Thursday, October 30, 2008

Pumpkin, part deux

Our pumpkin is now officially a Jack-o-lantern! We carved the big guy up last weekend in preparation for Fontana's first Halloween (Fontana is Jason's nickname for Anna. Or, more aptly, her nickname is The Fontana...as in, "Amy, The Fontana is crying and needs you." He says that a lot). I digress...

While she didn't actively participate in the carving (we felt that naptime provided the ideal pumpkin carving time), she did enjoy the result.

You'll notice a purple witch hat throughout these photos...it actually belongs to the family member in the last photo. But, as you can see, she does NOT enjoy wearing it.




Pre-carving fun with Hayla


Poor Tope...

Monday, October 27, 2008

She's Got the Beat

Recently, Anna has really started to get her groove on. These days she boogies at her own will -- and she seems to prefer very upbeat, fast music. Mealtime is one of her favorite times to dance, probably because I regularly entertain her with silly dancing and antics as she eats.

Her music choice of late is the kids CD Snacktime by the Barenaked Ladies. She's jamming to "Eraser" in the video below. (I recommend turning your volume up a little so you can hear the song in the background)




For anyone who is interested, here are the lyrics to "Eraser":

I draw it with a pencil because it's just a stencil
And if I do retry it, well then I can't deny it
I'm gonna need my little eraser

Eraser, eraser, eraser
Eraser, eraser, eraser
Eraser

I might have to redo it, I might have to work through it
But I try not to chew it 'cause I just shouldn't do it
'Cause I might need my little eraser

If I wrote you a letter but I made an error
I could fix it and make it better
If I make an error I can always make it better with my eraser
Eraser, eraser, eraser

Eraser, eraser, eraser
Eraser, eraser, eraser
Eraser, eraser, eraser


Catchy, isn't it?

Monday, October 20, 2008

Playin' in the Pumpkin Patch

This past weekend we embarked upon an activity we never would have considered B.A. - a visit to a pumpkin patch!

When I researched the options, I found a number of pumpkin patches in the Atlanta-area. We decided to start small and chose Berry Patch Farms, a quaint family-owned farm that offered a free hayride to the pumpkin patch, baby farm animals and refreshments.

It was the perfect speed for our first trip. The baby farm animals were a big hit, especially the calf. Anna stared and cooed in disbelief and also practiced her “moo” sound. The hayride to the pumpkins lasted approximately 1 minute and there were plenty of pumpkins for Anna to play with (gnaw on) once we arrived at the patch.

Jason and I had differing opinions on which pumpkin to take home – my preference was for a big, tall one, his favorite was short and squat (I wonder what you can discern about personality from your pumpkin preference…). In the end we settled on a big 21-lb round pumpkin which now resides on our front porch. Carving is set for next weekend (we can only handle so much excitement at a time).

When Anna gets older, we may move onto bigger and better patches – face painting and crafts included. But for now, this mini-patch was picture perfect.







Friday, October 17, 2008

Friends, Friends, Friends, Friends!

We've had some fun playdates the last few weeks. Watching the dynamic of kiddos 8-10 months old playing together is entertaining. They don't necessarily play with each other - but, they are definitely aware of each other.

For example, at a recent playdate, Anna's friend Cruz was very interested in her ears. His curiosity didn't really phase Anna but he found her reactions very funny.



Anna also spent an afternoon with two girlfriends, Elizabeth and Claire. (She donned a Halloween outfit for the occasion.)


This time Anna's curiosity got the better of her and she kept reaching out to touch Elizabeth's hair (probably because she has none of her own!).


The girls also spent some time reading the classics together. You know, Goodnight Moon, Rainbow Fish, That's Not My Puppy! Perhaps this is the start of Baby Book Club?


All in all, I know Anna likes to be around other babies. She chatters, laughs, and bounces with excitement when she's around her compadres. And like I said before, us moms REALLY enjoy hanging out and chatting! Plus there are usually snacks involved...

Matching blue eyes!
(you have to click to see the stunning baby blues!)


Cutie Pie Claire!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Back to class!

We're back in the swing of taking our Friday class (we took a break in August and September). Anna has been very excited the last two weeks - I think she had missed the class (actually, she probably missed the toys more than anything)!

Tunnel - Anna has been wary of the tunnel - but she crawled through it this week. I think her friend Cruz was an inspiration.



Pasta - I was very excited about pasta day - I mean, how fun does it sound to sit in a pile of pasta? And, wear a cute chef's hat to boot...Well, to Anna, it sounded not fun. As you can see in the pictures below, the hat was not well received. As for the pasta, she acted like a very girly-girl, not wanting it to touch her anywhere. I swear if she could talk, she would have said, "that stuff is slimy and gross and I don't want to touch it. Get it away from me."





Unlike the pasta, Anna did like the ball pit (these are from early-August).



Monday, October 13, 2008

New Tricks

Anna continues to add new tricks to her repertoire…Football Sundays have become even more fun with the addition of “Touchdown!”. She also has kicked it up a notch by adding some audio tricks – these consist of (fairly good approximations) of animal sounds. We caught a few tricks on video. Enjoy!

Touchdown!

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Pumpkinhead!

Wow, I can’t believe it’s October! Where has the time gone? I’m excited about October for a few reasons – first, the cooler temperatures have arrived (for the most part). Soon we will turn off the AC and open those windows!

Second, and to be truthful, probably the reason I am most excited, I can now dress Anna in some Halloween-duds that have been waiting patiently in her dresser. Hey, there is a short window of opportunity to wear these!

Here are some pics of our pumpkin this morning.






Wednesday, October 1, 2008

One of those mornings...

Today started out so nicely - Anna slept late, we played, I treated myself to a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks (more on that later), had a leisurely breakfast while chatting with Misty. Then I started working. That's where the day headed downhill.

About an hour in, my computer beeped, alerting me that the battery level was critical, please plug in the power cord. When I went to fetch the cord from my bag, it was nowhere to be found. After a futile, pointless search of the car and house and after dumping all of the contents from my bag, I accepted that my power cord was resting nicely on my desk in downtown Atlanta. UGH.

So, I got in the car and unhappily headed downtown (after all, it's my work from home day and this was a gigantic waste of precious gas (more on that later, too!)). Of course, 2 minutes into the drive I proceeded to spill my pumpkin latte all over me and the car door (don't worry Jason, baby wipes have been applied). The pumpkin flavoring left a nice orange stain on my jeans, though...

I made it into the city and retrieved my power cord without futher incident, thank goodness. On the way home, though, the gas light turned on in the car and, because Atlanta, unlike the rest of the country and for no reason I can understand, has NO gas, I knew filling up would not be fun. After managing to find a station with gas, I waited in line for 25 minutes and filled up the truck (at the bargain price of $4.00/gallon).

Now I'm back home, computer powered up, settling back into working for the day, still smelling coffee and pumpkin everytime I move...I hope no more surprises await!

Nice pumpkin stain, huh?

Before & After

The Johnson & Johnson marketing exec who tagged “having a baby changes everything” hit on a goldmine. Jason and I have a saying when we talk about events that happened prior to last December: “That was B.A.” (Before Anna).

We also say W.B.A. (Way Before Anna, which covers September 1997-2006) and B.T. (Before Tope, or prior to September 1997). In all honesty, B.T. doesn’t get used too often because we can barely remember what happened last week.

Recently we’ve reminisced about some B.A. moments we were able to relive…in a sense…

On our recent trip to California we stopped at an extremely large blue chair on the side of the road to snap a photo. It’s hard to drive past this chair without taking a picture – it’s set up in prime tourist country, and we fell into the trap (twice). In April of 2007 (B.A.) we stopped at the same blue chair when I was 6 weeks pregnant. It was fun to get another picture in the chair with her.



Here’s a shot of me B.A. (but clearly with A.) last September in Wellfleet, Mass. And a shot from our September trip.



And finally, here’s Jason in Napa in April 2007, and, all of us at the same vineyard a few weeks ago.



What a difference a year makes!