Finally a new blog!

There are two reasons I believe that babies are born sinners. She isn’t old enough to lie or disobey, but there are two things that I’ve seen her do. Yes, our daughter is a pagan!

Especially while i’m driving her around, when she’s in the back seat and thinks I can’t see her, she chants to a foreign god. It’s true! She said “Num, gum, gaa, gaa, ummmmmmmm” in a way very much like the monks chant. If you heard her, you’d know it was the truth.

The other reason has to do with me knowing what her god’s name is. I feel compelled to tell you that it is not “mommy” and I am certainly not at fault for it. I can’t starve the poor girl! But yes, you guessed it, my daughter is obsessed with boobs. There is nothing that can bring her to a meditative state like five minutes of serious nursing. The look on her face is very revealing… she slips into a state that suggests she is in a different dimension, or thinks she is. The other day, I let her play with her old pacifier… she held it and waved it around and chewed on it and sang its praises – she has an idol made of her god.

Hollie, what do I do????

Ahem. Ok, if you aren’t too embarrassed by that post, here are some normal updates on Anna!!!

We visited Anna’s Great-Great Grandma Anna! It was very nice. She is 91 now… born in 1916. I got a copy of her life story and a “Heritage.” I will type some of it here later. Anna has a very special Great-Great!

Tonight I witnessed Anna doing two new things that she’s never done before!!! One, from a sitting position, she pulled herself to standing on a basket! She can pull to standing if she holds your fingers and you raise your hands as she stands… this was new. She also sat tall on her knees while leaning on the basket. Our daughter is so brilliant!

The other thing was that I put her in the “crawling position” and she held it! You know, where they sit with their knees all drawn up and tummy off the ground. She’s never supported the weight of her front in before now… and always has kicked out her knees right away and fallen on her belly to kick around mermaid/snorkeler style.

We went out to lunch with great-grandma and again today for my birthday Elmer’s lunch. Anna sat in… a HIGH CHAIR at the restaurant both times! She is such a grown-up! We fed her biscuit, soup crackers, pieces of bread… and… horror of horrors… soggy french fries! She loved the french fries. Why is it that unhealthy things are so yummy??? 😀

Finally, we have been giving her a bunch of these little cheerio-sized melt-in-your-mouth flour thingies for babies… and cheerios too. What with all this practice, she has figured out how to pick up tiny things. She couldn’t before and I’d put them in her mouth for her. But she has learned that sticking her thumb in her mouth doesn’t get you what you want. She now tries other parts of her hand and even has kind of figured out how to use her pointer finger and thumb to pick them up! Brilliant!

Ok, now for tons of pictures.

Here is Anna all happily snoozing. I took a picture, because she is so darn cute when she curls up in a ball under her blankets. That’s her head sticking out on the left and her diaper-padded bottom sticking up in the air.

I got my saddle back! It has some stains and imperfections from sitting in the shop for 3 years or so, but it is finished! I took all the pieces to another saddlemaker who assembled everything for me! I am so thrilled to have it. We haven’t decided if we’re going to sell it yet. I’d like to keep it for sentimental reasons. Here is Anna being her beautiful Rodeo Princess self!

Look at me papa!

Giddy-up horsie! I can take anything you can dish out!

Our cat doing what she does best… leaving hair where we don’t want it.

The saddle in its new home. (yeah,t hat’s on the back of the couch)

Here’s a video when I didn’t mean to take it. Yeah. Sorry.
(I’ll add it later)

Here’s some of Anna and the Cheerio-things:

Look at that handsome man walking around in the background!

And me trying to show you Anna sitting up on her knees: