Previous Current Happenings

(12/20/6) I found another index card with comments about Anna and Paul on it. I've asked Anna several times what she wants to be when she grows up. The answer has always been, "a fireman." I don't know where she even learned the concept of "what you want to be." I just thought I'd ask. Also, I don't know why she said, fireman. I've asked her but not gotten a clear answer.

She did the neatest thing the other day. She folded up several pieces of pine straw and said it was an egg beater. It looked remarkably like an egg beater. She asked me to hold it and then she made a circle out of another piece of straw and said it was a bowl and that I should use the egg beater to stir.

Sometimes when she gets in the sandbox she wants to take off her clothes. I think I've mentioned that another time. She did it again recently. I just turned around and she had her socks, shoes, pants and shirt off and was tugging at her panties. I stopped her at that point. I guess she remembers Amber having her take her clothes off to play in the sandbox when she was very young.

(12/16/6) Anna still gets up between 6-6:30. Usually she gets up and plays in her bed for all over about 15 minutes. Sometimes you can hear her talking quietly. She always talks, to herself, her imaginary world, or to the people around her. But very shortly, she opens her door and puts both hands on the top of her gate and says, "Daddy, it's time to get up." I stumble from the bed, usually a bit grumpy and open her gate. She greets me with a beaming smile and immediately starts to talk. I try to hush her a bit until we get downstairs, so she won't wake Paul and Amber. By this time, I'm hooked. She's my little girl and she is so excited to be alive; it's hard not to smile.

She's been attending preschool two days a week. She even got "Student of the week" a couple of times. She's so proud of that. She'll see her certificate on our bulletin board sometimes and remind whoever is around, "Daddy, I got 'student of the week'. I listened. I helped cleanup." One day at school a little girl, whose mother teaches another class was looking at some words written on a poster board and was "reading" the letters. Only she was just making up the letters, not actually reading them, "S-T-B-A-F...". Anna was there (along with Amber and the other girl's mother) and got mad and said, "No". Anna proceeded to read the letters of the words correctly (not the words of course).

Anna's developing a sense of humor and I really have fun with that. Now, she's singing Christmas songs throughout the day, but half the time, she just makes up nonsense words, but sings them in tune with the regular song. I can't think of any more examples right now, but there are plenty.

She still loves to go out and pick up acorns. What is it about that? She has done that for the longest time. And now Paul likes to do it to. Sometimes we will all three go out in the early morning. I go and get the paper and read it will standing in the front yard while Anna and Paul pick up acorns. Invariably, Paul will want to put acorns in Anna's bucket (because he can't hold a bucket yet), or he will want to take one out of her bucket. That never ceases to get Anna very mad. We left the bucket of acorns out the other day and it rained. This morning Anna cried when she say the acorns floating in a thin layer of water. I did what any good father would do. I got an old towel and spread the acorns out to dry with care as if they were gold nuggets.

(7/24/6) We've mostly been here this summer, trying to keep sanity. We started with swimming lessons in May. Two weeks of parent-child. I went with Paul and Amber took Anna, usually. It was tough for Anna. She did a lot of yelling and screaming and thrashing about. In the end, I think she gained some confidence, which was all we were after. Meanwhile, Paul generally loved the whole time. Its funny, but I believe a year ago in the same class she would have had an easier time. She was just really in a funky stage about everything. I think (pray) we are coming out of that now.

In late May we went down for the Florida Folk Fest as we always do. Maybe not quite as hot as the previous year, but hot. Anna got on stage with a clogging group, she did some art work in the kids tent, heard some music, food and drinks. At one point, we were in a food vending area. Of course, Anna is overwhelmed with the sights, sounds, and smells. So, we let her pick what she wants. She picks a "smoothie" vendor based on a picture on the placard. OK. The sign even says, "all natural" and we think, "great." When it's my turn and I watch them make Anna's strawberry smoothie and I notice that there is absolutely no fruit around (except on the placard). Turns out it was really a slushie of old. Anna loved it. Then we had fresh root beer. The children's tent had great entertainment, activities, and hosts.

We went to Roan Mt. for about a week in June, but that turned out to be hard, very hard. Bottom line: a different place with Paul who was just learning to crawl and doesn't nap well to begin with (on a good day 30 minutes) and the free flowing Anna who is everywhere and has lots of wants which are vocalized immaculately and persistently. Also, Anna's cousin Trisha was there (9 years old). You can't imagine how much Anna loves Trisha. Literally from the time she woke until we closed her door at night, it was the up-down beat of a metronome, "Where's Trisha?" and "Trisha, ..." with a frequency of 10 times per minute. It would drive even the best of people (Amber) absolutely batty. It was almost surreal. Trisha handled it as well as she could and we were thankful. It was really hard to be at the mountains and to just get fleeting glimpses of the experiences we have had in the past. Again, another pact was made to not leave home ever again. We did have some fun though. We went got to spend great time with lots of family: Dad, Mom, Richard, Trisha, John, Ashley and Mom's cousin, Margie and her husband, Loren (Anna and Pauls, first cousin twice removed). We went wading in the ponds and the creek, fed the fish, walked to the lookout, the Rhododendron festival, played croquet on about a 20 degree incline, ate fine food, and slept in the cool mountain air.

Anna went to the beach (Amelia Island) for a week with Amber and Paul and: Michelle, Zach, and Sara and Susan, Autumn, and Alyssa and Amy, Layton, and Chloe. Did you get that? 4 mothers, 8 children (3 from 10-18 months, and 5 from 2.75 to 3.25 years old. They stayed in Uncle Larry's "river house', his very nice condo.

We've been down to Aunt Gail's house on Dyke's Lake several times to swim in the lake. It was the first time she had been in natural water in our area. The water here is the color of tea up close, and from a distance, dark brown. She loved it. Sandy bottom, gently sloped, just perfect for Anna and adults. Anna was fascinated by the mother ducks and their very small babies. We feed them bread as they formed an arc around us.

We've also been swimming at Mimi and Pops new house many times.

(5/18/6) I can't find that index card. I had at least two. So many things are happening. Anna still seems to be visibly learning a lot of the time. She speaks in sentences. That in itself just keeps amazing me. And you can understand her, especially when she speaks slowly. She can go to the bathroom by herself a lot of the time. She got a swing set from Mimi and Pops and is learning to hang, swing, and climb. She's going for swimming lessons for two weeks in June. Her hair is long and straight, several inches below her shoulders. In the bright sunlight it can seem so light red in color. What ever it is, it is beautiful. She knows what she wants most of the time. Anyway, I'll just tell a few memories:

One day she killed a spider in her bedroom all by herself. She called mom and showed her the spider crumbled up in a kleenex. She then wanted to put the spider in the toilet because she had seen me do that. Then she wanted to go to the bathroom and pee on the spider. I can assure you she did not learn that from me.

One day I took her out in the backyard to play. After a while of roaming around the yard to inspect everything with her, I can usually slip away and read a book. So, I did and I sat on the deck and read a book. A bit later I looked down and saw that she was in the sandbox and she had taken her shirt off. I didn't really think about her pants and panties, I assumed they were on. But, it turns out they weren't. She was playing in the sandbox naked.

She sleeps on the floor in her room these days. Sometimes with up to four lights on. She says she hears noises in the bed and thinks that they are monsters. Somehow, she feels safe on the floor right beside the bed. Sometimes she'll say that, "wall and door and drawer and blubby" say something or another. "blubby" is some imaginary character she has made up. You can ask her questions about "wall and drawer".

One day, I took her to buy a "telescope" for her swingset/fort and by telescope, I mean a plastic tube that looks like a telescope. She picked the blue one. Standing in line to pay, she started hugging my leg, crying, and saying that she wanted to go. Turns out someone chewing gum blew a bubble and that freaked her out. Today, at Autumn and Alyssa's birthday party it was a teenager with a moose on her pink shirt. Freaked her.

I've taken her a handful of times to Wild Adventures on a Friday afternoon. We ride a few rides, look at the animals and go home. One time, we discovered a new set of three children's rides tucked in a place I wouldn't have suspected. One of them was a whale that basically swung on a pendulum. Anna insisted on riding. But I decided to go with her and there were "older" people on the ride. They couldn't get the ride to go and it turned out that the bar wasn't down on my side. So, they reached over and pushed the bar down and it caught, squishing me pretty tight. The ride still wouldn't go and they determined that the other side of the bar on me was not latched. They couldn't get it down! I was too big and had to get off! So, Anna rode alone. Each time the whale arched up, Anna would slip a little lower in her seat. By the time it was over, she was hanging on to the bar and her head was almost in the seat. It may sound scary, but it wasn't. The whale moved very slowly and the floor below her was caged.

(2/4/6) No time to write things down right now. I've started keeping an index card of items I want to write about. It's filling up and I can't find it.

(12/5/05) Anna has started experimenting with pronouns. She will say, "her do it," or "her in the kitchen" referring to Amber. We read to Anna every night before bed and I do it many nights since Paul was born. She has a queen-sized bed (that is filled with 20+ books at any given time and a few toys). So, I lay down and put the book on her pillow and she sits up facing the book. In the last two weeks, she has started laying right beside me with her head nestled under my chin. It makes being a father that much easier! Last night she asked if she could climb on my back (ok, she didn't "ask", she told me she was going to). She does that sometimes and I bounce her around. Well, this was in the middle of reading, so I just kept reading. She sat for a minute then I felt her feet. I gently turned my head and saw that she was standing on my back!

(11/26/05) Anna gets more demanding by the day it seems. But all the reading Amber has done reveals that everything is normal, albeit a period of severe(?) disequilibrium. If she is not kept on schedule with her naps, severe repercussions can follow. I took her to the park after the Thanksgiving meal. There had been an attempt to give her a nap out at the farm, but that didn't work to well. In retrospect, that was the beginning of the meltdown. But things seemed calm back at home. So, later in the day, I took her to the park. Things were OK then, until it was time to go. I did the usual letting her know we were about to leave, "one more time on the slide," "say 'goodbye' to the slide." But, when the reality set it, and I had to pick her up, her body went rigid and she let out a primordial scream. Of course, the other parents all turn their heads. And then an even louder scream. I wondered if anyone would call DFACS. The meltdown continued. I wondered if I would even be able to get her strapped in her car seat. Then, when we arrived home, I wondered if I would be able to get her out of the car seat. I decided to call Amber. At first, she thought maybe it was just a minor situation and that I was just overreacting. She soon realized that it was a major meltdown. Amber took over in full force. Off to bed, she calmed down. Then Amber came downstairs looking starry-eyed. It was over. But now, Amber informed me that I now had to go read that elusive "last book." I went upstairs to her room with apprehension. I firmly told her that I would read one book. I read the one book and that seemed to be fine. But then she told me she wanted me to change the sheets! And lost it when I balked. The only reason I could figure she wanted the sheets changed was perhaps the sand in her bed left over from the park (She had played in the sandbox and emulated a three year old girl who was throwing sand. Only the three year old was throwing it away from herself. Anna just threw it into the air. So, there was sand all in her hair and diaper and other places.). She hadn't said anything about the sand, but a feel of her bed showed that there was a layer of sand there. I quickly, but thoroughly swept the sand onto the floor. It felt OK to me. Anna was somewhat mollified, but I left her in tears practically running down the stairs. All night, Amber and I kept thinking that we heard her crying/screaming. We'd get up, check the monitor, and see that it was nothing. Just hallucinations.

We had a great time on Halloween. I came home and Amber, Anna, and Paul were in the driveway about to go trick-or-treating. Anna and Paul were in the double stroller. Paul was screaming loudly. Amber was ready to go, and I had been given the night off as I had a headache. I couldn't let them go like that, so I picked up Paul and carried him. So, we all went. Anna was really with it. She knew what to do and what to say. However, she wanted to go IN peoples' houses. Luckily, that wasn't a major issue and she was easily (in light of the candy) shepherded. Before each door, we reiterated that she was to take ONE item. She generally didn't abide by that and continued to take candy until either Amber stopped her or the homeowner did. Sometimes, the homeowner would want to talk. I guess Anna got bored with the talk and after a little bit, she would reach her hand towards the candy again. Generally, she came away with something else. One older gentleman (who we learned wanted to turn off the lights and not do Halloween as he was supposed to go play cards with his buddies and didn't want his wife answering the door alone) seemed slightly incensed when this occurred! Apparently, it had been a long time since he had had children.

Anna can say her "abc's" now. Of course it is a little rough in spots, but the whole thing is there in spirit. She's added an interesting twist. Instead of, "abcdefg hijk...now I know my abc's," she sings, "abcedfg hijk....now I know my abcdefg hijk..." She starts over! She's also got counting down real well, at least through thirteen, but she always skips twelve! Of course, she doesn't fully comprehend the concept of these numbers. But, she does seem to have the concept of 1 and 2 down very well.

We danced in the kitchen last night to the Red Stick Ramblers (cajun music). It was fun. She likes to kick her feet up, clap, and try to snap her fingers and twirl. Sometimes, she will twirl until she falls down from dizziness.

She continues to eat the most incredible diet with hardly any restrictions. She loves food its plain to see! She's adopted the Gibson, "ummm" after a tasty bite. As reported at other times, after dinner sometimes she will get a "treat". And usually there is a stray green bean or broccoli left on her plate. It is so amazing to see her eat several bites of a cookie (after each bit, "ummm") and then put it down and begin eating a cold green bean!

She is amazing, even with the maddening disequilibrium. Often, after her nap, as she plays in her room before we have come to get her, she talks nonstop. Sometimes, she repeats phrases you have said to her just that day, over and over, over and over. We listen through the monitor and laugh. It seems, her mind is constantly assimilating and to see that played out in various contexts is to have a glimpse of God.

(09/14/05) "Anna do it, ANNA do it" is still a ubiquitous refrain, only louder, more insistent, and more articulate. The pictures are way behind but hopefully one day they will be updated. Anna's vocabulary and ability to say sentences are utterly amazing. She regularly strings 5 and even 6 words together in meaningful ways.

(05/31/05) "Anna do it, ANNA do it" is a ubiquitous refrain these days. Example: I carried Anna to the car as she flailed and uttered the all to familiar words. She wanted to climb in her car seat herself. I set her on the ledge of the van, a big step below the driveway expecting her to climb in from there. Anna repeated her mantra and climbed back down to the driveway and then back up on the ledge and into her car seat, eventually. Which brings me to another thing, you really can't plan to move to fast when "Anna do it."

We went to Fernandina Beach for 5 days. Anna did not like the Ocean one bit. Something about the waves made her mad! She didn't seem scared, though she never does, she just really didn't like it. A week later, back at home, she still saying, "water not like." But she loved the sand and the pool. We took her to Fort Clinch State Park and she got to walk around in a new environment.

There have been several birthday parties recently, Layton's 2nd and Zach's 2nd. It is always great to see all 6 kids (Layton, Zach, Luke, Autumn, Alyssa, and Anna) running around outdoors and having fun.

I like to take Anna to the park (McKey Park) to play. Recently, she's been paying more attention to the climbing bars, and walls. She's tried to use the climbing wall, ladders, a climbing dome with bars and other things. She doesn't seem to be interested in swinging any more. She climbs up the steps onto the jungle gym, walks up the gang-plank, and takes the turn for the medium slide, that curves around and drops about feet. She likes to sit there for a moment and look out, and then she slide down saying, "weeeeeeee." At some point, she usually turns to me and says, "creek", while pointing in the direction of the creek. So we walk along the steep banks of the creek as I herd her like a sheep dog away from the edge. Sometimes I hold her out and over the water so she can see better. We usually see a few fish. 

One day recently at the park there was this little boy, a little smaller than Anna, but somehow looked a little older. He seemed to be taunting Anna (or was it the overreaction of a father?). He'd slide right behind Anna on the slide. At the end, they usually don't come off, and have to climb down. The boy would push Anna. She didn't like that and let it be known. I ushered her along to the steps to start the climb to the slide again. After another round of this, when they were both back on the ground after a slide, the boy picked up a handful of mulch and carefully dropped it on Anna's head. Again, I ushered her along. Next time down. Anna picked up a handful of mulch and put it in the boy's face and released! The little boy was standing there, smiling with bits of much on his lips. I quickly brushed the boys lips off anticipating some words from his mother, but she wasn't around. Luckily, Anna said, "creek," at that point.

(05/16/05) I found Anna walking backwards today, so I had to join in, which tickled her. And of course, I had to introduce the "backwards" word which she quickly tried to mimic. So we went forwards and backwards and even tried sideways.

(04/08/05) Nothing lasts for long, everything changes with Anna so fast, the things she plays with, the things she says. She's really enjoying stacking her blocks now. She has blocks that snap and the pieces are in the size of 1 unit, 2 units, 3 or 4. She will only put together blocks with the same units. For instance, she'll only stack the threes together into a tall structure. If you put another size on for her, she will take it off. She also doesn't like you to build at all. If you build something while she is building, as soon as she notices, she tears it down and not so much with glee as with annoyance. Sometimes she will be stacking say the 3-unit blocks together and she doesn't see any more. So, she says, "more". If you had her a stack of 3's already put together, she disassembles each one before placing it on her structure. The blocks are stored in a plastic wagon which she seems to have no interest in other than to retreive blocks. Layton (6 months older) was over the other day and he started pushing and pulling the wagon around. Anna, of course didn't like that so she cornered him and stood right in front of the wagon (Layton was trying to push the wagon with the handle). Then she took a step forward, and then another, forcing Layton back to fireplace. Meanwhile, Layton searches the grownups' faces for help. The next day, she pulled the wagon all over the house. It is interesting to see how much they learn from other children.

Her most frequent word, other than, "NO!," is "OK" which essentially means, "Yes". It is funny, but she never says, "yes", she just says, "OK". She says it in a sweet, sing-song voice, with emphasis on the first syllable, "ooo-k."

Anna is also enjoying coloring with her crayons in coloring books or in the bathtub. In fact, she never takes a bath without coloring all over the tub. Recently, she's discovered erasing by splashing water and rubbing with her hands. Actually, the result is usually finger-painting, not actually erassing.

She continues to be a little dare-devil at the park. I took her to McKey Park one day. There is a big climbing structure with three slides of different sizes. She favors the intermediate slide that drops about seven feet and twists around a few times. The drop at the end is not so short, so you want to catch her at the end. She led me to the slide entrance and took off by herself. When I looked, she had twisted in the slide and was emerging head-first (at a slow speed) and just plopped to the ground. She got up and ran to the stairs to go again. Now, stay on the ground and hold her hand or leg as she climbs up to the entrance and catch her at the end if necessary.

Right after Easter, Anna had a lot of visitors. My parents came and brought her cousin Trisha (8 years old) and my brother John and his wife Ashley came to visit. Anna said, "Trisha" every five minutes, at least, for every waking hour. Again, it was so interesting seeing the influence of someone closer to her in age. The same thing happens with another cousin, Lauren (9 years old). She spotted Nana's birthday cake the minute I brought it in the house. Needless to say, she knows the word, "cake." We couldn't even leave the cake on the counter, she could always see it from some angle. So, we had to cover it with a towel.

I lost a bunch of pictures from late January through all of February.

(01/23/05) Anna seems so grown-up now. She reaches for the door and says, "out-sigh". She climbs up the rung on her highchair and says, "hi-cheh" (which definitely means, "eat"). She brings a book and say, "re-buh". She reaches up to you and says, "hol-ju" (she is saying "hold you" as she heard Mom say so many time, "Do you want me to hold you?" And when the Wiggles comes on the TV she says, "wiggle wiggle wiggle" remarkably well. She is often perfectly content to play by herself. She'll spontaneously go on a hunt for Mom or Dad when she realizes that they are not present. She goes to all the rooms and looks, even inside the shower. When Dad is keeping her, she will invariably get tired and go to the door and say "mama" with the most pitiful look on her face. When that happens, Dad panics for just a second, but then remembers how easily distracted she is and with a little direction, she is on to something else.

She's completely off the bottle now and has been for some time. One time, a week or so after she was through with the bottle, Dad was getting her up from a nap and instead of asking if she wanted some milk, he asked if she wanted her bottle. She stopped and started turning her head all around and saying "bottle" four or five times. It was like she was saying, "oh yea, bottle?"

She still eats amazingly well, in fact, anything we feed her.

She seems to have a strong bond to younger children and babies such as herself. She can be so, so tired, and maybe cousin Lauren will come by and she will kick back into gear and really come alive.

Playgroup is still very active on Fridays with Autumn, Alissa, Zach, Luke, Layton and Anna. There was a party on a recent Saturday night with all the kids and parents (Dad's too) and that was really fun, especially for the Dad's to get to see all the kids play.

Mom is always doing neat things with Anna. She built her a house out of cardboard boxes recently, stamped her handprints and made Christmas tree ornaments. Anna loves to use her bathtub markers to draw in the tub and Mom gives her plenty of opportunities.

Anna enjoyed Christmas very much. She turned the lights on on the tree every morning (and turned them off and on repeatedly throughout the day). She was truly sad when Mom finally put all the Christmas things away. She also enjoyed opening presents.

(12/13/05)

A short lived phenomena was when Anna would indicate that she knew it was time for a diaper change. She would, for example, go an lay on the kitchen floor, where she would never lay, and just look up at you.  When we figured it out, we told her to go get a diaper and she got up and went to Mom's bag. One time, all she could reach was the wipes, so she brought them! That didn't last long, maybe a week or so.

Sometimes Dad and Anna will walk around in the yard. Really, Dad just follows Anna as she rambles around. She mutters the whole time. It sounds like joyous exclamations, not like she is practicing speaking. She'll just randomly stop and pickup up leaves and sticks and flowers and want to carry just those around with her little hands so full. Then dad shows her to pickup up the needles or leaves and throw them in the air and she squeals with delight, sets her things down and does it herself. Then, she picks back up her two sticks and four pine needle and tromps on.

(11/27/04) Anna is really walking now! She cannot be stopped. On a recent trip to Nana and Grandfather's house in Rock Hill, we stopped in Kite, GA for lunch where these is exactly one gas station/grocery store/grill. As Amber finished her sandwich at the counter, I sat Anna down and gathered her things (bowls, bags of food, a bottle). She took off around the very short aisle and would randomly stop and pull a few things to the floor, laugh, and keep going. I literally ran in circles trying to hold the items that I was carrying, pickup the things she has spilled to the floor, and catch her. I couldn't. Amber finally caught her.

She loves to be outside. She will take a pail and pickup acorns in the front yard. She'll pick up anything of course. If she's in a gravel parking lot, she'll pickup up rocks, or leaves in another place. It is really fun to watch her do this. She'll trot, trot, trot around, and then seemingly randomly stop and bend over and carefully examine a rock (acorn, leaf, etc.), put it in her hand and keep going. This repeats, but she usually only has two or three things in her hand at once. She seems satisfied to just drop one and pickup another if her hands get to full. And periodically on such an excursion she'll plop down (never mind any dirt/mud/water/etc) for a closer inspection. Then, she'll carefully pickup an item and inspect it slowly, possibly put it down and inspect another, and repeat.

She continues to be fascinated with the neighborhood cats, George and Nixon. Either will come over to the back door and play with Anna through the glass. Anna squeals and the cat paws and rubs the glass. When the cat tires of this, Anna will contort herself to watch the cat as it walks away and then squeals once again, insisting on going outside to find the cat. Recently, I took her outside to see George and I plopped her down and she wobbled through the grass in pursuit of George as he skirted around the bushes, never letting Anna get too close. Finally, I took Anna in my arms and held her as I convinced George to stand still. I petted George and he rolled over. Then I held Anna close and let her "pet" George as well. After a few moments, the "pets" turned to "attempts to grab". George didn't like that and swiped his paw and scratched Anna on the arm, even draw a bit of blood. The interesting thing was that Anna was not phased at all.

Anna tries to say so many words now. It seems like a new one pops up every hour or so. She says, "this" a lot and "please". Sometimes she says, "please cheese" (she loves cheese). Once in a while she goes in to what we call "alien" mode. She mutters fairly continuously, in a voice that is not quite hers, a little higher pitched, strings of sounds that are completely undecipherable, as if she's practicing saying sentences. It is really funny to watch. At those times, which don't occur very often, she seems to be in her own world, just moving around and babbling.

You can ask her what the monkey, bear, santa-clause, elephant, and cat say and she responds excitedly with the correct sounds. We are also hearing "ma-ma" very frequently now.

Her hand signals continue to improve. There is never any doubt when she is hungry, her thumb and index finger move rapidly to and from her mouth. She now has a signal for book, and some other things.

She sleeps like clockwork: morning nap, afternoon nap, and to bed by 7:30 pm. She wakes from an overnight sleep anywhere from 5:30 to 6:30 am, unless she is teething in which case she wakes about every 2-3 hours. Amber diligently retrieves her, soothes her, lets her play for a little while and then puts her back down. Amber has had many, many nights of this and we are all so thankful she can do it! Once in a while I try to relieve Amber of that middle of the night duty, but Anna generally wants her mommy!

Anna continues to eat anything. There is nothing we have tried that she will not eat. We continue to cook for her and give her nothing but the freshest vegetables, fruits, grains, pastas, and meats. We recently saw a movie, "Super-Size Me", a documentary about fast-food using McDonalds as an example. The movie had the effect of redoubling our resolve to do everything in our power to help her develop good eating habits.

Anna just brought a diaper to Amber (today!) for the first time, and laid down on the floor to be changed. Amber said it was amazing and I can only imagine.

She seems to be a super happy baby.

(10/30/04) Anna is walking now. It happened about 10 days ago. It took about 3 days of experimenting, mostly at our urging, and then she was gone. We haven't seen her crawl once since then. It seems so different! And also convenient. You can take her out of her car seat and put her down in the garage and usually get her to walk in the house. Unless she wants to go somewhere else!

We went to Todd Callantine's birthday in the north Georgia mountains. There, she got to see horses and dogs and lots of children. On the way, she got quite sick in a Walmart parking lot and mom was drenched. It might have been car sickness, but she seemed to be OK after that.

Nana came to visit after her and Grandfather's trip overseas. After not seeing her for several months, she immediately came right to Nana. She must remember those first weeks when Nana was ever present. She brought Anna a bunny doll from Ireland. 

Anna had her first camping trip when we went to Springfest at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park near Live Oak, FL. What a weekend it was with Hari, Joe, Tom and Kelly and their children Jake and Campbell. It was interesting when Anna wanted to wake at hours when some of the 8000 other campers were trying to sleep. We took her to the Children's Tent where she played in the sandbox and tried on different costumes and hats. She even got to dance to Donna the Buffalo.

Anna understands many things now. Amber can ask her where all sorts of things are in her book ("Where is the kitty-cat?", etc) and she will point to them. She also "talks" a lot, though we are not sure what she is saying. If she is ready, and you ask her to say a word, she will try to say it, any word! Her hand signals are very strong now: drink, eat, more, all done.

Mimi walked with Anna downtown one day while Amber was getting a haircut and they came across a black cat made of concrete. Anna was enamored and so Mimi got it for her. The cat is hitched up on its hind legs, tail in the air and its mouth open. She likes to stick her finger in the cats mouth and regularly tries to feed it pine straw. She loves the cat!

She also likes the two neighbor cats: Nixon and George. They are both black, one with some white spots. They will come to the back door and parade for Anna through the glass. Sometimes they will climb up to the window ledge and walk the length of the three windows just while Anna is there hanging on to the ledge looking out. 

(9/18/04) Anna's First Birthday was yesterday. She had a bunch of friends over for the weekly playday. Amber setup the pool and sandbox in the garage and the kids also enjoyed cupcakes.

She has now had her first illness. She got a bad earache. We had to take her to the doctor twice and the hospital once. Her temperature range from 103.7 down to 96. This slowed her down for about 3 days. One night she started crying about midnight and by 1am we decided it was time to take her to the hospital. She was still crying at 3am, but gradually the medicine soothed her to sleep. So they sent us home about 3:30am. By the time we got home, Anna was ready to play. Mom and Anna stayed up until about 4:30am while Dad cut out around 4am. Amber was really tired as she'd been up since about 5:30am the previous morning!

Anna loves to romp on a bed with lots of pillows and bury her face in the pillows or a comforter. That will almost always pull her out of a bad mood, at least for a short while.

She has been walking with her walker toy, or holding on to Mom, so we still think her walking is any day now...

She has said "chee" for cheese several times and loves to sing "ee-ii, ee-ii" over and over from Old McDonald. She even practices "Da-dee", but otherwise doesn't have much to do with Dad these days. She also shakes her head for "no" and "yes" at times. When she is hungry so goes to her high chair and stands and yells. When one of us approaches, she gives us the hand signal for "eat" (moving her hand to her mouth).

Today is her birthday party. We'll have cake and ice-cream and lots of family and friends. Amber made two cakes: a large 4-layer strawberry cake for the guests, and a small strawberry cake just for Anna.

(8/28/04) Anna is still on the verge of walking! We have made our kitchen nook into Anna's play room (no pictures yet). Amber removed all the furniture and put down padded foam tiles. We've moved many of Anna's things from the living room into this area. She really seems to love this area. Our living room now has a small children's tent with a tunnel into it that Anna loves crawling through.

She's learned to clap her hands and stomp her feet when we sing, "If you are happy and you know it...". For some reason, she also like to spin in a circle (as she sits on the floor) as we do this. I guess clapping and stomping are not enough.

She looks right at me and says "da-da" many times and that is enough right there to melt away all the hard times! But she mostly is still a "mama's girl," when things are tough she wants her mama! For instance when she wakes in the middle of the night about 1/3 of the time she will go back to sleep, but other times the cries and screams build to an incredible level. So usually Amber runs to turn the alarm off. And what she wants is a bottle from her mother! I've tried, but she rarely if ever is satisfied with me in that situation. So I have to remain in bed and sleep! Thanks, Amber!

She will occasionally say, "ma-ma", and "ju" (for juice). She knows her sign-language for "bottle" (she squeezes her fist), "all done" (both arms/hands make a push away gesture), and "eat" (moves fingers to her mouth).

(8/8/04) Anna is on the verge of walking. She's a masterful crawler. She can make it up the steps to our upstairs 3 times! 

She went to Barnsley Gardens where her Aunt Ansley got married to Jason. The wedding was outdoors and the weather was rather warm. Anna made it through the pictures but started to have a meltdown. Anna and Dad missed the wedding proper and returned to the cabin. Later, they were escorted back for the reception in a golf cart. On the return trip to Valdosta, Anna and Mom and Dad all had near simultaneous meltdowns in Cordele, GA, about an hour from home. For a while things were iffy and it looked like we might spend the night there, things were so HOT. But we found a McDonalds with an indoor playground. We all crawled around for about an hour on a very grimy play mats. That was enough to cool down and we made it on home. 

Nana and cousin Trisha came down for almost a week. We went to Wild Adventures several times, and to the water park, and saw the fireworks. Anna really enjoyed the wave pool and seemed mesmerized with the fireworks. As always, it was sad to see them go.

Anna is eating practically anything: chicken and rice with lentils, avocado, oatmeal, fish, chicken, and cake as well as all her vegetables. We still have cooked fresh every single bit of food that has been in her mouth (except of course bread, cheese, pickles, etc.). We usually start meals by dumping peas and carrots onto her tray and letting her feed herself. This can buy you up to 15 minutes while you get the other food ready, or just relax a minute. Its always a good feeling when she is in her high chair happily eating: she's safe and not getting into anything! She like to feed whoever is around to. She will hold a pea or carrot out to your mouth. Sometimes she doesn't relinquish the food though and it promptly goes in her mouth. Very recently, she has started mashing the peas with her fingers, but she still eats them.

Anna likes to crawl under and between things. She crawled up into and under a kitchen chair and got stuck. She has also experimented sliding on her belly which is much easier on our wood floors. She slid up under her "pack and play" and got stuck there too. If you see the thing, it is truly amazing that she got under that thing. She was wedged in!

Amber and Anna finger painted one day in the shower.

She likes to wave. She will frequently wave at the TV and once she waved at the President as he waved descending the stairs of Air Force One. She will clap too.

Anna has been saying "DaDa" occassionally, a lot more recently. She has said "MaMa" a few times. She's a consummate screamer. It never seems to end sometimes and if you are near her it will really pierce your eardrum! She set our house alarm off twice in one night from screaming. Now, the decibel level of the house alarm was really loud and that stopped her screaming for a few minutes. The next day, we had the alarm company come and replace the sensor in her room. So far, she has not set the alarm off again, thank goodness.

Things are good, albeit challenging...

(6/7/04) Anna has had quite the time in the last 2 months. She has been to the Suwanee Springfest, St. Simons Island, Washington DC, the Biltmore House, Roan Mt, and the Florida Folk Festival. She and Amber came down for the day to the Springfest while Dave camped the whole weekend. We are making plans to camp with Anna in the Fall for the Manoliafest. We went to St. Simons Island in April where we met Dave's brother Richard and his family (Stacie and Trisha). It was really great to see them and for them to get to spend time with Anna. She went with Amber to Washington for a week while Amber went to Dealer School. Amber took all her food that we cooked, frozen in a small cooler and that lasted for the week, with a little help from the hotel restaurant. Our friend Stacy Moore went with Anna and Amber to keep Anna during the day while Amber went to class. When school finished, we took her To Asheville for a few nights and then on to Roan Mt. We went on several short hikes in the mountains as Dave and Amber alternated carrying her in a backpack carrier. We also took her in the indoor pool in our hotel in Asheville and she had a blast. Anna really enjoyed the animals (tiny chicks, and sheep) at the Biltmore House. 

She is beginning to crawl now and climb up on things. Our den has been transformed into a safe zone. Many things have been removed. The fireplace is covered with foam squares that show the alphabet and the room is filled with her toys. She spends many hours there. And when she gets cranky (or we need a break), we slip in a Baby Einstein video. The water video is her favorite. 

She talks a lot, but not in words we recognize. She went through a period of yelling very loudly, just practicing. Dave's mother and father got a taste of that when we met them in the mountains. Thankfully, that didn't last too long, maybe 10 days. As for other "speaking" events, we have heard her (we think!) say "Hey" and kind-of wave, as we do to her all the time. She will also mimic, "quack-quack", another phrase we frequently use. No "mama" or "dada" yet! 

We got Anna a small outdoor pool. She seems to really like water a lot! She loves to take a bath or just play with any water. 

We continue to feed her more and more diverse foods, all that we have cooked ourselves. These include acorn squash, starburst squash, avocado, kiwi, watermelon, mango, red lentils, chicken, several varieties of apples. Her all time favorite seems to be sweet potato or butternut squash. She also seems to love food. The only thing we have found that she didn't do well with was regular potatoes. We think it is the texture, more than the taste, as we prepared them a little pasty. Anna likes to eat Cheerios and it is so fun to see her pick them up with her fingers and put them into her mouth. 

We have a safe cabinet for her in the kitchen. It has a pullout drawer with a bunch of tupperware containers and a small toy or two. Our kitchen is large, so she can safely play there for a long time while meals are being prepared. 

Anna's finger(s) are often in her mouth as more teeth come in. There are 6 now in various states. She frequently has pains at night, but they are mild we think. 

Dave is home for the summer and baby sits on Tuesday and Thursday while Amber goes to work. It has been a wonderful experience for him and he has learned so many things. 

(4/3/04) Anna's rolling all over the place. Laying on her stomach, she looks like a frog as she tries so hard to propel herself forward, squirming her legs and her arms and her head cocked up like a turtle. Oh, she wants to crawl, but it is not happening yet! She loves to eat and haven't found anything she doesn't like yet. We've been feeding her (besides her soy formula), only vegetables that we have cooked ourselves: green beans, squash, butternut squash, sweet potato, apple, pear, banana, and a few others. We cook up big batches and freeze them in ice cube trays, so we have a ready stash of all sorts of treats for her. Anna likes to watch the Wiggles on TV (you have to be the parent of a young child to understand). It is so neat to see her bust out with a great big smile when the dancing/singing begins the show. She recently attended her first NCAA women's regional final basketball game, where she cheered on the Lady Vols in high fashion by all reports. Amber and her mother took her. She has previously attended many VSU games here in town. We also recently took her to the Azalea Festival in Valdosta, and to Springfest where she got her picture taken with Guy Clark and Verlon Thompson. Tomorrow, we are headed for the beach. I look forward to holding her as she first touches the ocean!