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!