Grattis på födelsedagen, Fa Fa!

Or, Happy Birthday, Fa Fa!

I hope you have as much fun on your birthday as I did playing with this sign!

(For the non-Swedish speakers (and that includes me)...per the World Wide Web, "Grattis på födelsedagen" is Swedish for Happy Birthday!")

Walkie Talkie 2

I have been remiss about posting - sorry to Bergstrom Babble's avid fans...

As a follow-up to the last entry, I'm including a video of Miss Anna walking without the assistance of her cart. This video is from a few days ago and the progress she has made since we took it is amazing. She now toddles confidently, but still prefers to crawl most of the time. You'll also see Anna spin at the end of the video - a new trick she gets a kick out of.

Apologies in advance for the video being sideways (I forget I can't change the orientation of a video like I can with a picture...).

Walkie Talkie

We almost have a walker! Anna has taken those cautious first steps and is getting braver by the day.

One of her favorite activities these days is to practice walking while pushing a little cart. Each time she walks with the cart I make a car noise (you know, "vroom, vroom"). She has picked up that sound and uses it anytime she plays with the cart - it is adorable but I haven't been able to get it on video yet. She also has transferred the sound to any moving object - most notably a toy airplane...she is a smart cookie. :)

So, Anna is almost officially a toddler. I probably shouldn't be too excited about this because it means more running around for me & Jason, but I am very proud to watch her as she becomes more confident each day. I just hope she doesn't use those little legs to toddle away from me and into her own world too quickly...

Picture Perfect...

We had Anna's 1 year (or close enough) pictures taken this weekend. My neighbor Crystal took them - she is an amazing photographer. Anna wasn't super cooperative -- I guess she was about as cooperative as an 11-month-old can be, but Crystal managed to get some beautiful shots nonetheless. Check out her blog for a preview!

Happy Birthday, Olivia!

We are in disbelief because Olivia, our beautiful, sweet, creative, horse-loving, French-speaking, and all-around-awesome niece, is 11 today. Time just goes too fast...

Happy birthday, Olivia!
We love you!

March Stroll of the Penguin

Since there are very few years in which parents get to select their child’s Halloween costume, I decided to take advantage and dress Anna like my favorite animal – a penguin! It was either that or Tope...we opted for penguin since Tope pretty much looks like one anyways...

Anna enjoyed her first Halloween. Our neighborhood has a costume parade each year – the kids march down the street and neighbors line the sidewalk handing out candy. It is the way to trick-or-treat, let me tell you.

Anna didn’t do much candy collecting, mainly because any of the candy that ended up in her basket was destined to be eaten by me or Jason…so, we took only the bare minimum (after all, only someone with significant self-control can pass up M&Ms and Snickers without taking any).

Along the trick-or-treat line one neighbor handed out pumpkin straws, which proved to be a big hit with Anna and Cruz, who joined us for the festivities. At the end of the parade everyone headed to a neighbor’s backyard for pizza.

These days Anna is not a fan of hats, so we were positive the head piece to her costume would not stay on for long…however, she proved us wrong. With all the hullabaloo going on around her, Anna forgot she had the hat on and remained a full-fledged penguin the entire night.

Even though she wasn’t eating the candy, she did enjoy rummaging through her loot when we got home. She did enjoy a box of raisins someone handed out – I’m sure in years to come they will not be a big hit on Halloween night, but this year, she thought they were fantastic.

Hope you had a Happy Halloween!