Teething, hiking and baby steps!

So moments after this photo Anna decided to scoot off the rocking chair. I gave her my fingers and she stretched until her toes touched the floor then took a few steps towards me! It was walking holding me, but the first time she had decided to do so, how fun!
We tried homemade sweet potato risotto this week. Anna and John really enjoyed it and I found it good, but needing a little something. I will work on it.
We went hiking at the dog park again this week. The weather was great Friday, mid to high seventies and not a cloud. Had to get out. The dogs had fun and we enjoyed the fresh air.

She is still doing uh-oh. It is funny when she is sitting playing by herself and you hear, "uh-oh" as she had dropped something. She still takes tentative crawls, just no distance. She does get all over the living room by kneeling, moving forward a bit, then sitting up.
She is taking good naps with her teething and eating a lot. She likes cold cucumbers to rub on her teeth (there are two there!) and other cold fruit as finger foods. Not too cold however!

Uh oh!

Anna has decided to pick right up on that phrase. I think it is a phrase that corresponds with eating food. Baby drops food and parents say, "Uh oh." Anna thinks it is great. She has been mimicking us for a while. A "hi" here and "all done" there. But with "uh oh" she is doing it on her own. John was changing her this weekend and she had her diaper. She dropped it over the side of the changing table and, "uh oh." She is tending to do it whenever something drops, then she is back to her old, babagaga babadada mumumamama.
And she now has a teeny tiny piece of her lower right tooth sticking up! She is growing so fast. So far she has been handling it well. Just sticking her finger in her mouth a lot.

It was a dark and stormy night...

I am not sure how many people read the old Peanuts comic strip where Snoopy tried to write a novel, but they often started that way, a la novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Well, the weather Friday night was very dark and stormy. Then Saturday John was able to catch the funny shot of Anna playing with a flashlight. Very scary-story face.
Another new thing in her life is the eating of bread. Nom, nom, nom, she says, very good. She really enjoys bread, but she still offered to share with me. How nice of her! I have used my new bread machine and made white bread and today some delicious whole wheat. Yum, yum, yum!

Eight months!

Anna is now eight months! How the time has flown. She is moving around like crazy and climbing some of her toys, but still not crawling. She can stand well and this week has started to wiggle and wave her arms to music. When her music table plays certain songs she looks to us to see if we are singing with it.
She likes to "talk" to us all the time and definitely understands some of her signs and a lot of what we ask. Eat, more, all done, Ally, Milo, kitty (I think that may be her favorite). When I ask her where the kitty is she whips around to find them. When they come into the kitchen and she is eating she cranes her neck to see them and calls them with a loud, "Ah!" She mimics here and there and has started to make sounds she hears on her music table (I heard quacking today).
She enjoys patting the animals and watching them play. She will often try to move around to touch whoever is closer. I figure when she does crawl it will be towards one of them, or the phone.
Anna has been having fun visiting with all the kids we have seen lately. She likes to talk to the babies about her age and watch the older kids to see what they are doing. She really observes them and pays attention to everything going on around her.
We have had some small but neat milestones. She is getting very good at putting food in her mouth and often insists upon it. She enjoys playing peekaboo, pulling up a towel by herself to play (we call it "Where's Anna"). And this week she has figured out how to put a ball into a hole on one of her toys and even retrieve the ball if it gets stuck. Great to see her use her problem solving skills this young!
John and I are having great fun with her. She brings new surprises each day and continues to be a happy baby.

Busy Bees!

Since coming home Anna and I have been very busy. There was an ice cream social for our neighborhood the weekend we got back. We were able to meet a few people and swap info. We also started to hang out with my friend Amber and her daughter Pepper (who is two months older), going to the zoo Thursday mornings and squeezing in some play at their local pool. Pepper has been demoing crawling for Anna and how to climb legs. We have visited with a couple of neighbors as well and have been really filling up our weeks.
I also had a big surprise when the Kean family from Florida called the night before my birthday. I asked where they were heading to and Shannon announced they were 2 hours from KC! I was very surprised and happy. We let Anna sack out and made up the bed and cleaned up from dinner. What a birthday surprise! John got to meet their son Cates (17 months) and they got to meet Anna.
Their dogs came along who were best buds with Ally and Milo and they all acted like it had been no time since they last saw each other, versus 2 and a half years! It was good to see the girls and they were very happy to see us (thanks for the kisses!).
We went out for breakfast on my birthday, then came back here for the kids to nap. Shannon and Justin also caught up on some sleep from driving all day on Thursday to get here. We grabbed a nice meal down at the Plaza and walked around to check out the fountains and exercise Cates. We came back home, put the kids to bed and enjoyed some yummy ice cream cake. What a great day!
The rest of the visit went well even though the heat came with them. We explored Brookside, Union Station, Powell Gardens and Hallmark. There was lots of driving around to different areas and hanging out. Shannon also brought Anna a bunch of clothes to borrow and to keep. Thank you so much!
It was a great birthday surprise and a lot of fun to see our good friends. I still cannot believe we now have kids!

New Hampshire

Our trip to NH was great and very busy. We celebrated birthdays, saw fireworks at Scott's and a lot of people finally met Anna. She went to the ocean for the first time and enjoyed the saltiness of the sea weed. Yum! She was okay with the water (sun warmed) and we found two small lobsters thanks to Jenn and Ethan.
Her Baptism went well. She did not cry at all during the ceremony and enjoyed being held up above Father's head for the presentation to the community. After she was great staying awake for the party and swimming in Winnisquam before sacking out on her Aunt Patti.
Our adventure ended with a long ride home, through Pennsylvania this time. The cats were not too crazy when we got back, but they do expect us to play with them like the Triplett's did!
Thank you to everyone for helping out and getting things ready for us. Thank you for having us and welcoming Anna!

Niagara Falls

On our way out to New Hampshire for Anna's Baptism I had the great idea to stop at Niagara Falls. John had never been and Anna would be able to say she has been. We asked a nice lady who was working the tolls and she told us it would take us less than 30 minutes to get there. Great, we could drive up, get out run up for a quick look and photo op, then leave.
Well, we got off for the exit to go through Buffalo. Okay, maybe this added a little to our trip, but it was a pretty drive and the weather was great. Sunny, in the 70's. We followed the signs and slowly gathered more traffic. At the next toll the gentleman told us which exit to get off. As we get off it looks like nothing I remember. Complete chaos and tourists everywhere. Kind of like Daytona Beach. We drive around and finally pay to park in the state park parking lot.
We take out the dogs and Anna and follow the signs to the Falls. This lead us to a barricaded stairway and the Visitor's Center building. We ask a lady who worked there how to get to the falls with the dogs. She said to just go through the building.
Inside the building is crowded and we have to go down a narrow (for the number of people plus dogs) staircase which took us through the food court and outside. Not the most direct route.
Finally we head over to the Falls. Nothing is at all like I remembered. Milo thinks they are quite interesting and is curious about getting closer for a drink. We take a look, some photos and decide to hit the bathrooms while we are there. While I held Anna and the dogs I noticed a better view of the Falls. We head over to the area under the observation platform and get a better view. We take some more photos, enjoy the sun and spray then head back to the car. We go back to the parking lot by heading towards an area people are coming out of. It was much shorter, a lot less crowded and all outside. Come to find out there was another way to the Falls. It even had a small sign. Next time we will know.
Did I mention that July 1st is Canada Day? That explains all the cars from Ontario...