Sick Puppy

So to celebrate Halloween, Anna Kate and I headed to the doctor today for her first sick visit. She had started to cough over the past couple days and it was starting to sound rough and be frequent. That, coupled with a low fever, sent us in for a visit. To be honest, I only thought it was a sinus-cold-thing, but I didn't want to have a raging full-blown illness on our hands so we played the "better safe than sorry" card. Turns out it was a good idea to play it safe! Anna Kate has bronciolitis which makes her wheeze and cough, and her oxygen levels were below normal (nothing too scary, grandparents!). They had us do a breathing treatment in the office (oh-my-gosh, putting a mask on a baby isn't traumatizing at all... right.) which got her back up to a normal range.

So now, we have a sick and sad puppy (photos taken before the doctor, I promise!)... And we only have to keep doing breathing treatments at home. Ugh. Anyone want to come hold a baby screaming bloody murder while I put a mask on her face?!

Posing with her favorite sister...

SO, once we are feeling better (and smiling) we are going to make use of that costume and take ridiculously cute photos of our littlest pup. And in her Halloween outfit, which she promptly spit up all over after I relieved her of her puppy duties.

Best Friends, Part Two!

Over the weekend, at Grandma Marshall's Avery and Anna Kate continued their budding friendship. Turns out, babies are much more interesting when they move and grab things... so during a break from the crowd, the two littlest Marshall's bonded over some baby toys.

Avery explaining how Anna Kate's owl works... "There's a baby in the mommy's belly playing peek-a-boo!" and (using the mirror) "Baby Anna, I see you!"

Almost both looking at the camera! Avery was so good about showing Anna Kate how her Sophie could squeak and then handing the toys over!

Avery being very patient with a grabby Baby Anna!

Uncle Robert and Avery tickling Baby Anna!

Of course Gigi had to get in on the playtime, her two favorite girls were there!

Happy Birthday Grandma Marshall!

This past weekend we headed over to Uncle Brian and Aunt Kathy's house to celebrate Grandma Marshall's 85th birthday with all of the Marshall and Reese family. Anna Kate had not yet met many of them, so she enjoyed seeing all of the new faces and getting lots of snuggles. Unless they had a mustache or goatee, then she did not enjoy their new faces.

Happy Birthday Grandma Marshall!

Grandma with all of the great grandchildren.. Anna Kate really makes the picture if you ask me. And yes, this was the best one... 

And with the grandkids. We took a lot of other different family shots, but as you can see in the one above, Mark and I were occupied with little miss. 

Proof that she doesn't always cry at Uncle David's mustache. Just most of the time.

With cousin Jessica...

And cousin Jennifer...

And cousin Kristina.. she had some awesome shades to play with!

Aunt Kathy, the family baby whisperer, taught Anna how to hang out on the glider.

The "big" kids (ages 2.5-9) played soccer with Blaze. I love Avery in this photo... keeping her distance. She told the other kids many times to "be careful!"

Mark and Robert being really mature...

Bring on the Solids!

Anyone who has eaten with Anna Kate knows she is a puff-monster (this is what we call her during mealtime because if you drop a puff on her tray she is on it like white on rice!). Ever since we introduced the magical baby puffs, she has loved to feed herself. So recently, we began to introduce other foods cut into baby sizes and she is a big fan of the process! She especially loves when it comes off of Mommy's plate!

"Hmm... these aren't puffs.."

"Let's see what they are like."

Pincher grasp for the win!

"Yeah, that is SO not a puff!"

"It's all good though, cheese is my second favorite food group. After puffs."

"Come on, Mom, I can handle the spoon-feeding now!"

Baby loves her cup...

33 Weeks!

Week 33 brought on one major development- teething! I'm sure in the grand scheme of things she has been "teething" for a while (the doctor said at her 6 month appointment she felt them), but let's just say it started this week because with it came sleepless nights, refusing to eat and nurse, painful screaming, and more drool than should exit one tiny human being. We can't figure out just how many white knives are coming up, but I have seen one lower K-9 and you can now feel one lower front tooth. If anything else happened this week, I couldn't tell you what it was because, well, teeth. Oh we lowered the crib mattress. And then there was teething.

"Daddy said Mommy dressed me like a boy.."

"Hey, gimme that camera!" 

Getting so big!

"Teething monster? Who, me?"

Guess Who's Teething?

More later, but what. a. week. Oh teeeeeth, come out come out wherever you are!

She now totes around frozen rings all day.

Too bad I can't keep her fingers ice cold, then we would be set!

Grocery Gal

So Mark and I have begun to grocery shop together again recently... For all of you who laughed and told us that would stop (there has been about a six month lapse though). I guess it is just one of our most favorite activities so we like to share the fun? Not really, more so we wrap all of our "in town" activities into one trip and the help is nice when someone *cough* Anna Kate *cough* gets bored or sleepy or hungry or turns into any of those seven dwarves. Count running errands as the top reason I'm ready for someone to buy this house...

What? You wanted photos and not a random story of our Grocery-Store-Love? This post is brought to you by the way too big girl, Anna Kate, sitting in the grocery cart for the first time, *gasp* without a cart cover (it is at home, protecting the closet from all of the germs lurking inside, obviously). She was entertained by this for about ten minutes, and only as long as we were moving (picture me grabbing groceries and running after Mark pushing the cart) so by the time we reached the checkout line and realized the slowest workers get to work Sundays, she and Daddy hit the pavement to watch cars go by.

That was a long post for two pictures of a baby in a shopping cart. You're welcome.

Carolina Balloonfest! Part Two

As I mentioned yesterday, Uncle Ben and Aunt Lisa came up to go to the Balloonfest with us. They had some college friends who were also going and had babies along, so we all piled in the van and headed over to meet up with everyone to see the balloons take off. Luckily since we live so close, we stayed at the house and waited for the rain to pass before heading out. Anna Kate once again proved her shyness towards men, and it took a while for her to warm up to Uncle Ben.

She's the favorite Rotman niece, obviously.

Giving Uncle Ben the evil eye!

Starting to warm up a little, gimme that hair or hat!

Sad face for not getting smiles from baby Anna.

Anna Kate was very interested in the other baby, Liam. He was a little to sleepy to play at this point.

Red solo cup! I fill you up! (Favorite toy of the afternoon, silly baby).

Carolina Balloonfest! Part One

A fun fact about our little house in the middle of nowhere... there is a great balloon festival that comes around every year about three miles away! It is Bailey's least favorite weekend of the year (she has an unexplained terror of hot air balloons) but it is one of our favorites. We usually just watch the balloons from the house, as they go right over us, but this year we headed to the festival with Aunt Lisa and Uncle Ben to meet up with some new baby friends and watch the balloons take off!

For reminiscing's sake, here are photos from last year's balloon fest on my niece Avery's blog. Last year we were telling everyone that our sweet baby was a girl! And below is a photo from Mark's and my first balloon fest together when we were just kids... October 2007.

Pre-baby, pre-house, pre-marriage... so young!

Fast forward to this past weekend..

 Family of three!

Little baby bunny taking it all in!

Daddy and baby love!

Love for the baby bunny!

With all of the crowds and balloons it was hard to get her to look at the camera, to say the least!

Up close with the balloons!

32 Weeks!

This week, Anna Kate continued working on the same milestones as the week prior- creeping-crawling, self feeding, teething (wahoo), sitting up without support, and babbling. Sometimes if you listen carefully you can hear a "mama" but really it is mainly when she is eating puffs so I think it is more like "yum yum more puffs please"!

We regressed in the sleep department, more than likely due to the teething (or just for her to work on hitting the crawling milestone), and Anna Kate has been getting up about twice per night for the past week, which has made daytime oh-so-fun: lots of yawns, eye-rubs, and creative approaches on our part to keeping her awake until her next nap. We missed church today because of her erratic sleep (oh, and her "nap" this morning was 15 minutes, maybe), and mommy has been a major zombie lately. Hard to believe how easily you get used to sleeping through the night!

"What's up 32 weeks?"

Pretty pretty brown Marshall eyes.. sorry Daddy.

"Oh Daddy, can I pretty please have a pony?"

"My cuteness makes up for the night wakings, right Mom?"

Emma kisses...yuck.

I'll Take My Water in a Glass..

So, as anyone who has been around Anna Kate knows, she is very hands-on lately. We are in for some trouble when she finally figures out how to work her hands and knees at the same time! One night at dinner, she saw me drinking my water (from a glass, obviously) and reached out to show she wanted to touch it. I held the glass in front of her, letting the ice clink around, and she got her little hands on the lip of the glass and pulled. So, we let her try to take a sip, and she loved it. I, on the other hand, did not appreciate the "floaters" she left in my water..

"Gimme that!"

"I just want a sip!" 

(Here she was actually drinking, though you can see on the tray not all of it was making it down.)

"Dad, that was awesome!"

(Also note the water covered chin. She does this when she is done with her sippy cup too- continues to drink and just spits it out down the front of herself. She gets her clothes changed a lot.)