Friday, July 31, 2009

So it's been months...

I thought I'd update the world on our lives - semi, anyways...

We are a month and a half from Nadia's "due" date :) That's fun. Tomorrow we begin painting the new room, putting the crib together, etc. We received our Contours Tandem Double Stroller in the mail yesterday thanks to our awesome family (Lora & Q) and so things are definitely getting more real! However, I must confess that although Anna is only 15 months old, the days of thousands of diapers, spitting up and lots of crying seem so long ago that I had almost forgotten...only to be starting them again! Oh well :) At least this time I know it passes :) We'll post pictures of the room - maybe :)

As far as Anna Grace is concerned, she is an absolute joy. Daryl and I are constantly telling each other what a delight she is and how much we are enjoying this stage of her life. She still naps twice a day, sleeps great at night, is great on trips, loves life, and there is so much to fascinate her since she is still so young - oh, and she loves us - yay! In the morning when I carry her down stairs she says, "Hi, Mommy", puts her little arms around me and says, "Hug...kiss..." So fun.

Some stats - Anna weighs 22 lbs and 30 inches tall. She still has minimal hair, but otherwise, is very healthy :)


As far as words go, she at least makes an attempt to say anything you ask and often tries to mimic us. We're sure she says at least 150 correctly, although we have to ask her to repeat them sometimes, but we're pretty okay with that! She also has begun putting words together. Like at the doctors on Wednesday she got two stickers and said, "Mommy, two sticker." She also says things like, "I'll be back" or "All done, down?" Tonight at dinner with friends she said (mostly correctly) Megan, John, Kirk (Tirk), and Naomi (Nami).

She can count to 3, say the alphabet to "F", point to most all body parts (although she often gets her shoulders wrong), distinguish colors like yellow, blue, and pink, make her animal noises and is an excellent dancer ;) She completed her first puzzle all by herself yesterday (please don't be fooled - the pieces are huge and go in holes that have the picture of them in it) and makes sure to remind us to clap when she does such things correctly.

She also took swimming lessons this summer and was certainly the most improved (she cried off and on the first few days!) and now LOVES pools and the beach. Examples:




Other firsts for her - the beach, the zoo, Washington DC, 12 hour car trip, sleeping in a hotel room with Mommy and Daddy. She has recently taken to singing as well, and although she usually only says the first few words correctly loves singing "Twinkle, twinkle," "Rain, Rain, Go Away," and "Head & Shoulders, Knees & Toes."

Thankfully she still will play in her exersaucer while I shower, but because she has watched me get ready so often, she is now putting on deodorant (without taking the cap off), blush (she literally takes the top off the brush, spins it out and swabs her face, spins it back and returns the cap), etc. This is a little disconcerting.


For instance - Anna wearing mommies headband. She insists this is "pretty".

Daryl is doing fantastic as well. We have traveled what seems like a lot this summer and he has been a huge help through it all as well as just a blast to be around. This is the first full weekend we've been home in 5 weeks, I believe, and we are very, very glad. I don't think we'll be traveling much now until after baby 2. Yay. Neither of us have any new stats we would like to share. I'll be keeping my weight to myself for a while, thank you :)


That's it for now. Thanks for checking in.

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father...

So, Anna is 1 year and almost a month! We survived the first year, to the praise of His grace! Anna is still alive and well :)

Many people ask if we can believe she's a year old...I feel silly, because I guess most people can't, but we can! She seems to have changed so much to us - even in the past month! Anyways, here are some pics from her first birthday party which was an ABSOLUTE blast. We can't believe what great friends and families we have and we got so many cool gifts we haven't even brought all of them out for her to play with yet (mwa ha ha). Now she'll think we buy her cool toys every month! Haha!


The beautiful birthday girl


The festive room (thanks Kadie, Mom and Jarod for the decoration help!)


The fun games!
(This was a "fishing game". The kids would cast a line over the "water" and catch a cool prize!)

Anna and her sweet cousin Georgia from Texas...
Anna absolutely adores her and still kisses her picture!

The awesome presents!


The goody boxes

The Blaney Family (ever expanding)

It was such a fun celebration for many reasons, and absolutely crazy, too! Can you believe we forgot to give Anna a piece of cake?!?!!!!!! WHAT? That's like the mandatory first birthday thing, I think.

So, on her actual birthday we tried again...



Perhaps they can sing Happy Birthday to me everyday? I love this!


Trying it out.




Not a success :)

Oh, well. We love her and hope for many more wonderful years with her!

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Updates...

So it's been a long time. Here is where I would like to insert a million excuses, but won't. Let's just say I have no idea how I'll have any time for stuff like this with two :) but I'm totally okay with that.

Speaking of two, we find out the sex of baby dos (Lord willing) on May 1st. Super stoked about this. For those of you who were wondering, baby dos was not "planned", but certainly not unwanted. We didn't like any "preventative" measures for lots of different reasons and since we like kids, we aren't all that concerned when they come :) Although I must confess a couple of things...
1) I don't want to be pregnant (at least looking pregnant) next Valentine's Day or my next Anniversary
2) My husband and I both would like to get to ride amusement rides next summer
3) Neither of those points mean much

I have been more sick with baby dos, but that seems to have passed as the last two weeks I haven't thrown up at all :) Now I'm just hungry like every 2 hours. And I mean HUNGRY.

Onto baby uno - our dear sweet Anna Grace...
So, she turns one in less than a month. Crazy, eh? Although oddly she seems to become more and more like a "little girl" to me almost daily. Today she started actually saying, "more" instead of just signing it. Too cute.

As far as things she can say...
  • mama, dada
  • hi, bye
  • please - "peace"
  • more
  • bear - "bea"
  • bunny - "buhhy"
  • night night - "nigh nigh"
  • no
  • snow - also "no"
  • hot - "ho.........ttttt"
  • light - "igh"
  • uh oh
  • wee (this when she is being spun, rocked, swang, or pushed around in the rolling office chair)
  • thank you - "aaa ooo"
  • boo
  • book although the k is often silent
  • she can also make most all animal noises :)
Darling isn't always very talkative infront of others until she gets warmed up though. Daryl likes to say she is in "data intake" mode whenever we go to a new place - someone's house she's never been to, a new nursery, store, etc. She REALLY looks everything over, and then somewhere along the way gets wound up. When she wants to, she can be a real charmer - the doctors office, grocery store, church nursery, etc. She pretty much blows EVERYONE kisses which I love because this seems to delight most people. Especially since she has no prejudices :) I love that about her too.

She's been walking since 10 months and so we've been learning what not to touch and also what an ornery creature she is :) I make her look me in the face when I'm disciplining her and oh, how many times I honestly have prayed for grace just not to bust out laughing because her faces are so funny!

We like to call Anna "bam bam" because although she is very feminine in someways, she is also kind of crazy. Even though we have hard wood floors, she hardly ever cries when she falls down or gets pushed down by another running tot. She loves throwing pillows or blankets on the floor and diving on them (sometimes missing). She flips around until she gets comfy and says, "nigh nigh". Just recently she also added fake snoring, which I'm very pleased with :)

She LOVES bath time, bubbles, outside, having the windows open, when Daryl comes home from work, puppies, birdies, dancing, friends, attention, and oh, these Gerber cheese puff type things. Literally she'll grab handfuls and try to stuff her face. She also loves her "big girl chair" from Uncle Jarod and Aunt Kadie and is often found reading there :)

While she still has barely any hair, we are so thankful that the past year she has been VERY healthy and growing strong and well (four teeth so far! so cute!). She even goes down for naps and bed time with a smile and a kiss most nights - yay! What a gift of grace that we don't deserve! We give God all the praise!

As far as Daryl and I, we are doing great although he has been swamped with work this semester which is sad for all of us. On a happier note, I am "retiring" May 23rd to enjoy the whole summer at home before baby dos! I can't wait to be a stay at home mom. Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait! Praise God!!!

This past month we celebrated many things - my brother's birthday....

my mom and Daryl's birthday...

(here is my pappap with a wig on - YES, A WIG - trying to get Anna to like him. Would you believe he is the ONLY person she has not yet warmed up to???)

Our anniversary and of course St. Patrick's Day.
We also celebrated Naomi's birth :), Janine dropping in to town for a while from Africa and seeing the Coburn's...
So the girls weren't much for pictures...

We would also like to give a HUGE thank you to our parents for often watching Anna, including overnight twice last month, and Tara for watching her one evening free of charge. We really love and appreciate you guys, and so does Anna :)

Sorry so long.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Our little animal :)

Here's Anna early this morning, sharing her vast wealth of knowledge :) haha.




Now she gets serious...


Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Public Blog - EDIT

I forgot to put the address of it....http://livingchara.blogspot.com/

Sorry about that...

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So...I finally got around to making my public blog and I hope to update that one bi-weekly, but unfortunately not with pictures or videos of Anna. For those, you'll have to come here occasionally (although I don't update here very often - sorry) or join facebook :) Haha.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Mimicking...



She is so fun! Crawling when she has to, but she mostly likes to "cruise." She is a babbler and a big time laugh-er :) God couldn't have given us a better gift in Anna Grace.