22 months

Anna is becoming too much a little girl. But, she's still my baby (always will be!).

It occurred to me that yesterday was Anna's reverse birthday. She was born on 12/19/10. Yesterday was 10/19/12. How cool!

We're off to enjoy the ACU Homecoming parade this morning. Have a great day!

18 months

At 18 months, Anna weighs 20.4 pounds (same as last month) and is 30.75" (about the same as last month). She's adding more and more words and is just as cheesy as ever!

17 months

Such a big girl! Anna now weighs 20.4 pounds and is 30.5" tall. She is running all over the place and just can't do without a bruise on her forehead. She constantly wants to be where Emily is and has learned "no" very well. She is loved by all who take care of her, at church, at MOPS, at home. She is so happy most of the time.

She's starting to help out at home, bringing her laundry basket to the laundry room or carrying things to her room. Such a big helper, but still likes to cuddle when she's really sleepy (which apparently is NOT this afternoon--still awake after 1.5 hours in the crib).

She still can't have peanuts, grapes or raisins, but she loves bread, chicken (on some days) and applesauce, among other things. She wants whatever drink you have, but will also take milk and water.

Her vocabulary is expanding daily and I can't keep track of what all she can say.

Ok, so I'm starting to stink at updating this! Anna is now 16 months (and 4 days) old. She's getting into everything, rarely stays still unless she's sleeping and will hardly eat anything unless it's bread. Yes, we're still fighting that battle. She will pick out purple fruit loops and grudgingly eat the others. She will eat eggs most of the time, chicken some of the time and a few bites of yogurt. Yet, she's still growing...some, anyway!

She's running and climbing and loves to be tickled. She's very happy most of the time and she adds so much joy to our family.

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Emily is in the throes of the terrible twos. Yes, I know she's almost 4. Whoever coined that phrase hadn't had a 3 year old yet! She'll be just fine one minute then throwing a huge tantrum the next. It's very wearing on this mama, but I'm surviving. She'll be finishing her first year of preschool next month and she has done so well and loves going.

15 months

One more post for the month...(please forgive the quality of the photos...trying to make the iPhone my only camera, but indoor lighting is quite an issue)

Slightly unhappy, only because I put her down

Much happier

At Anna's 12 month check up last Thursday (yes, you read that right), she weighed 18.6 pounds (2nd percentile), was 30" (39th percentile), and had a head circumference of 16" (0 percentile). The good news is she's on the charts where she has been all her life.




She's talking more and more (2 new words just today!) and signing some too. It's rare that we can't figure out what she wants.

She's quite the ham and keeps us laughing. She loves to wave at people. She'll sit and wave to customers in a restaurant and they've never even seen her!

She has 9 teeth now, including a molar that is coming in and, perhaps, causing her a bit of trouble. She's been clingy at bedtime and had a little fever tonight. :-( But, she's still sleeping well, so I'm grateful for that.

She's eating a little better, sometimes. At lunch, she ate an omelet muffin easily, but wouldn't touch her supper of chicken, corn, broccoli and beans. But, I'll take what I get. If she eats, she eats. If not, she'll eventually be hungry to eat what I give her.

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  Guess who else is 15 months. ;-)

Valentine's Day, Zoo Class & 14 months

On Tuesday, we went to Granddaddy's house for Emily to give him his Valentine. Through 10-15 takes, this was the best picture. Such cuties!

The Abilene Zoo has preschool class once a month where they learn about various things about animals. This month, they learned about big animals and made rhino horns. So cute!

Emily is so intense when playing using someone's phone. Here, I think she was playing a game on Pearlie's phone. I love her concentration.

My baby girl is 14 months old today. She now has 8 teeth (as of Friday) and eats fairly well. She has meat days and cracker days. Some days all she'll eat is meat (plus her muffin for breakfast) and other days all she will eat is crackers. I guess I still need to work on veggies, though. She won't touch those. She's about 19 pounds and 29". A growing girl!

13 months

13 months. Is that really right? This last month has flown by!

At 13 months, Anna weighs 18.4 pounds (a gain of 2.4 pounds in 1 month!). She has started eating table food most of the time, but we still have to feed her messy things like applesauce & yogurt. Yep, you read that right, we started her on yogurt this week and haven't seen any major issues with the milk! Yea!!! I guess her little tummy just wasn't ready for milk a year ago but is okay with it now. She will eat many meats and most fruits. I'm still working on getting veggies back into her diet since I stopped spoon feeding them to her.

She's running all over the place and loves to be chased. She also loves peek-a-boo and her bunny blanket that she sleeps with.

She sleeps about 12 hours at night and takes 1-2 naps during the day for a total of 2-4 hours.

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Emily (3 1/2) runs all over the place and never stops talking. She's really enjoying preschool and making friends. She loves watching Little Einsteins, but will still watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Word World when we force her to (it doesn't take much convincing, usually!). She weighs about 30 pounds and seems like she hardly eats anything. She tries my patience, but makes us laugh quite often too!

One Year Old!

I can't believe Anna is one year old. It seems like she just joined us, but it also seems like she's been with us forever. Unfortunately, she was not able to enjoy her birthday much. From last Thursday to Tuesday, she had fevers ranging from 100 to 103.7. Yikes! No known cause, just made her more cuddly and less likely to eat. I'm trying to get her started on solid foods again today. We'll see.

At her appointment on Tuesday (check up, but also to see about her fevers), she weighed 16 pounds and was 28.5". A little peanut to be sure, but happy as all get out! (Well, unless she has a fever!)

To celebrate her birthday, we had family over and I made the traditional lamb cake. (Everyone as far back as at least my mom and aunt (and maybe their cousins) have had a lamb cake for their first birthday. Sure makes picking a theme easy!) Anna wouldn't even touch the cake, much less eat any. But, she did enjoy  unwrapping the presents.

11 months

Can it really have been 11 months? I mean, it feels like Anna's been with us forever, but she's still my baby (I know, she always will be!). She'll be walking soon and she's starting to wear some clothes that make her look big, not like a baby. :-( (Yes, I know I'm the one dressing her...but these are the clothes I have!)

Some fun pictures...(notice Anna's mohawk in the one on the left!)






Yesterday, Emily and I had some one on one time and it was great. The Abilene Zoo has a preschool class once a month for 3 and 4 year olds. Emily and I learned about bears yesterday and got to see the bears at the zoo after learning what they eat and how they get their food. Such fun. I look forward to more of these classes with her.

10 months

At 10 months, Anna is cruising and walking holding on to fingers (sometimes). She loves fruits, but doesn't particularly like veggies (though she will eat them). She devours Cheerios and just lights up when she see them (though I don't think she saw this one!)

She now weighs 16.5 pounds (5th percentile) and is 27.5" long (25th percentile). Long and lean!

9 months

Anna has been a bit clingy lately and I can only imagine it's because of 1) age and 2) teething. I hope this ends soon. I hate having the pager at church go off!

Tonight, she was a little sleepy at supper. She had broccoli, sweet potato & chicken and a banana. While eating the veggies, she started rubbing her eyes, leading to all of the above on her face. Then, I started feeding her a whole banana (as opposed to mushed up, like I usually do). Some came out of the mouth, as expected. Unfortunately for me, she decided that banana makes for good hair conditioner. Talk about a mess! She got a good wipe down right after supper and a good hair scrubbing during her bath.

(The picture doesn't really do it justice because the foods she decided to smear all over herself are about the same color as her! But, trust me, she was a mess!)

8 months

This is the best picture I could get with the sign. Anna is just grabbing for everything these days.

(This is pretty typical of Emily & Anna. Emily just wants to love on her and Anna just wants to get away!)

We've continued adding new foods to Anna's line-up. One that hasn't made the cut is rice. Unfortunately, she's had a reaction to it so we'll wait on it for a while. But, she loves to eat now and is eating about 1/2 C cereal and 1/4 C fruits/veggies a day. She loves sweet potatoes, squash, apples (when mixed with something), peas, and bananas. We'll be starting peaches today.

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I don't think I ever posted these pictures of Anna trying Cheerios for the first time. A couple weeks ago, in Tennessee, Chick-Fil-A had free Cheerios, so we tried giving her some. While curious about the ones on the table, she gagged at the ones we put in her mouth (and eventually gagged so much she threw up). Guess we're not ready yet!

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Next week, Granddaddy turns 99. The place where he lives has a monthly birthday party so Emily, Anna & I met my mom there for the party. Emily loved "working" the puzzle and Anna enjoyed the balloons!

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A few months ago, I did a freezer cooking day. With two little ones underfoot (or even having someone watch them), I realized that I really can't take a full day to do freezer cooking. So, taking a cue from Crystal at Money Saving Mom, I'm doing some quick batch cooking. I planned several meals we like that I knew would freeze well and am making 3-4 times the recipe and freezing the some while we eat some for supper. I bought a box of chicken through Bogie's (40 pounds!), sold some to my sister and kept the rest. Even thirty pounds of chicken is a lot! My freezer went from barren to very full overnight. I'm also making freezer meals for Anna, since I like to make her food (mostly for cost reasons).

In the past 2 days, I've made peas, squash (fresh from the farmer's market), sweet potato and peaches for Anna (and divvied up a jar of applesauce). I also made 5 meals of cracker crumb chicken and 2 meals of sweet soy chicken. I plan to make sloppy joe meat and spaghetti sauce next week and will make up WAY more than I need right now so we'll have some in the freezer for later. I also have a few more meals planned for early September.

Whew...my vacuum sealer is tired!

7 months

You just heard about what Anna's doing, so I'll just add that we had her eyes checked today. The doctor (whom I've been seeing for about 20 years) said in 31 years of practice, he's never, ever had a baby sit as still as Anna did today. She sat in my lap and even leaned toward him as he shined the lights in her eyes. Her vision is just what it should be at this age.

26 weeks/6 months

Yesterday was Anna's six month birthday. So, we celebrated Father's Day. :-) We also started her on cereal. She couldn't get enough and was helping Phillip put the spoon in her mouth. You'd think she'd been using a spoon for months!



This was the face when we finished! She would have eaten much more if we'd given it to her!


If I remember, I'll post her stats after our doctor appointment tomorrow. However, seeing as there are only about 5 people who read this who care about that, I may forget!

5 months

I didn't realize how much hair Emily had at 5 months, compared to Anna, but, wow! It must be an age thing that they're both leaning in the Bumbo. Love it!

17 weeks/4 months

Here we are at Tuesday again...just now posting Anna's week picture. And, I'll be honest, I didn't even take it until today. But, I guess the important thing is that I'm taking them regularly. Four months means time for another doctor visit (Friday) and the beginning of our treks to Sears for pictures (Thursday). I hope we can get some good ones. The photographer I loved there is no longer there. Bummer!

We got out the Johnny Jump-up this week for Anna to try out. She, obviously, doesn't know what to do so she just hangs out and sucks on the side of it. Hopefully, she'll enjoy it. I also need to get out the Exersaucer, but just haven't had time yet. I think it will get lots of use!


Saturday was the 8AFOFEEH&HDP (8th Annual Families of Faith Easter Egg Hunt & Hot Dog Party, in case you didn't know!). We've been the last couple years and Emily really enjoys it. Anna had a great time, just hanging out and Emily loved finding the eggs. We've got another Easter Egg Hunt at Granddaddy's place this weekend and I'm sure Emily will have a blast there too.

I forgot to take pictures along the way with my Once a Month Cooking adventure last Saturday, but it went well. We now have about 20 meals plus 3 quarts of spaghetti sauce in the freezer. All I have to think about now is side dishes! Yea!

3 Months

Remember I'm raising money for Highland MOPS. If you'd like to help out, click here!

Today, to celebrate Anna's 3 month birthday, we picked up the nursery furniture I won back in December. Let me say...I'm impressed. I knew it had a retail value of $1700, but I didn't really know what to expect. The three boxes it came in are huge (and heavy!). Thanks to Bryan (Phillip's brother-in-law) for the help getting it into the truck and into the house!

By the way, if you happen to know anyone who would be interested in buying it from us, please let us know! It includes a convertible crib and changing table and hutch. It's new in the box. We're asking $1500 or better offer.

This week has been a week of visitors. Tuesday, Phillip's parents, grandparents and aunt came to eat at Bogie's and my best friend was also passing through town. Then, Thursday, my aunt & uncle came to visit her uncle and eat at Bogie's. It's been a yummy week!

Anna has been learning to enjoy tummy time and roll from her tummy to her back. She's slept through the night a couple times and it's been wonderful for me!

That's about it. I think tomorrow's week post may be a wordless one because I already gave you the update today!

2 months/9 weeks

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Anna turned 2 months yesterday. Today, she also turned 9 weeks, so you get 2 pictures of her today.

I got a couple cute pictures of the girls on Valentine's Day. Emily got to wear her pjs to MOPS and was so excited about it.


Anna got a chance to spend some time in the Bumbo this week. She does okay for a few minutes, but then falls to the side. Oh well.


Anna had her 2 month checkup on Friday and she is now 10 lb 2 oz (25%) and 22.5" long (50%). She is in good health and got her 2 month immunizations.

Much to my happiness and dismay, we've discovered a cause for her reflux. She appears to be allergic, or at least sensitive, to milk. I have been off cow's milk for a week and she has not been spitting up near as much. Last night, I indulged in a creamy chocolate dessert and she spit up like she always had. So, I guess it's no dairy for me. I've been happy with soy milk, but need to figure out what other substitutions I can make for things like butter and cheese. Any suggestions?

Yesterday, we gave Anna some tummy time, something she doesn't often get, and she rolled over! From her tummy to her back. So exciting! I guess I need to let her get down on the floor a little more often.

Today was Anna's baby blessing at church. A sweet time with family surrounding us. I love having grandparents close by!

1 month

One month old. Anna is one month old. Wow, where has the time gone? Seems like she's been here forever, and yet not long at all. In this short one month, she has gained 2 lb 13 oz (yes, she's 9 lb now!) and 1". So, as much as she spits up, she's keeping something down! That seems to be better today, though. I even put her down for a nap on her back today and she didn't spit up. She didn't sleep well, but she didn't spit up!

Happy Birthday!

We're still looking for someone (in Abilene!) to be a foster parent to a half Newfoundland, half lab/chow for 6-8 weeks from mid-June to the end of July (roughly). He's a good-natured dog and we'll pay for his food (or course!). If you or someone you know could help us, let me know!!


Today, Emily is 2! I can't believe it. All day, we're looking at the clock, thinking, "at this time, we were {fill in the blank}." At about this time (11:15 am), I think I had pain medication (not an epidural yet) and was really out of it. I'll make sure to ask for something other than that pain medication next time!

Anyway, we're celebrating tomorrow with family and lots of balloons. I'll try to get the pictures up as soon as I can. But, being in the process of moving tends to slow things down, so be patient!