It’s fun to watch how just a week can make such a huge difference.  Annabelle has started “walking” from one object to another.  Really, what it is, is Annabelle holding on to one object for as long as she can while walking to the other and then eventually letting go and gracefully falling into the other object to hold on to.  It’s mainly from the coach to the ottoman or from the coach to one of us.  She’s not officially a walker yet but she’s getting more confident and stronger as the days go by.

This week Annabelle had pears and scrambled eggs for the first time.  Now that she definitely has four teeth in that little mouth of hers I’m trying to find more finger foods she can eat on her own.  She most definitely loves eating on her own. She’s become an expert at eating with her hands.  With squishy things like bananas and pears she’ll push the fruit around until she either gets one in the palm of her hand or she pushes them off her tray. Once she gets it into her hand she squeezes it so it moves up the inside of the palm of her hand and it pops up by her thumb and pointer finger. In other words, her piece of banana is sitting on the top of her closed fist.  After a few attempts, she’s ready to get it in her mouth.  Most of the time it ends up in her mouth but there are plenty of times she looks at her hand, sees that it’s gone but can’t figure out where it is because it’s not in her mouth.  It’s often on her chin, cheek or ended up in her lap.

This weekend was the first time Annabelle was without both mommy and daddy!  Dusty and I have each been out of town over night and left Annabelle home with the other but she’s never been without us both or never slept over at someone else’s place over night. So, two firsts for Annabelle. Dusty and I were invited to come to a weekend long Founder’s Retreat, meant for founders of startups and their spouses, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce.  I was a little skeptical on what would actually happen but it turned out to be a great weekend of spending time with each other and meeting new people!

Annabelle stayed with Dusty’s mom and I don’t think she missed us at all.  It was a bit hard being away from her for 48 hours but knowing that Dusty and I were spending quality time together and knowing she was in good hands made it just a little easier.

Annabelle did a little painting this week for a present for Mother’s day. And no worries, she didn’t really eat it, even though it might look like it. Our little Picasso.

Annabelle is 8 months old! And our little lady is so mobile! It’s almost as though I blink my eyes and she’s started crawling faster, standing more, and walking along side everything so much more confidently.  Annabelle’s teachers keep telling me that she’s a daredevil and likes to hang out with the “big kids” (you know, the 1-year olds).  I’m starting to realize what they mean; she just has all kind of energy and never wants to stop moving.

This weekend I helped host a BBQ and diaper party for some friends of mine who are having their third child this summer and it’s been the first time we’ve all got together since my friends and I have had babies (and since our little ones are old enough to realize that there are other babies around). It was so much fun to see Annabelle play with some of the kids I hope she grows up around and becomes friends with.  I see lots of play dates coming in the near future.

Although Annabelle is very mobile now, it’s still so much easier to take her places because she’s able to sit on her own and doesn’t need her carrier. Restaurants specifically have become a whole lot easier.  Meeting friends up for dinner or drinks with Annabelle is actually fun.  We’re training Annabelle early to be an awesome restaurant patron.  So this week Annabelle and I met a girlfriend of mine for a little sushi.  Annabelle was great, eating her dinner and smiling at everyone.

Annabelle helped  cheer my sister Jodi on this weekend.  Here’s a picture of the two of them right before Jodi ran her 5K race.  Annabelle loves supporting her family!

Here are a few party pictures of Annabelle and two of her friends, Rowan and Emma.  Rowan wasn’t too happy with Annabelle’s overwhelming personality.  She was all about getting in his personal space and he wasn’t.  I wish I could have gotten a better picture of Emma and Annabelle but there were just too many more exciting things going on than smiling for a picture.

And again, one week later and I’ve seen a fourth tooth getting ready to poke out (I hope this doesn’t continue—at this pace we’ll have a whole set of teeth within the month). We now how two vampire teeth up top and two front and center on the bottom.

And another first to add to our book of Annabelle treasures, she got her first incident report from school. And this also happened to be Annabelle’s first major accident as well. The culprit, a toy horse. Have I mentioned how movable Annabelle is and that’s she’s not only standing up but walking along furniture, walls, people, and anything she can get her hands on. Well, this time around she stood up next to a toy horse with wheels, the horse moved and she toppled over, hitting her face on the horse. It all happened on one of the busiest days for both Dusty and I (isn’t that how it always happens).  I was helping host a conference for more than 50 undergraduate students from around Nebraska and Dusty was heading to South Dakota.

I had just introduced our morning keynote speaker and heading to the back of the room when I noticed that I had just gotten a call from daycare. I called back and they said she had fallen and gotten a cut right below her eye. It had stopped bleeding but they suggested we stop by to take a look at it and make sure we didn’t think it needed any extra attention. Dusty stopped as he was heading out of town and said it looked just fine. By the time I picked her up at the end of the day she was as happy as a lark and you wouldn’t have known anything had happened, if it weren’t for the bruise and cut under her eye. And as you can see from her weekly pictures taken five days later, you can’t even see a thing.  It’s crazy how fast kids heal. Here’s a picture of that darn toy horse. I wanted to get a picture of Annabelle’s bruised face for posterity sake but by the next day you could barely tell there was anything worth talking about.

Our newest treat for Annabelle this week was an avocado.  Loved it!

And of course everyone’s always asking, how’s Annabelle sleeping?  My answer, she’s sleeping! Not through the night but she’s in a good routine.  She wakes up 1-3 times each night/early morning.  Sometimes she wakes up more but most of the time it just takes a minute of snuggling from mom or dad and she falls back to sleep.

Annabelle had spring break at school and got Friday off so I took her to work with me. Here she is helping me restock the paper.

We also celebrated Easter. So much fun! My family throws a huge Easter egg hunt every year and this year we had absolutely beautiful weather!  Her eggs were filled with baby snack foods and cookies.  She loved them! And then Sunday we went to Dusty’s family to celebrate the holiday! Two days filled with family, delicious food, and lots of smiles!

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One week later and we’ve found a second tooth!  This time it’s on the top a bit to the right side.  And as we were trying to feel around in that little mouth of hers it feels as though there’s another one ready to pop out on the upper left side.

Our little cookie monster!  We’ve started to feed Annabelle more.  Instead of just two/three ounces of food at lunch and the same for dinner she’s getting three/four ounces at lunch, another two for her afternoon snack and then at least two ounces for dinner.  We tried pureed broccoli this week. Surprise! She liked it.  I don’t think there’s anything she doesn’t like.  We’ve even started feeding her little bits of banana.

Annabelle had picture day at school this week.  When I first saw the announcement on the quarterly newsletter we get I was a little intrigued.  First, picture day at daycare? Second, how in the heck are they going to take a “school” picture of a 7-month old?  To answer the first question, yes, picture day at daycare.  And to answer the second, in the infant room they only take a group picture of all the kiddos (not sure how it goes with the older kids) so no individual “school” pictures yet.

Of course, I wanted Annabelle to look super cute for her first classroom picture so I gave her a bath in the morning, brushed her hair and proceeded to put on a super cute outfit.  She promptly spit up all over her super cut outfit so we put on her second cutest outfit.

I left for a work trip to Phoenix at the end of the week and I think it might have been even sadder to leave her for just this one night than it was to leave her when she was 3-months old and I left her for 5 days.  I survived and when I returned she was saying dada.  It was something closer to dadadadada-gagaga-nanana with dada in the middle but she’s got the “d” sound down.  No mama or “m” sound yet but I’m sure it’ll come soon enough.  Now just trying to help her understand that when she says dada that she’s referring to the guy that hangs around the house all the time is another story.

The biggest news of the week is that we’ve found our first tooth!!  It’s reasons like this that I love writing weekly updates.  On Sunday (March 30) Dusty was playing with Annabelle and made the discovery.  It’s one of the bottom middle ones.  This means teething has begun.  I promptly got out the baby Tylenol and teething gel to help relieve some of this pain that has to be coming but we haven’t noticed any real changes in her demeanor and she doesn’t seem to bothered by this foreign object in her mouth.  I had assumed the negative effects of getting teeth started right at away but nothing yet.  All I hope is that it’s not too rough on her when it all starts. Read more information about Delaney Park Dental for oral health and hygiene.

This week Annabelle had a couple of play dates with her cousins.  It’s so much fun to watch them all together.  Emma and Mia take turns carrying her around the living room and making her laugh.  They have this game they play where one of them gets to try to make Annabelle laugh and once she does the other gets a turn.  They go back and forth like this while I’m watching from the kitchen, trying to get some dishes done.  I’m so amazed that even though Annabelle and her cousins are more than 7 years apart that they have so much fun together.

Now that she’s getting a bit older and has started getting teeth I wanted to introduce some new foods.  Annabelle ate pureed plums and zucchini this week.  As always, she did fine with both.  I think the zucchini is a little less flavorful for her and isn’t as exciting as some off the other foods.  We’ve been mixing the zucchini with other foods to make it a bit more tasty.

Evenings at home are a lot of fun.  She’s old enough now that she can play on the kitchen floor when we make dinner.  While Dusty’s cooking I’ll prepare some dinner for Annabelle and feed her.  And then I’ll give her a few baby buff snacks that she can gnaw on for a bit.  She’ll play for a bit longer and then right before or right after dinner I nurse her before going to bed.

Putting Annabelle to bed is usually a family affair.  Now that I think about it, it’s not only bedtime but anytime she needs a new diaper or a new outfit.  She’s such a wiggler and wants to be on all fours or sitting that laying down for a diaper change or to get pajamas on involves Dusty entertaining her while I carefully maneuver around and change her.  In the mornings I’ll hold her, facing Dusty and while he talks to her I’ll put her onsie on and then Dusty quickly puts pants on her.  If there’s only one of us she’s already crawled across the room with a shirt around her head, naked from the neck down.

Annabelle turned 7 months old this week!  We’re over half way to her first birthday and our first year as parents!

Annabelle surprised us a bit by starting to crawl on the day she turned 7 months old as you might have seen from the video.  When she went in for her 6 month check up the doctor had said that we shouldn’t be surprised if she doesn’t crawl right away because she does such a good job rolling but it looks like he was wrong.  For the first few days this week she looked as though she might crawl, she would get on all fours and move an arm or leg but not much after that.  We didn’t think much of it because Annabelle almost rolled over for weeks and almost sat for weeks.  I kind of had assumed she’d be “almost crawling” for a few more weeks or more.  Then over the weekend I was in the kitchen cleaning some dishes and had brought Annabelle in with some of her toys.  I noticed that if I was on the other side of the kitchen she’d start coming after me and after a closer look, she was CRAWLING!  So I promptly took out my phone and captured it on video!

We celebrated the week by trying some new foods.  I spent the weekend steaming and pureeing fruits, vegetables and even some chicken.  This week Annabelle tried peaches, blueberries and chicken and potatoes.  She loved it all!

For any new mommies making your own food, I’ll put this out there, blueberry puree is weird.  At least for me, I’m not sure if I’ll be making blueberries anytime soon.  First, they stain things.  My fingers were stained purple.  Annabelle’s mouth was purple. Everything the blueberries touched were purple. Second, blueberries need to be mixed with things because they have the consistency of syrup after being pureed. I mixed my blueberries with sweet potatoes and they still ended up having the consistency of gelatin.  I probably needed to use less berries and more sweet potatoes but I did 50/50 as my directions said.  I froze some of it and we’ll use it (Annabelle didn’t mind the consistency or that it turned her mouth blue) but we won’t be making anymore for a while.

Meat! I was a little curious about how Annabelle would like meat but we had an extra piece of chicken breast and because Annabelle is such a great eater I wanted to see how she’d do.  I heard that some kids don’t really like it and it takes a bit of time before they want to eat it but Annabelle had no problem.  She’s our little garbage disposal, eating whatever we give her.

It’s the smallest things that seem so momentous when you have a child. Annabelle is officially standing! I picked her up from daycare and one of her teacher’s mentioned that she woke up from her nap that day and stood up in her crib. It was a bit shocking because she really hasn’t tried to pull herself up or stand at home (and sad that it happened when Dusty and I weren’t around). The next morning when I went into Annabelle’s room to get her ready, there she was, standing up in her crib. And then we promptly moved her crib bed down a few notches. By the end of the week Annabelle was pulling herself up and standing whenever she could. She’s still working on her form. She uses her head a lot. She’s working on holding on tight and sitting a little more gracefully.

Standing in her crib at daycare also means she’s graduated from the crib to what we call the “futon”. It’s a tiny bed with a mattress that lays on the ground.  Our little lady is growing up!  Here’s a picture of her tiny little bed. Isn’t she adorable!

It’s crazy to think that just a few weeks ago I couldn’t wait until Annabelle could sit on her own.  She’s mastered sitting and you would have thought she had been doing it her entire life.  The same with rolling, she’s not even rolling anymore.  No need to.

This week there was another Montessori monthly meeting.  It was about math and how they introduce math concepts to the kids from an infant all the way up to age 5 or 6.  It’s amazing how much “learning” is purposefully integrated into the regular happenings of the infants’ and toddlers’ days.  The presentation asked us to think about how we learned math concepts and I seriously can’t remember.  Even at her young age, she’s learning math just by hearing the teachers and older kids (kids are up to 18 months in her room) count.  They count books, they count how many pieces of food they have left, they count the days of the month, etc.  Hearing about these learning opportunities gets me excited for Annabelle.  Now I find myself counting in front of Annabelle at home.

I loved holidays before Annabelle was here but now with a child in the house I’m truly in love with holidays. St. Patrick’s day was no exception! Annabelle got a new outfit from Grandma Jane that she looked absolutely adorable in. Everyone at daycare was a bit jealous of her green tutu pants.  There’s a parade every year that goes through the Old Market and with it being a tad warmer than it’s been, we decided to take Annabelle to see her first parade. She wasn’t all that excited for the parade, it happened to fall right at the same time as nap time so she took a few peeks and then fell asleep. Things like parades make me excited for when Annabelle gets older.  When she’ll get excited to see the green horse, the candy being thrown, the Irish dancers, men in kilts, and the fire trucks that come at the end.

Annabelle is still our little yogi! She loves downward dog. The notes that are sent home from daycare each day have talked a lot about how much she likes being on her head and how all of her teachers are amazed by all of her acrobatics. Currently it’s her way of getting around and then being able to sit. No more rolling for our little lady, she’s all about sitting and her crazy acrobatics.

Annabelle is becoming a grabber, hair grabber that is.  The other day I picked up Annabelle and watched as she pulled another kid’s hair.  I got to daycare and she was sitting by a younger friend who was laying on his stomach playing with a toy.  Annabelle placed her hand on the little boy’s head, patted it and then grabbed a bit of hair and pulled.  Poor little guy was upset and I don’t blame him.  Her teachers told me she’s done it a few times.  She’s just figuring it all out and testing out her new fangled ability to use those little pinchers of hers.