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Monogram Melody Blue Baby Announcements

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Anna's Best Friend

Anna already has a best friend! This best friend is a great companion. She doesn't care when Anna squeezes her cheeks or when she pulls out handfuls of hair or when she crawls right over her head while she is trying to catch some ZZZZs. Who could this easy-going friend be? Yup, you guessed it... Spade!

Anna and Spade playing with their favorite toy, the plastic chicken:

Anna sharing so generously with Spade:

Brief reflections on my last day at home

So, I'm sitting here on my last day as a stay-at-home mom, just back from a fun picnic by the waterway, watching Anna on the video monitor as she fights her nap. I've been fighting back tears quite a few times in the last day as I think about my return to work. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time home with Anna. I'm thankful to have been home for her 1st 9 months. We're just 3 months away from my goal of nursing to 1 year and still going strong, which I'm pretty sure wouldn't be the case if I would have had to return to work sooner. Anna is no longer a newborn and is much "sturdier", which makes it a little easier to leave her in someone elsels care.

Things I'm going to miss about being home full-time:

• Spending all my time with Anna, being there when she wakes up in the morning and to put her down for every nap and then going in when she wakes to get her
• The easy-going, lack of stress lifestyle; I'll miss not worrying about what time I need to go to bed or about the weekends being too short
• Taking care of my hubby and being able to help him to try to lighten his load a little
• Having the time to make yummy, healthy dinners.
• Leisurely trips to the grocery store during the middle of the week, rather than during the rush of the weekends
• Having time to invest in friendships on a consistent basis. I really enjoyed the weekly Bible study I did with my friend Elizabeth, fellowshipping with other moms at MOPS, and hanging with my best friend Andie whenever!

Out of time... back to the grind... so I'll leave it at that.

Here's a fun pic from today.

And here is a video I got of Anna laughing at me as I tried to get the printer to print earlier today.

Fun in San Antonio

Last weekend, Robert, Anna, and I headed to San Antonio to visit Brian (my BIL) and Tamara (my future SIL). Brian has been there for 1.5 years already and we finally got around to visiting him - pregnancy and a newborn held us back until this point. Brian will graduate with his 2nd Masters Degree in August from UT San Antonio in Medical Health Physics... or maybe it's called Radiological Health Physics... might as well be Nuclear Brain Surgery. I don't know - can't ever keep the official degree straight. Whatever his degree, he'll be the guy who prepares and administers cancer treatments (right, Brian?!). Pretty cool! And then, in December, Brian and Tamara will FINALLY get married (they've only been together for ~8 years). I'm excited for Tamara and I to be sisters (-in-law)! And Robert, Anna, and I are all looking forward to being in the wedding!

We've been looking forward to this trip for a while. There is a GREAT outlet mall nearby that we spent most of Saturday at. Holy cow, did we hit the jackpot there! Let's see, I got a cool Columbia jacket that my iPod can hook into and I can control on the sleeve that was originally $230 for $50 (hooked my mom up with a Columbia jacket, too). We got Anna a Columbia snowsuit for this Christmas up north for $35 that was originally $130. I got $959 worth of Jones New York suit coats and suits for $194. I got some new Nike's to replace my 4 year old tennis shoes. Robert got some great clothes that "he makes look goooood" (so he says, but I'd have to agree) for great deals. What a great trip - not only did we find lots of great stuff, but also for killer deals!

Saturday night, we went to my favorite restaurant around for dinner - the Gristmill. It sits on the Guadalupe River and is ginormous. We ate outside on the patio and enjoyed some yummy food.

One happy lil' family! (and here's my new jacket)

Sunday morning, we headed to the Riverwalk. We enjoyed strolling along the river, taking pictures, and eating an authentic San Antonio mexican lunch. It was in the 70s. What a beautiful day!

Robert, Anna, and I by The Alamo

Anna and I along the Riverwalk

Tamara and Brian with Anna along the Riverwalk

Tamara, Brian, Robert, Anna, and I along the Riverwalk

We're looking forward to hopefully going back again before Brian moves.

I see you!

Always a curious little girl, Anna found a way to peek out of her crib when I put her to bed. She is really developing and learning!

7 Months Already!

Seriously, where does the time go? Anna is 7 months old today. I can’t believe it! My dad told me when I was pregnant that time would really start flying once we had kids; he was right! The first few sleepless months with Anna were one big blur, but time really started flying after her first 3 or 4 months with us.

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, mostly because it wasn’t until the last month or so that I predictably had time to sit down and write. Anna has fallen into a nice napping routine. She must be in a growth spurt now b/c she napped for 2.5 hours this morning and has been sleeping again for the last 1.5 hours.

The last 2 months have been my favorite with Anna so far. She started sitting stably just before Christmas and just after Christmas she decided she could get places by rolling. She prefers to roll to her right, so I position her so she can roll a ways to her right. She has been expanding her vocabulary over the last few days and can now make “mamama”, “dadada”, “bababa”, and “lalala” sounds. I, of course, practice the “mamama” sound with her often. J Since she now can choose the position she sleeps in, she sleeps on her belly mostly. This worries me and has sent me searching the web for advice more than once, but as her doctor said, once she can choose, there’s not much I can do.

I just looked at the video monitor – best invention ever! – and she is face down with her knees pulled up under her. I’m sure she’ll be crawling in no time. Well, she’s up now… I’ll be back later to finish.

OK, Anna is asleep for the night so I’m back to hopefully finish up. As for other developments in Anna’s life, I am working on introducing “real” food. She is still 95% sustained by breastmilk and apparently that’s how she wants to keep it. When I started her on rice cereal (mixed with breastmilk), she was eager to eat, leaning into the spoon. This behavior changed though when I introduced sweet potatoes and then apples. She wasn’t so excited about the food on the spoon anymore. She was gagging on the sweet potatoes and with the apples she was refusing to open her mouth. Today was the 4^th day of trying the apples and she did a little better. We’ll keep working at it.

Not a big fan of sweet potatoes

I am finally back to getting a decent night’s sleep most nights. Anna is sleeping from ~8pm until ~8am with one feeding somewhere between 4am & 6am typically. I can handle that! While we were in IL, I purchased her a 6mo+ binky that she is better able to keep in her mouth, so thankfully the eyes-half-open marches across the house several times a night to replace the binky are behind me.

I’ll leave the 7 month update at that and finish simply by saying this parenting thing is the coolest thing I’ve ever done! What a joy this little girl brings to my life!

7 months old!