Giants Race

My first race with a jogging stroller!  I was a little frustrated by the slow pace of the jogging stroller crowd, but Annie loved watching all the people as we ran, and at the end of the race they let all the finishers hang out on the baseball field in Giants stadium.  So cool!

Back to Monterey

Annie and I had a really great trip to Monterey a few weeks ago with friends Carrie and Zinny.  Annie loved running around on the beach and taking bike rides on the coastal trail.  She had just learned how to say woof-woof, so she proudly pointed out every dog we saw along the trail.  Turns out there are a lot of dogs in Monterey!  Woof woof!

Words

Sorry for the delay in postings here - my internet was down for a few weeks, and now my hard drive has been wiped and I can't get to my pictures very easily.

But I don't need pictures to share Annie's latest achievement: words!  She has lots to say all the time, and finally some of it is starting to make sense.  Here is a list of words that she definitely says:

-Mama

-cat

-Bertie-cat

-truck

-woof woof

-hi

-Elsa (one of her teachers)

-baba (her lovey)

She also sometimes (but not consistently yet) has been heard saying:

-hat

-ice

-Nana

-Grampa

-up

Hmm, now that I write it out, that doesn't seem like so many words.  I think it feels like she has more words because she's become VERY good at letting me know what she wants.  When she wants to go outside (which is almost all the time), she will bring me items we need to go out (her shoes, my shoes, keys, hat).  If she wants to go for a bike ride she runs and gets both our bike helmets. She also has a few non-English words that she uses consistently:

-an-nya (not a real word, but she says this more than anything - it means "I WANT!"  It is usually repeated until she gets whatever she's pointing at. 

-om (also not a real word, but it means she wants something in her mouth.  It is used for pacifer, food, or milk).

We've had a good month.  The weather has been beautiful and it is still light enough after work that we can go for a bike ride almost every night and get a few minutes of playing at the park.  Annie's favorite things these days are playing at the park, going to school, getting tossed high in the air by Uncle Dan, playing with her cousins and reading stories. She's been super snuggly the past week or two, which is nice for me.  I love getting lots of hugs and kisses from my girl!  Our cat does not feel the same way, though, and he's moved out to the backyard for the past week or two.  He only comes in at night when Annie's asleep.  

The first two pictures below show Annie reading to her dolly.  She reads to dolly occasionally, and also feeds her pretend milk from a little bottle.  The pictures after that remind me that I should have included one more activity on Annie's favorites list: climbing!