Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Brick Anyone?

Ok, ya'll, I need a brick. Seriously.  Whenever I would go and visit my grandma as a child she would always say on our arrival, "I need to put a brick on your head."  It was her way of saying that time was going too quickly and consequently her grandchildren were growing too quickly.  I am in need of a brick for our little Miss Anya.  Today she stood up in the middle of the living room, while I was cleaning up from lunch. Soren yelled, "Mommy look!"  I watched her and started counting out loud.  "1....2.....3....(Soren is now jumping around Anya)....4...(Anya sensing something fun, puts on a big smile and starts flapping her arms)...5...flailing arms cause her balance to be knocked off followed by a straight forward face plant....and then yes lots of crying and cuddling.  Now, you are probably asking yourselves the same question Erik asked me, "Why didn't you run to her when you first saw her?"  I honestly was in shock that she was standing, I almost had the sense if I don't move, she won't either.  I felt like time froze in those seconds as we just stared at one another, me in disbelief and Anya in blissful ignorance.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Anya is 6 months!

What a joy Anya's first six months have been!  Here are some highlights of her from the last few months.




- At her 6 month appointment she was 18 pounds 4 ounces (90%) and 27 3/4 inches tall (98%).
- She is very intense and determined to get her mouth on EVERYTHING! (Her intensity is what made her pediatrician predict crawling by 6 months and walking by 9 months.  So far her predictions have been right, but hoping the walking one is wrong. ;-) )
- Loves to chew on her fingers and cloth as a source of comfort.
- Enjoying 2 meals of food a day.  She had a steep learning curve with food and gagged a lot, but now she has learned how to move the food around and swallow it.  She LOVES to eat.  Feeding requires two spoons, one for her and one for me.
-Can use a soft spout sippy cup.  She can lift it to her mouth, but if the water comes out too fast, she needs help pulling it away.
- Has her two bottom teeth.
- Sat up independently by 4 months.
- At 5 months, up on hands and knees and scooted around the living room using a worm maneuver, toe pushes, elbow crawl, and rolls.
-At 6 months + 2 days she got up on hands and knees and crawled across the kitchen floor in a length of about 10 feet.
-Can go from her belly to a sitting position.
-Pull herself up to a standing position. (This is very scary as she is not stable on her legs and falls over easily like a big tree going "timber."  She has hit her head a couple of times already, ouch!)
-She pulled herself up on a laundry basket and side stepped around two sides before falling.
-Loves to stand.  She makes her body stiff when you try to sit her down because she wants to stand, not sit.
- Has become a real "Mama's girl" and cries a lot in the nursery at church and the fitness center.  (We are slowly making progress in this area, we just keep trying.)
-When with Dad or Mom, she is very happy and smiles at anyone who stops and talks to her.
- Laughs at everything Soren does, especially when he wrestles her.
- Loves it when Olivia sings to her and enjoys her gentleness which is in great contrast to Soren's touches.
-Enjoys peek-a-boo.
- Plays with her feet when nursing doing yoga type positions.
-Each week she gets fixated with a different sound. Sometimes it is a high soft "ahhhh" while other weeks its nonstop raspberries.
-She has some crazy hair going on.  It is getting beyond that butch look and actually laying down at times, but sometimes the static makes it stand on end, soooo funny.
- Horrible sleeper at night- typical night she may be up 3-4 times. (We are working on that and making great progress!)
-And in Olivia's words we all "can hardly remember life before Anya." 
- We love you Baby Anya!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Happy Halloween!

We had a fabulous Halloween celebrating fall and making fun memories. With a child in kindergarten and one in preschool, we seemed to have lots of chances to be out in the fresh, crisp autumn air celebrating. We have been so blessed with amazing weather this fall. We are still enjoying 60 degree days in November, awesome!

Soren's preschool took a field trip to a pumpkin farm and after a wagon ride into the field, each child got to pick any pumpkin they wanted. It didn't take Soren long to find THE one. They also had a corn maze and lots of fall cutouts for Soren to poke his face through. His class also had a small Halloween party which was jumped started by the kids singing some very cute fall songs for the parents.

Olivia's school had a fall party at school as well. I am a room parent this year and one of my responsibilities is to plan the 3 classroom parties that will be held this year. The other two moms and I decided to divide and conquer the party. I was in charge of the craft, so we made pumpkin sun catchers using contact and tissue paper. I always enjoy going into Olivia's classroom to see her in that environment. The kids were really behaved considering it was a party at the end of the week...perhaps it helped to have all their parents around. ;-)

Costumes this year were really pretty easy. Olivia's Cinderella costume still fit from last year and she was very excited to wear it again. She did throw on some wings at one point and called herself, "Cinder-fairy." Soren still had the fabulous fireman's costume, which he chose for his preschool party. I had also found an awesome dragon costume at a second-hand store a long time ago. I had forgotten about it until I came across it in the Halloween bin. This is a great costume!  Little miss Anya made an adorable ladybug. She was happy to go along for the ride. She pretty much just enjoyed sucking on her zipper. I will have to find the CD-Roms of Olivia in this costume, because the resemblance between the two is amazing.

Since Halloween was on a Sunday, different towns had different times for trick-or-treating. We really wanted to give the kids an opportunity to pass out the candy as well as receive it. So, on Saturday we found a small neighborhood to go trick-or-treating in. Then on Sunday we made our no-fry donuts, oh these are sooo good. The kids kept looking out the window all day for trick-or-treaters, they just couldn't wait to pass out candy. When the doorbell finally started ringing. They would jump up and down with excitement as they scrambled to the door. Pretty soon they just waited outside the door, then on our sidewalk, then in our driveway, they were full service candy-passer-outers. ;-)