Today was a busy day. The day started at 7AM. But it's Saturday. I know, that's what I said too. Anna doesn't have a weekend schedule. Anyhow- 7AM: Everybody up, even Dad. 7:30: Dad to men's breakfast, Mom to kitchen, Anna to highchair. 8AM: Play time, E-I-E-I-O. 9:30AM: Naptime, short lived. 10AM: More playtime- Welcome to SmartStreet...turn the dial!. 11AM: Mom doing chores, Anna demanding more playtime. Chaos. 11:30: Anna banished to crib. Peace. Noon: Dad home, church lawn cut, Anna's lunch. 1PM: Our lunch. 2PM: Anna nap. 3PM: Montgomeryville Mall. Dad 100% loved shoe shopping with Mom. 6PM: CompUSA going out of business sale, Dad gets xbox game to reward shoe shopping behavior. 7PM: Mom starts Anna's dinner, baby not eating, Dad takes over, baby eats. 8PM: West Avenue Grille, given menus. 8:30PM Chris finds manager to take order. 9PM: Anna eats half of Mom's dinner. 9:30PM: Free desserts courtesy of MIA waitress. Mom eats her dessert. 9:50PM: People at table behind order same dessert as Mom, marvel at how HUGE it is, ask if others want to share, couldn't possibly finish alone, blah blah blah. 10PM: Home, Goodnight Anna, hello couch and blog.

About Anna's eating at the Grille- she "ate and ate and ate and ate, until at last, [she] said in a rather sticky voice, "I must be going."" (She didn't really talk, but she did eat as much as Winnie the Pooh) She ate tomatoes, strawberries, honeydew, watermelon, chicken and bread.
Also, Anna had her first bite of pizza today- she didn't have any of those toppings- just the dough and sauce.

Rolling rolling rolling. Rawhide. Anna is rolling places and man is she fast. She clocks a 4 sec time from one side of the living room to the other. Between rolling and rotating, she gets wherever she wants now.
Still doing that backward crawl, but she does watch where she's going over her shoulder- checking the rearview mirror. She's going to be a great parallel parker.

Breaking news:
Eight minutes ago, Anna sat herself up all by herself! She started on her belly, scootched her little knees underneath and backed herself up with her arms until she was sitting up. Tada!

Good morning sunshine. Anna woke up and 5 this morning just to nurse and go back to sleep. She felt cool to me but I was not coherant to attempt placing a thermometer anywhere. Then she woke up at 8 giggling and all smiles. And I'm happy to report a textbook temperature of 98.6.
So, what was that? No teeth yet- they are close though, they really are. Anna mandated laundry be done yesterday instead of today, so we've got the whole day today to do something. We'll still keep the low profile- quarantine from Anna's friends is still in effect, just in case.

Other news- We're in the middle of new apt hunting and there is a place we are interested in. It's in a Victorian home and it's darling. It makes me think of Sense and Sensibility. Someone else already has an application in for it, but if things don't work out with that person, we are next in line!

She's down for the night, still running a low fever. Her temp through the day was about the same, never over 100.5 but always above 100. She was herself for the most part- a bit sedate from the tylenol. We'll see how tonight goes.

Anna threw up this morning. Not spit up, but the real heaving throw up. =( About an hour after I gave her oatmeal and pears, I saw them again, unscathed from their brief stay in her stomach. She was playing happily, chattering to her ladybug toy when she started to gag and then it all came up. She is not acting sick though- she's laughing and playing like normal. I called Chris for a consult and then I took her temp- 100.5- and debated calling the doc. Called Dr. Grandma instead- current diagnosis is teething (our scapegoat for just about everything) subject to change depending on how the afternoon goes. Plan- monitor temp, watch for changes in diet, demeanor, and diapers.
I just gave Anna some Tylenol to bring the fever down and she's fallen asleep for the morning nap. Hopefully she'll wake up with a normal temp. Stay tuned.

Anna's really starting to go places. It is still strictly in the backward direction. Can't imagine the frustration. Today she backed herself nicely in between the couch and ottoman. She was proud of her parking job too.

The weather has been rainy and everyone has been sleepy. This is a video of Anna during lunch last week- she had skipped her morning nap on account of sleeping in until ten and it was catching up with her.

And the other day, while I made dinner:



Here's just a couple other pictures-



When we were up at the park on Saturday, the only dry day of late, Anna had her first experience with dirt. She found some in the crack and kept trying to scratch more up.

Dad's turn for a post...

This is for all you socialists out there.

A few statistics on the federal income tax; and who is footing the bill...

According to the 2004 tax data released by the IRS
84.6% of all Income taxes are paid by the top 25% of income earners

96.7% are paid by the top 50%


Many people believe that the rich do not pay their fair share of taxes. Did you know that the top 1% of income earners in the U.S. paid 36.89% of the total tax received by the federal government in 2004?

I'm not making it up see the IRS data.

And here are pictures of Anna at the park today so some of you out there don't get mad at me and boycott my blog postings.

Old MacDonald had a farm E-I-E-I-O.....and on and on and on...
We have a new toy in the house. And Anna knows well how to pull the gate that spins the windmill that starts the melody that makes us crazy. Just kidding, we're okay. She likes the farm very much:

Monday this week, Chris' parents came up for the day. Here are some pictures of Anna opening her Easter basket with them.


Chris' folks took us out for dinner that evening and Anna had an appetizer of ribs and the chicken sandwich- she really did! She did have to share, but not by choice. We've been introducing more complex foods to her this week and she's liking it. This morning, Anna had herself some buttermilk pancakes. Mmm mm good.

So, what else? Oh, the other day, Chris phoned from work and said he was on his way home, early!!!, and I said "Woohoo!". Anna thought it was SO funny so I said it over and over to get her to laugh really hard.

She's still not crawling, forward, but she is looking cute in her efforts.