5 months!

Our cute little bug turned 5 months this past weekend! This was, in my opinion, one of the most challenging photo shoots to date. While she was in a good mood for the longest amount of time, she is so squirmy and grabby that it made getting 'the right' pictures difficult. I say that...but then I have fun going through all the pictures and laughing about it so I guess it's okay!

This past month we've seen further development in many of the things she started doing last month. She laughs much more now and we have fun acting crazy to get those giggles. We still haven't been able to get a good video of her laughing yet but hopefully this next month we'll be able to.

Last month we loved the pictures of her grabbing the chalkboard but this month they didn't turn out as good because she immediately would try to eat the board. Fairly representative of this age though so I figured I better include one picture!

Anna still hasn't quite managed to roll over from back to stomach yet. She gets soooo close and just can't quite seal the deal. It's kind of fun to watch her try. She seems to enjoy sitting quite a bit and I think she's fairly close to sitting by herself.

Anna continues to be a slobber monkey and will slobber on anything. Her hands, her links, her books, her dress, your hands, your face, etc. We've pretty much come to accept that at the end of the day we'll have saliva on us in some capacity. 

 

Anna's sleep has sort of been all over the place. One week she would eat in the middle of the night and then be wide awake- talking and cooing for 30 minutes or so. While she would put herself back to sleep eventually she was very loud and I had trouble sleeping. Then last week she slept all night for several nights in a row. (She'd slept all night before but only every now and then).  Pretty much as soon as I got used to it she decided to wake up at 2am and then 6am to eat.  That was a little painful for me but we seem to be back to waking once at night. 

Part of the problem is she is easily distracted these days. She's taking in everything around her which is great but makes feeding time more difficult. I've read that this peaks around 5 months so hopefully it will pass soon (and something else will pop up I'm sure). 

Anna's hair continues to grow and is staying dark for now. We love her beautiful bright eyes and the way they pull you in. Her eyelashes are getting longer too making those eyes even more captivating. Her cheeks are getting so chubby and so incredibly kissable. 

 

 It's crazy that just under a year ago we were telling people that we were expecting and now this amazing baby is here and is growing everyday. It's such a joy to watch her grow and learn. I can't imagine life without our amazing little Anna.

Back in Kansas

Now that we've been back in Kansas almost a month already I suppose I should get caught up! Getting back was a little insane to say the least. Thomas flew in the night before moving day (A huge thank you to Thomas for all of his help) and we got up early to get things loaded in the trailer that Kevin bought. We'd sold a lot of our furniture and the plan was to fit everything else in the trailer and SUV. Well...not everything fit. We had to end up getting rid of a few pieces of furniture I would have liked to have kept (a bookshelf, console table, and TV stand....nothing of extreme value but I liked them) and we had to donate/pitch various other things from laundry baskets to cleaning supplies. The original plan was for me to be cleaning while the guys were loading but that wasn't able to happen. Before I knew it I was headed to the airport with Anna and it was all out of my hands. (This flight was by far the worst in terms of traveling with Anna and I'm hoping I never have to travel alone with a baby on an airplane again!)

The guys finished up but somewhere in the craziness of the day Lupin got out of the house. The guys looked for him but were never able to find him. They had to start the drive that night and couldn't wait around for him to show up so he got left behind. I'm pretending that he became a nice cat and someone took him in rather than other not so pleasant alternatives. Poor Lupin :(

The guys drove through the night and arrived late the next morning extremely exhausted. After looking at the car we were all amazed and thankful that they made it back in one piece. I'll be happy once we sell the trailer and I never have to look at it again.


The next day we were all exhausted but we got Anna all dressed up for Easter anyway. She was such a cutie that day!

I was against any family pictures due to the handle bar mustache Kevin decided to sport that day but Patti caught us. 

It took a bit to get things unpacked and organized. We're storing stuff we aren't using in Thomas and Serena's basement so there has been a lot of back and forth trying to find various things we've decided we don't need or do need. We're pretty settled in the lower half of Kevin and Patti's house now (we're very thankful for them letting us stay with them) and Anna seems to have adjusted pretty well.

There have been a few nice days so we've been trying to take advantage of being next to Lake Shawnee. Hopefully more nice days will be coming soon...I have so many cute dresses to put Anna in and I'm just waiting on the sunshine!

It's been nice having this time as a family and I'm very thankful for it. Now that we're settled the job hunt is on but we're going to continue to enjoy our time.

We took Anna to Baby Bookworms at the library last week and I'm planning on taking Anna every week (unless she's napping like she was this past week). I'm also looking into this Parents and Teachers program that I've heard hosts play dates so I can meet some other Mommy's in the area. A lot of my friends from Topeka have scattered so the search is on!

I'm holding off on a true Anna update until after I take her 5 month pictures this weekend. I can't believe she's 5 months already! I will say that she is very grabby but is a lot of fun.

That steak looks good Grandpa Kevin!

 Anna does love this little piano toy and we managed to get these sunglasses on her. It lasted about 2 seconds before they made her mad but I managed to get a good picture in!

 

Butterflies

One last Michigan post before I move on to things happening here in Kansas. We had told our friends Will and Kristin that we were planning on taking Anna to the 'Butterflies in Bloom' exhibit at Dow Gardens before we left town. They have a really nice DSLR camera and let us borrow it. We played with it at home for a bit and took about a bazillion pictures of Anna with it.

I love that Anna is starting to get a little bit of a mohawk. When you are a girl this is pretty much the only time in your life when you can successfully pull the look off. (In my opinion at least)

Anna kept staring at the camera and we had trouble getting her to smile much but we still think she's pretty cute :)

We invited Kristin along to the Butterfly Garden and she ended up taking a lot of pictures for us and even did some editing of a bunch of them! This is one that I really really love. 

She was looking around a bunch but I'm not sure if she really noticed any of the butterflies or not. There were so many pretty flowers and other people to look at.

 

Getting Anna to look at the camera proved to be next to impossible.

One of her favorite pastimes...blowing spit bubbles.

Another favorite.

This photo is also another favorite! We don't end up getting a ton of pictures of the three of us since one of us is usually taking the picture so we were so grateful to get some of these taken! Once again...thank you Kristin!

 

Midland Farewells

Before leaving Midland we tried to cram in as many goodbyes as we could. I also tried to take more pictures than I normally do. I realized that I had barely any photos of friends and haven't really posted much about the great people we met during our time in Michigan.

We had lunch with our friends Elise and Craig. I worked with Elise when I was doing the temporary position at Dow and both of them work for Dow right now. Elise was one of the ladies who hosted the surprise baby shower and they cooked us several meals during my time on bed rest and then again right after Anna was born.

I met Kathryn at the baby shower (we knew her husband before that) and I've really enjoyed getting to know her and her darling little girl, Alice. Kathryn organized a Midland Mom's group on facebook and told me about Baby Time at the library. She played a key role in getting the library play dates together and was a great resource to me for all kinds of baby questions. She let me borrow several baby items to see if I liked them which saved us a bunch of money! We had one last play date over at our place the week before we left. I'm going to miss her so much!

Our friends Will and Kristin threw a little going away party for us the weekend before we left Midland. It was last minute so not everyone could make it but we were so happy to get to spend some time with the people who were there. Will and Kristin even let us stay the night with Anna so that we wouldn't have to leave our own party before 9pm. They have been amazing friends to us throughout our time there and we are really going to miss them! (and their dog Copper too).

Kristin, Lindsey, Kathyrn, me, and Elise

Kevin, Matt, Will, and Craig

 Group Shot!

Some of Kevin's co-workers organized a going away lunch and I managed to get in a group photo.

Our friend Sarah, who was out of town for the going away party, was able to stop by for lunch one day to say goodbye to me and Anna. She brought some champagne and Michigan chocolate covered cherries so that we'd have a "Sweet Send Off". She'll definitely be missed!

Steve, Aimee, and their son Jason (also out of town during our party) stopped by on moving day to say goodbye. Their house was very very close to where we were living and if we'd still been there it would have been nice to go on walks in the nicer weather.  

The day before moving day we decided to take Anna to Dow Gardens so we could check out the Butterflies. Kristin had her nice camera there and took some pictures for us. I'm going to post those separately but I thought I'd throw this picture in. I know I mentioned before...but we are really really really going to miss Kristin and her husband Will. I know our paths will cross again though!

Goodbye Michigan!

Early in March

Before I move on to April I thought I'd better get caught up on March first! It was an insane month but we still managed to have some fun.

Kevin and Patti came out for a day to get one of our cars and drive it back to Kansas for us. Even though it was a quick trip there was still time for some cuddles!

I was in Kansas for a week while Kevin was out of town for work. I had an airline credit I needed to use and rather than stay home alone with Anna I decided to head home. Flying alone with the baby was an adventure to say the least. We overslept and missed our flight and had to fly standby. Then Anna had a blowout just before take off. It was awesome.

Even though I didn't have all of Anna's regular toys we did have a ceiling fan which provided hours of entertainment!

Grandpa Chuck and Hailie checking out the fan with Anna

 Hailie had a blast with Anna all week! It was during this trip that I told them we were moving back to Kansas and they were pretty excited.

I had lunch with Grandad and Grandmom one afternoon and then got to see them again at Hailie and Seth's church musical.

Another highlight of the trip was getting to spend some time with Kara and Heather and their little girls Abby and Avery! It is a little strange for me to look at this picture of all of us holding our girls. Where has the time gone? It wasn't that long ago we were at camp acting goofy and crazy!

Abby, Kara, Cara, Anna, Avery, and Heather

 Theresa and Patti drove me and Anna to the airport to head back to Michigan for the last time. We had a great time in the car and we are all happy that there will be no more of those goodbyes!

 

4 months

I'm a little behind on posts right now but before I blog about anything else I need to give a 4 month update for little Miss Anna! I was only 1 week late in getting these photos taken but I think they turned out great so it was worth the wait!

We had Anna's 4 month check up just a couple days before moving. Anna weighed 13 pounds 12 ounces (42%), was 23 1/2 inches long (15%), and her head circumference was 17 inches (99%).

She is doing well and meeting all her milestones so far. She laughed for the first time about 2 weeks ago and then wouldn't do it again (despite our best efforts of acting ridiculous to entertain her) but the last couple of days she's started laughing more often. She's rolled over a couple more times from tummy to back and she's really trying to do it from back to tummy. 

While Anna has been grabbing things on accident for awhile now...in the last week or so you can tell she's intentionally trying to hold of things. She has one rattle in particular that she loves grabbing. She'll also grab her pant legs and loves it when she's in dresses because she can reach it up to her mouth. Pretty typical in that everything goes straight to the mouth to get slobbered all over.  The doctor thinks she may possibly be left handed. I don't care either way but Kevin is sort of hoping she'll turn out to be a southpaw so she'll have an advantage in sports :)

Anna has been so much fun the last month. She's more alert and responds to things more. I love watching her look at things and I wonder what she's thinking. She's become more expressive with her face and has even furrowed her brow a few times which is super cute. Anna is also making lots more noises and is incredibly adorable. 

Right now Anna has a bit of a runny nose so we've had to clear her nose out much more. She HATES it with a passion. In fact, she in general does not like things touching her nose which I guess she gets from me. 

We love our little bug so much we can't stand it!