Pajama Party

This weekend we had a Pajama Party.  Grandma Victoria came over for dinner... and after dinner we changed into our pajamas and ate popcorn and cookies while watching Mary Poppins.


Meanwhile, Anabelle keeps growing.  Although she is only 4 months old, she is wearing 9 month old clothes.


Look how big she is compared to our rocking chair!

Anabelle is STILL a bit congested and has a little cough, and she also seems to have her first tooth coming in. Nevertheless she is in pretty good spirits considering the circumstances, and she is having a blast with her new skills, including rolling, wiggling, grabbing objects and putting them in her mouth, kicking wildly, and generally being less of an observer of life and more of an active participant.  

Mother Daughter Daughter, Daughter Daughter

My mother and sister often get together for a "mother daughter daughter" day. Now that I have two daughters of my own, I think we need a new name because "mother daughter daughter, daughter daughter" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

Its the beginning of a long weekend, and Vita and Anabelle happily await our visitors. I love this picture!


Here's Aunt Mary with Anabelle.


And Grandma Marianne with Anabelle... good times and smiles all around.


Vita came home from ballet class to see our guests. She was exhausted. Even after a nap she collapsed into our arms for more snuggling and a bit more sleep before she had the energy to play.


Grandma Marianne brought some clothes and Vita loved trying them all on.


Here Vita and Ernie are busily making structures. Vita is making a bridge. Later she added a ladder to the middle of the bridge.


Mary was ending a week long business trip, and was a little bit tired. Vita got a blanket and pillow for her, and even something to snuggle with.


Vita shushed anyone who tried to talk while Aunt Mary was napping. It was pretty cute.


All day, Anabelle wasn't herself. I thought she was cranky because she wouldn't nap. Every time I laid her down for a nap, she'd turn over in her sleep (a new skill) and wake up to find that she was on her tummy. While I'm sure the lack of sleep didn't help, it wasn't the whole story. Just as the day came to an end and Aunt Mary and Grandma Marianne drove off, I took Anabelle's temperature and found that she had her first little fever. Anabelle spend the rest of the weekend pretty miserable, with a stuffed up nose and low fever. Poor thing. She seems to be on the mend now, just in time to return to work with me.

Vita and the Fish

It's a classic story that I'm sure every parent knows.

As a reward for good behavior (perhaps you noticed the Chart of Greatness in a previous post) we wanted to get Vita a small gift.  Vita wanted a kitty, but we thought a goldfish would be better as a first pet.  We thought we'd simply get a goldfish, a bowl, and some flaky food and that would be that.  Cheap and easy.  Of course not.

Vita picked out a black Moor goldfish, and named him Dorothy.  As soon as we got home from the pet store, we started to research goldfish.  It turns out they don't do very well in bowls, and if you had one in a bowl you'd have to change its water daily.  So naturally, less than 24 hours after getting the fish and the bowl, we were back at the pet store to get a full aquarium set up, and a friend for Dorothy, a traditional goldfish that she named Snuggle Monster.  Here's Vita with Dorothy and Snuggle Monster.

Within a week, Vita was already pretty bored with the fish.  Oh well, at least Anabelle seems to like them!

At the Office

Anabelle has been doing GREAT in the office with me since I returned to work.  She has been so happy and easy going and she naps better in my office than anywhere else.  She sleeps over 4 hours in an 8 hour work day.  She also has made lots of friends.  Honestly I feel so lucky every day.  How many people get to look down from their keyboard and see a baby sleeping in their lap?

Or look across the desk and see a baby jumping happily in a jumperoo?


Sometimes when it's really quiet and I think she's still asleep, I turn around to look in the bassinet behind my desk and see that she's been awake and playing quietly.


And then I get big smiles!


Sometimes Anabelle even plays literally right on top of my desk.  (Of course, I wouldn't leave her unattended in such a place even for a second, especially since she can roll over now!)  She loves to be right on my desk playing with toys, watching my fingers as I type, and looking up and cooing to greet anyone who walks by.  Talk about a dream job.  I just wish I could have her with me forever.

Back to regular posting???

Blogspot simply isn't happy if you include more than about 10 photos in a post, and my last post had over 40 photos... which is why I couldn't format it or even add text. I just spent the past hour trying to fix it but it only gets worse. That simply won't do, so I might have to start posting more regularly, although I don't know how I'll be able to find the time!

Here are a few photos from the beginning of this month. In the second photo down, Vita is making a bed for Anabelle, like she's a real life doll. Vita is SUCH a sweet big sister, it makes me so proud! Also, Anabelle has been doing great in the office with me. I love having her with me all day, and she's making lots of friends. She naps better in my office than she does at home (perhaps because it's nice and quiet) and she's in such a great mood during her waking hours.

More to come, perhaps sometime soon... but I really need to figure out how to get blogspot to behave.

January 2011

NOTE: BLOGSPOT IS EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES, AND I AM UNABLE TO FINISH FORMATTING THE LAYOUT AND WRITING THE TEXT. HOWEVER, YOU MAY STILL TAKE A LOOK AT THE PICTURES THAT WILL BE IN THE JANUARY POST. NEXT WEEKEND (OR MAYBE SOONER) I WILL TRY AGAIN TO FINISH WRITING THIS POST AND FIX THE LAYOUT OF THE PICTURES SO THAT IT MAKES SENSE. IN THE MEAN TIME, ENJOY THE PICS AND PLEASE PARDON THE MESS / CRAZY LAYOUT AND LACK OF TEXT.