Memorial Day

This is Annalise on Memorial Day this year and a comparison picture from last year. She is sitting in the same spot on our bed with the same flag. This year she was not into having her picture taken at the time and was very much not interested in the flag I gave her to hold. I wanted to get a comparison shot of her though so here they are. It is amazing how much difference a year makes at this age!

MEMORIAL DAY 2010

"Do I really have to sit here?"

I then pointed out her Puppy thinking she would be more apt to sit there but all it did was distract her completely from looking at me.

So I took it away and she flopped down on the bed.  Photo session over.

MEMORIAL DAY 2009

Hard Boiled Eggs, Ring Bologna and a Grilled Cheese Sandwich

For Stan's first Father's Day, in addition to getting him a small gift, I decided that it would be nice to surprise him and make a dinner specifically for him. Actually, I have had this thought often, but whenever I ask him what he wants for dinner, he ALWAYS replies and I quote, "Whatever you want.". Now, I somehow find it to be miraculous that my husband is always in the mood for what I want to eat, but he insists that he is. We have had conversation after conversation about it and he always just wants whatever I do. I also find it odd that we have NEVER ordered the same thing to eat in a restaurant..........but anyway. I knew that I could not just come out and ask him what he wanted to eat so I very nonchalantly the other day said to him, "So, I was thinking today about what I would want as my last meal if I were going to die. I couldn't come up with anything. What would you pick?". Without even batting an eye, my thirty-something husband looked at me and said "Hard boiled eggs, ring bologna and grilled cheese sandwiches." Seriously. I am not kidding. So, that is what he had for dinner on Father's Day (I had a big salad which is my favorite meal). He was really surprised! For dessert, I baked chocolate chip cookies and wrote on them with blue icing (another one of his favs).
On a side note, I found it really funny that he did not at all think it was strange that I was thinking about what my last meal would be. We have so many really weird conversations though that I was pretty sure that he would not think anything of it.
Below are some pics of Anna and her Daddy on Father's Day.

Sweetness

Other than the baptism pictures I finally got around to posting yesterday, I have not really updated on what little miss has been up to. Anna went to her first birthday party on June 6th where there was quite a few other small kids in the 1-2 year old range. It was the first time that she saw that many kids all together at one time and she loved it! The bigger kids were riding around on toys and she loved watching them and shrieking at the top of her lungs. She also really liked the water table and was splashing away in it. Although I brought the camera, I didn't take any pictures myself, but there are some good shots of the fun on my friends' blogs: A Rumble in the Jungle and The Smith Family. Links to those pages are on the left of the screen so you can see Anna at the party there. I guess my excuse for not taking pictures is the fact that Stan had to work, so I had full Anna duty the whole time. In all honesty, I have never been a "picture person" so the fact that I have taken so many pictures since Anna was born is really amazing! Seriously, my whole life growing up, I had a friend who used to take tons of pictures of everything. I used to just get copies of pictures from her.
Annalise also came to the school with me on the last day for the end of the year luncheon. It was over her nap time so she was a little fussy but not bad. I was glad to finally have to opportunity for everyone to see her since I didn't bring her in after she was born because I was a real "germaphobic" the whole winter!
Another "new thing" that Annalise has done is she got in our pool for the first time last night. She really one got her legs in because we really had not planned on going swimming, but she LOVED it! Stan decided to get in quick because he was really hot after working on pressure washing the deck and siding, so I sat on the side and put my legs in. I as holding Anna over the side and Stan took her for a few "rides" in the water. I can't wait to take her in all the way. Looks like probably not this week though because the weather looks really junky!
Here are some random pictures of our sweetness:

All smiles in the morning

"Dee da dee de dee...just layin' here with by binkyyyy..."

"Oh, hi Mommy!"

"Watcha doin' ?"

"I'll help you with the camera."

Chewing on the tag of the fabric book. She can find a tag on anything.

"What?"

"Duhhhhhh..."
This is the trademark "Riley Look". We do love our dog, but we have found over the past three years that she is not the brightest bulb out there!

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 =)!

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. =)