Stay Little

Last night Annalise woke around 1:30 am.
I waited to see if she would soothe herself back to sleep but that was not the case. 
I stumbled out of bed and into her room. 
I stoftly rubbed her back until she stood up and reached for me. 
I realized she was soaked so a clean diaper, pj's and bed sheet later we were heading to the kitchen for a sippy cup of some water. 
Once we settled in the rocker and our soft quilt we just rocked there together. 
Her sweet smelling head nestled under my nose. 
Oh how I love these moments even though I am exhausted- I just know that they are rare, they will come and go and I dont know when the next time will be that she is all mine in the quiet of the room.  I listen to her smooth steady breath. 
I soak it in.
I love on her and gently caress her soft hands and she immates it back on me. 
I kiss her tiny little head and continue rocking. 
Back and forth back and forth. 
Memorizing this very moment. 
Savoring every second.
And then its time, she looks up and points to her crib. 
I ask if she wants to go back to bed and she so independently and sure of herself shakes her head yes.
I kiss her one more time and lay her back down.

Annalise Faith Update 13-16 months

I know, I know.  I have literally been MIA since before Christmas. I sit back sometimes and seriously just wonder where the time goes.  I read other blogs and dont know how these momma's make time to do EVERYTHING it seems like.  Me, I'm over here like, well I've fed my husband, kept my job and my kid alive and my house isn't in total shambles.  Go Me!!

Anyhow.  On to sweet Annie girl.  This lil' bit (my new term of endearment for her) is just too cute to handle. I love her sweet and sassy personality.  She is still one of the most calm kids I know and she actually listens....for the most part.

Its hard to keep up with all the changes she has made the last 4 months, there have been so many.
She pretty much self feeds every meal, though lately I have to feed her at dinner or she will just try to feed the dogs.  That's her favorite and trust me, they don't mind!!

For a long while there after her first birthday we really thought she would have been walking any day and then it turned into weeks and then months.  It bothered me so much that we asked the Dr. at her 15 month check up if she should be walking yet and if perhaps something was wrong.  I was thinking maybe something having to do with her ears because she had so many ear infections it had thrown her equilibrium off or something.  The Dr. reassured us all babies do things different and that all of her other cognitive skills were on point for her age so we have nothing to worry about until about 18 months.

Well, I can officially say Annalise has been walking all over with full confidence for about 2 weeks now.  She accomplished that just before she turned 16 months.

You don't really realize how much your child changes and grows on the day to day until you look back and see the pictures.  Oh my.  She sure has done some growing lately.  This little girl continues to steal mine and her daddy's heart and we are just so thrilled she is ours!!

Eat:

This child of mine likes just about anything.  She really hasn't rejected anything we have given her except oranges and peaches.  She even tried some lettuce the other day and I am pretty sure if she had her batch teeth it would have been devoured.  She still LOVES her milk though we are trying to cut down. She HATES water in her sippy cup but will drink it out of my cup or out of a water bottle. She Still hasn't taken to juice that much either, but we keep trying.
Some of her favorites are.  Pancakes, eggs, chicken nuggets, mac n cheese, shrimp Alfredo, blueberries to name a few.

Sleep:

This girl can SLEEP.  Let me tell you!  She is a Godsend. Daddy and I love our sleep too so there is nothing better than having a child that likes to sleep too!  She normally goes down around 7:30 pm and is up about 6:00 am.  On weekend we are even so lucky for her to sleep until around 7 or 8 (Hallelujah!)
As far as naps, girlfriend needs her nap or she is a hot mess.  I normally lay her down around 9 on the weekends and she is up again by 11 and then another one about 4:00 pm and she will sleep until 5:30 and go back to bed for the night at 7:30 no problem. Like I said, the girl likes her sleep.

Play:

Oh my gosh this is probably my favorite part of having a toddler now is the play time. She is just so fun.  We play with her building blocks her Uncle Bubba got her.  She loves to read. She will bring me one book after the other and lately she especially loves the ones with the animals that make the noise.  She will press the button and then mimic them.  Its so cute.  I especially love her horse sound!
She is just now getting into baby dolls and strollers, she mostly plays with that when she is around her old cousin Abby. She loves to get in her walker and stroll around the house and she still LOVES her bouncer. Daddy and I will put her in that while we do our work out DVDs and she will just watch us and bounce away. Now that she is a full time walker I am not expecting that to last much longer.

Words:

She still isn't much of a talker but we do find her babbling a whole lot of nothing to which I always tell her" tell me all about it sister!!" and she will just babble some more.  She recently learned "no".  I am sure that is most toddlers first words since they hear it so much. Much to my dismay she actually told me "no" the other day.  I asked her if she wanted to go and get a bath after supper and she just looked at me, shook her head and said, "no."  Short and sweet and to the point.  We are still working w/ her using some sign language for food, eat, all done, more, and milk.  She seems to be catching on to most of them now.   Just last night she told me "eat" and we sat her down and she ate some more dinner. She still uses, daddy and her momma has morphed into "nah, nah"  so now I am nah, nah no momma.  She knows Duke- "Uke!" and Lucy "Ce, Ce!" and even our new puppy niece June, and that sounds like, well "June."

Annalise,
You bring so much joy to my life. The best part of my day is getting home to you scooping you up into my arms and covering you with kisses.  Your daddy says I kiss you way too much but I do it because I know one day you will not let me, so I am going to give you as many sugars as I can!  You are such a good, sweet spirited little girl.  For the most part you always listen to mommy except for when I try to dress you or change your diaper.  You normally throw a fit but I just know you like to run around naked so I have to dress you as quickly as possible or make sure I have a milk on hand and you are fine.  You take my breath away every day sweet girl. I love rocking you and snuggling you when you let me.  I try to soak in as much as possible baby girl because I know before I even blink my eye you wont be so little any more.  I am so thankful for the love you have given me and I cant wait to see how you will learn and develop in the next few months. 
All my love,
Mommy!

Annie's First Birthday Party

I would say Annie's first birthday was a success.  This momma stressed out about it for weeks but it went down without a hitch.  All of our closest family and friends came to celebrate our sweet angel and it couldn't have been better.

Her theme was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Do you know how loved you are?


I will let the pictures do the talking.

 

 

 Thank you to everyone who came.  It was so much. I can't wait to plan next years!!

Annalise Faith 12 Months (1 Year)

Oh My!  I cannot believe my sweet girl turned one today!  I am overwhelmed with happiness, joy, pride and so very, very much LOVE for this sweet little angel.  I simply cannot believe how fast the last year has gone by and how much more in love I fall with her everyday.
Words simply cannot express the love of a mother for her child.  This, my sweet girl of mine is my everything (besides her daddy of course).  She fills this mothers heart with so much love.
I never knew I could love someone as much as I love her.  She amazes me every day.

 

As I sit here and type this I cannot type without feeling so blessed.  I have prayed, cried so many tears, and worried countless nights about this sweet child God has given us.  For so many years I never thought I could have a child of my own and now a year later, she is still with me, a smiling, beautiful, happy and wonderful child God has made just for me.  Just for mine and Aaron's pleasure of raising, and loving on.  God is so good.

 

 

My Dearest Annalise,

You are such a joy to be around.  You have by far succeeded my expectations of the love I could feel for another child.  I knew love when your cousins were born, but nothing could have ever prepared me for the love I have for you.  It simply brings tears to my eyes and an ache in my heart how much I care for you sweet girl.  You have made my life complete.  Nothing brings me more happiness than to wake you up after a long night of being away from you and you wrapping your arms around me and giving me the tightest bear hug around my neck.  I love it!!  Daddy and I fight over who wakes you in the morning just because we know that only one of us will be lucky enough to get that sweet hug.  Your grandma Angie and Aunt Jennifer know what that hug is like too.  I cannot express how much we love it!!

You girlie have been the BEST baby this year and I dont say that because I am your mom. I say that because it is true.  You hardly ever cried, unless you were hungry, tired or wet.  Even when you had a double ear infection you never cried. I just knew you weren't your happy self.

Teething has been a breeze until the last few weeks and you are finally cutting those back molars and are a bit fussy but if I give you a tootbrush or wet cloth to chew on you are just fine my dear.

There really is nothing negative I can say about this first year.  I fear that if we have other children they will be totaally oppisite of you dear girl.  You have slept so good from the day you were born.  I can only remember a hand full of times having a long night with you and that was just because you were sick.  Girl loves to sleep like her Mommy and Daddy and let me tell you, that is awesome!!!

You love to eat everything. So far you have not turned down anything.  Ravioli, ground beef, cheese, peas, carrots, beans, bread, tortillas, bananas, mac n cheese, chicken.  Oh wait, we tried peaches the other day, you did not care for those.  But anything else, you eat away without any cares.

You have no interest what so ever to walk right now. I can put you in your walker and you will cry for me to take you out but after a mintue or two you are all over the place in that thing. However, on your own you dont even want to walk if I hold your hands.  You just squat back down or drag your feet.  You are enjoying your freedom of crawling whenever, however, and wherever you can in the house.  Sometimes I will forget you are free and I take my eyes off you for a few seconds and you are gone.  Lately we have found you in the laundry room trying to get your puppies. 

You have such a love for Duke and Lucy but they really could care less about you.  Duke runs away any time you even get within a foots reach of him and Lucy, well.  You torcher that poor puppy.  Pull her hair and smack at her head and I have even caught you taking a bit out of her back.  She just lays theres and takes it but looks at me with those puppy eyes to please help!

You have a love for music like I have never seen in a baby and I really hope that you got that from me. Music is one of my loves in life that I think is just a wonderful gift in this world.  Anytime there is music playing I can tell you are listening intently.  You can even humm pitches back to me when we are in the car.  Baby girl you just might have a gift.

At your one year check up you weighe in at a whopping 17 pounds and 4 oz. and were right at 29 inches.  You my girl are still a cute little string bean. You were at the 87th percentile for height and just barley over the 10th percentile for weight still.  The doctor isn't worried though becuase you have followed that line since your first check up. Which I cannot believe because you were 9 pounds 6 oz at birth....my big, not so big baby girl.

You can say a few words mostly "dada, and sit and Shep."  Shep is the doggie at your day care, and if you can imagine mommy and daddy thought you were saying a really bad word the first few times we heard it.  Miss Paula told us that it was her doggies name much to our relief.  I am still waiting for you to say "momma" but so far I dont get much from you.

You are so very bright and I just love to watch you observe and take in your surrounds.  You are quiet and reserved for the most part and play so well by yourself. You absolutely love it when your cousins come over and I just love you and Abby's squeals of delight while you play with each other.  You two will be the best of friends one day I know it.

I cant believe you are one, and I can't wait to celebrate many more with you.  I love you so much sweet girl.  Happy Birthday.

xoxo-

Mommy

 



Annalise Faith: 11 Months

Gee Whiz!  I cannot believe my sweet girl will be ONE in a few short days and I am just now posting her 11 month update...shame on me again!! 
At least I am still TRYING to keep up with this rather than let her updates fall completely on the wayside.

This past month she has truly started transforming from a little baby into a toddler.  She is eating table food 90% of the time with the exception of the baby food to go pouches. Those are a lifesaver for busy families I tell ya.
One day she was starved the grocery store and I knew there was not way she would make it until we go home so I swung by the baby aisle and popped one of those babies in her mouth and we were all good until supper time.  Hey, I paid for it!! Ya, gotta do what ya gotta do sometimes right?

Annie has reached a few more milestones this month
*Mastered-pulling up.  She pulls up on just about anythign and everything, including my leg and then holds onto it until I pick her up.  I have to say I love it when she does this.
*Mobility- Crawling 90% of the time unless we need to lock her up in her high chair, bouncer, or walker (hey, shes into everything)
*Favorite Thing- Her favorite thing is bath time now.  I can put her in the tub anytime we are having a melt down or super fussy and it completely changes her 'tude.  She loves to help me take a bath too, I normally end up soaked by time we are done.
*Playtime- she is playing up a storm.  Her cousins can come over and she is finally able to interact and actually what I consider "play"  it was so much fun to just watch them with each other.
*6 teeth.  Yup, and she has mastered biting- if you put your fingers in her mouth.
*Pigtail- we finally have a long enough "sprout of hair" and we can put it up.  It is so cute!!!
*Weight and height- ill my tiny string bean. Weighed in at 17 lbs 6 oz and 28 inches at her last dr. apt.

Now we'll let the pictures do the talking!!