Busted by Mia

My niece Mia has begged me to post some pictures...so here they are!

Reading the paper with Daddy!

Napping with Daddy

Standing like she's been doing it all her life!

Maniac!

'Cuz she's a maniac, maniac in the swing!

Joy

Taken this morning on my bed during a quick nap. Love her little feet!

Joy - I have it. Lots of it. Annika's smiles, her feet, her grin, even her not so great moments have been nothing but pure joy the last 6 months. I am blessed.

Happy Mother's Day.

Riding on Thomas the Train all by herself! Stopping to smell the roses in her pretty dress from her Abuela.
Fashion diva!

Friends, family, and a new camera!

Wow. Slacker am I. Can't believe it's been over a month since I've posted. In all fairness, I have been pretty busy. I'm making up for last year's homesick/pregnant/hormonal/grouchy/friendless/go no where funk by playing outside as much as possible. Annika and I now have a pretty solid core group of mommy and baby friends that we walk with almost every day. And the best part is they also like to eat afterwards. After our long walks on the beach (somedays 6+ miles), we work up quite an appetite and, well, need to eat. Our little beach town has everything we could want in a 2 block radius: bbq, thai, Hawaiian, pub fare, Mexican, Indian, sushi, - you name it! It's a foody's dream come true. Except this time of year its beginning to get a bit crowded - may have to find another venue to walk.

Annika and I took a brief trip up to Seattle to see the fam and see the sobrinos over Spring break. It was cold - snowed twice even! But we survived. We had a lovely time. I bought a new camera - a Canon Rebel. Still learning how to use it - such a novice! But, I have a beautiful little girl to practice on and only gets annoyed after 30 shots or so...lol. Here are some pics from the last few weeks in no particular order.

Grandma A and Annika laughing at an inside joke.

Playing with the new camera. Love the look on her face!

She melts my heart!

Love the new camera even more for making me look skinnier than I really am....ha ha ha.

Out for Pho with Anna and her sweetie girl, Emma as well as Adam and little Gabe.

Emma and Annika

Adam and Gabe

Ooo! Grandma has stripes, too!

Maddie, a bottle-feeding pro!

On UW campus. Daddy had a cow when I told him where we were....Go Dawgs!!!!

Losing the light, but caught this pretty blossom. Not sure if its a dogwood or magnolia?

Out for Indian food with Uncle Doug and the fabulous Amber. I love how he's looking at her. Such a cute couple.

Learning all the tricks of the trade for the family rummy game.

"Annika, don't throw a rummy card!" She is really concentrating!

A-Rob

Sweet girl!!!

Scout and A-Rob playing at the park at the mall.

Mommy! STOP!

4 months old and sneaky sister

Growing so fast! Scroll back to December to see other pics in her chair!

Annika hit the 4 month milestone on the 28th, and we had her check up on the 2nd. Shots, of course, were part of the appointment. Now that I've 4 months of experience under my belt, I've started to ignore the doctor who tells me to not get her dressed before the shots. Have you ever tried to dress a screaming infant? I have - 2x now, and it isn't very manageable.

Anyway, this time I had her completely dressed when the nurse came in and I simply adjusted her pants for the shots in both legs. Much easier.

The shots - at first she was screaming because it hurt, and did she ever give the nurse the Peruvian death glare! I had never seen that look on her face! After about 2 minutes her crying turned to simple rage. O, the inhumanity! She raged all the way through the office, at the receptionist while paying the copay, all the way to the car. And then immediately switched it off when I put her in the car seat and her 'little friends' on the car seat arm popped into view. "Oh, there you are" she seems to say, and starts her chirpy little chatting at them like nothing just happened. What a funny little girl.

She's still in the 95th percentile for both height and weight. As a result, I'm no longer carrying her around in the car seat. It stays in the car. She's almost 18 pounds. I'm so glad we opted to buy the Graco Safeseat over the Snugride as the Safeseat goes up to 30 lbs, and the Snug only to 22. All of her other progress is on track. She smiled, laughed and cooed for the doctor, holds her head up really well, 'standing' when supported, etc.

It also skews the sizes of baby clothes, most often listed by months. She's into 9-12 months clothes already. Dang it.

In other baby news, she is turning over front to back. It is hilarious. She doesn't intend to, doesn't know she's doing it. She gets a bit high-centered on her belly, moves her head a little off-center, and gravity takes over. Then there she is on her back looking up at me with a puzzled little expression. I cheer and clap and get her to smile - provide positive reinforcement. Now, back to front! She is ALMOST there! She gets completeley on her side - one hip/shoulder completely off the ground. However, her elbows are in the way as her little hands are competeing for top spot in her mouth. Any day now...and then it will be a whole new ballgame in the A house.

We got the go-ahead for rice cereal and she had her first serving the other day. What a messy little enterprise that is! She took to the spoon and rice immediately, but also felt she had to help. Her hands were everywhere - in her mouth right after a bite of food, then hands to the head, the ears, the side of the bumbo. Ergo, baby and 3 foot circumference around her is getting hosed down after a meal...lol. She loves the rice. We've been experimenting and letting her taste tiny little bits of our food. The other day I was eating some BBQ beans and put a tiny little bit of sauce on my finger for her to taste. She loved it. Her eyes got all wide and she started smacking her gums together. However, outside of small little tastes of food, we're sticking to the rice until 6 months.

What else is new....oh yeah. She's started blowing raspberries! And lifting her hips off the ground by planting her feet, and grabbing everything she can. Cats no longer safe. I'm having to keep my hair pulled back as she's gotten a good grip a couple times. She thinks its funny. Yeah. Funny kid.

Still sleeping through the night. In bed by about 8:30, and up around 6:30-7ish. Takes a small bottle, and back down for a nap (at her prompting) for another two hours. Funny, but not a big eater in the morning. Only will graze about 2-3 oz, but demands more as the day progresses. Her final bottle around 8 PM is about 7-8 oz. And she's stopped eating every 4 hours and eats every 3 now. And you know what? If that's the price for a beautiful full night's sleep, I'll pay it.

Her are some pics.

Oh yeah. Sneaky sister slyly snuck into town last Thursday to help me celebrate my 40th. I had an inkling she was doing this, but no firm confirmation. Even her sneaky kids were covering for her. Carolyn called me from the airport Thursday night and asked me to come get her. Ha ha. Anyway, on my way I called her house and got Scout, my niece. I asked to talk to her mom and she told me "She's at the mall". Reeeaalllly....funny kids.
I was so happy to see her. Annika loves her so much too! We did lots of great stuff. Went for a walk in HB on the beach, lots of Starbucks, went to the Farmer's Market/The Grove in LA, more Starbucks, and hit Downtown Disney as well. And more Starbucks. And the bookstore. Yeah. A perfect weekend! Cried when she left, though.
Did I mention she's also a cat whisperer? Fuego, the tailed Calico - likes no one but me, and well, Carolyn. Kept poking and headbutting her all weekend for attention. And Osa, of course, finds any sucker with a lap.
Home Invasion! Our little house is slowly being morphed into some primary color explosion!

Beach Baby

Annika and I have joined a mom's group which walks on the beach or the park several days a week. On the beach there is often a glare, so when I saw these adorable wrap around pink sunglasses, I couldn't resist. She loves them!

We leave around 8:30 in the morning for our commute down the coast on the PCH to our walking destination on the beach. She gets silly and giddy when I put her in the car seat -- it's almost like she knows where we're going! She loves our walks, looking at the birds, meeting new people and just being outside for several hours a day. She takes better naps afterwards and seems to sleep better at night on walk days (me too!!!).

Additionally, I'm meeting new friends with babies all around the same age, and meet up for coffee and lunch as well. Meetup.com has been a lifesaver!

My sneaky sister Carolyn flew into town last night to surprise me for my 40th B-Day. It's so nice to see her and Annika adores her.

Chillin' in her new shades.

Our cat Osa sniffing my shoes...she gets her head in there and starts acting crazy. Hmmm...don't know what that means.

Bedtime antics, continued.

I think she's one step ahead of us...let me explain.

Yesterday was one of those 'I think I'm a bad parent' days after she spent two straight hours of crying/yelling/screaming/fussing in lieu of taking a nap. Nothing could entertain, distract, or calm her. Needless to say, at the end of those two hours my nerves were shot and I can honestly say she wasn't my favorite person in the world at that moment. Yet, still madly in love with her.

Anyway, V and I decided to implement a more structured, tough love bedtime routine that was going to include increasing 'cry it out' intervals starting at 2 minutes, three minutes, etc. I was stressing out all yesterday afternoon and evening preparing for the coming bedtime battle. So, here's how we planned our bedtime routine that we intend to use every night.
7:45 - bath
8:00 - final bottle (based on her historic schedule)
8:20 - story and prayers
8:30 - bed, and if refuses to clam down go in at 2 minutes to console and calm, but not pick up or take out of room.

What a great plan! :-)

Here's how the night went:
7:45 - pleasant, uneventful bath.
8:00 - daddy fed her a bottle, drank 6 ounces (normal)
8:20 - fell sound asleep on daddy's shoulder while being burped, didn't wake until 6:30 this morning.

So much for all that time stressing for the battle!

Tonight, planned the same routine.

She started fussing for a bottle about an hour earlier than normal, tried to entertain/distract but ended up feeding her at 7:00 PM. She fell asleep in her rocker and simply was out. I finally put her in her crib, fully clothed, at 9:00. Not a peep since.

I think she knows we want to put her on a schedule, but she wants to do bedtime on her own terms? What a clever little girl.

Or, it might be the 2-3 hour walks we took yesterday and today that knocked her out. Who knows. I'm grateful for two nights of hassle-free bedtime!

Bedtime antics

Argh. We coddled Annika at bedtime for a week or so during her cold, i.e. rocking her to sleep, sleeping in her rocker to be elevated - basically broke with our routine. Don't get me wrong - I still adore her, but man! We've tried to go back to the pre-cold routine and dangit, she'll have no part of it. Oh well. We're rookies and will fugure this out too... :-)

The 40th Birthday week is here!

Propped on the couch. She hates being on her back - needs to see what's going on!

I figured since my 40th (yes, fortieth!) birthday is smack in the middle of the week on Wednesday this year, I'm going to claim the entire week as a cause for celebration!

We started celebrating on Friday by escaping the city and trekking up to Big Bear Lake in the mountains. We had a very cozy, QUIET cabin right off the lake with a fireplace. It was a very restful, peaceful weekend (except for some brief moments when Annika wasn't so restful nor peaceful).

She's been a bit off the last week or so with a cold. Due to the sniffles and slight congestion, she's really uncomfortable on her back so has been sleeping in her Fisher Price infant-toddler rocker. Can I mention we love this thing? So does she, by the way. She can sit up or recline in it, and it's good to up to 35 pounds and will be around awhile.

Tongiht, she sat outside in her bumbo while Daddy cleaned the patio. She loves being outside and gets cranky on days we don't go for walks - she actually will get grousy and complain. This is sovled by a quick trip outside around the block, or even to the mailbox. I find on days we take our walks, she takes better naps and sleeps better overnight too.

Here are some pictures from this weekend:

Adorable!

View from the cabin at Big Bear Lake

The cabin

Bundled in the car ready to drive home early Sunday

My two favorite people in the whole wide world.

Catching up (aka - OK Mom! I'll post some pics!)

It's been a really busy month so far! My brother Doug flew down for a long weekend at the beginning of the month, and the same day he left, Annika and I flew to Salt Lake to see my other brother Jim and his fun fam. Shortly after our return from SLC, my niece Scout came down over the President's Day weekend for some fun in the sun - and a surprise trip to Disneyland! Those pics are on another camera and I'll post later. It has been an exciting month so far, and isn't letting up! More on that later too... in the meantime, here are some pics from the month!

Annika's second airplane trip. She's becoming quite the experienced little traveler!

Utah fam - code names Princess and Dutch. Out for a walk on a sunny day!
Annika all bundled up in the stroller. She loves going for walks! She now can sit in the stroller (as opposed to the car seat) and loves having a better view.
Princess and Annika hanging out.
Dutch, Annika and I playing patty-cake. 'Dutch' shares the same birthday as Ronald Reagan, so I thought it was a solid blog nick-name for him.

At Cabelas in Utah. Love that store! Found a pink camo blanket for Annika, and a new pink backpack. Annika loved looking at all the animals.
Passed out on the beanbag. We caught a nasty cold on our trip and came home early. We were lousy house guests!
At home, Victor set up her new saucer. She had just started to grab things and thought she was ready, and she was!
She loves this little toy and spins the wheels around and around and around.
La curiosidad mata al gato. Cats in a box.
Sweet little daddy's girl!
Playing on her new camo blanket from Cabelas. Can you find the baby?
Beach baby! Laying on a blanket at the beach inside a little suntent that broke the first time we used it....grrrrrrr.
Walking along Huntington Beach with Uncle Doug.
Uncle Doug and Annika.
Hanging with mom.
Napping with dad.