Guys and dolls

My entire family was in town this weekend...it was so fun to have everyone here, and to see all of the little girls together! Here's a shot of them (in matching swimsuits, of course...thanks Grammie!) with my dad, Clint, and Roger (my brother-in-law). We had a great time just hanging out by the pool all weekend...

Just a swingin'

We introduced Anna to the playground for the first time this last week. Even though the swing is still a little big for her, she seemed to really like it! Or, at least be intrigued by it...we couldn't quite tell if her waving her arms was her way of saying "whee! this is great fun!", or "are you people kidding me? get me the heck out of here!"

"A" is for appreciation...

Ok, ok...the "a" originally was for "Anna", but "appreciation" seemed more appropriate this week! I was having a bit of a rough day/week on Monday, so my mom showed up at my door at lunchtime to visit with us and give me a little break. It was so sweet! She and Anna hung out while I went shopping, got a pedicure, and then had a "date" with Clintie!

Thank you so much, Grammie, for the much needed day of relaxation!!

A day at the spa...

A baby's life is such hard work that sometimes they just have to unwind and take a little siesta while their "people" bathe them...

Our new evening routine with Anna involves a walk (some days), then some relaxing pool time and bathtime, followed by a little dinner before bedtime. Its been working great to get her "unwound" from the day. I guess this day she was a little too unwound...she beat us to the punch in the whole "putting her to bed" part of the routine, and fell asleep in the tub!

Bonding time with Nana

We had a wonderful time last weekend when Nana (Clint's mom) came to visit! We went to a local winery for a tour/wine-tasting/picnic (see pic above), hung out in the pool (when the weather cooperated), and just spent a lot of time chatting and playing with Anna. Thanks for coming to see us, Nana!

File this under "adorable"...

So, I've been trying to take advantage of some of my "free time" during my maternity leave to get our house more organized so we can be more efficient when I go back to work part-time at the end of the summer. This week's project has been updating and reorganizing our filing system.

Yesterday, I layed Anna on the bed in our study and turned around to add something to my to-do list. When I turned back around, she had reached over her head and grabbed my Real Simple "what to toss, what to keep" handy-dandy filing guide. She was holding it right-side up, just like she was studying it! It pretty much cracked me up...

As a note--this picture is completely unposed. This is what I saw as soon as I turned around to get her...

Pears + rice cereal = a solid choice

Anna had her first "taste" of solid foods on Monday...rice cereal and pears! She actually took really well to it...she's still working on the whole "swallowing" thing, but she gets more than half of it down everytime, so not bad for her first week!

She's definitely liking the solid food more than she does the bottle. We're still working on pears now, but hope to move on to green beans this weekend! Oh the things we find exciting these days...

Miss American Pie

Happy 4th of July!!

Anna celebrated Independence Day by exerting her own independence in starting to eat solid foods! (More pics of that to come soon.) She's taken to pears and rice cereal quite well...we may have a little eater on our hands after all! As many of you know, we've struggled with her eating from day one...she doesn't have much of an appetite, and we've been battling reflux and esophogitis recently. We're hoping that this new transition to solid foods may help her little esophogus and tummy feel better...

As a side note--Clint and I realized that it was this weekend last year that we found out that we were expecting little Anna! What a great weekend (but so hard to keep it a secret...we were having a 4th of July party, but didn't want to tell any of our friends until we were a little further along)...