This video is from the Bengals first pre-season game. Anna's quite smart and learned how to do "touchdown" very quickly. As the season has progressed, we let her do "touchdown" for other teams b/c she doesn't get to practice much with the Bengals. Now she claps for herself after she puts her arms up.




First Reds game, first concert (Mercy Me), first Bengals game (pre-season of course

Anna knows over 30 signs right now and a few words. Although she said "mama" and "dada" noises for awhile, the first words she said in context were "baby" and "apple" (this video is from early September)

Anna's favorite games = hide and seek, jumping on the bed, "up", and "boo!"

Anna Banana's monkey costume. Indi was definitely intrigued by her new little friend in the house. Anna had enough after about 1.5 minutes and politely told us by using her "all finished" sign.

If There are Any Fans Left.....
If you're actually reading this, Thanks! I've given you zero reason to stop by the blog for the last TWO!!?? months. Needless to say chasing a curious, excited, walking little 14 month old leaves little time for focused sitting in front of the computer. (Especially when you're pregnant!)

Yeah, BABY NUMBER TWO is probably some noteworthy news to put up, but I've honestly forgotten to post that. We are 25 weeks along and due January 25. We are very excited and can't wait for Anna to be a big sister! We are going to be surprised just like with Anna and think that was the greatest moment in the delivery room.

I'll try to catch you all up with some pictures and captions rather than a novel. Anyway, I know all you care about is pictures =)

Happy First Birthday Party!

Of course, the celebration wouldn't be complete without a first birthday party full of monkey balloons, bananas, and a sweet monkey dress for Anna Banana. We had the party on Saturday with friends and family. We had a difficult time limiting the number but thought it worked out wonderfully. There was a traditional cake with ice cream for guests but Anna had her very own strawberry shortcake cake. This has been her mommy's favorite birthday dessert for as long as she can remember so we thought we'd pass it to Anna and see what she thought. She loved it!!!

After partying for about 4 hours, our precious baby girl was wiped out. (By the end she had even lost her clothes - this is the only birthday this will be happening at.) Needless to say, she slept perfectly that night. She had to rest up for her big birthday outing to the zoo with mommy and daddy the next day =)

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY ANNA BANANA!!!!

July 25th was the big day! It was wonderful with so much happiness and so many mixed emotions. We started the day with our Friday trip to Stroller Fit where Anna brought a birthday treat of her beloved Mum-Mums crackers to all of her baby friends. We then headed home for nap time and awoke to toys, Daddy, great first birthday gifts, birthday dinner of pasta and watermelon, and a wonderful walk with her favorite doggy.

Mommy had her heart set on a doll named Anna for Anna's first birthday gift and Daddy was set on a basketball hoop and a play tunnel/tent. She loved it all but after "kissing" her baby doll, she went right back to b-ball. That's our girl!

WOW! Has it been that long?.....

The answer is yes. It's been a VERY LONG TIME since this blog has seen any activity. If we still have visitors left, here are the much anticipated updates of our lives. I'm sure you are all sitting on the edge of your seats waiting.

The last post said that our baby niece and cousin Myla was born. She's such a cutie! We were able to take a trip to South Bend late June and we also saw her this past weekend here in town for her Baptism. It's such an exciting time to watch your siblings become parents - and Matthew and Kasey make fantastic ones!!! We can't wait to see her again in the fall and also to stay updated via the web cam.

We took Anna to Myrtle Beach with Matt's family mid-June. What a moment to witness your child seeing the amazement of the ocean for the first time. Even at her young age of 11 months, Anna was in awe of the water. She absolutely loved touching her feet and hands in the waves with Daddy and had so much fun splashing in the pool. She didn't care for sitting in the sand too much, but we managed to get a few pictures before a wave came and knocked her over (oops!). She also was a very big girl on the airplane and did quite well (of course her parents are to be credited for the good baby that everyone dreams of traveling with =)

Another big event would have to be Anna's first Fourth of July celebration. Last year she definitely experienced Uncle Andrew's fireworks as she kicked mommy very hard during the display. However, this year she got to fully appreciate this grand American holiday.....from inside the family room door cuddled very close to mommy. She didn't mind them so much when she didn't have to stand right next to them and hear the loud bangs. She was a trooper and managed just fine. We headed up to the Independence Independence Day (not a typo) parade on the 5th with "the girls" (Indi included) and they both loved it. Indi especially enjoyed the dog treats that the float-riders kindly threw to her. Anna loved waving her blue and silver pinwheel. Definitely good ole' fashioned USA fun!

Finally, to Myla's Aunt Kelly: I hope this helps catch you up =) Thanks for the encouragement to jump back on the train!

"The decision to have a child is to accept that your heart will forever walk about outside of your body." -Katherine Hadley-

Matthew and Kasey welcomed our newest little miracle, Myla James Blazejewski Thursday, June 5 at 10:31 pm. What a blessing and what a beauty. I'll be sure to post some pictures as they're passed to me until we make our own trip to South Bend in a few weeks to meet her.

Congratulations Matthew, Kasey, and Myla! Your life is forever changed for the better...and the best!

How Baby Anna Greets Her Daddy...

Anna's walking all around with help from her post office walker. She delivers her mail and waits for her favorite part of her day: when she gets to greet her Daddy. Isn't this picture so funny and so cute?! She's such a peanut and looks so tiny when she's walking. A momentous occasion happened today in the walking arena - Anna stood by herself for about 5 seconds---yay!!!! Our life is just getting fun...... =)

The BEST Sound EVER......

(click below)

We're Slackers...

We have been snapping pictures of Anna since day one. Tons and tons....and tons and tons. We get every angle, every pose, adorable pictures and we used to race home to upload them and post to the blog. My dad would laugh and joke that we take too many pictures and should be careful b/c it will fade out with the 2nd, 3rd, and so on. I think we've begun hitting that phase already. We burned ourselves out in the beginning and now we are officially slacking.

We have tons to catch up on!

First, some of Anna's new tricks.....

She loves the walker. It buys us some time to get things done now and it will keep her busy for about 10 minutes (which is a long time in baby minutes). It's great because we can take her on the deck and the driveway and she can entertain herself.

Anna is excellent at pulling herself up now. She is very fast and thankfully hasn't become a climber yet, but she is full force into the exploring stage. She knows what she isn't supposed to go for, ie. the tv, Indi's water, cords, but of course it has become a cute little game where she gives us her sweet little smile and heads right for the forbidden object laughing the whole time. Her new thing is to pull herself up on the cabinet/hutch and hold onto each handle. You can just see her mind churning as she tries to decide which handle to let go of first to ease her fall.

Hats! She has a love-hate relationship. Anna loves grabbing them and putting them on but then she'll use all her might to make sure she rips it off. The sun hats are adorable on her and she's pretty good with them if we distract her while we put them on. It's become a real treat taking walks now when you combine her love for throwing things from her stroller and her love for ripping off her hat. Yesterday, we got halfway up a street and I noticed a tiny red thing in the corner of the street. She smiled at me when I asked her about it =)