It does snow in Virginia!

Cruising!

Slam dunk!

About a week ago Anna started playing with her toys in a new way. She now seems to have a sense that certain toys go with other toys. For instance, the basketball goes in the hoop, the gumballs go in the gumball machine, and the zoo animals go on the zoo. Of course she also likes to test out some other combinations - like what happens if the penguin goes in the basketball hoop or the basketball goes in the gumball machine? I've also seen her playing with random toys in a more "organized way." Like this morning I gave her 2 identical pans to play with and put her basketballs into one of them. She must have moved the basketballs back and forth between the two pans 7 times. The most amazing to me is how she plays with her puzzle pieces. She has a large wooden puzzle that she got for Christmas with five puzzle pieces. Previous to this week she just liked to take them all out of the puzzle and play with the pieces, chewing on them and clapping them together. But recently, after taking them all out of the puzzle, she's been stacking them all back on top of the puzzle, not in their slots, but just resting on top of the board - so cute!

A few other cute pics:

Who's older?

You may remember this picture taken last summer when Anna was 7 weeks old and Clara was 4 months old. Well, here's an updated shot:

Matt still thinks that Clara looks older, but they are certainly "growing closer" in age. In fact right now they seem very similar in age because Anna can now crawl very well and Clara is certainly more stable on her feet than Anna, but not walking...yet.

Now, I know that Anna still looks older than Liam, but there is certainly less of a difference now compared to last October.

And finally, Anna has a new friend, Lily, who came to visit us for the Giant's playoff game. She's clearly older than Anna (by 4 months), but someday I'm sure it will be hard to tell:

Cousin Liam's Baptism

On Tuesday we got back from a week in Albany for Liam's baptism and visits with family and friends. We had a wonderful week spending time with everyone we love in Albany :) Some pictures from Liam's big day:

First word by the little wolf

On Saturday Anna said her first word: "Dada." Now she doesn't know what it means, but she knows it's fun to say. By Sunday she was practicing, "Dadadadada" all the time. "Dadadada" is certainly her favorite thing to say, but we have also heard, "Nana" (pronounced as if it rhymes with Dada), "Lala," and "Yaya." Also, she's started clicking the roof of her mouth with her tongue, which is neat, but the best is when she does this "double-click," which sounds just like a cricket. We actually can't figure out how to do it - maybe it only works if you don't have any top teeth. Well, I should say barely have any top teeth. Anna now has one, maybe two, little points of teeth on the top of her mouth. The one that is definitely in is not one in the middle. It is just to the right of her top bunny tooth. When she giggles and you can see it poking through, she looks like a little wolf with a fang :)