Bath Time Buddies!

This past Sunday, Anna Kate had a visitor! Her best cousin Avery came over, and they both had a wonderful time playing together. Avery enjoyed all of Anna's "new" toys and books, and Anna enjoyed watching her big cousin show her how to play! We didn't have the camera out too much, since there were more children and four legged children than adults, but we did capture some sweet moments with both girls in the bathtub.

"Mom, is this edible? This is edible. I'll have some, thanks."

It is hard to get a sleepy one year old and a three year old on the move to smile for the same photo.

"Um, what are you doing in my bathtub?"

"I'll take that, thank you!"

Playtime at Home!

There are people in this world that are just good at yard sales. No matter how hard Mark and I try, we can never find that "perfect" yard sale, that has exactly what we don't want to pay full price for, or at the very least, something awesome that we didn't know we were missing all of our lives. One time I went to a great estate sale, found our bedroom furniture, coffee table, and a great bench that we get millions of compliments on. But I didn't find that on my own. Nope, fortunately for us, Gigi is the yard sale expert. She passed most of her talent on to Uncle David, too. Not only can she sniff out a good yard sale, but she somehow gets them to give her crazy prices too. Someday, I'll drag Anna to yard sale after yard sale (I used to love them as a kid, minus that period in my life where waking up before noon was painful) for the joy of the hunt, because Mark just isn't into that kind of fun!

Long story short, over the course of two weeks Gigi scored us some awesome play sets for the back yard, including two toddler playhouses complete with slides, a swing, and other cool features, and an outdoor toy box so out garage can look a little more normal. This past weekend a lot of time and effort was spent cleaning up an area for little miss (more on that later) but here are some shots of Anna enjoying her at home playground! Lucky girl! Thanks Gigi (and Ru for dragging it to Statesville)!!

No smiles, but she was having fun. This would be right before her fever shot up to 102...

Her favorite part... Going in and out her own little door!

Or maybe her favorite part is trying to climb up the slides?

I tried to show her the cool climbing "wall". She is still a bit too little, but enjoys trying!

"What, Mom?" Sassy look from my serious girl.

"Bye guys! Emma and I are off to play!"

I know Aunt Dee will love this photo! The beagles enjoy resting in the shade to watch their sister play!

Our Busy Week(end)!

So sorry I have been MIA.... we started the week with Mark being sick, then Anna Kate teething and high fever, and now Mommy is sick with a fever too. On top of all of that, Mark has had a very full week at work. It has been fun  interesting around here.

Wow, so last week, Anna Kate and I kept very very busy! Between trips to the YMCA, tutoring sessions, not being efficient at grocery shopping (we like to go once a week, to one or two stores. I don't want to count this week), visiting Daddy at work, and lunch with Shanda we were on the move a lot. We also had two play dates on the calendar, but both sadly got cancelled. Fortunately, we still got to have dinner at the Popes, which is the ultimate play date for Anna!

Little buddies Paxton and Anna!

Playing with Daddy outside!

We also headed to Greensboro after Mark got off work, since Anna wouldn't get to see her Gigi and Ru for a while and so that we could visit friends. Saturday we met up with Nick and Tiffany at Dame's Chicken and Waffles and had an amaaaaaazing dinner! We had been dying to get to this restaurant since Uncle Robert wanted to go back when I was pregnant. Anna Kate enjoyed it as much (maybe more!) than we did!

So yummy!

Sunday, we spent most of the day playing with an exhausted Anna. We went to the farmer's market, played with toys, and even got to visit with Mommy's friend Sarah! Mark and I also took advantage of being able to leave during nap time and headed out to Friendly Center while Gigi and Ru were on nap watch. It was nice being able to visit stores that are usually 45 minutes or more to go to from our house!

Anna showing Daddy how to trim the bushes by hand.

Farmers Market with Gigi!

Miss mess!

Road to Walking

So we haven't kept excellent tabs on Anna Kate's walking progress (turns out we were the same about crawling... I can't find a post where she actually moved on beyond the army crawl!). Per usual with her physical milestones (rolling over, crawling, picking up, etc) she went from "kinda doing it" to all of a sudden "full on". When I wrote about her at fourteen months, I mentioned she was walking 8-10 steps. And, on May 9 when she turned 14 months, that was literally about as far as she would go and it was sporadic. Now it is on.

For the past week our activities consist of walking, walking, and more walking. Sometimes she will come get you and insist on you walking around with her as she leads you through each hall or down the sidewalk. On the particular day I decided to film the fun, she was literally just walking from her room to the living room and back over and over again with an occasional trip to the front door.

Mommy is happy for her to be walking and for the entertainment it now gives her, but I am trying to prepare myself for the chaos that is going to ensue! She already heads back to her room to get her lovey, which we try to leave in the bed when we are at home, or goes to the table to get her water which we now have to put in the fridge so that she doesn't become a sippy cup addict. In her ideal world, she would wander the house with both in hand at all times, which isn't the end of the world, but it does seem to get her off balance and I really don't want her to "need" those items everywhere we go!

Here is the best video I captured one day of her walking around the house.

Ball Pit!

So, I believe I may have mentioned that I scored an awesome $5 ball pit at a yard sale last weekend. If not, now you know. Anna Kate thinks it is the best thing since sliced bread. And she loves bread. She will climb in and out and on it for long long periods of time. We are talking about a toddler here, so that's like 15 minutes. She varies her entry method from careful stepping over the inflatable ring, to diving in head first, and recently I witnessed her standing on top of the inflatable ring. Mark likes to play a game called "washing machine" with her where he spins the ball pit in crazy circles and Anna laughs. The ball pit is a win for everyone. Minus my home decor, which glares at the flowers and butterflies.

Ball pits can be serious business too.

Trying to get to Mommy through the hole in the top!

"I see you, Mommy!"

"This is a weird ball. But it is a ball pit, so it STAYS!"

Side story, the ball pit has been in and out of use over our week of showings. I got it out and blew it up during nap one afternoon and didn't put the balls inside. Anna Kate went around the room finding all of the other balls she had and threw them in. Smart girl!

"Egg? Ball? Same thing!"

Here you can witness the head first dive...

This is a mix of the careful one foot in entrance and placing a ball through the holes of the flowers.

Mother's Day Fun!

So, I have to brag on Mark a little bit. Or a lot-a-bit. I really got to have a Mother's Day WEEK. Between the gifts, surprises, the brioche french toast he made, and the cleaning up and changing diapers, I felt very special. We even got to see both of our mothers over the weekend, which made it even more special!

Also, Anna Kate was a complete Mommy's girl all weekend. I don't know if the girl is getting more teeth (molars?), getting sick, or just going through a little phase, but she sure made Mommy feel loved and important (and smothered, but... they won't be like this forever, right!).

Here are some snapshots from our weekend!

"Hey Mom, do you see this swing?!"

"Don't worry, I can always get Gigi to put me in it."

Enjoying a muffin with Ru. Giving him the stink eye, but hey, he has a muffin!

Mark's Brioche French Toast. Amazing!

This little stinker did not want to cooperate to take photos with Mommy. She may not be smiling, but at least we have pictures together from this Mother's Day!

No squinty eyes in this one! Mommy and her sweet girl!

Hanging out at Grandpa and Nana's lake property. Grandpa pulling up on the boat and Alli going for a swim in the background!

Hanging out with Aunt Lisa and Nana! Getting my walk on!

Time for a boat ride! This particular point in the weekend was very Mommy-needy. I am going to have Anna shaped tan lines if she keeps this up all summer! This was her first long boat ride, and maybe her third boat ride ever. Someone needs to invent a non-head squeezing life jacket!

Don't Worry!

So, it has come to my attention that a lot of you think I'm going to stop posting on the blog thanks to some poor wording from Friday. I'm not quitting the blog! If you read it carefully, and get inside my brain, I was just trying to say that I will not be posting the "Five on Friday" posts anymore! I brought that in because I seemed to be running out of regular material, but I'd rather not have tons of posts than work to write boring Friday posts! Plus it was kinda ruining my other posts, because... Well, we kinda do a lot of the same stuff every week!

Here's a cute picture for you of Anna reading some of her soft sided books in her crib while I got ready for a showing.

This and That

Some things are not worthy of an entire post, so here they are all mushed together like a peanut butter banana jelly nutella fluff sandwich. Except cuter, because that would be gross.

This is "Anna's cabinet". Full of baby-safe tupperware that she is only interested in after Mommy takes the time to re-organize. Obviously.

It kind of looks like she is on one knee serenading me. Except I'm pretty sure her song would be more like, "Hey Mom, here are some bowls. How about you fill them with foooooood?"

Bored of the tupperware, Anna Kate shows off her ability to open cabinets. Awesome.

Here are videos of Anna Kate going down the slide at the lake the other week. It was hiding on my phone, so I forgot to share, but what a cutie!

Here are the photos I promised of Anna Kate playing with Anthony and Breanne's dogs, Corona and Saylor. Saylor is very exciteable and loves to play fetch. Like, will play fetch for hours on end. She would bring the ball back to Anna even after she only threw it a foot. Anna LOVED it!

"Hey doggies, are you ready?!"

"Here you go, pup!"

"Yay doggies!"

Fourteen Months!

On Friday, little Miss turned fourteen months. This month, so much has changed! (I know, I say this every time).

At fourteen months, Anna Kate is fully weaned, walking 8-10 steps and gaining every day, loves to play outside and in her ball pit, can say Mama, Dada, Doggie, This and Book, signs and points for items, wears mostly 12 month clothes (on the small end) and still loves to read. She has seven (almost eight) teeth to chew her favorite food- grapes! She is a daredevil and would love nothing more than to climb all of the steps, run across the living room (even though she can hardly walk), and swim in any body of water on a hot day (even though she obviously cannot swim). She loves animals, especially the doggies that she knows, and is working on being gentle.

Mommy and Daddy are currently loving fourteen months. Anna Kate seems to be much happier with her new developments, and loves to show off her talents. It seems that she is daily showing us new skills! In the past week she has learned "where is your head?" and figured out how to go from sitting to standing without holding onto anything. We could go on and on, but we just love our sweet girl!

How cute is my girl! Although per usual, she refused to smile.

Close to a smile?

A-stinkin-dorable!

I love this. She had to have the book I tried reading to her (to make her look at the camera) and then she sat and crossed her little legs and started reading. Precious girl.