50 Weeks!

Wow, only two weeks until Anna Kate is one year old! It is hard to believe this time last year I had already welcomed my long term substitute into my classroom, had been showered over and over again by people who were ready to love my sweet girl, and I was very ready to have my "little" 8 pounder.

This week, we tried to balance being on the go and staying at home. Anna Kate enjoyed a full infant room at the YMCA and found lots of little friends to play with. We are going to have a little tomboy on our hands... she only plays with the boys! We played outside a lot, and while she is excited to "walk" in her rolling walker or holding onto furniture, she doesn't care for it when you hold her hands and try to make her go.

Anna Kate had a "late" night out on Saturday (she was asleep in the car seat to go home at 8) and then her first trip to the Lake Norman State Park. We unfortunately didn't take the camera to either event, but she did wonderful at a long dinner with our friends and an almost 3 mile hike. Mark and I determined we are going to be hiking LKN State Park often with her- to increase her tolerance in the back carrier and for our fitness so we can be ready for Colorado in the fall!

Lastly, we have some new white developments! Anna Kate actually cut three teeth this week! I think she is almost done for the time being as the drool has come back from "entire shirt soaking, slug trail baby" to "oh hey you've got a little something on your shirt." Along with that, Anna Kate is apparently the "diarrhea with teething" baby, although when you look on the internet some doctors claim this is coincidence and usually a virus. I finally called her pediatrician after five days... they told me to give her probiotics (which we had from the last teething-diarrhea) and foods to stop her up. Bring on the bananas!

Here is my little cutie- we actually captured some smiles this week!

Typical weekly photo. Fingers in the mouth.

My new stall tactic is reading to her while I take photos. Must have been a good book!

"I'll have another book please, Mom."

Look at that toothy grin! The one you can see came in about three months ago, so who knows how long it will be until you can see the new ones!

Self Feeding

Over the snow days, we took our usual afternoon snack break, and someone decided it would be fun to feed herself! Luckily, we were practically done with the yogurt, so she could only make little messes as she dipped her spoon in the cup and most of the time hit her mouth. She mainly had a hard time getting the yogurt off the spoon when she hit her mouth. She was also trying to watch the neighborhood girls snowboard in our backyard...

"Look, I can do this myself now!"

"Hey, what's happening over there?"

"Hey girls, look! You can snowboard, but I can feed myself yogurt!"

Happy Birthday Paxton!

So, as my long time blog readers (Hi Grandparents!) know, Anna Kate has a little buddy Paxton who she loves to play with. Well, I should say Pax's mom, Maggie, and I love to "play". Anna Kate and Paxton don't mind doing something different, but they are still at the age where they just play near each other.

Anyways, Paxton had his second birthday party this past Saturday at Discovery Place Kids in Huntersville. That place is awesome! We can't wait to go back once Anna Kate is walking, but she enjoyed visiting the water table and seeing all of her baby friends- Paxton has two cousins that are within about 6 weeks of AK who she loves to play with at church, and she loves to watch all of the big kids.

Sorry, some of these are blurry. The lighting was not ideal and I only had my phone!

Daddy didn't love this photo... Doesn't it look like they're headed off to a baby date?!

Don't get too excited Anna Kate. There is no way you're getting a red mustang when you turn 16!

Anna Kate's first encounter with an octopus. Unfazed. 

The best part! The water table was awesome!

Pure joy. How can this be inside of my home, and someone cleans up the water when she is done?

Loving it!

49 Weeks!

This week had a few firsts for Miss Anna Kate- first Valentine's day, first real snow and her first birthday party! I'll have some phone photos up tomorrow of the birthday party (forgot my camera) and you have already seen her fun in the snow. Thank you for all of her first Valentine's! Anna Kate loves to open the mail with me, so she really enjoyed it when I let her keep the cards to play with!

Other than some fun firsts, week 49 was pretty similar to week 48. Here is a funny story from the week: Anna Kate now enjoys laundry baskets. She loves to reach in and pull out items one at a time and throw them over her shoulder. It is adorably frustrating. I solved the problem one day by taking her lovey and pushing a little through the hole of the basket. She will pull and tug until she almost pulls herself over to get it out, then she will stand up and throw it back in the basket to play again. It is the longest lasting entertainment for her besides reading books!

"What? It is 60 degrees now and no more snow?!"

"Thank goodness, that stuff was weird!"

"Hey Emma, you want to come sit here and let Mom take pictures of you?"

"Sorry Mom, it's Elmo, I gotta take this..."

Snow Day #2!

So, after about 6 inches of snow on Wednesday, we got even more snow Thursday! The humorous (to me) part of it was that when we woke up, it wasn't snowing and Mark couldn't sleep, so he figured he would shovel the driveway around 6:30AM. By 7:30 the snow picked up again and we got another 8+ inches and you couldn't even tell where he had shoveled. We didn't get to bring Anna Kate out into it until afternoon, as it was literally pouring snow, but most of the neighborhood and their dogs were out so she enjoyed herself!

SO. MUCH. SNOW. This is also where the wind carries the snow, but still. SO MUCH SNOW.

"Oh, this again?"

"I'm not impressed."

"Look at how funny my dogs look in the snow!"

124 Whistling Pines in the most snow this house has ever seen. Now, someone buy it.

See what Anna Kate meant? So funny. When they were jumping around, they would sometimes break past the hard sleet into the prior days snow and their heads would go completely under!

Only in the south. Shorts and short sleeves to shovel over a foot of snow.

First taste of snow...

"This tastes like.. nothing."

You know, just gnawing on some snow, watching Daddy shovel.

Yes, this was the best one. I asked Mark to make a normal face.

Me and my snow bunny. Look, you can finally see her tooth in a photo!

Snow Day #1!

As I'm pretty sure the entire world knows, North Carolina got an incredible amount of snow Wednesday & Thursday. Once it was all said and done, based on our neighbor's measurements, we got a total of 14 inches. It may be another 10 years before we see this kind of snow again!

On Wednesday, nothing really started happening until noon, and by 2:30 I was calling Mark to try to convince him to start to head home. By the time he got home around 4, there was several inches on the ground and it didn't take long for Mark to want to get out with Anna Kate and play in it (especially since he missed the last "snow"). As expected, she could have cared less.

No sled? Snowboard will work! Also, see Bailey and Emma going crazy!

"What in the world is going on, Dad?"

"Mom, you have GOT to be kidding me."

Emma LOVES sledding!

My snow pups.

11 Months!

I know, you were worried I forgot Anna Kate's 11 Month "birthday"... Well, I kind of did, because as a stay at home mom you sometimes don't know what the date is and I missed the 9th, but I took these photos on the 10th! So, technically, the post is just late?

How in the world has another month passed? I thought January was supposed to be a slow month... at least it always was as a teacher! On Sunday, Anna Kate turned 11 months. I have to say, the eleventh month has been a fun one! So many developments coming so fast! If I could bottle her up at this age for a while, I wouldn't mind.

Important things to remember about 11 months:
-This month brought out Anna Kate's personality and curiosity!
-While AK had been "talking" in the past few months, this was when "Mama" and "Dada" became much clearer and she began to "talk" more often.
-This was the month that cruising began, along with more confidence to pull up on anything and get into everything!
-Table food is now the normal, as Anna Kate is willing to try something if you are eating it.

I have no idea how she is sitting still..

Pouting, obviously.

Her absolute favorite thing of the moment, books!

Getting her read on.

Second favorite thing? Putting things into her mouth that shouldn't be there. 

Here? The back of the sticker.

Daddy, Come Home!

The other day, as I followed Anna Kate around the house, she headed towards the garage- which I only figured was so that she could have the opportunity to play in the dog water. The door was ultimately closed, so I captured this moment. I figure she must be wondering how and when Daddy will walk through the door! It also conveniently shows how big she is, standing up everywhere!

Happy Valentines Day, Mark! We can't wait for you to come home!

"Hey Mom, this is the door Daddy comes in through!"

"How do you open it?"

"No, seriously Mom, come over here and open it and let Daddy in!"

"This is the face I'll make when I see Daddy!"

"I'm so excited to see you, Daddy!"

48 Weeks!

This week, Anna Kate's legs are the star of the show. That sounds funny, but it is true!

For a few weeks now, she has been using her legs little by little to stand without holding onto something. Most of the time it seemed that she didn't know she was doing it. Daddy has been training her again, and now she knows when she is standing and gets quite proud of herself, laughing and giggling. Over the weekend, while playing in the toy kitchen, Anna Kate decided to show off her skills as she inspected some of Avery's play food and we all watched as she kept standing, and standing, and standing.

It is also time to (seriously) figure out our baby gate situation. We have been avoiding it, as the dogs sleep upstairs in the bonus room and we didn't want to disturb them any more... since Anna Kate took "their room" in the first place. This week, AK learned how to really climb stairs. She has had an interest in them for a while, but never made it further than hands on the second step. She crawled up four this week, with a watchful Momma!

Cruising is also becoming more and more real. She has to be motivated, but now, Anna Kate will walk sideways along the coffee table or window ledges to get where she wants to go. We have gotten out her walker, but she is more interested in the toys on it than using it to move and when you walk with her she still isn't terribly motivated.

Last thing for the week, which melts Mommy's heart each time, Anna Kate has learned how to "share". At mealtimes, she finds it fun to share handfuls of food with Mommy (both when prompted and when she is done with what she is eating). She also thinks it is HILARIOUS when she has a spoon and Mommy lets AK "feed" her. She can also "share" her books and toys by bringing them over to Mommy and putting them near her hands. This one gets tiring, but is still sweet. She could read all day long. Like mother, like daughter! She will fit in someday at the lake, right Daddy?

This time around.. all photos worth keeping looked about like this.

See? Like this.

"But Mom, I just don't want to take photos..."

"No seriously, I meant that. No photos."