Annie feat. Led Zepplin

I'm Annie, and I approve this message.

Whose blue-eyed child IS that?? ha

Annie with her GranPaula, who was in town for her niece Lindsey's wedding.

Annie can go at a full trot now!

Regina's stepmom Carolyn ("Nan") and Annie on our Greenough Park walk!

Regina's Dad David (otherwise known as "Pop" to Annie and grandkids) and Annie. We had a great time in Missoula!

We're a little behind in updating, so bear with us if you'd like to take the time to read and watch videos and look at pictures here. It's difficult to know where to start! Annie is really keeping us on our toes now since she is walking all over the place and getting faster every day. We can tell how she loves the independence of walking because she happily talks and makes noises as she teeters along, usually holding something in a hand. What can we say- she is a joy. We'll go ahead and brag as parents do... she's so happy and sweet, loves to give wet kisses and zerberts (that motor sound when she blows on a belly) and already has a great sense of humor- she loves to laugh and loves making us laugh. She amazes us with her vocabulary understanding. We quiz her all the time (or she quizzes us when she points) asking "Where is such and such?" and she enthusiastically points to whatever it is we ask her about. Last week she surprised me (Regina) as I was changing her diaper and I said, "ew you smell!" and she promptly wrinkled up her nose and started sniffing loudly, then laughed. I had no idea she knew what that meant. She is also very social- loves all kinds of people, especially little kids and babies. We have to really watch her though, because she will poke her finger in babies' eyes or poke their nose, like she does to identify them on our faces. Babies don't like that so much and cry when something touches their eyeballs. She tries to kiss them and touch them and will follow them around if they are walking. She calls most things "Bop", but also says "Bap" for bath, mama, dada, "pup" for puppy, and has started experimenting with "Gat" for cat. Or she will say "uh! uh!" as she's pointing at something that she wants, like yogurt in the fridge, for example. When I get the yogurt, she starts saying, "dubba dubba dubba" excitedly. Speaking of yogurt, we are bombarding her little body with fattening dairy, like cheese, butter on foods, and milk via Dr's orders. She is still very skinny because she is very picky about what she eats and has dropped below 3, yes 3 growth curves since the 9 mo. visit. The Dr. is obviously concerned about this, as she is now in the 12th percentile for weight, very close to the "failure to thrive" mark, which is a scary label to me. However, she is also in the 75th percentile for height and she is active, happy and eager to learn, so I have to focus on those positive things and try and feed her as much as possible. Let's see... she loves to take the tv remote, point it at the tv and press buttons. She gets this technological interest from her father, obviously. :) She had our bedroom fan remote today as I was changing her diaper (I always give her something to distract her so she'll stay in one spot while I change her) and she accidently figured out how to turn on the fan light. It came on, she looked up and noticed, pressed the button again, it went off, she looked up, and so on as she repeated the pressing and pointing to the ceiling. Is that normal for a 1 year old?? Kind of scary. But kids these days with technology I hear are just advanced... Well, I could go on and on about Annie, but I know you all have lives so I will update on other things:
We also had Annie's 1 year party on the 9th, which happened to be Pappa Larry's birthday too! So we celebrated both and had a grand time with Pappa Larry, Mimi, Gramma, and Roger and Terry Self, our close friends, and also inlaws to my brother Jon! Gramma Jo was also able to be at the party from Arkansas and we all had a great time together.

Last month we had a visit from Regina's best friend Meagan. This was the first time Annie and Meagan had met and there was an instant connection. When we met Meagan at the airport, Annie reached out for Meagan to take her after Regina and Meagan hugged! Her visit was way too short- we had a fantastic time together.

We also found out we are having another girl in December! We are excited about her arrival and to give Annie a sibling so close in age.

Brad is still at Carrier Corp. and has changed roles recently, moving to the factory side because his boss left for another position in another state. He really enjoys the people he works with and for, and even gets together with some people every once in a while to play golf. Regina still stays at home with Annie and recently joined a "playgroup" which is basically 40 + moms and their kids and babies who try to get together every day of the month for something. Not all moms at the same time get together, but we pick and choose from a calendar what we want to attend and when so it's a great organization for getting to know people.

Be sure and look far down here for pictures and videos, as a lot will be posted.
Until next time.... adios.

As you can see, Annie loves Aunt Meagan!

The attendees to Annie's party! Sorry, Mother... didn't mean to cut you in half here!
L-R: Brad, Martha, Larry, Roger, Terry, Jo

For some reason she reminds me of Harrison Ford here in one of his Regarding Henry moments...

Annie loves to touch noses to anyone who will oblige! This is Madelyn (sp?), Brad's childhood friend Ellen's daughter.

I made a small banana cake and cupcakes for Annie to dig into with melted Ghirardhelli chocolate on top. I thought it tasted pretty good! For Pappa Larry's birthday cake, the adults had cream cheese carrot cake, filled with ingredients that made it rich, fattening and basically wonderful, just as cakes should be. :) Courtesy of Sam's club.

Annie LOVES to dry swiffer the floor. She gets upset when I make us stop after 200 laps in the kitchen around the island. I guess I should enjoy it while she's eager to help. :)

A little difficult to see, but the first picture she is looking up, and it is her profile. The next two I think are her feet, the last you can see her spine and belly.

10 months old now! Wow. Below are several new pictures and videos and a report. Hope you enjoy!

Happy 10 month Birthday Annie! Over the past couple of weeks, her mobility and awareness of new possible independence has exploded and she is so excited to try new things. Annie is crawling well now and likes to walk holding on to hands or furniture. She seems to be so proud of herself when she walks or stands because she'll babble and yell like she's giving a motivational speech. She also has discovered willful expression: if she especially does not like a "no" from us that prevents her from doing something she really likes, she will quickly throw her head and body back in a little tantrum so that if she's on the floor, she hits the floor hard as she goes backwards; or we have to be really careful if she's in our arms and she tries to dive backwards. This has been scary a few times, but it doesn't seem to phase her- she just looks up at us to see if we are going to give in. So this new almost baby-to-little girl phase is a lot of fun but a lot more challenging too.

In this video above, listen closely and you can hear her say "duck"- her first real word outside of Mama, Dada, Papa. And, notice the book she is holding is about a duck that her Aunt Darbie gave her.

In other news, we went to the Dr. for the first ultrasound of Annie's brother or sister and all is well. The heartrate was 167, 10 bpm less than Annie's at that stage. We are looking forward to the 20 week ultrasound to determine the gender in another 6-8 weeks already!

Brad was able to go to his first Indy 500 race with his good friend Chris Findley and they had a great time together. It is so loud that one needs earplugs. The cars are so incredibly fast, that it is difficult to watch them go by. It was an experience that was well worth the hype and the popularity always heard about it.

There have been many storms which created tornadoes and horrible floods in parts of Indiana. There is nothing like Indiana thunderstorms- booming, electric, rattling and wet! No wonder it is so beautifully green right now. Our thoughts are with those who have been adversely affected by these storms- thankfully, we have not experienced disaster here in Avon, but you never know. Our very nice neighbors who have a large basement always open their home to us and other neighbors during storms who do not have basements, so we know we have a safe place to go if a tornado hits. One blessing for me during one of the tornado scares (Brad was out of town so Annie and I were alone) was my aunt Elaine, Uncle Brian and 2 of my cousins Patrick and Nathan stopped by to wait out the storm on their way back from NY to IL. It was great to visit with them, even if for a couple of hours.

That's about it for now. Thanks for stopping by! Love, Regina and Brad

Annie loves her bathtime. Here Brad is dropping her yellow duck in the water which gets her all giddy. Please notice the little tuft of hair on her head sticking up... yes, she has some hair!