Meeting Aunt Kara

Bob's step-sister Kara was in San Francisco for a few days, interviewing at the California Academy of Art. At the end of the trip she came down and spent the night at our house before she flew home to Colorado the next morning.

She and Anthony had a nice time playing together. The ate cheerios and read stories. Fortunately Anthony didn't notice her dangly earrings, boy would he have wanted to pull those!

Not what he expected

Anthony's favorite treat in the whole wide world is a glass of water. (Sad, but true.) Its even better if its a sip out of Mommy's glass. We don't do it that often because: a. its a bad habit, and b: he backwashes something awful.

We were at his buddy's birthday party yesterday and I was drinking sparkling water. Anthony begged me for a taste and it was clearly not the pleasant experience he was anticipating!

A New Cousin

Anthony is *very* excited about his new cousin Joshua. He was born last Saturday.
He came in at 7.5 lbs and 19 3/4 in. Dave and Julie are with him in Milwaukee and hope to be able to bring him home to Colorado soon!

About Anthony's clothes... Bob's Aunt Vickie was known for the beautiful hand-smocked dresses that she would make for her friends' daughters. When they adopted Kevin she made him a beautiful little outfit too. Vickie passed away two years ago, but her memory and talent live on. (Kevin is 17 and it cracks me up to think of him wearing this!) We plan to pass it on to Dave and Julie next year!

Not quite standing

Anthony isn't quite standing independently. He thinks its a lot of fun to let go and stand for a few minutes before laughing hysterically and falling into my arms.

Bye-bye

Anthony has become a real pro and waving bye-bye. He started a few weeks ago, waving to himself in the mirror. Then he progressed to waving to other people. Now he'll do it pretty reliably, often without being prompted.

(Note: this is far from his best example of waving. As usual, he isn't at his best for the camera. He always does the full-arm wave, never the hand waving at himself.)

Life is Good

(clearly, otherwise why would it say so on Anthony's tooshie??)

12 Month Check-up

Obviously this photo wasn't taken at Anthony's 12 month "well-baby" visit.

And yes, "well-baby" is indeed in quotes for a reason. When we came in for his appointment he had a runny nose from catching Bob's cold. He also was wheezing so we bought a nebulizer. We rented one when he was sick a few weeks ago, but I think its time for us to own one so that when he's sick in the night again we can treat him immediately. Oh yeah, he also had a black eye.

He weighed in at 23 pounds, 7 ounces which is about 55th percentile. He was 30 1/2 inches long, 75th percentile. Essentially he's slimmed down a bit for his height. Its funny, he doubled his birthweight in 3 1/2 months, but in 12 months has not quite tripled it. I knew his weight gain would slow, but boy did it!

Anthony got his MMR, flu shot and chicken pox vaccinations. He didn't cry at all for the first two shots, but the MMR did make him scream. The nurse offered him a sticker when we were leaving, but I don't think he needs to be eating stickers quite yet.

As for what he's playing with in this picture.... I asked Bob and he said, "It is Super-Binky." Of course I had no idea what Super-Binky is. (Its the lid to a Nubby sippy cup.)

Baby in a basket

Sorry, I've been a little lax updating Anthony's blog.

The other day we were doing laundry. Lots of laundry. (Bob insists on wearing clean underwear every day!) Anthony pulled up on the laundry basket and pushed it over to our bed. Then using the footboard for support he climbed into the laundry basket and proceeded to make himself at home.

Look closely, you can see Anthony's first black eye. (I was in the shower, Bob was folding laundry. I heard a crash followed by WAILING. Little dude pulled my reading lamp down.)

One Cute Kid

Bob thinks I'm biased, but I think our little guy is awfully cute. Like maybe one of the cutest out there even.

Gap is running a casting call for models and I entered Anthony in their photo contest. (I recognize the chances of little dude getting chosen hover somewhere around zero, but I'm having fun.) I also entered the photo of him crawling in the bounce house at Pumpkin Day.

Pumpkin Day

Back in April the facilities crew at my work planted an enormous pumpkin patch at one edge of campus. The pumpkins finally ripened and they hosted "Pumpkin Day" for all the kids yesterday. All the kids got to go into the (consolidated) patch and pick out a pumpkin to bring home.

They had lots of other great activities for the kids--coloring, remote control cars, and of course, a bounce house. The families with little ones waited until the bigger kids cleared out so we could take the little guys in to play. Anthony really wasn't quite sure what to make of the whole thing and had a clear lack of interest in the pumpkin we helped him pick out. He'd also taken a very abbreviated morning nap which probably didn't help.

He did seem to enjoy meeting other kids and I enjoyed showing him off.
He also waved bye-bye to the organizers when we thanked them for a neat event.

In the spring there is an Easter Egg hunt. I bet he'll enjoy that.
(We missed Family Day last month as we had other plans. They had a petting zoo there, I bet he would have really liked that.)

Another bounce-house picture

I wasn't strong enough to bounce Anthony in the bounce house. But he could stand while the floor jumped around him. He seemed to enjoy it.

Yoga Boy

The therapist we've been seeing for Anthony's feeding problems has suggested some exersizes to improve Anthony's overall muscle tone. (I'm not convinced he has lower muscle tone, but she's the boss.) Anyway, we borrowed a stability ball from friends. He loves playing on it and pushing it around the house.

For "yoga time" Anthony is wearing the comfy outfit that Aunt Jessica gave him for his birthday--"World Peas".

Cute Picture

I just had to share this.

Anthony's Aunt Erika gave him this bath towel for his birthday.

Goodbye Grandma and Grandpa!

Bob took his parents to the airport this morning. We had a nice visit. Anthony especially enjoyed playing nose games with Grandma Kay in the car, I haven't heard him laugh that hard in a long time!

Anthony's First Birthday!

Anthony had a good first birthday. He got some neat presents: the classic popcorn popper, a *very* noisy fire engine from Uncle Dave and Aunt Julie (Thank you!), a bunch of teeny cars and trains from Aunt Andrea and his Grandpa Vince (they each bought a different set), a lego set from Celisa and the gang to grow into, and LOTS of clothes and books.

We had a little party at the house. He was actually a good sport about wearing his party hat. Actually all the babies were. I meant to get a group picture of them, but forgot. He didn't make too big of a mess with his birthday cupcake. Didn't eat it either. I'm fine with that, he's got plenty of time to discover refined sugar!

More Party Pictures

Even More Party Pictures

Anthony definitely didn't know what to make of the cupcake with fire on top!

Fortunately he didn't try and grab it!

One Year Old!

Our montly update

1. About 23 pounds. (23 lb, 4 ounces with diaper and t-shirt)
2. Anthony finally started crawling. He's certainly not a speed-demon but he can motor himself around.
3. We're making real progress on solid food. He doesn't need to play with his vibrating toys first, even. He can eat Ritz crackers, graham crackers and even potato chips. (We don't let him eat potato chips very often, heck, even Bob isn't allowed potato chips very often. Grandpa Walt is a BAD influence.)
4. He's fully mastered pulling to standing and pushing to sitting from lying down.
5. He's also fully mastered his knees. If you bend them, you can sit down gently, rather than just plopping on his behind like last month.
6. Still only 4 teeth. Trying like mad to get more, though!
7. I think he's starting to try and stack his blocks to make a tower. Hard to tell because he gets a bit distracted and the destructive tendencies kick in!

His favorite things: books, especially his doggie counting book, his popper car and his Peek-a-blocks train. The keyboard is also a hit!

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California Academy of Sciences

Everyone has been buzzing about the California Academy of Science reopening last week. We all played hookie and went for a visit. It was pretty amazing. We didn't have time to see anywhere near the whole museum. We particularly enjoyed the indoor jungle and the aquarium. Kay and Walt saw the living roof and said it was very neat, too.

We'll definitely have to go back for another visit. When we do we'll have someone else take the picture so that Anthony gets included!