santini's to watch the Giant's game. It was difficult to capture this picture, where at least I got 2 out of 3 Giant's fans looking at the camera:

more often than not, this was the scene:

Yes, the TV screen is just to the left in the picture above and yes, that is the New York Post, which once again fascinated Anna more than anything in the restaurant.

In case you didn't believe me...

Too cute...

New Today!

Today was a big day for new accomplishments in Anna's life! Despite Mom's previous belief that Anna's was just not flexible enough to get her foot in her mouth - she did it! This afternoon while I was changing her diaper she got the first taste of her toes. She must have liked it because she went back for seconds this evening! Also today Anna turned the pages of one of her books. She has definitely done this by accident in the past, but today I really thought she was turning the pages of her book in the correct direction. It even seemed like she was trying to tell the story because she was singing little coos while she was doing it. It was so cute!! Finally, while we were hanging out on the coach tonight she pushed up on the arm of the coach & stood there by herself!! (Yes, worried readers, I was right there with my hands on both sides in case she fell, but she really did it on her own!!)