Good Book

 

Anna's Cell Phone

 

Anna's Cats

 

Crawling

She did it!  All of a sudden, last night, in the middle of NOTHING at all, Anna just started crawling!  She’s been playing on her hands and knees for a few weeks now, but never had any forward movement.  But yesterday it just sort of clicked and she got this big smile and started crawling!  So far she’s just gone short distances around the living room, and she’s still finding it faster to scoot on her bottom everywhere (that way she can carry things with her).  She clearly is very proud of herself, though.  She gets this big grin on her face as if to say, “Look at me, look what I can do!”.  Good job, Anna Banana!

Carrot

 

Third Tooth

Anna’s finally getting some more teeth.  She’s been so crabby at random moments for the past few days and at lunch today, with Terry, I noticed a little nub of tooth coming in on the top.  Unfortunately, she took to chewing on crayons this afternoon to relieve the ache.  When I looked over, wondering why she was so quiet, she had a mouthful of blue waxy crumbles.  Those things are non-toxic, right? 

I’ve replaced her crayon craving with a big carrot from the fridge.  It’s cold and seems to be keeping her happy and still colorful.  Her cheeks and fingers are all orange.  J

15 Month check-up

Anna had her check-up on Monday, and she’s still a healthy little girl.  Her weight picked up much more in the past three months than it has since she was born.  She weighed in at 20.4 pounds, which is all the way up in the 20^th percentile!  Her height has averaged out at the 50^th percentile, so while she’s still skinny, it’s not as pronounced as it was a few months ago. 

Anna now has several words, though sometimes you have to be her parent in order to understand her.  She says: milk, juice, truck, cat, what’s that?, book, mamma and dada.  She also is now proficient at going down the stairs and sometimes gets up on to her hands and knees for a few moments while she’s scooting and rolling around.  The cutest thing to develop in the past few weeks is her new love of teddy bears.  She has two or three that she prefers above all others and one that she sleeps with every day.  I’ve noticed, too, that her understanding has really grown in the past month or so, too.  You can ask her where her hat is, or her book or bear or milk, and she’ll look around and then go get it and hold it up for you to see!   She’s still working on putting hats on, though mostly she just pats it on to her head in a big pile of fabric, she hasn’t figured out to open the hat up and make it fit around her head yet. 

Since she’s still not standing at all or pulling up to standing, the doctor has recommended we take her in for a developmental assessment, just to make sure there are no underlying problems.  He said in most cases where babies have one area of delay in their development, they just eventually outgrow it and we never find out what caused it.  We’ll be doing the assessment later this month and I’ll keep everyone updated on what comes of it. 

Kurt got home late last night from his ski trip and Anna was startled but then very happy to see him again after five days of missing him.  She definitely noticed he was gone, and by Saturday evening had really started getting clingy and shy again, which she hasn’t been doing for a couple months now. Poor Kurt had to go back to work today on just five hours sleep, so we haven’t really had a chance to hear about his ski trip yet, but I’m sure I’ll have pictures to post later in the week!

Stairs, continued

Well, I had a bit of a shock this morning.  While hanging out in the playroom, Anna did her usual giggle and scoot out to the hallway, where she waits for me to “sneak up” on her and then spot her as she carefully and slowly descends the steps. 

Not today!  Today, she giggled, scooted and just started plopping down the steps while I was preparing to pop out from behind the door and “surprise” her.  I rushed over as she quickly slid to the third step down, giggles ricocheting off the walls. I stood back in amazement and just let her do her thing. She didn’t wobble, fall or lose her grip.  In a matter of seconds, she was sitting at the bottom of the steps, smiling up at me, totally in control of the situation. 

Independence is here… I thought I had more time!

Look what I can do!

She's discovered the novelty of her toy chest, mostly because the cats keep jumping in and out of there, so she wants to get in, too. Go, Anna! 

Stairs

We've been working slowly to teach Anna how to safely traverse the stairs, simply because they are everywhere and I'd rather she be confident around them instead of afraid of them. It's become her New Favorite Thing. If you have stairs in your house, beware. She'll happily scoot over and make her descent, and woe to the person who tries to tell her it's not Stair-Time.
Since she doesn't crawl, the best and safest way for her to get down stairs is to thump on her butt. She scoots up to the very edge, giggles (I beleive I mentioned the giggling earlier...), and then sllllloooooooooowwwly scoots herself forward, leaning way back, until she thumps down on to the next step.
To get down the 6 steps outside the playroom usually takes her about 10-15 minutes, if I let her do it by herself. We're also working on getting back up the steps, and she's started pulling up to her knees at the bottom and reaching for the next step up, so we'll see how that goes.
Speaking of which, she's starting to pull up on to her knees a lot now, trying to look into things, like the toychest or on top of a table. This is a big step for Anna, since she still won't stand totally by herself, though we can get her to do a sort of march by holding her under her arms and walking her forward. I don't know if it's helpful to her development since she won't put her full weight on her legs, but she certainly thinks it's funny! 

Monica and little Ryan

 

Crying? Me? No way!

 

New Photos

Once again, we’ve had our very talented friends at Trystan Photography take pictures of Anna.  Click here, and you’ll be taken to a gallery of the new photos, as well as her 7 month pictures.  Thanks again to Charlotte and Tryg!  Anna wasn’t exactly cooperative during the shoot (okay, she was screaming and crying), but you’d never know it to look at the pictures.  Charlotte can work miracles with a camera, I swear. She’s also set the gallery up with some great prices, so please feel free to order prints directly.  They have some cool options like coffee mugs, t-shirts and fridge magnets, too… anyone want a t-shirt with Anna’s face on it?  J

one sick, two sick...

Me sick, you sick! 

Anna started it, with a few random sneezes on Wednesday.  By Thursday morning she was a runny-nosed, whimpering mess of a baby.  By Friday morning, I was starting to cough, but still managed (thanks to a steady supply of Tylenol and Sudafed) to dress up and smile for Kurt’s post-holiday party for work. Lisa, my wonderful best friend, came over to baby-sit the drippy-nosed baby, thank you Lisa! (Anna’s been calling her “Eesah” since Friday). We got in at just after midnight and by morning on Saturday, I was a sniffling puddle of pure misery.  Kurt was, as always, the BEST husband in the world.  He took care of me, took care of Anna, cleaned the house, gave the baby a bath and made dinner, all while I was obliviously passed out in a fevered fog.  Fortunately, this morning dawned with Anna feeling MUCH better and me more able to live my normal life.  Hopefully I’ll be back to 100% by tomorrow.  Kurt, of course, is perfectly fine and has managed to sidestep the plague once again.  Lucky so-and-so.  J 

In all our sickness this weekend, I totally forgot to say “Happy Anniversary” to Monica and Chad!  This time last year, we were celebrating their wedding in Las Vegas, one of the best parties I’ve ever been to.  So, Congratulations, guys, hope you had a good day and that little Ryan was an angel (as if he could be anything else, right?  Too cute!!!). 

"Cake!"

The first blossoms of independence are budding inside the heart of my baby girl.  She’s starting to reach out into the world, take hold with both hands…and shove it in her face. 

Today, after a nice jaunt around the zoo to visit Anna’s favorite large, long-necked cats (formerly known as giraffes), we headed down with Terry and a friend to the Broadmoor for lunch.  Always charming, Anna won the heart of our innocent waiter and to prove his love, her brought her an extra special dessert- a large scoop of vanilla ice cream.  As he set this treat down in front of her, Anna cooed with delight and said, very clearly, “Cake!”.

I tried to spoon it into her mouth, but she would have none of it. Anna decided that she didn’t need any old spoon, instead simply reaching out to squeeze little bits of ice cream between her fingers and then rubbing her sticky hands in the vicinity of her mouth.  Within two minutes she was a vanilla coated disaster, but she was a HAPPY disaster.

Needless to say, our waiter confessed his undying fidelity at this sight, his eyes shining with little stars of adoration as he watched the ice cream drip off the tip of her nose and into a puddle on her lap. Sadly, I think Anna was just using him and has no intention of ever calling.  I hope he’s not too hurt and learns to be more cautious with his heart. 

Anna has learned from this experience as well. She’s been saying “Cake” all day and looking around hopefully for another gullible waiter.

Under Cover Baby

One of Anna's new hobbies is to put things on her head. Sweaters, blankets, mittens, rubber duckies, cats... It doesn't matter to her, unless it's a hat, which of course she'll just take RIGHT OFF. 

Giggle Fit

My parents always told me it would happen.  They warned me, but I didn’t understand.  “One day,” they said, “You too will have a daughter and you will know the true ear-piercing reality of little girl giggles.”  I shrugged it off, thinking blithely… How bad could it be?

Now I know.

Anna has discovered the giggle.  The high-pitched, practically screaming, only-dogs-can-hear-parts-of-it giggle. On Sunday we got up and dressed early and headed out to the local breakfast hot spot, the Omelette Parlor.  In an award-worthy good mood, Anna simply could not be contained.  She giggled and bubbled and giggled some more, with a screamy intensity that was too much for something so earthbound as a large restaurant.  Kurt and I were at a loss; we didn’t want to surpress this obvious happiness, but she was so LOUD in her joy! 

With parental quick thinking, we distracted her with crayons and pancakes, and managed to get through our meal with only a few scathing looks from the other patrons.  In general, her cheer in our day to day lives has been contagious and totally captivating, but also exhausting.  I mean, really, who can continue on at that level of happiness for hours and not feel drained?  I’ll tell you who.

Little girls. 

Cheesy Mommy Moment

While I was giving Anna a bath this morning, the song"How Far is Heaven?" was playing on the radio. Kneeling uncomfortably on the floor next to the tub with my wet and giggly daughter splashing me, the knees of my jeans right in a puddle and drippy sleeves up to my elbows, I couldn't help but think, "This is heaven, not so far at all!"  

Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit!

When I was growing up, my grandmother taught me that, in order to have good luck for the whole year, your first words on New Year’s Day had to be, “rabbit, rabbit, rabbit!”.  Now, I’m not sure where this practice came from, maybe it had something to do with the rabbit’s foot she carried around on a key chain (eww, gross, I know, but it used to be a common practice). If Dad or Paul knows, leave a comment and tell me why we’re crazy about rabbits. 

Still, regardless of why we started saying it, to this day I always ring in the New Year with a solid, “rabbit, rabbit, rabbit!”.  So, happy bunnies to you all and I hope your New Year’s dreams all come true! 

Smiles

Awwwwww... ain't that the cutest thing?

 

Overdue Update

Once the holidays begin, everything else goes into suspended animation mode, but today it’s time to wake up.  I’ve had my coffee, Anna’s had her milk; we’re ready. 

This Christmas season has been more fun that usual simply because Anna is so much more aware and willing to participate in what’s going on. We have a local group of moms that we meet up with every week, and last Tuesday we all got together for a cookie swap party.  Now, when Anna and I first met all these people, she was bashful and emotional and couldn’t let me out of her sight.  Well, the times, they are a changin’.  Anna was a new baby at that party.  In a room packed with adults and children and noise and cookies, Anna sat happily on the floor, playing with the other kids and didn’t even look for me.  I actually got to stay in the other room and talk to people, it was a Christmas miracle!  She also let several other people hold her without protesting, and was generally a very happy girl the entire time. 

We went to the zoo with my friend Jen and her daughter, Olivia, on Thursday last week. As usually, the giraffes were a big hit, though the meerkats are always a close second.  The weather here in the mountains has been very mild for almost two weeks now, and the zoo, which sits high up on the side of Cheyenne Mountain, was quite pleasant and not at all busy.  We walked around and the girls looked at everything and tired themselves out with all the excitement.  Anna, who almost never falls asleep in the car anymore, was out like a light about two seconds after we left.  That evening, Lisa brought over the kids and we exchanged gifts in a mountain of wrapping paper, ribbon and boxes.  Lisa gave me this really beautiful handmade sweater and a cool crochet journal to log all my projects.  It has inspired me to actually branch out in my crocheting and try some new things, as well as actually complete the handful of projects I have all over the house. 

Friday morning I got up bright and early… and very sick.  About 2 in the morning I had woken up with a bad stomach bug, but I thought I’d still be okay to go pick up my brother in Denver.  Boy, was I wrong.  About halfway there, I started to get a fever and horrible aches all over my body, and the wait at the airport was pure torture.  I could barely lift Anna, who is by no means a heavy girl.  Valentine was a trooper, and even though he was exhausted from his travels, he drove us all back to the Springs.  Once we got home, we found Kurt weak and in bed, having come down with the same thing. What a great way to spend your first day of work in a month, right?  Val took over, sent us all to bed and started making dinner for the family.  I started to feel better as the evening approached, but Kurt, poor guy, spent the entire day in bed.  Mom, Kent and Terry came over that evening for dinner, which Val had spent the day preparing.  We would have canceled dinner due to plague, but it was a surprise for mom that Val was there at all.  He and I had conspired to have him fly in almost two days early- he was originally supposed to get here late on Christmas Eve.  Dinner was delicious, (pot roast, yum!), and by morning Kurt and I had almost totally recovered from our illness. 

In the Schwartz household, we celebrate the holiday on Christmas Eve, opening presents in the evening after dinner. Kurt’s parents were both European, and it’s the way they celebrated when he was growing up.  It’s also very convenient because we can have our own private family Christmas in the evening, and then join mom and everyone over at her home on Christmas Day. 

This year was our first year with just the three of us, since Monica is in Virginia with her new little baby boy and family there and Otto, Kurt’s dad, was in Brazil.  We had a great time and Anna loved ripping into all the paper.  She got a Leapfrog Baby interactive book and several Sandra Boynton board books and a new pine toy chest for all her things.  It’s beautiful and designed especially for kids, with a lid that won’t snap little fingers and bench on top. Afterwards, we snuggled up and watched, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, which I had never seen entirely before.  Then we got Anna out of bed and joined the rest of the family at church for the candlelight service at 11 pm.  That’s a tradition from my side of the family and something I have always enjoyed. 

Christmas Day was wonderful too, over at mom’s house.  There were more presents, lots of yummy things to eat, games to play and pleasant company. We received a surprise call from my Uncle Paul in North Carolina.  He and Val hadn’t talked in years, so that was a nice treat.  Terry cooked up a delicious Christmas dinner and by the time we were ready to go home, everyone was stuffed to the gills and groaning from the feast.  We spent the beginning of this week over there for dinner, too, and I have never seen so much food disappear so fast! Val left last night to carouse in Denver before his early flight this morning, but not before getting to spend some quality time with his little niece and the rest of the family. 

All in all, a wonderful Christmas!  Now it’s time to get Anna back on her normal schedule, (she’s supposed to be napping right now, but is instead singing and yelling in her crib…), catch up on chores, and get back in touch with all the people outside my immediate family whom I’ve neglected for the past two weeks or so.  Oh, and my brand new treadmill has been looking a little desolate and lonely downstairs, so I’m going to go spend some time with it today, too.  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  Pictures will be up, soon. 

 

Anna's Christmas

Here's our girl sitting in her wonderful new present from Terry Bear. It's a little chair and table that lights up and plays music. She LOVES it. 

Ryan Andrew!

Look at this adorable kid! Look at all that hair! And he's got natural Bon Jovi highlights, it's amazing! So cute and, at least for now, he really, really looks like his dad. :) 

I'm an Aunt!

He’s here, he’s here! Monica is now the beautiful mamma to a beautiful baby boy, Ryan Andrew, born this evening. He weighs 7 pounds, 13 ounces and is nearly 21 inches long, with a full head of light brown hair. Mom and baby are doing well, I’ll fill you all in after I get a chance to talk to her more tomorrow. Everyone say a big, “Welcome!” to my little nephew!

Spoke too soon!

Well, Monica just called. Her water broke this morning and she’s a couple centimeters dialated and been having moderate contractions since 4:30 a.m. They’re on the way to the hospital now! I’m so excited! Everyone say a little prayer for Mo and keep her in your thoughts. I’ll keep you updated!

mobility

Ah, the joys of a mobile baby.  Anna may not be getting around in the traditional sense, but, oh boy, is she ever getting around, and into, everything.  Luckily, for the most part, she’s ignored the presents under the tree, choosing to expend her energies towards more fascinating things.  For instance, she loves to get up close to the gas fireplace while it’s on, reaching her delicate little hands out towards the painfully hot glass. Or she will roll herself over to the vacuum cleaner, neatly parked in a corner, and start kicking and pulling it in an attempt to crush herself beneath it.  She also seems fascinated with getting herself half under the coffee table and then trying to sit up- thereby totally knocking her head on the edge of the table.  So far she hasn’t discovered the joys of kitchen cabinets, but it’s only a matter of time. 

This will be, as always, a good Christmas. I’m very excited because my brother, Val, is flying out to visit.  He hasn’t seen Anna since her christening in April, so there’ll be a big change. She’s actually a little person now, not just a little baby bundle.  John won’t be coming home this time, but we hope to get together with him next summer for some kind of family vacation.  Other than family, I’ll also have friends around, with Lisa and her kids both being in town this year.  I can’t wait to give everyone their presents! 

It’s possible that Monica, Kurt’s sister, will have the best present of all this season, since she’s due with her first baby any day now.  She had a bit of a false alarm the other night and I know was disappointed that the baby wasn’t ready yet (since she is SO ready), but I’m thinking that some time this week she’ll be a new mom!  That’s my guess, anyway. We’ll see when the time is right! 

Hope everyone has a safe week of holiday prep and travel. It’s off to the post office for me, as soon as Teletubbies is over!  (I know, I know, I shouldn’t have left it, but I did, so now I deserve the lines I have to stand in.)

On the Move

Anna has developed this strange crawl/sit/roll maneuver that seems to really be working for her.  Every time I look up, she’s in a different part of the room!  I guess my carefree days as a mom of a non-mobile child are over now, huh?  J  As for genuine crawling, so far Anna has only managed to go backwards, but she’s really, really trying now so everyday it feels like she’s about to really get it figured out.  Maybe today will be the day.  What she does is start in a sitting position, reach far over for something, until she’s on her belly.  Then she sort of squirms/army crawls towards the object of her desire, and then she rolls a bit, pushes herself up with her hands, and ends up sitting again.  It sounds complicated, but she’s gotten so good at these things that she is really getting around quickly. 

It’s funny when she tries to crawl, though, and only ends up going backwards.  It clearly frustrates her, but still, she’s moving, so it’s exciting for her too.  Her major development these past few days, and one that we’ll have to adjust the crib to, is that she can sit herself up all on her own now.  I’ve gone to get her from her nap several times lately and she’s been sitting up in her crib, waiting for me and pulling on the crib bumper.  Kurt and I plan to lower the crib mattress tonight so she can’t pull herself up and out, too. 

It has been ARCTIC around here this whole week.  This morning we woke up to a balmy -8 degrees!  I haven’t taken the baby out of her pajamas all week, it’s just been too cold.  It doesn’t really matter anyway, since we’ve hardly left the house at all since Monday.  I finished all my Christmas shopping that day, and have spent the rest of the week (and the weeks to come, I bet) working on all the hats I’m crocheting for people for the holidays.  A hand-made Christmas gift sounds nice… but then there’s the actual hand-making part that you have to do!  I’ve become a hat fiend.  Most of the ones I am making are for children, and Anna has been a willing size model, thankfully.  She loves to pat her head, which means ‘hat’ in sign language, and try to put the hats on and off. 

It’s amazing how much she’s grown-up just in the past few weeks!  She’s no longer so shy of strangers, she’ll let me leave the room (briefly) without crying, and she has let several other people hold her without any complaint.  She is still very shy and nervous of men, but that’s fine with me!  We’ll just hope that lasts into her teenage years, right?  Really, she seems to be losing some of her sensitivity to new situations, which is a relief.  She still gets nervous, of course, but a lot of the time now she’ll just go with the flow and play and be herself, regardless of where we are or who’s around. 

Mostly, though, she is just displaying a lot more initiative and curiosity to explore her surroundings and it is so fun to watch as she discovers new things and gets excited about what she can do. 

Happy Birthday to my brother Val, he turns 30 today!  Congratulations, we love you and can’t wait to see you in a few weeks! 

Anna's Top Ten

Ten Things I Like to Do This Week

1. Beat the drum with my drumsticks.
2. Beat the cat with my drumsticks.
3. Beat my parents with my drumsticks.
4. Lick my drumsticks.
5. Refuse to eat my dinner, but act starving at all times.
6. Attempt to crawl, unless someone is watching, in which case I cry helplessly.
7. Pull myself to a sitting position all by myself!
8. Use my drumsticks to pull far away toys closer to me. 
9. Talk in random babbling connections of syllables that sound almost like English… but aren’t.

And Finally…

10. Lick other people’s shoes vigorously, preferably the bottoms, where all the good stuff is.

And the winner is...

I think she’s practicing to be an Olympic athlete. Lately, whenever Anna is doing ANYTHING, she’ll suddenly smile, call out some nonsensical babble, and throw her arms up high in the air and wave them around. Like she’s saying, “Woohoo!! I did it!!  Look at me, I’m a WINNER!!!”.  Actually, maybe that is what she’s saying.  I’ll never know, since mostly I don’t understand a word of it. 

She is SO close to crawling, the air is thick with the promise of her efforts.  She reach, reach, reeeeeeeaches for her toys, getting her legs under her and her belly off the ground.  She still hasn’t done it, yet, but I think it’s something she may conquer sooner rather than later.  Then her “Woohoo!” move will really have something to celebrate!  He two bottom teeth have finally come in, and she’s starting to experiment more with her foods now.  The one thing I’ve really noticed is that a lot of the time she won’t eat unless she can be in charge of the food.  Things that she used to like are no good anymore, she wants food she can hold.  This morning, we met mom for breakfast and Anna ate half a pancake all by herself… though “ate” is sort of a grandiose word for what she did.  Mostly she smooshed large portions of it into the vicinity of her mouth.  A good half of that ended up stuck to her face, shirt, hands, high chair and the floor.  She enjoyed it, though, and that’s the important part.

My mom spent Thanksgiving in California this year with my cousin Liz and her family.  She says that Lizzie and my Aunt Juanita read this site every week, which I think is great.  I never know who’s checking it out, so it’s nice to know I’m not just talking to the universe at large.  Hi, Lizzie!  Hi, Auntie!  I hope you are both doing well, Anna says hi, too. Leave me a note in the comments, it gives me instant gratification.  J