Rolling

Annie rolled over!  Today, after work, so I got to see her do it.  Hooray, Annie!  This was the first time she intentionally rolled over.  She actually rolled about a month ago, entirely by mistake.  But tonight it was real - Annie was trying to get her keys, but they were just out of reach to her left.  It took a few tries, but she managed to get over to them.  The pictures below show her after the roll - see how focused she is on the keys?





I got her to look up for a second, so we could record the moment properly.  Doesn't she look proud?
Aaaah, victory!  Keys!

Kelly Girls Road Trip

I have been back at work since early November, and Nana has been back in Mountain View watching Annie.  But I had some time off for the Thanksgiving holiday, so the three of us went on our first overnight trip!  (Annie's first - Nana and I have both traveled before).  We had a great time!  We went to Monterey, which is about an hour and a half south of here.  Monterey is super pretty, and we took lots of walks by the ocean and watched the surfers, sea otters, and waves.  In the morning we watched the sun rise over the bay, and laughed at the sea lions fighting for sleeping space on the docks.  We went to the aquarium both days, which Annie LOVED!  She loves watching movement and light, which is pretty much what the aquarium is all about.  The Monterey one is especially nice and has huge tanks with lots of fancy lighting.  Here is a picture of Annie and Nana watching the sea otter tank.

I don't seem to have taken any pictures on Thanksgiving day itself, but you will have to take my word for it that we had a lovely time that day, too.  We were in Mountain View, and had coffee in the morning with Thomas and Amy, then dinner at Uncle Dan and Aunt Michelle's house with the cousins, and Nana, and Michelle's parents.  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Who is that good looking baby??

That's a happy looking baby! Maybe she'd like to play?

First Laugh

It was a while ago now, but Annie's first laugh happened the first time I lifted her up like this to play the flying game. She LOVES flying, and we play it now every night. It almost always gets a giggle. Her favorite part is trying to get drool in my eye - she's pretty good, but I'm getting better at dodging.
Look how big! Sitting up in the recliner all by herself.
Tummy time is getting more fun and less frustrating these days. Actually, so are just about all of our activities. Annie is a much happier baby since turning 3 months old, and spends much of the day smiling and babbling and wiggling with delight if you smile or babble back at her.

Belated Halloween Pictures

It took a while for Annabelle to warm up to the whole idea of Halloween.  Turns out getting dressed up isn't her favorite activity.

This is the super nice pumpkin hat that Nana knitted.  We wore it around town a lot in October. Annie doesn't mind wearing her hat, I think she was sad about something else in this picture.  She probably had just found out that she's too young to eat chocolate this year.

Here is Annie (in her ladybug costume), at my moms group playdate in the park.  Annie is one of the cutest ladybugs I've ever seen, but this picture sums up how she felt about wearing her costume.  I've included a zoomed in version below, so you can appreciate the true look of horror on her face. Perhaps she would have been happier on her stomach?  Everyone knows that bugs hate getting stuck on their backs.

Finally we found a Halloween activity that she approved of - pumpkin carving!  Who's my cutest little pumpkin?!

Hairstyle Adventures

Oh no, Annie has cradle cap! (A common baby condition, involving flakey skin on the scalp). I just discovered it on Thursday, and that night did an olive oil treatment, which is supposed to help. It did help with the flakes, but it also let to a surprising side effect - permanent mohawk! Annie seems to be sticking with mohawk as her new style, it has stayed like this for two days now. Too bad we didn't know this when we planned her Halloween costume, she might have planned to be a punk rocker instead of a ladybug. Here is a before and after photo, so you can appreciate her new do.

My little bobble head

There was a Groupon recently for a make your own bobble head. For just 30 dollars, you send in a picture of yourself (or your best friend, or brother), and they send you a bobble head of that person. Awesome, right? I was very tempted, but ended up not getting it. No worries, though - turns out I have my very own bobble head, already in my house! This would be better demonstrated if I'd taken a video of her attempt at boppy sitting, but she has a cold, and thus, limited patience for photos. You'll have to take my word for it that the wobbling of the head was pretty entertaining. I guess it's still too early for the Boppy.  We'll try again next month.

Santa Cruz Hike

Annie and I drove to Santa Cruz last week with my friend Mary, and her baby Lilly.  Here are some pictures of the great hike we took at Wilder Ranch State Park.  Lilly and Annie are super hikers!  Both babies took naps in their packs while we walked, and only cried when they got hungry, or when they thought we were walking too slow.  They enjoyed looking up at the leaves on the trees whenever we stopped for a rest or snack break. Hooray for getting out of Mountain View for a day!





Here was our lunch spot under a nice shady tree.


Lilly is more of a rock climbing baby, but she seemed happy to consider tree climbing as an additional hobby.



Annie likes to travel in her Bjorn, which makes for some sore shoulders and back the next day.  I'm hoping she'll be big enough for her Ergo soon.

A few more cute shots

More tummy time

I get emails every week from Kaiser and from the "baby center" website that tell me what my baby should be doing, developmentally, each week. This morning I felt guilty, because it said Annie should be lifting her head up when we do tummy time. Truth is, I forget about tummy time almost every day (or "forget", because usually she cries when I bother to do it). So we maybe do it once a week. But no worries...as soon as I put her on her tummy today, Annie lifted her head right up! Do you think she read the email?

Just for Uncle Mike...(my baby safety consultant)

What do you do when baby falls asleep on her boppy?
...you let her take a nice nap on the couch, of course!

Tummy Time!

It's nice to have a buddy to look at during tummy time. Thanks, Bert! Poor Bert feels like he is a little neglected since Annie came to town, but he is nice to her all the same. He always sits with me while I feed her, and he comes and gets me if he hears her crying during the night. Let's hope he still likes her as much when she learns to chase him, and pull his tail!

Bouncer time

Annie is looking at the monkey on her Fisher Price Rainforest bouncer chair. She loves this chair, and will sit in it happily while I shower every morning. In these shots, I have the base of the chair covered with a blanket. If the blanket weren't there, you would see that the chair is decorated with lots of jungle animals, like frogs, and parrots, and...giraffes. Giraffes?! Is anyone else bothered by this? I'm pretty sure giraffes don't live in the rainforest. (That's not why the base is covered, though - most likely someone had recently spit up on it, and I hadn't had time to do laundry yet.)