Anna:
Learned to climb up a slide! (She’s long been capable, but for Anna, the bigger hurdle is confidence rather than ability… so proud of her when she is brave and tries! When she succeeds, the look on her face is just priceless.)
Tried monkey bars for the first time! Again, big on the bravery. With mommy supporting barely any weight, she went all the way to the other side too.
Tried a “fire” pole for the first time.
Maggie:
She’s starting to try to talk more and more, bringing us books constantly (so that I will make animal sounds) and experimenting with different tones of voice for the first time. She has never been much of a talker, so it’s exciting to finally hear her.
1. Gave her first kisses on Sunday night. It was SOoooo precious. She was even making the smacking sound (though not pursing her lips). Now she loves it when I give her kisses and she sometimes gives them back.
2. Ran around stores (not really walking) today. Usually she’s been in a cart. Good thing: she didn’t empty the shelves and stopped when I told her not to touch. Bad thing: when I told her to come here, she bolted breathlessly laughing and stomping. She was happy. 😀
3. Crawled up the steps at the playground and went down the slide over and over and over all by herself! She even tried to climb back up the slide! She went down feet first on her tummy and sitting up too. Hopefully she’ll stick with laying down since the landings (by herself) are a little less predictable when she goes down sitting up.
This little runner will be 13 months in five days. Go Maggie, go!
We got to see my brother and wife for a few days this week. Here are some pictures of the family reunion:
Neal is quite the hit. Anna calls him her new best friend. They played all kinds of silly games together. Here is Neal holding Anna and Jackson and playing piano with them both.
Here’s my mom, the sweet Grandma that she is. I just love seeing her with her grandkids. 😀
This is blurry, but it shows how much of a toddler Maggie has become, instead of being a baby. She is carrying stuff around and starting to play big kid games… like bringing you books and crawling onto your lap, laying out a blanket (or washrag) and pretending to take a nap on it for a milisecond.
Your son came home and napped on your couch, mom…. he looks a bit different than he did as a kid, I’m sure!
Piled on the couch:
We all gathered around to watch Neal shave off his itchy beard.
It started innocently as a knee-breaking horsie ride with Anna. By the time we were done though, it was a painful photo shoot for Neal. Thanks Neal!
New favorite game. Agricola. Played it twice and now dream about it. Good for 1-5 players. Christmas gift, anyone?
I love this shot! Neal and Anna were “sneaking up” on my dad (who you see is sitting on his desk at the top of the photo). They would scream “rawr!” and him, he’d act scared and Anna would run SHRIEKING with screams and laughter back to the living room to start again.
Neal and Anna played lots of computer games together. Anna LOVED that. She is going to have an advantage in computer use as she grows up. Well, compared to me. She is a whiz!
We ate LOTS of GOOD food while at my parents’ house. Melissa made a killer stew, Mom made Chicken Javanese and carrot cake, Melissa and I made pita bread to go with hummus, a cucumber salad and meatballs (you put any of those things on the pita). Oh so good! Here are Neal and Hollye with their 29th birthday cake!
Cute…
Anna and Jackson – stage 1 (Anna is 3 1/2, Jackson is 1 1/2):
Anna and Jackson – stage 2 (those are baby carrots in that bag):
Anna and Jackson – stage 3 (Jackson is sitting on Anna’s legs):
Hudson is 2 1/2 months old and looks very different from Jackson to me. Melissa was brave and most of us went on a hike at Silver Falls. Neal carried Jackson, Brian carried Anna, I carried Maggie and Melissa carried Hudson. Hollye carried our stuff. 🙂 Too bad we don’t have pictures, but we were cold and our hands were full. I think somebody got a picture?
Yesterday we went from this table set (used to be my parents):
To this table set! It has two butterfly leaves (leaves that are stored inside the table). I’m almost afraid to use it because I like it so much. The color is something in between the tone of the two pictures. It has six antique white chairs. We bought it off craigslist with some unusual coincidences. It was a steal and we met a nice lady too.
Mom, Dad or family – do you want the old table or chairs before I sell it on craigslist?
Now we’ve got room for more kids!
I have our official application with an adoption agency in the mailbox right now with a check paperclipped to it!
When you’re sick, not much gets done. That’s ok. We had a long sickness though (almost two weeks) which is a long time for most of a family to be out. Brian was out of work for a whole week himself. Here are some pictures from our down time and beyond. Maggie had it the roughest – with a fever for 11 days. We went to the doctor three times and gave them lots of our money. We are all better now and Maggie is a terror! The most adorable one ever! But she is a disaster in a baby’s body. She got onto our kitchen table all by herself from the floor. She is a monkey. And she is almost running. She’s 12 months old. We are in for it.
She learned to smack her lips while pretending to eat play food tonight. It was adorable.
What happens when you’re sick:
The desk
Same thing all over the house
Poor fevered baby
Sweet thing
Maggie snuggling with her birthday doggie early on being sick:
It’s been a long time since this sweetie fell asleep on my lap. Fevers are great excuses for relaxed snuggling.
Sweet slumber. And yes, she transferred just fine to her bed once I was ready to let her go.
Mommy and Anna had a craft day one day. We had so much fun painting the rocks and putting legs and stuff on them. hehehe
We also carved pumpkins! (Which are actually already saggy and moldy on the front porch; that was fast!) Anna and the rest of us were not sick as long as Maggie was. Anna designed the wide-mouth one and Brian did the other. Truth be told, Brian made them both while I was walking with Maggie, but Anna did design hers.
Hot feverish girls getting some book time.
Trying to cool off the baby:
Feeling better – Anna rubbed the shaving cream all over her face!
