Duck, Duck, Goose!

Happy First Birthday, Annie! The big family fete was postponed due to a blizzard in Michigan, but that didn't keep our party girl from enjoying her day. We had scrambled eggs and French toast for breakfast, which is the first meal mommy ate (read: inhaled) after giving birth to Anne on that lovely, sunshiney Saturday morning. Perhaps this will become a birthday tradition. French toast plus syrup added to duckie smash cupcake minus nap equals one crazy birthday girl. We finally got her to rest by taking a ride in the car at about 4pm, alloting her exactly one hour of beauty sleep before her first-ever, official birthday party. Friends Sally, Caden, and Georgia brought their mommies over for pizza and cupcakes. No one warned Anne that the pizza guy would make a showing, and when she saw him she shrieked in fright, which is not at all typical for our growly tough girl. Other than that, the party was a complete success. I had to whisk Anne away from the duckie decorations in order to keep them intact for any length of time. If it's yellow and it quacks, it belongs to her! The party guests were too small for sweet treats, so they were instead sent home with a little duckie favor bag of Miracle Bubbles, duck tissue, and festive washcloth. Anne and her friends are also a bit young to play party games, so we just let them wander into each other on the family room floor and snitch toys. I once feared Anne would never learn to enjoy an old fashioned game of Duck, Duck, Goose. Quack happy and duck devoted, I pictured my little girl traipsing round and round a circle of disgruntled playmates, tapping their heads happily one after another: "Duck, duck, duck, duck..." I feared she would never goose anyone! Until today. Not once, but twice, as I leaned over to pull on a pair of running pants, I felt her chubby, little hand reach up from behind me and grab a pinch of my derriere. GOOSE!

Back off, Mister. Step away from the truck...

He was twice her size, and probably thrice her age. But this did not keep my toddling, wisp of a girl from standing her ground. We had met our friends Jill and Georgia (6 months) at the Fitness Center. After months of intense mommy guilt and separation anxiety (mostly mine), Anne is finally happy to roam about the playroom, exploring the new toys. This morning, I set her down and pulled out a couple of trucks from a bin, trying to interest her in something before I sprinted out of sight. Anything to avoid a crying scene. Anne immediately reached for the small vehicle and pulled out another one. Meanwhile, another little (but much bigger) boy appears over Anne's shoulder, also interested in the trucks. "Look baby," I say to Anne. "You have someone to play with." What does my darling girl do? Without taking her attention away from her new favorite toy, she holds out her arm, chubby palm extended in 'Talk to the hand' fashion, shunning her new playmate. With an odd mixture of embarassment and pride, I say to the playroom worker nearby, "Well, I guess she can hold her own!" We'll work on the sharing bit. I recently asked Charles whether he thinks Anne knows she is small. He said she probably thinks we're big. All I know is that there is a whole lotta person in that tiny, pretty package.

She delighted us on her first Valentine's Day by playing peek-a-boo for the first time, during dinner. Having apparently enjoyed her fill of Vegetable Fried Rice, she started tapping her head with both hands. This is the universal sign of toddler boredom during mealtime. Well, perhaps it isn't universal, but in the Schultz household, it means, "Time to run the bath: Baby is smearing food in her hair." Daddy and mommy have been demonstrating peek-a-boo for some time now. Last night, the tapping of the head became the covering of the eyes. "Where is Annie?" And then all manner of giggles as she removed her hands from her baby blues and anticipated our loud response, "PEEK! There she is!" Anne's other favorite activity lately is pulling food out of the pantry and pointedly thrusting the box of Cheerios or carton of raisins at us, asking for a snack. I want to personally thank whoever invented Cheerios. They get us through mealtime, home from gym, transitioned into child care, you name it. Do they ever stop loving those tiny, little O's? She even made a noteworthy effort to say, 'Cheerio,' the other day. She also tried to say, 'Caden,' when she saw her friend's picture, but it came out, 'Cay.' Not bad, baby.

Peekaboo

Last night during dinner, Anne started putting her hands up to her face. So, naturally, we said "Where's Annie"? And she whisked down her hands, we yelled "Peekaboo" and everyone laughed! It was great. We did that for several minutes - she was so cute. Sometimes only one hand would fully cover her eyes, the other hand kind of dwadling closer to her ear, and she would look out with a twinkle in her eyes. I fully believe she knows what she is doing.

Yesterday in the car, Anne was trying to tell us something. She would say this word (or combination of words) and repeat it. I sure wish I had a way of translating. She seemed pretty insistent as well. Her vocabulary now includes words like "durt" (yogurt), "up", "mom", "dad", and "na na na" (no). She also says "Hot!" and "Ite!", but I am not exactly sure what she is referring to, other than that both make her happy and excited.

Anne also really likes to read books. Or, at least, she loves to turn the pages and hear us make sounds for the animals. Sometimes she seems to get bored with reading, but if you try to stop, she will complain. Othertimes, when we finish reading, she will pick up the book again and want you to read it. I try to tell her that all she has to do is open up the front page, as she is already sitting down facing the book. It is almost as if the "official" reading time has not begun until she gives the book to you and you accept by starting on the first page.

Speaking of giving, Anne is really good at giving us food she does not want. This is much better than her previous practice of throwing it all on the floor. She seems like such a polite, well-behaved little child when she hold the unwanted portion out. She makes me proud!

Happy Valentines!

Heather was reminiscing last night - a year ago, Heather saw one of the midwives (Ray Spooner) and asked "Can you induce me now?" Anne was head-down, face-forward at this time, and I think she had already dropped, and we were so ready to greet her into our world. Because of Valentines, we took a special trip out to Outback where Heather shared her Filet Mignon with Anne.

Here is Heather's post from 1 year ago:
"As we sat in the midwife's exam room this morning, I told Charles that if I can't deliver on this Valentine's Day, I hope I get the consolation of another "freebie" centimeter. I got my wish! We are now 2 centimeters dilated and progressing. Last night I dreamt that I had lost 30 pounds overnight. In fact, I lost 3 pounds (only off by a power of ten!) since my last appointment, which is normal this late in pregnancy. My blood pressure is still slightly elevated but stable. Anne's heart rate was a little faster today; my guess is because she was actually awake and moving during this appointment. Normally she is snoozing or at least not very active during my appointments.

For each of the past three appointments, my tummy has measured 37 inches. Clearly Anne has not stopped growing. Instead, she is descending into birth position, keeping the tummy measurement constant. The midwife-in-training who checked for dilation today and "awarded" me my second centimeter is now the second person to have actually felt Anne's head through the membranes. Coincidentally, the midwife-in-training is also named Anne, spelled the same as ours. "The royal way," she smiled.

We head back for another appointment on Thursday afternoon, Aunt Dory's birthday and our 'official' due date. Until then, I plan to curl up by the fire and enjoy a good book. Happy Valentine's Day! "


And now little Anne is waking up. Much love to you all!

Hot!

Heather recently went to the mall with a good friend, Liza. At the mall, they snapped this cute shot of Caden and Anne. Now kids, be back by 8:pm and no kissing on the first date.

Would you believe that Caden is 2 months younger than Anne. Even cousin Ben, who is a good 6 months younger, looks almost as big as Anne does.

Anyway, back to "Hot!". We do not quite know why, but Anne like to hush "Hot!". The exclamation mark is included. I think it is associated with anything she anticipates or eagerly wants. When food is getting warmed up or pulled out of the fridge, when I carry her around and she sees something, or even just sitting still and she spots an old trusty bear friend (of the stuffed variety). Yesterday, while sitting next to the fire, she pointed and said "Hot!", and I had to congratulate her, although.... if I give her positive reinforcement for a false positive, what am I really doing? A couple times she has even asked if something is "Hot?", especially food. I laugh to myself and wonder, what is "Hot"?


Baby Anne is still struggling with her cold. Fortunately, it only manifests itself by infrequent coughing, but the ubiquitous runny nose (or crusty, depending on the humidity). In that sense, she is trying to be like daddy, who has "The World's Worst Cold. For all that, Anne has been extremely pleasant, considering. We have so much fun with her, and it is amazing to watch her develope and grow.

oh guht

Last night when we sat Anne down for some dinner, she got really excited and whispered "Hot!". Since we have been giving Anne hot food (eggs, portions of our dinner, microwaved leftovers), we often urge her to be patient since the food is hot. I think she now associates "hot" with food, hence the excited whisper. So about midway through the meal, I offered some "cold" yogurt. I do not know how much she is getting, but I tried to explain that "hot" and "cold" are adjectives. But I do know she got the yogurt part. She really likes yogurt. At one point, when we were not busy shoveling yogurt into her maw, she politely said "oh guht". It was really cool!



We also found out that poor Anne not only has a bad respiratory infection, but a low-grade ear infection to boot. The doc says there is not much to do about former but wait it out; for the ear infection, Anne is now taking antibiotics. I am thinking that I also have a respiratory infection, with no meds to or silver bullet to finish it off. Heather also found out that Anne is officially 20lbs and 9oz. I am sure she will appreciate being a "light" girl in the future.

One last thing I wanted to mention. Anne likes to communicate with other people. Heather tells me that when Anne was in the waiting room at the hospital, she went around to all the kids and told them "bye". Maybe she meant "hi", who knows. Whenever I Heather comes home to Anne and I, and I hand Anne off to Heather, Anne says "bye" to me and waves. Same thing when she nurses for the last time at night. It is rather sweet, but also funny. "Ok, I don't need you anymore, daddy. See ya."

I still love her. She is coughing now and waking up....

Sick of being sick

Heather finally caught something - she is sick of us being sick. To tell the truth, I think we have all had enough of it. Anne and Mommy are at the Pediatrician's right now to see if they can do anything about it. I sure do hope so!


In other news, Anne is continuing her crash course in crashing. Actually, I think she simply wants to go faster, maybe even run, and she has not quite got it down, yet. So she continues to bump her head on doors, walls and shelves. She even rebruised her old bruise. Ouch! Speaking of going faster, she is also quite a page turner. On some books, I cannot even keep up (the picture books tend to be easy for this sport *grin*). She seems to recognize "Turn the page" and will do so on command. Or attempt to do so; sometimes she grabs a few too many pages. Which is not a bad thing if it is your tenth or 50th time through.

Mommy has some really creative ideas planned for Anne's Number 1 celebration. I'll not spill the beans here - she can if she wants to. But we are all very excited. Anne doesn't show it, yet, but we know its there, simmering until the time is right.

ciao,

Good Morning, Girlie!

Sunlight poured through the window as I awoke this morning. The distant sound of Anne’s high chair dragging across the kitchen floor told me that breakfast was over, and her daddy was probably ready for a break. It isn’t technically “sleeping in” when you have been up half the night with a feverish, coughing baby. But I feel good. I am the only one in this house that feels good. When I came downstairs, I found Anne and Charles reclining on the couch. The best part of my day is her reaction when I walk into the room. The daddy-daughter banter ceases and Anne gasps slightly, inaudibly whispering under her breath as she watches me move across the room. She is all smiles and bruises of bravery and sticky strawberry jam from breakfast. Her back straightens and her smile falters when instead of making a beeline to her, I pause to open the patio blinds. She relaxes again as I continue toward her. Daddy says, “Say hi, Anne.” She speaks as though in a sanctuary, her greeting is a question. Moments later I reach for her, and the spell is broken. “Bye,” she turns and chirps to her daddy as she grabs a fistful of my hair, her other chubby hand opening and closing almost involuntarily in a wave. “I think you’ve been dismissed,” I say to him. His reply: “I need it.” Will the well mommy avoid the nasty bug that has attacked her family all week? Stay tuned.

We don like bein sic

Anne and I are getting clobbered with some sort of bug, while Heather is sailing through with no problem. Must be in the blood. =) So while Heather and I want to establish a routine sleeping schedule, that idea is blown out of the water until we feel better.

Anne is taking it surprisingly well. For the most part, she has been pleasant when she is awake. Even in the middle of the night when both Heather and I are attending to her, she smiles and gives us a "hi". She is such a sweet thing. However, we think her equilibrium is slightly affected (middle-ear thing) - she has had a few serious bumps and bruises. Again, she seems to be taking it in stride.

Mommy had a great time giving Anne a bath yesterday. We have been letting the little girl splish-splash in the tub, chasing ducks in the water, standing up and yelling in a playful way. Apparently, Anne thought she was done, said "bye" to the myriad ducks and attempted to climb out of tub! Of course, the tub is a bit too high for her yet, but it was very deliberate movement. Very impressive.

Heather and I are overwhelmed with our love for Anne. She is such an adorable, beautiful little baby. We continued to be amazed at God's creation.

More observations

Yesterday I noticed that Anne was walking more than crawling or stepping (using other objects to help her balance). She walks around objects, instead of to objects. She still falls sometimes, most of the time on her rump, but she has been known to go for a facedive. Since she still keeps her hands up, her palms often take much of the impact. Anne also recently descended down the stairs with much help from daddy, but she did it all on her own. She is very good at getting down off the couch or a bed (which are too high, but she has the concept down) - we have been teaching her "feet first", and she seems to recognize what we are demonstrating and saying.

Speaking of understanding, whenever she hears the train go by, she knows where to find it. She looks toward the west facing windows, and will come up to the patio door or ask to be pulled up unto the couch so she can say "hi" to the train. I mentioned to Heather the other day that the "traditional" sound of a train (CHOO-CHOO) does not apply at all for our trains. They all have a deep rumbling sound as they pass by, not sparing the blast on their obnoxious horns. As I mentioned the other day, Anne clearly recognizes "no" and I believe she knows "yes" and "good job", but the act of obeying is still a little lagging. I think she is catching on. Heather announced that Anne was "just like her" when Heather was that age when Anne was getting as close to "no" as she could, like the carbon monoxide detector or the leftover soap in the dishwasher.

In other news, Cousin Ben has a blog that hit the ground running: http://iammartinofamily.blogspot.com/
That boy is going to pass up Anne in weight, maybe even height.