Dad, politics? Oh, I just can't watch.













Back to the blog you know and love.


Anna is getting harder to contain. This was my showering seat for her. She would sit in this in the bathroom so I could take a shower. But, as you can see, she is liable to tip it over now, so no more showers.

We expanded Anna's menu last night. Unfortunately, it had to be Gerber prunes. Highly irregular we know, but that is actually why. I tried giving her prune juice in a bottle and she gagged on it. I did spoon feed her some of the juice and that went better, but it wasn't a hit. She likes the solid prune baby food though. This morning, I mixed some in her cereal and she ate almost a 1/4 cup! Great! We'll be in business soon enough.
Anna's enjoying doing her pushups. I know I ought to join her, but then who would take the pictures? She's starting to pull her knees under her too. Crawling may be just around the corner...yikes.


Well, I told Anna that if we finished all our chores, we could watch Pride and Prejudice this afternoon. I best be getting back to work.

Dad has hijacked the blog! Typically dad will use this blog to serve his own purposes and not necessarily to entertain anyone:

Did you know that the 2008 Presidential primary elections are still over a year away! Can we please stop hearing about Hillary this and Obama that? No one cares! But while we're on that subject what do you think that chances are of the republicans nominating a true conservative? Slim, yeah that's what I think too.

We'll see how many of these posts mom lets dad get away with...

Chris took a couple pictures of Anna while she was eating tonight. I thought I'd post them.


Anna in the rocking chair.

She's five months!
Is time flying? Yes, and yes we say that every month. The big news of the week: Anna can roll from her back to her belly! She did it once a week or so ago, but Tuesday she really got it down and now she rolls every time I put her down. I guess it is her new trick and she's proud of it. However, I'd rather her not roll over with a full tummy because that tummy inevitably becomes less full. That's a nice trick too- she knows that Mom will sprint to flip her over if she turns on her tummy right after feeding.
In other feeding news, we did premier Anna on rice cereal and she's been enjoying that for 2 1/2 weeks now (I forgot to update that on her babybook, er, blog). We were thinking of starting some vegetables over this next month. Apparently, carrots would be a super food to start off with because they are orange.
Anna is also discovering that she has lower extremities. Her playmat has a motion mode for the music and Anna knows that if she kicks, the star will play music.

She also knows that if the room flashes every few seconds, Mom is taking pictures and will stop if you quit what you were doing stare at the camera.

This past weekend, there was a bridal shower in western PA for my college roommate Julie. My friend Lizzie, Anna and I made the trip. The roads were snowy so we took the jeep and thankfully didn't slide around at all.

















We stayed the night with Aunt Gloria and the clan. Uncle Bill introduced Anna to her first stuffed bear. Taxidermist stuffed that is. Anna was enamored with a stuffed goose suspended from the ceiling.





And the last item of news: Dad and Mom are tied 0:0 in The First Word game. Here's Dad teaching Anna "dada".

Add-ons, plug-ins, and widgets, oh my. I have been wondering how to post pictures on the sidebar for a long time. I couldn't sleep last night so I researched website publishing forums. Terribly boring, as you would think, and dulled me to sleepiness, but not without giving me some leads. First thing in the morning I was going to check the library for a basic tutorial. I was almost giddy. I dreamt about writing code and wearing suspenders. In the morning, my thoughts were clearer and I tried a few more html blocks and to my GREAT surprise, it worked! Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.

Just some pictures to post.


I took Anna downstairs with me to switch laundry over, the clothes in the dryer were unexpectedly dry, so put Anna in the basket with the clothes for the trip up the steps. The ride was bouncy and got a couple giggles out of Anna.

Here is Anna straining for a glimpse of that tv. I'll take Nursery Rhymes for $800, Alex.















And this is the big girl on her way to crawling...

Schwartzes vs Kirklins. More appropriately, Ravens vs Colts. Or more appropriately, Stover vs Vinatieri. The game was not thrilling, especially because we lost, but we had a great time with the Kirklins. Here are some pictures of those two cute girls, and the dads and babies.














Last weekend, we went down into the city to see the Liberty Bell and walk around the area. The best part was wearing shorts because it was 70 degrees. The second best part was eating cheesesteak because it was 70 grams, of fat. It was a good time.




Anna's been saying some new consonants. Two days ago, it was "L". Yesterday, was "M"! Hmm, what begins with M?

There's a spider on our ceiling.
Gives us an AWFUL feeling.
I'm too chicken to make it dead,
We're going to the mall instead.
There's a spider on our ceiling.


About the size of a nickel, really fat body, black. Ugh. Anna is happily playing on the floor not realizing that the arachnid could scuttle across the ceiling at any moment and drop on her. (I would never let that happen- I have one eye on the beast, always.)We hate spiders. I can't get near them. Chris is at work. I already dispatched the "return home ASAP" call that he'll have to ignore. So, without Hero Man we had to enlist Mr. Clean with his earring, to at least sicken the spider until the real man could get home and rid our home of the filth. Three sprays was all I could handle- then the heeby jeebies of being that close to it took over. We're getting out of here. We're fleeing to King of Prussia.

Today was warm and sunny so Anna and I went to the park by our apartment to try out the swings for the first time. We had so much fun!


Here are some other pictures of the big girl.

Christmas times. We had our merry little Christmas here before heading down to Maryland to spend most of the week with Chris' family. We gave Anna her first place setting so she is all set for solids. This weekend may be her weekend. Yesterday, I was eating a bowl of ice cream with hot fudge (per doctor's orders) and holding Anna on my lap. She watched every spoonful and put her arms up everytime I put the spoon in my mouth- What about me, Mom! The child instinctively knows that ice cream is good.

Christmas in Maryland. Anna's Opa set up a train track for Anna's yellow engine to run around. The fun was unending as that little engine kept coming around the bend over and over and over again. Anna loved it!

Anna was the subject of much Christmas gift joy.


After Christmas, Aunt Manda and Uncle Roo came and Anna did some serious work convincing her uncle it's time for a cousin. Just kidding. We had a great time hanging out with them and Anna thoroughly enjoyed having so many people to play with.

We returned home on Thursday and spent the next couple days relaxing, reorganizing this place, and watching all 12 hours of Lord of the Rings. Our plans with the Pattons for New Year's Eve were offset by a mold attack requiring their evacuation. Bummer downer. So, we rang in the New Year with Frodo.
Anna's giving up the pacifier this week. It's not pretty. Before anyone jumps on me, research shows that a baby's sucking need begins to decrease the 3rd and 4th month. Also, it will be much easier for her to forget about it at this age than when she's older. It's just not pretty.