Jon and Kate

Ok, so since I WAS a huge Jon and Kate Plus 8 fan, I feel the need for some reason to comment on their season premier the other night. I thought it was absolutely AWFUL! I could feel the negativity and hostility coming right through my television set and at the end of the show I felt really bothered by the whole thing. In my opinion, they have both changed greatly and I don't think in a positive way. I think that Jon appears immature, self-centered and aloof about the whole situation and state of his marriage. I think that Kate has changed as well. She claims that she does everything for the sake of her kids which maybe in the beginning she did, but I don't think she does now. Everybody says "Oh, she has 8 kids, she needs to be out making all this money...blah...blah", but when I thought about it, I know a family that also has 8 kids and they managed to raise them without a ton of money or a large house. As much as I hate to say it, I think they should stop the show and focus on trying to heal their marriage -- for the sake of their kids. If they continue the show, I don't know that I will be watching it. That's my 2 cents about that, in case you were wondering......=)

Return to Work

Tomorrow, May 29th, I must return to work for the last few days of school. I have mixed feelings about going back. I just keep telling myself that it is practice for next fall when I go back for good. I know that I do need to get used to leaving her in the care of others, but it is just hard. She is over 6 months old and she has never been left with anyone except her Daddy or I, which I do know for Anna's benefit we need to change. As for the actual "going to work" I don't really mind that, I definately am NOT the stay-at-home type, but again, it comes back to just worrying about Anna being OK without me here. I know it is all in my head because it is not at all that I question the capability of anyone else caring for her. The perfect solution would be I could just take her to work with me. Somehow, I don't think that is a possibility =).

6 Month & 1 week Stats

Anna had her 6 month well baby checkup this week. She is 17 lbs 6 oz (75%ile) and she is between 28 and 28.5 inches (between the 98%ile and 100%ile). Yes, you read correctly 100%ile!!!!!!! She is one long, strong little girlie. The reason why I have the range for the length is because the nurse measured her at 28.5 inches but when the doctor saw this was the 100%ile, she wanted to measure her again to be sure. The doctor measured her and she got 28 inches on the wiggling baby who was trying to roll over and grab the paper on the table. So, I figure that her real height is probably somewhere between the two! The doctor says that this still does not mean that she is going to be tall. She said that really long babies grow to be average sized adults and that shorter babies grow to be tall adults. I know this to be true anyway because I know someone that is a tall woman who recently told me that she was a preemie! I was surprised about that! I do hope that Anna is going to be tall. Of course, whatever she turns out to be is fine as long as she is healthy but I just think it would be great to be tall!
As far as the shots went, Anna was not really upset about them at all, she was upset about having to lay on her back on the table. She did cry for about 30 seconds or so after the shots but as soon as we dressed her and put her in her seat, she was fine! What a good baby =)!

Memorial Day in a "One-Tank"

We did not really do anything for Memorial Day this year. Anna got baptized the day before (pictures coming later) and we had company that day so we just kind of hung around the house and got some outside things done, one of them being taking off the pool cover =). Unfortunately, there is something wrong with the filter pump which Stan is not pleased about but I am sure he will get it figured out in plenty of time for splashing in the sun!!!
I was glad it was a warm sunny day because as a joke, I wanted to put Annalise in her red, white and blue "one-tank". This little number came along as a third piece to a cute 4th of July outfit and really has become the source of laughter between Stan and I. I am not quite sure why, but we both find it really amusing.... Is it a onesie?? Is it a tank-top?? Could it pass for a singlet?? I know it is a stretch, but we sure find humor in this multi functional piece =)!!!

The beautiful One-tank

"I love this one tank!"

"Mommy, why are you laughing at me?"

"Oh well, I don't know what is so funny so I will just sing a patriotic song."
I think it looks like she is singing in this picture.

All done "singing"

Investigating the flag

"Laughing again? Ok, I will join in this time!"

"I hope you had a good Memorial Day!"

Happy 1/2 Birthday!

Annalise is 6 months old today. Here are six silly things about our silly little girl:
*She loves her walker but only goes backwards........really fast.
*Even though she has been blowing raspberries for awhile, she seems to REALLY love it lately. She cracks herself up and of course laughs even harder if I do them back to her.
*She still does her fake cough routine.
*When she gets excited about something she has started breathing really heavy. She almost pants like a dog. Could Riley be having this influence on her? =)
*She can sit for a short bit on her own. She can even grab at some toys, but usually on the way back from her grab she loses her balance and falls over and starts to blow raspberries.
*She is really starting to flop around a lot on the floor. She of course rolls from back to front over and over again, but in the past week she has started pushing her butt up in the air with her legs. She also really pushes herself up with her arms much higher than before. Can my little baby be getting ready to crawl??

"Oh, here we go taking my picture again."

"This is one of my favorite toys."

She was not really leaning on the pillows for these pictures and was sitting on her own.
But then........

.....she fell over........

......pulled off her sock....

......and shoved it in her mouth. That's my baby girl. =)

Random Cuteness

Here are some pictures I took of Annalise playing yesterday and the day before. Notice how everything goes straight to her mouth! I know all babies do this, but of course since she is mine, I think it is so cute! =)

Graduation

I graduated with my Master's degree from Bucknell on May 17th. I actually have mixed feelings about being finished which is kind of strange. Obviously, I am glad to be done so that I can be more focused on other areas of my life, but at the same time I think, no, I know, that I am honestly going to miss taking classes! Since my goal is to someday have my Doctorate in Education, I know that I will be going back eventually, but now that I have Anna, not for quite awhile!
Anyway, the graduation ceremony was nice, but very long. At Bucknell, there have a combined undergrad and graduate commencement, so I had to sit through almost 900 undergrads getting their degrees before they got us measly 26 or so grad students getting degrees. Also, the day started out very cold (for May), and windy and ended up being quite warm and sunny. This also made it a little interesting since the ceremony was held outside, so when it started, layers were needed, but by the time it was done, most people were sweating and sunburned. Annalise was great though for the whole thing. Everyone thought she was so cute! After graduation, we went to Stan's mom's house. We had a nice visit and can't wait to do it again soon!

Waiting in line on the stage for my name

Walking across the stage to get my hood

Walking down from the stage after I got my hood.
It was so windy I spent the whole day trying to keep my hat on and straight. Of course, once I got up in front of a couple thousand people, it was crooked!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Figures!!!!

Annalise and I after the ceremony. It was really bright and sunny at that point.

My mom, me, Annalise

Me, Anna, my brother, Ben

After the ceremony. Again, notice the squinting. It was really sunny!

Grammy and Anna having a visit.

"What is that, Grammy?"

Grammy and Anna playing

Grammy and Anna
At 5 months we are still hit or miss with smiling for the camera =).

"Ok, enough pictures. I'm outta here!"

Anna's "Cough"

Within the past week, Annalise has learned that she can make a coughing sound and have other people react to it. Since she has put the two together, she spends much of her awake time each day making the fake coughing sound and then smiling, laughing and cooing whenever she gets me to acknowledge that she made the sound. It is really cute!! It started with her just doing it for me but now she has now expanded her "coughing" talents to other people to see how they react. I had her at the salon with me the other day so I could get a much needed hair cut (I had not had one since the week before she was born, yikes!!), and she kept making noise while we were there. Of course my stylist, the other stylist and the old ladies that were there all were feeding in to the game, which Anna really loved! Below is a picture of her in mid-cough:

Mother's Day

Here is a picture of Anna and I on our first Mother's Day together. This is the only one we could actually get of her looking at the camera. Seems she had more important things to look at that day. I cannot believe how big she is getting! It will be interesting to find out her new height and weight at her six month appointment in a couple of weeks. She seems to still be really long, which is making some pants really interesting. She needs 3-6 month size pants for the waist -- but they tend to be a little short. 6-9 month size is what she needs for the length. I have said it before and will say it again -- it is funny that she is so long when both of her parents are not tall people! Genetics are fascinating (Okay, so the science dork comes out in me again. What's new?)!

Jon and Kate

Since I have been on maternity leave, I have developed an obsession with the show Jon and Kate Plus 8. Seriously, right after I had Anna, watching reruns of their episodes what something I really looked forward to each day, and somehow from there I got hooked. I don't know why I like it so much, I mean the kids are cute and of course Kate has the same obsession with schedules that I have, but why it is so interesting to watch another family in their daily routine, I have no idea. Anyway, I found out that Jon and Kate were going to be speaking at an expo in Harrisburg (thanks, Mom!) and of course I HAD to go! They talked for about an hour about their life and then after you could stand in a REALLY LONG line to get an autograph and pictures. We listened to the talk but I knew that Annalise was antsy at that point and was not going to make it through standing in the line for at least an hour, so I had to give that part of it up, but I was SUPER EXCITED see them in person though and it was confirmed, as dorky as it may be -- I really love Jon and Kate Gosselin. Also, I recommend their book - Multiple Blessings which outlines their story and how their faith saw them through their trials.

Jon and Kate



Anna with Kate in the background. This is as close as we could get without
waiting in the never ending line.

FOOD!!!

Last Tuesday, we started feeding Annalise solids. Yes, I finally did it even though I was going to wait until 6 months to start solids, it seemed like Anna was still hungry after nursing and she was starting to wake up again at night because she was hungry, so even though I already had the schedule laminated for 6 months (ha ha), I broke down and did it earlier. She did really well with it from the very beginning. She does however make a growling sound as she is eating which was kind of strange to get used to at first, but now I just consider it her meal time "singing".

First bite of food -- looks like she is thinking "What did Mommy just put in my mouth?"


"Okay, this doesn't taste soooo bad."

"Yeah, I can get used to this."

"What? Is there something on my face?"

Street Fair

On April 25th, our town had the annual street fair on Main Street. It was a really HOT day, with temperatures in the 80's. Anna and I had a good time though (Stan was working), meeting up with friends, listening to music and looking at crafts. I think Anna's favorite part of the day though was when we stopped for ice cream because she was able to be in the air conditioning. Actually, I think it was the only time she smiled all day because she was so hot!

Mommies: Kristin, Marisa, Lori and Tara
Babies: Caden, Annalise, Aidan and Gavin

This is pretty much how she looked the whole time until
we got to the ice cream shop where she could cool down!

So proud!!

There were two super-cute times recently where Anna seemed soooo proud of herself! The first time happened one day when she was napping. When she wakes up, she usually just starts making soft whimpering sounds that I hear on the monitor. Well this particular day, the monitor went from complete silence, to sounds of her stirring around a bit, to the sound of shrieks (and I mean shrieks) of joy! I went into the room and found that she had taking her pants off and the look on her face was priceless! Of course I didn't have the camera with me at that moment and had to run and get it so the following pictures do not really tell the true story of how proud she looked, shrieking, smiling and waving her pants proudly in the air!

The other time she seemed really proud of herself lately, was one day when she was on the floor. She rolls over pretty easily now both ways, especially when no one is looking. It is funny because even though she can roll over herself, if her Daddy or I are sitting on the floor playing with her she often likes to start to fuss to wait to see if one of us will roll her over before she will actually do it herself. If no one is sitting with her though....a different story entirely. She will be half way across the room by the time you return because she has rolled so many times. (Note to self on this-- she is already trying to play her parents at 5 months old!). Anyway, one this particular day, I had her on the floor and I quickly went down to the deep freeze to get some milk for her cereal. When I returned she was half-way across the room from where I left her, had gotten the TV remote and had changed the channel!!! She apparently wanted to watch the George Lopez show and not the news. The look on her face again was priceless (but I didn't have the camera at the exact moment) when she saw that I had returned and saw where she was.