4th of July

We couldn't have asked for better weather for Anna's first 4th of July. After how hot it was last year the slightly cooler day was amazing!


Anna got to sport her patriotic tutu for a little bit. Eventually Kevin put it on top of her head so that was the end of that. 

Our little firecracker did pretty well with all the people that were over at the Kent's. She got a little uneasy when neighbors started setting off some loud fireworks but it was also close to her bedtime.

 
It's so nice that Grandpa Kevin and Grandma Patti have a house by the lake. It's a perfect spot to watch the big fireworks show without having to worry about parking and walking to watch them. I was able to put Anna to bed before the show started. Thank goodness for white noise. She slept through the entire thing!

We're off tomorrow for a crazy trip. Colorado, Vermont, and then New York. There will definitely be lots to post about when we get back!

7 months!

I'm late as usual but Anna turned 7 months last week! 7 months?!? When did that happen? My baby is closer to being a year old then a newborn!


We've had a fun month of introducing new foods to Miss Anna. So far she has had avocado, sweet potato, oatmeal, butternut squash, green beans, peaches, bananas, apples, carrots, barley, pears, and peas. She's been pretty willing to eat everything so far but I'd say that her favorites are pears, sweet potatoes, and the squash. She'll gobble those up very quickly!

Anna was already a grabby little thing but she's become even more so. She's also much faster and puts her entire body into it when there is something that she really really wants. She's just busy busy. 

Our little bug is also quite the talker. Her favorite word right now is Blah. Blah blah blah blah blah. She'll also shriek at you. If you shriek too it can go back and forth for quite awhile.

We made it to Baby Bookworms at the library one week and Anna loved looking at all the other babies there. It's as if she's looking at what the older ones are doing and thinking....maybe I can do that to!

Anna has also started protesting when toys are taken away from her. She's more likely to get upset when she's starting to get tired but it's beginning to happen more and more. While Anna has been able to sit unassisted for awhile now she is getting better and better at it all the time. Her "falls" have become a little more graceful and she doesn't get as upset about it as she used to. She continues to roll all over the place and she has been trying to scoot places. I think we're going to be in trouble once she starts crawling...

We're so in love with our little bug and we are constantly amazed at her. We love watching her take the world in and learn new things all the time. Looking forward to seeing what the next month brings!

Zoo

I've had these pictures up waiting for the text for awhile now. Since I'm up but Anna went back to sleep this morning I thought it would be a good time!

On my birthday at the beginning of the month Kevin, Anna, and I went to the zoo with Grandma Patti and Adell. It was Anna's first official trip and although she didn't get much out of it we still had a lot of fun.

Cousins!

The girls are absolutely adorable together. Adell is so sweet to Anna and will even give her little kisses (although we have to watch out for Anna getting a hold of her hair which Adell doesn't seem to care for much)

Anna was so good being carted around in her stroller. She did want out a few times to look around more easily. So much to see!

Our little cutie bug!

 It was cool having Adell there since she is older and could react more to the animals. She DID NOT care for the big animals much. A pretty good instinct I guess.... She did like the turtles!

Kevin and the girls

Whenever we would stop to look at some animals Adell would start pointing at the stroller as if saying "keep it moving folks". It was pretty darn cute.

 

Uncle Kevin.

 We had such a good time walking around and hearing stories of Kevin and his brothers from when they were little and visiting the zoo.

 

After the zoo we headed over to take a ride on the train. Adell LOVED it! Anna seemed to really enjoy looking around too so we'll have to go back!

 

6 Months!

Last week Anna turned 6 months old! It's unbelievable that she is half a year old already.

We also had Anna's 6 month appointment last week. Anna weighed 15 lbs 6 oz (38%), was 25.6 in. long (45%), and her head was 17.7 in. (99%). Our new pediatrician asked us..."has her head always been big?" when he pulled up the graph. Yep...sure has!

She is doing great and is right where she should be for a 6 month old baby. The week before she finally figured out how to do that back to tummy roll that has eluded her for so long. Now she rolls all the time. Pretty much every morning and after almost every nap when we go in to her room we find her playing on her tummy. 

Anna is also sitting up by herself! While she can stay up for quite awhile sometimes she is still a bit wobbly at times. Every day she gets more steady though. When she's on her tummy she will sometimes put her face down and stick her booty up in the air. I think we'd better enjoy what little time we have left of our stationary baby because she wants to move!

Anna is definitely a busy baby. She's constantly moving and trying to grab things around her. I used to watch t.v. while nursing her but this last month I've had to go into her room to try and avoid distractions. If Daddy walks in she whips her head around to give a big toothless grin and then I have to kick Daddy out of the room. Otherwise meal time would take FOREVER! 

 We get many comments about her big bright eyes. You'd think they couldn't get any bigger but when she gets startled they somehow do. We joke that the only time they are "normal" sized is when she's about to fall asleep.

This was our last picture of the day. Anna was looking up at Grandpa Kevin who had just come out to see what we were up to. I'm pretty sure Grandpa thinks we're ridiculous for how many pictures we take of this baby but we just can't help ourselves!

 

Avocado

To celebrate being 6 months old we started Anna on solids this past week. First up was avocados! We have a video of her initial reaction but it's a long video and I don't feel like trying to figure out how to make it shorter so I'm not going to.

She seemed a little surprised and it seemed like she was considering getting upset but didn't. She made that confused face for the first few bites while she was trying to figure out what we were doing to her.

After a bit she began grabbing at the spoon and trying to "help" put it in her mouth. Obviously this lead to a pretty big mess.

Towards the end she was leaning in and opening her mouth for more so we feel she was pretty ready. Kevin and I only fought over whose turn it was to feed her for a little bit :)

 

Yum Yum!

Today we tried sweet potato and she seemed to really like it! She leaned in for pretty much every bite and was pretty happy doing so. It's so fun seeing her try new things and we're enjoying planning out what we're going to make for her next!  

Water Fun

Anna has been really interested in watching water run lately. When someone is washing their hands she'll stare at the stream of water the entire time. Everyone was outside doing yard work getting ready for Memorial Day so Anna and I decided to head outside and play in the water.


I didn't know what we were going to do at first but once I started the water Anna was pretty happy.

She could barely take her eyes off of the water and wanted to grab it so badly.

I love that she's so easily entertained!

 

30th B-day Celebrations

This past weekend Kevin and I celebrated our 30th birthday's. Kevin actually turned 30 at the beginning of May and I'm not until the beginning of June but since Joe was in town we thought it would be fun to combine them.

Thomas and Serena invited us over and grilled up a bunch of yummy food. From chicken, to pork loin, to veggies, and pineapple. Delicious! Grandma Patti brought cupcakes from Mad Eliza's and we had a wonderful time!

This picture was a little back lit but I love Adell's expression. She's been doing this face a lot lately and it cracks us up. We sure love that little girl.

Anna snuggling Grandma!

 Grandma and Grandpa were kind and offered to babysit both girls that night. After they took Anna and Adell back to their house, the rest of us adults hung out before heading to Wild Horse Saloon. Kevin requested dancing for his birthday and dancing is what we did!

It was nice going out for the evening. While Kevin and I have been on dates here and there we are usually only gone for a few hours max. It was the longest I'd been away from Anna and it was hard to relax at first but eventually I did and I had a great evening!

I attempted getting a video of Thomas and Kevin dancing but it was too dark and didn't really turn out well. They were both covered in sweat by the end of the night and I'm pretty sure I saw Thomas limping a bit the next day...

We were all a little tired the next day and I think everyone took a nap. Mine was with Anna and it was wonderful. Being 30 isn't so bad.