Annabelle making Valentine cookies

We tried to make some cookies for Annabelle's school friends...but Annabelle was more interested in eating all the cookies---and the icing!

Valentine Cookies

Here is a video of Annabelle "decorating" the cookies for her friends!

Christmas Outfits and Silly Pics

Annabelle got tons of clothes for Christmas. So many, that we have had a hard time finding places for her to wear them all! But today we were going to a SuperBowl party so we figured it was a good day to break out the party outfit! Before we left, she was taking her baby for a walk and I was able to snap some pictures!

Andrea gave Annabelle the outfit above. She really went all out in finding something that went together nicely. She even dyed the tights to match :) Annabelle enjoyed dancing to Bruce Springsteen during the SuperBowl party tonight in this fun skirt :)

This adorable outfit was given to Annabelle by Uncle Andy and is so super cute! This picture was taken right after Christmas, but she has loved wearing it lots of time!

There were lots more clothes, but I have not been able to take pictures of them all :)

Thanks everyone!!

Message to Nonno and Nonna

Nonna and Nonno-I am so happy to see you soon! We will have all kinds of fun!!

Words

Jane is the wonderful provider that takes care of Annabelle while I am working. She has raised 4 kiddos and is a very clam, educated and level headed person that always has great advice for me on one thing or another. She keeps telling me I need to write down all of the words that Annabelle is saying because she is doing so good with her vocabulary. So here goes my best attempt at thinking of everything she says.

The first thing she said regularly was all of the body parts:
Nose
Eyes
Cheek
Mouth
Teeth
Tongue
Head
Toes
Hands


Then she went on to Animals and has now added all of the noises they make as well:
Cow - MOO
Horse - NEIGH
Pig - OINK
Owl - WHO WHO
Turkey - Gobble
Donkey -EH HAW
Cat - MEOW
Dog - WOOF
Duck - QUACK
Goat-BAH
Sheep - BAH
Turtle
Fish


She also loves to say family members names-we sing a song every night with their names in it and she will repeat most of them---Sorry if she has not mastered your name yet-she is working on it :)
Daddy
Mommy
Grandpa
Annie
Granny
Mama
Papa
Makey
Allen
Grace
Jacob
Maggie
Bruno
Heather
Cesistar
Nonno
Nonna

She also has random words she says most of the time:
Bath
Apple
Orange
Thank You
Please
Amen
Baby
Bottle
Milk
Juice
All Done
More
Cracker
Cookie
Eat
Diaper
Paci
Blankie
Elmo
Pooh
Book
Fish
Hot
Oatmeal
Eggs
Juice
Out
Boy
Girl
Up
Down
Numbers 1-10 if prompted
She has started to identify letters and is really liking saying those too

That is all I can think of--Italo can you think of anything else she says?

I am pretty sure Annabelle is a genius!!!

This is Annabelle counting. She went all the way to 10 before I got the camera out, but I guess she did not want to show off so she did not go as far this time....

20 months, 19 days

For Italo and I, the journey to parenthood was very intentional. We tried for more than 6 months to get pregnant with Annabelle and had lots of conversations prior to the "trying" about having babies. One of the things, I always thought of was staying up all night with a sick baby. Well, don't get me wrong, there have been lots of sleepless night since Annabelle was born because of one reason or another, but she has never thrown up...until Sunday night. I always thought that happened all the time with little kids, but we have been lucky to make it 20 months and 19 days with the worst part of baby explosions being diapers.

I awoke at 2:30 to hearing Annabelle crying and knew by the sound of the cry, it was different than her normal, I am awake and want company cry (which I always ignore). So, I got up to get her paci and try to get her to lay down until I realized that she has thrown up. So-up we go. I was trying to figure out if it was best to give her a bath or just wipe her down so she could go back to sleep. I decided sleep was more important for her, so I wiped her down, changed her clothes (Italo was stripping her bed down at this point) and brought her to bed with us. After she got into bed with us, she starting singing and talking and I knew she would not go to sleep. So, I found another sheet, laid her down and sat in her rocking chair while she tried to sleep. It id not take long before she lost it again. So, again, change her clothes, change her sheets and then wait for her to go to sleep. As we were more experienced this time, the procedure did not take as long so she went back to sleep pretty quickly.

As I sat in her room, listening to the wonderful noise of her sleeping and sucking on her paci, I was able to think about the joys of Mommyhood. And believe it or not, this one one of the moments that gave me joy. There truly was no other place I would have rather been at that moment. Don't get me wrong, I did not want Annabelle to be sick or hurting, but being able to be there to comfort, protect and help her when she was sick, was a joy I can not explain. As a working mom, there are lots of moments that I do not get to take part in, but in the middle of the night, no one needs me but her. And I love being able to give myself completely to her. I was so happy to sit next to her bed, waiting to make sure she would sleep soundly.

P.S. The next morning she lost her tummy again and I called my parents to see if the food I fed her the night before was possibly expired....Well, needless to say serving her food that expired 3 YEARS before she was born is not a good idea! Poor girl!