Anna's New Moves

Anna has made incredible leaps in her mobility in the last few weeks.



First she invented her own little way of turning. While lying on her back, she did kind of a half-roll onto her side while kicking her legs in one direction. After repeating this several times she was able to completely turn her body like the hands on a clock. What was her motivation for this? Revenge. After months of D taking all of her toys away from her she managed to move herself into a position where she could kick down his tower of cardboard bricks.



Unfortunately this little move has rendered her bassinet unsafe and so we have had to begin the process of getting her to sleep in her crib in her own room. She is going to sleep pretty well on her own, but usually ends up in our bed sometime around 2:30a.m.



Shortly after her turning maneuver, Anna learned how to roll from her back to her tummy. She does this with ease and seems to think she's pretty hot stuff cause she does it every time I lay her down. There was a gap for about a week before she figured out how to roll back to her back and she doesn't really like being on her belly. Now she can roll to her back, but often forgets that she can and cries til someone flips her over.

And her latest development... She pulls her legs up under her and puts her butt up in the air and sort of crawls forward - inch worm style. She doesn't go very far and often doesn't move at all, but with a lot of effort she is making forward motion. Pretty unbelievable since she's not even 5 months old yet!

Oh Christmas Tree

We put up our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. D was a great helper (for real!) He really enjoyed the process of helping to sort out the branches and putting up the ornaments. For weeks he has talked about the tall tree and how he helped "build tree." He has been much better with the ornaments this year - there are actually ornaments covering the whole tree! He has become obsessed with sorting the ornaments. There is a branch with stars, a branch with trains, a branch with animals... His favorite ornament is a moon-shaped one. I think it has actually found a permanent home in his toy box. I'm afraid he will be sad when the tree comes down within the next couple of days. I'm also afraid I have months of finding random Christmas decorations around the house in my future.

Lots of Visitors

Thanksgiving week and the time around it was a big blur of visitors for our family.

We started off the weekend before Thanksgiving with John, Melissa and Avery. David and Avery got along great this time. He played nicely with his little cousin and when she wasn't by his side he would call for her - "Eve, Eve." Anna liked her Uncle John and Aunt Melissa, giving Melissa lots of giggles and showing her approval for John by falling asleep in his arms.

Next we had friends Bryan, Ashley and Sydney here for Thanksgiving. We had lots of fun - David loves his girlfriend. She referred to him as "My David." They got into trouble together, working as a team to break into and eat a jar of chocolate Nesquick. We went to the mall to have pictures taken with Santa and had a ride on the carousel. The kids enjoyed some outside time even though it was cold. They were good little helpers with the leaf raking.

Finally we enjoyed the company of my parents and sister. I got a much needed break since Anna is as happy in my mom's arms as she is in mine. David got to show off all his toys and took his grandparents and aunt on a trip to one of his favorite places - Kids' Gym.

We thoroughly enjoyed the time with all our friends and family and found ourselves wishing for more after everyone had left.

Princess Giggles

Our little angel giggled for the first time on Thursday, November 15th. She laughed when I was bouncing her up and down on my stomach. Then she spit up all over me. The little lady is somewhat reserved with her giggles. What makes her laugh once will not often work again so we have fun trying to think of ways to get her going. At times she has enjoyed bouncing, flying, having her feet sniffed, playing peek-a-boo and being entertained by bad singing and dancing.