As a 20 month old, Anna has surpassed my geography competence. No surprise for you folks who know me best.

I bought this puzzle when we were expecting Anna and finally brought it out on Friday for her to play with. She loves it! We should have more puzzles for her; it's her only one and sort of complicated for a first puzzle. Anyway, she knows the names and where to put Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah so far. It is hilarious to watch her looking over the pieces wondering aloud, "Where is Oo-tah?", "I can't find Okla-oma."

Some funny things from Anna this weekend:
Friday morning- I'm on the couch nursing the baby, Chris is brushing his teeth, I send Anna in to ask him if he would like me to make coffee.
Anna: You want coffee, Daddy?
Chris: Oh, yes please.
Anna: Daddy get the coffee.
Uh, I didn't tell her to say that.

Friday night- I went in to check on her after she's fallen asleep. She's zonked out with her head inside a canvas tote box. I ran for the camera, but she stirred and woke up before I could get a picture. Not sure why she put her head in the box, but it must have been comfy.

Sunday morning- Anna normally calls out when she wakes up but lays in her bed until one of us comes in her room. This morning we hear, "Mama? Mama?!...I need to talk to Mama." Chris went in but never did find out what she needed to talk to me about.

On the way back from church, out of nowhere from the backseat- "Climb it tree?" We ask, "You want to climb a tree?" Anna says, "I guess I too short." Probably. =)

Sonja hasn't cracked any jokes yet, but she's trying desperately to get her thumb in her mouth.

Great Grandpa came to visit last weekend. We did as we always do and took him for a stroll in the mall. And Anna went for a ride on the carousal.




We went to dinner down on the marina in Annapolis. The evening was gorgeous for dining on the deck and watching the sailboats. It was a fine time.


Saturday morning, we rubbed elbows with the locals at the best breakfast shop in town. Anna swiped a strawberry from Grandpa's belgian waffle while he supervised my crossword. Afterwards, we stopped at the park so Anna could run around and we could chat before Grandpa caught an afternoon flight back to Arizona.

We had a great time with him!

I took Sonja to her 2 month appt this past week as well. She is in the 95th percentile for length and 75th for weight. As you can see, she's making up for lost time. She's really been doing well. She is fascinated by Anna. We were just given a new rug (THANKS AGAIN!!) so the girls spend most of the day on that in the living room now. Sonja is content on the floor so long as Anna is close by playing. She likes being propped up on the boppy to get a good view.



One more thing: aren't these pictures similar?










The one on the right is Anna. =)

...since sliced bread. Did you know that Walmart will price match your local grocery stores' sales?? I haven't tried it yet, but Mrs. Norman said so and Google agreed. That's a big deal! There are always sensational deals on two or three things we use at different stores in the area, and I just don't have it in me to unload/reload the girls three times to save a couple bucks at each place. Plus with the gas prices...ugh..getting everything at one place would be ideal. BTW, this is probably most relevant for those living by a SuperWalmart.
So, I guess you write down the prices (and bring the ads with you just in case the cashier asks to see them) and put all the items together that you want price-matched to make it easy for the cashier. You don't have to go to customer service or anything.
Anyways, I just thought I'd share because it was awful exciting to me.

Anna's first time in the pool this summer:






She LOVED it. We were over at the Normans and Jonny's little nieces doted on Anna so sweetly. She was mighty reluctant to come out of that water. We are sure looking forward to the pool at the Nelsons this weekend! Anna especially.

Sonja's starting to sleep from 9-6AM, with one nursing at 11 when we go to bed, and I feel just dandy about that. Anytime I wake up and the hour digit is higher than 4, Zippedy-doo-dah rings out in my head. She goes back to sleep for the bulk of the morning too so I have a three hour stretch where we can run errands or I can spend time with just Anna. It is REALLY nice to feel like I can get things done again. I think every post-partum mama should refrain from evaluating life and the state of her home until she gets a decent night's sleep. That would really cut down on the despair, you know.

Anyways, these three are reading about a fierce bad rabbit. And that's one of Sonja's million dollar smiles.

Wednesday last week, we woke up from naps to a darkened sky. Anna, Sonja and I huddled together on Anna's bed to watch the storm slash through our neighborhood. Then this happened, though we couldn't see it from our window, and the electricity went out.


The storm blew past and Chris came home right afterwards. He took Anna to go see the firehouse pickup truck at the tree. She loves firetrucks.


The fellows there said the fallen lines caused a fire further down at the transformer site so it would be awhile before the power was back up. So, being acclimatized to central AC and all, we took advantage of obliging grandparents and stayed the night with Chris' parents. Thanks again for your cool hospitality!

Memorial Weekend. We took a trip up to Philly for the weekend and stayed with some good friends from our church there. Anna had the best time living with the Liv's for a couple days. Six kids under seven made for a pleasantly chaotic scene. It was sad to take Anna back home though- for days she talked of nothing but Dema-REE, Chawlree, and Machen.
The Livs introduced Anna to orange juice and fake juice. Anna has OJ each morning now, but she's forgotten about the Capri Sun enough not to ask for that hourly. =)


Anna saw her dear friend Maddie again too. With that refresher, she asks for Maddie once again everytime we go to the mall. Here are those two cuties running around with corn.

And playing baseball.


Baseball and Charlie.


Dem, Maddie and Anna took a bath all together and there are some cute pics, but a little too much skin for the blog.
We had a great time. You Liv's will have to come down soon. And we'll catch you Kirklins in Ohio sometime!

Pictures, quickly.
Swingset:

Putting it together.


Hug break.


Swingin'.


Trying to pump, "forward, back!"




Mark and Sonja came down a few weekends ago:

The Sonja's, big and little.


Anna's first trip to Rita's.



The other day, Chris went to check on Anna when she was supposedly going down for a nap. He opened her door and didn't see her, but heard tapping. She was under the bed.


Overalls and pink.



Incidentally, the onesie reads, "Cute as can be."




For next time: Memorial weekend with the Liv's. For now: Laundry.