11 Months!

Wow, this is my last monthly post before she turns one. The thought makes tears well up in my eyes as I write this. Each month brings so much change and so much joy. I feel like this month has been characterized by Anna's evolving communication skills. For example:

1) She has started to do the sign for milk (cute, but just because she does the sign doesn't mean she gets some :) and all done. She doesn't quite understand exactly when to do the all done sign because I think she also uses it to mean more. She has been waving for awhile but now does it almost anytime we say bye-bye.

2) Anyone that has been around her for more than a few minutes knows that her favorite word to say is "Hi" and she will say it to people repeatedly. She has figured out that it always gets a good reaction. She also says mama, dada, buh for bird and da-ah-ga for dog (somehow she has turned it into a three syllable word).

3) When we sing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes she will put her hand from her head to her shoulders.

4) She is even more interactive with her little friends, especially the little boy named Sam that I watch. He is three months older than her and has started asking for Nanna whenever she is napping. They are so precious together.

Anna also has quite the appetite these days. It seems like she eats as much as I do. She is only 1/5th my size...either I'm not eating enough or she is eating too much! When she is sitting in the high chair waiting for her food, she rocks back and forth, kicks her legs and does this funny little laugh in excitement and anticipation of her meal. Must be my awesome cooking...ha, ha, ha.

She is very into books and will sit and "read" for several minutes. When I am reading to her she wants to turn the pages faster than I can read so I have learned to improvise.


She loves to walk around with my help and now only needs to hold one of my hands. She still needs a little more confidence to try to stand by herself or take steps on her own.

That's My King

I love this video and thought today was the perfect day to put it on the blog. If you have seen it before, watch it again!

Happy Easter

Anna is going through a phase where she loves to put things inside of other things so she had fun taking the eggs out of her basket and putting them back in.

This is just a close-up of her Easter dress that I love. It was handmade in Peru and I found it for only $4 at a consignment store!

Anna hanging out with her cousins, Nalani and Shanna, after Easter lunch.

Seder

On Thurday, we hosted a Seder meal with our lifegroup. What is a Seder meal you might be asking...well, it is the traditional Passover Week Dinner celebrated by the Hebrews since the Exodus. It is like a Hebrew Thanksgiving to God for deliverance and redemption. Seder is also that famous dinner called The Last Supper, hosted by Jesus for His disciples just before He was crucified. I think the Seder meal is a good way for us to prepare ourselves for the significance of Easter and not let it pass as just another Sunday.

It was a fun evening with good friends and good food. Last year Brad's parents hosted a Seder dinner so this is the second year in a row that we have gotten to experience a Seder. Hopefully it will be a tradition that we continue.

SURPRISE!

Today is Brad's 30th birthday! I knew he would suspect that I was going to do something special for this birthday, so I copied a play from his playbook (some of you may remember the super secret surprise pre-emptive she ain't 30 yet surpise birthday that he threw for me). I threw a pre-emptive surprise birthday 3 weeks early. It was a casino party and it was so much fun. Brad was totally surprised and he felt blessed to have so many friends and family there to celebrate him (about 60 people!). He really deserved it because he has worked so hard this year and is such a wonderful husband and father. I have to say, a party like that is a LOT of work so it may be another 10 years until we do that again! I owe a big thanks to everyone who helped me pull it off!

10 Months!

The other day Brad was like "Anna isn't really a baby anymore but she isn't a toddler yet either...she is a bobbler." So we have thrown that into the mix of nicknames for her. Here's what the bobbler has been up to lately...

- She took her first plane ride when we went to Florida. She did great and didn't cry at all, but she didn't want to sleep either. She was too busy saying "Hi" to people that passed by and trying to get the attention of the people sitting around us. This forced me out of my comfort zone because I had to socialize with everyone too!

- She has become a cuddlebug! From the moment she could lift her head after only a few weeks of life, she would not just lay on my shoulder and cuddle. I discovered that if I put her lovie on my shoulder she will lay her head down and start sucking her thumb. She won't fall asleep and usually pops her head up after a few seconds but I take what I can get!

- She has started dancing to music we play for her and the songs that her toys play. One of her favorite songs is Put a Ring on It by Beyonce. As Brad says, it is a good song for her to hear because the message is empowering for single women :) It is interesting to me that we are wired from a young age to move to a beat but as we get older we become too self-conscious to bust out in a dance when we hear a song. I wonder at what age this begins to happen...hope Anna will always want to dance like nobody is watching! Reminds me of one of my favorite youtube videos.

- She progressed from the army crawl to crawling on all fours. She only crawls long enough to get somewhere she can pull up on, usually that is me. I know this will get old, but I think it is so cute when I am standing in the kitchen and she pulls up on me and holds on to my let. Now that Anna is mobile, I'm feeling sorry for Kia, our 16 year old puppy. At least for now she is still faster than the bobbler.

Rob + Kristina = Married

On Valentine's weekend we went from this...

We had a record 12 inches of snowfall in Dallas!

to this...

when we flew out to Palm Beach, Fl for my good friend Kristina's wedding. It is funny, in the last 2 years, three of my close friends from college have had destination weddings. Thanks Cara, Rachel and Kristina for giving us a good excuse to take beach vacations!

The wedding was so much fun! It was the first Jewish wedding I have ever been to and I have always wanted to go to one. It was full of dancing, storytelling, and lots of laughing. Brad was excited that he got to help hold a chair during the Hora.

Rob and Kristina are perfect for each other in lots of ways and one of them is their love of excercise. They met through a triathalon club in San Francisco, so it only made sense that they had a group run the morning of the wedding. They also scheduled a group swim and gave away swim caps as favors.

Mazel tov to Rob and Kristina!

The happy couple.

Me with the beautiful bride.

Weddings are such good family photo ops!