Merry Christmas!

Spinning

Here is the new game that I invented. When I do it, I go much faster and higher, but Anna loves it either way. She will dive on the floor and put her feet in the air in her Anna-way-of-asking to spin. Then at the end she says, "geen?" (again?)

pigtails!

apple

Chatty Anna loves to talk about apples. Consequently, anything that is round and edible (tomato, orange, etc) is referred to as "apple." In an attempt to clarify these fruits for her, I let her hold each of them, ALL of which she proceeded to eat. Turns out, she doesn't like the taste of an orange rind. She did eat about a quarter of the apple, but with her 8.5 teeth, it took about an hour.

runners up

Most years, I have my Christmas cards addressed and ready to mail by Thanksgiving. Not this year. We could not get a decent picture of our family, but finally, today, we found a winner. (Expect your cards to arrive around MLK day.) Here are some of the reject photos. Happy holidays!

feeling better

Mama Kae saves the day . . . again. Anna was sick with fevers up to 105 for 5 days. She went to the pediatrician twice, and those darn doctors kept telling us it was a virus. I hate it when they say that! So with lots of TLC, Anna eventually got better. Thanks, Mama Kae!

Sadly, after not eating for 5 days, Anna has lost a lot of baby fat and her thunder thighs. She's so skinny!

1, 2, 3, cheese!

Happy Turkey Day!

pink pig

The Pink Pig: A pepto-bismol Buckhead tradition. Anna was terrified.

red and green

peas?

Anna has been communicating more and more. Here is one of her newest achievements: signing and saying "please." We are delighted that she has such great manners and can ask for what she wants. Unfortunately, she has discovered that she has us wrapped around her finger. She managed to convince Rob to let her wear his watch for a large part of the day yesterday by using this tactic. After she finished breakfast yesterday, she said/signed "bath?" and I said, "No, that's after dinner." She replied, "peas?"

Of note, we have been doing some early Christmas shopping, and of course, Anna's favorite thing to do is play with the boxes. The box pictured in the video has provided hours of entertainment.

stylin

cooler weather

Anna is so cute in her new winter hat and mittens. She acted like I was trying to kill her when she first started wearing the hat, but now she gets excited and points at it saying, "hat!"

dress up weekend

Big weekend in the Pepper house. We got to wear our Gator gear, we painted our faces (with crayons), we dressed up in Halloween clothes, and tonight we will wear our Halloween costume. Anna is doing well. She is a really good walker and has move out of the crawling stage. It's hard to keep up with her sometimes!

our little pumpkin

Anna has had a great week with Mama Kae and Papa. We went to a local pumkin patch (i.e. church parking lot) with Anna in her Halloween costume. Super cute!

Anna with Mama Kae and Papa

I went to NYC this weekend instead of having Rob come home. We had a great time while my parents took care of Anna. Looks like they are having fun, too (especially the pudding-eater!)

blanket game

Anna loves the blanket game. Hours (or at least minutes) of entertainment!

farm to table festival

It is officially beautiful here in Atlanta and all the fall festivals are getting started. We went to a farm-to-table festival (on a farm, obviously) this weekend, and Anna got to meet some animals. She was really not sure what to make of them, but she really liked the goats. She is really talking lately, so I thought it was cute that she was trying to say "goat" all day (see video).

Self-feeder

head, shoulders, knees and toes

good hygiene

This one's for you, Erica

Anna is in a huge doll phase. She likes to hold them, walk them, hug them, feed them, but most of the time she likes to decorate them. She has this weird habit of putting stackable plastic rings on her doll's arms and legs, like bracelets, I guess. It keep her entertained for hours (or at least 10 minutes). Here she is with her favorite doll, Bitty Baby.

Anna walks!/Weekend in Cashiers

We went to Cashiers this weekend and had a great time. We arrived late Friday night and out of the blue, Ana started really walking. She had been taking steps for the past 2 weeks but decided that she really wanted to make a break for it. (Don't ask why she wanted to wear socks on her hands for a while.) It was very exciting. Dad and I hiked Glen Falls, which was beautiful.

around the house

At long last we are able to update our blog.  We have been really busy since our move two months ago.  Unfortunately, several weeks after our move, our home was broken in to, and our computers and camera were stolen. So now we are back in business.  

Anna is so interesting these days.  She took her first steps about 10 days ago and is getting more and more confident about being on her feet.  She is eating with a spoon and fork.  She is talking non-stop.  Besides mama and dada, she says, duck, ball, bubbles, uh-oh, good job, kitty cat (and she hisses if you ask her what sound a cat makes).  she is starting to use sign language to communicate "eat," "more," "up." She is really imitating us, even yelling "hey!" when Finlay starts barking!    Her hair has gotten so long and stays in golden ringlets.  She's really gorgeous, in my unbiased opinion.

standing, sort of

I have a really good video of Anna standing but I can't get it to load. Here is her acting goofy and pretending to stand.

pushing

Anna is getting pretty close to walking. She is willing to push her car and stand for short intervals. She certainly is our child as she like to do things, her own way, on her own time.

Pepper update

Finally! We're back in blog-world after a very busy month. Anna turned one, we moved into our new place the next day, Anna got her first ear infection, Mama Kae came to stay, Anna graduated to the one year old class, we unpacked endlessly, etc. Now that I've finally gotten my computer out of the shop, I am ready to roll.

Almost overnight, Anna has given up her bottles, started standing, walking behind a push toy, pointing to body parts . . . Although I am glad that she is not an infant, it was really hard to see her turn one. Very bittersweet. We had fun looking at all her baby pictures and remembering how our little yellow baby curled up on our chest. It's been quite a year, but I'm glad we're looking back on it!

Anna's first birthday

Anna will be one year old on 7.16.09. It's so hard to believe! We are so proud of her and all her little accomplishments. She is sweet and funny and affectionate, and every day we love her more than the day before.

We went to Cashiers, NC, this weekend for a Lankford family reunion (mom's family). We celebrated the recent marriages of two of my cousins, and we celebrated Anna's first birthday. As you can see, she really loved her cake. It was special being able to celebrate with our extended family, and we look forward to seeing the Peppers in the next month.