Bumbo Seat...An Oldie But A Goodie

Annalise still loves to drag out her Bumbo seat and sit in it to look at books. She also seems to like to sit in it to play with her Violet or Tad animals.

Climbing in

Anna somehow manages to get her leg out from this position to sit. Unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough with the camera to get a picture of how she gets it unstuck.

Squeezing Violet's paw

Posing with her good friend Violet. She loves this dog.

I caught her later in the morning sitting back in seat looking at books.

Still looking not knowing I am taking her picture.

She looked up and caught me with the camera!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yesterday, Annalise had a good time opening her Valentine presents. As you will see, it was quite a long process to open three gifts because she took the time to throughly enjoy each one!

Anna with her Valentines

She decided to open the shiny box from Stan and I first

Carefully pulling on the bow

She decided to take it to Daddy for help (or "hup" as she says it)

Inside she found a Beanie Babies Valentine Giraffe (Anna's Daddy loves giraffes)

Next she selected the bag from Grammy

and started pulling out the tissue paper

but then decided she needed to take it to her Daddy for help

Anna pulled out a cute dress

and ran around the house with it.

Once tired of running, she sat down with it to investigate it closer...

and to roll around with it, of course. I mean, who doesn't roll around on the floor with new dress?

She then kept trying to put it on.

Anna finally picked up the last bag from Uncle Dave, Aunt Lisa and Jen
Here she is carrying it over to Stan.

The ribbon was very cool. She spent awhile playing with it.

Then Anna thought she would take the tissue out of the bag and put the ribbon in it.

Of course once she had the tissue in hand....

...she decided to dance with it.

More tissue dancing.

Pooped out from dancing, so why not lay on it on the floor and swing our legs awhile?

Finally, she went back to the bag and pulled out this cute Valentine bear

and some bath books!

Annalise LOVES bath books so

she wanted them opened right away. Here she is handing them to Stan. It looks like the face she makes when she is saying "he" which is how she says the word here.

After looking through the books, it was then time to try to get the camera from Mommy. Eventually, it is always time for that game =).
Anna says thank you for her presents! She loves them!

Dump, Dump, Dump!

Anna's vocabulary has really taken off in the past few weeks. There are many words that she says on her own, many more that she at least knows what they are (if you ask her where things are in books etc, she points) and will try to repeat MUCH of what Stan and I say. Today though she was playing with her Leapfrog Violet dog that sings songs and spells her name and does a variety of things. One of the songs goes "Jump! Jump! Jump!" and Anna looked up and me and said "Dump! Dump! Dump!". I laughed, so she kept saying it!

Happy Birthday, Samantha!

Last Saturday we went to Annalise's cousin, Samantha's birthday party. Anna had a good time playing with her cousins and had REAL birthday cake for the first time! She liked it and ate it but she wasn't that enthusiastic about it really. She was much more into her bananas! Two weeks before that was our niece Jen's birthday party. We unfortunately forgot our camera for that one! Anna also had a good time at that party, too. She had her first ice cream at that party. Again, she ate it but she really was not anymore into eating that than she was anything else.

Cousin Jen helping Annalise with her dinner

Stan visiting with his dad

Samantha opening gifts

Still opening gifts

Anna taking it all in

Stan and his sister, Lisa

Samantha playing a song for us on her new Baritone.
She plays the flute too!

Sit...Uh...Stand N' Spin

Since Anna's birthday is only a month before Christmas, Stan and I (well, Santa Claus) decided to get her a few things for when she is a little older. Most of the things we have not taken out of the boxes yet (she still has birthday things she has not opened yet too!) but we did open her Sit N' Spin. We opened it because really Stan and I wanted to look at it since it seems we both loved them as kids. This one is musical so it really peaked our interest. Anyway, the Sit N' Spin is open but Anna cannot work it by herself. We sit her on it and spin her but she really has her own way of using the toy. Usually when we sit her on it she becomes irritated and insists on standing on it. She actually has pretty good balance on it and she thinks she is pretty funny!

Climbing on

Keeping her balance

Looking quite proud of herself
(probably because I don't usually let her do it)

New Stance

This has been Anna's new favorite stance lately. She loves to look between her legs with her head on the ground. A few times she has even grabbed for things behind her while putting her arms between her legs. She thinks it is funny when you get down on the floor behind her and look at her from the opposite way or when you get in the same position next to her!

Starting position...

Going up!

A view from behind (no pun intended) =).

Snack Trap

Another one of Annalise's new favorite things is her Snack Trap. Even if there is not any Cheerios in it, she still likes to carry it around with her. I am really liking the Snack Trap too because unless she has it upside down and is shaking it like crazy (which she does sometimes) nothing comes out of it!!!! Here are some pictures of her when I was trying to get a picture of her with her it.

She was in the center but then backed up at the last minute......

...and then ran in front of me and hid behind the couch arm.

I kept calling her name and she finally backed up and gave me a look like this!

I then kept telling her to "Show Mama the SnackTrap" and this is what I got!