one year old

Here are some pictures from Annabelle's first birthday. I don't know what to say about my big girl in this post. I don't understand how this year could have gone by so fast. I'm torn between wanting her to go back to that tiny cuddly baby and loving so much the sweet fun little girl that she is now. She has all of the sudden decided to stand up in the middle of the floor, and yesterday in her very own Anna way, decided to walk and is taking 5-7 steps all of the time. She went from thursday, not even allowing us to hold her hands and walk to saturday, standing up on her own from sitting and walking forward, falling and getting up to do it again. She is a gem and everywhere we go people constantly ask, "Is she always this good" and, "Is she always this happy?" . The answer to both is always yes. Here are some pictures from her little celebration we had with the family.

Anna is "So big!"

Her new birthday phone, since she loves pretending to talk to Dada on everything.
MMMMmmmm, first taste of gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free,soy-free cake, plenty of sugar though! I should get an award for creating something edible with out all of those ingredients.

Our new house

Here are a few pictures of our new home that people have been requesting. It is finally starting to feel like home. I have so many projects still to complete, but I figure none of them will happen until October when I'm done with school, so this is it for now. :)

In this one you can see the giant pantry that I originally freaked out about, but now love.

I can't believe I'm actually posting a picture of the kid's messy playroom, but it's a playroom so that's what it's suppposed to look like right?

The view from our back deck. It's so fun to have a backyard now! Living in a duplex for three years has really made us appreciate our home and all of the things we can do now like let Jackson play in a pool in the backyard, or ride his bike on the street and take walks right outside our door, we are loving it here.

Anna

Here's some rather boring video of Annabelle doing basically nothing for 5 minutes straight. Enjoy. Some things she is doing these days that she refused to perform are, waving hi and bye, saying mama, dada, uh-oh, and a version of all done while doing the sign. She standing up on her own but refuses to walk once she realizes what she is doing and goes completely limp until you leave her alone and let her crawl. She will also sometimes sign eat and occasionally tries milk and mama signs. She also just started pointing to my nose and mouth. She said hi a few times in the video but not in the really high sing-songy voice that we use and is adorable. Sorry, I guess every time I paused it started a new video, so I have no idea what is on each.



(Sorry I don't know how to edit down video, fast forward when you get bored!)

Firetruck Birthday Party

Here are the pictures of Jackson's birthday party two weeks ago. We were so lucky to get to have it at the Southern Pines Fire Dept. which was wonderful. They set up tables right in the bay and let the kids climb into the firetrucks, and had a lieutenant dress up in his gear and talk to the kids about what firemen do. Lots of the kids tried on the gear. Jackson (of course) was the only kid who actually got scared when he was dressing up in his gear and came and sat(hid behind) next to me until he took off his gear. It was a wonderful time and I think all of the kids had a great time. I'll write another post about all of the cool four year old things Jackson is doing these days.

Some Mother's Day beach pictures

Mommy the yeller

Tonight I was about to give Jackson a bath and he was whining and asking to use the sidewalk chalk that I had told him we would use tomorrow,and I asked Jackson what he thought I would do if he was whining (I was looking for the answer that I would take away the sidewalk chalk)and he said, "ummm, yell". I said, "oh do you think so?" He smiled and said, "No." But, your first answer is usually the right one, right? Oh, I hope not:(

Overkill

Ok, I know this is overkill and no one wants to see this many photos of my child, but the photographer retook some pics on Fri and we got the cutest pictures, I especially love the ones of him in his old crusty red hat that he took from Grandma's house that he used to wear over there everytime he was there. She called him "grandma's cowboy" and he wears it everywhere including bed.

Here are Jackson's "school pictures". I love everything about the Montessori school that Jackson attends, including their untraditional take on school pictures. They brought in a children's photographer and we each got a disc with pictures to print what we wanted. Here are a few from what was taken. I must say he is adorable, that's my totally objective opinion.

Angel girl

Kurt took this picture with his phone one day and I just thought it was precious. He gets the best pictures even with a camera phone. Doesn't she look angelic?

nine months old

How is my little girl nine months old. These nine months have gone by a lot faster than the previous nine months. What a difference nine months makes. I can't believe she was in my belly nine months ago and now she's just this little smily person who eats everything off of the floor that she can possibly find. I left her in the kitchen the other day where she was crawling around playing while I went to the bathroom and in the two minutes I was gone, she got into Jackson's easel and had written on her face with one marker and had sucked on the other colring her tongue, teeth, and the whole inside of her mouth orange. And so it begins...

Annabelle passes the time these days by hunting for inappropriate things to put in her mouth and choke on. We discover about half of them pre-digestion and the other half 12-24 hours later. She literally does this all day long, more interested in the hunt than toys. I vaccum and sweep at least once a day but with a 3 year old she still succeeds. She has now learned to lock her teeth and bat our hands away. I introduced her to cheerios yesterday in the hope that if I gave her something appropriate to put in her mouth it would serve as a replacement behavior for the constant crumbs and carpet fibers that she lives for. She loved them and yelled any time her tray was empty even if she had a mouth full. She currently babbles mamama, and dadada and Jackson would tell you that she is saying all kinds of other things. Her current favorite "toys" are little noses saline spray, plain brown bottle nipples, a broken breastpump tubing, a little einsteins book, and an actual fisher price table top with the legs removed so she doesn't pull to stand on it and face plant forward, oh and any electrical cord. She is a good sleeper and generally all smiles, especially if mommy is around. She is crawling everywhere and starting to pull to stand. She is loads of fun and I can't believe how fast this is going!!! Nine months from now she will be this whole little person.