Pool Time

Temps keep climbing and it will be no time until the big D is engulfed in triple digits. So I went out and bought Annabelle a new pool. It was a great investment...She loves it! Here are some pics of her playing in our backyard.

It Doesn't Get Better Than This

Annabelle and I have had a super fun week! Playing with friends, finger painting, breaking in the new pool and general silliness. Hope all of you had a good one!

Best Buds...Kinda

Tillie has developed a love/scared for her life relationship with Annabelle! The love comes in when you talk about food... Annabelle definitely drops (partially on accident but partially on purpose!) a ton of food on the floor for Bean to devour. On the other hand she has to risk her life, and fur, to go get the food.

She is safest when A is in her highchair during regular meals. Tillie doesn't get the best loot in this situation. If she really wants the good stuff, she waits until snack time when A is either in her walker or on the floor. The problem that Tillie has begun to notice is that Annabelle is getting awfully quick these days. Her little body can crawl at lighting speed and if she sets her sights on Tillie, there is no going back!

It's not all bad tho. Tillie has trusted A to take part in some house responsibilities... squirrel watching. They will both stare out into our backyard looking for the furry misfits during the day. Very important stuff! Tillie also likes to take part in some of A's play activities. Her favorites are walking through tunnels and sunbathing while A plays in her pool.

Here are some pics....

Annabelle on the Move

Annabelle hardly stays in one place these days. Crawling, cruising and occasionally walking! I love it!

Random Acts of Cuteness

Oh my, I am a proud Mamma and most everything Annabelle does makes me smile. Here are some random acts of cuteness to make you smile! Cheers!

My co-pilot... Mr Bunny

Sweet eyes that make you melt

Praise the block!

Reading with Tillie

Helping Mom clean the house

WUZZZZ UPPPPP!

Practicing her ninja skills

9 Months!

I know I am late in posting my 9 month report but I wanted to wait until we had the official growths stats from the DR visit. So, here we go. Annabelle is 16.3 lbs and 28 inches (16th and 40th percentiles). She has put on weight at a faster rate compared to last DR visit (6 months)... mostly because she's now eating solids and is on an all formula diet. She is by no means a chunky baby but she definitely has very strong legs and has a sweet Buddha belly!

Annabelle is now VERY mobile. As you have probably already seen- sorry, I have been video heavy lately on the blog- she is crawling like a champ and now pulling up and cruising. I had been hearing from all my friends with kiddos that they move quickly from crawling to walking but I really had no idea! She started crawling last Sunday and on Monday she started pulling up and cruising along her crib in her room. She has always been more interested in walking so I guess I wasn't too surprised at her determination to get up on two feet but it does makes me sad that she is growing up so fast! 

Food- Annabelle is eating stage three foods now and bits and pieces off of our plates. I am trying to move her more toward "real" food as opposed to baby jar food. Also, since she now has TWO teeth, she is getting better at eating chunkier foods. She has moved to three solid meals a day plus a snack (she likes puffs and yogurt melts) in the afternoon and four bottles. She can down about 23 oz of formula a day. 

Toys- Over the last couple of weeks I have noticed a real change in Annabelle's toy preferences. She really likes to press buttons and flip switches. She still loves books but now she really turns the pages and opens tabs in peek a boo books. She still loves her walker but has now taken a real liking to her music table and push toy. I know that we will be converting her activity table from a sitting play station to a standing island soon. Just another step in her growing up... tear!

Sleep- Not much has changed in her sleeping patterns. She sleeps approximately from 7 pm to 7 am. I have noticed that when she has a tooth coming in or if her ears are hurting her that she doesn't sleep well. Since she has started pulling up and standing I have had a couple of scares in the middle of the night. She stands up but doesn't know how to get back down. Scary... I don't blame her for crying! I did have to take her music box out of her crib the other day. She figured out how to turn it on and off and decided that was more fun than napping. Funny girl!

Speech and language- Annabelle is saying dada finally. Stephen is absolutely thrilled and so am I! Her vocabulary now includes dada's, mama's, gaga's, goo's, ha's ect. She babbles a lot and screams with excitement when she plays or see's something amusing. It's delightful and usually makes me smile!

Ok, I think that is all for now. Except to say that this month has been an eye opener. I am stunned by how fast she is growing up. Does that book on the head thing really work....?? I am thinking about trying it!

It's getting harder to get my monthly photos with her moving around! Here is a funny out take.

Happy Earth Day!

We celebrated Earth Day today by visiting the Texas Discovery Garden. I had been looking forward to seeing their butterfly house exhibit and we had so much fun at the Children's Aquarium (also located at Fair Park) last week that this was a no brainier outing for our little family. Annabelle loved seeing all the butterflies flying around and enjoyed seeing the grounds. It was a small museum so we got in and out of there within 2 hours. I love family field trips!

Daddy and A

Mom and A... too bad she isn't looking at the camera! 

Pic of the day!

Running around in the garden 

looking for butterflies 

Checking out the reflection pool

She really wanted to touch the butterflies!

Taking a break on the new butterfly chairs.

Sweet face!

Pulling Up and Cruising...

Could this be true? A is already cruising? She just started crawling last Sunday! AAAAHHH!!!

Watch Out Tillie!

Annabelle is on the move.... I think Tillie was caught off guard!

AND.... She's Crawling!

Wha Hoo! Annabelle is on the move!

A Visits the Dallas Children's Aquarium

We took A to the Dallas Children's Aquarium in Fair Park this afternoon. I had read a bunch of reviews saying that is was a neat little aquarium -perfect for little ones. I have to agree. Annabelle loved it. It wasn't too busy so she could get right up to the exhibits and look at the fish ect. This isn't a big aquarium either so it was the place to visit between nap times. We were in and out, having seen all of the exhibits, in an hour and a half! Awesome!