Dance!

While at Sea World, Annalise stopped near a speaker playing some music and decided she wanted to practice her dancing. She loves to bounce and wiggle whenever she hears music.

My baby and me

Annalise has always loved being involved while I'm vacuuming. Most of the time, she ends up riding on my back for the duration of the job, but on occasion she'll stand and hold the cord about 10 feet away from the action. Close enough to be there, but far enough away from the loud vac. Our neighbors had a garage sale and had a kiddo vac that we had to get for Annalise. She loves it, and will vacuum right next to me......for 15 seconds, and then desire to be involved with the big vac. Cute. :)

Giant Zucchini from our own garden!

Rocking Plane

Hike

"The Art of Napping: An alternative approach to celebrate the 4th of July" by Annalise

The 4th of July came and went without much fanfare as the day was filled with....napping. We did, however, have a wonderful BBQ at Grandma/Grandpa's where Annalise took at stab at corn on the cob. She likes corn, but this was her first cob experience.

We thought we struck kiddo distraction gold when she decided to eat each individual kernel one at a time. As she delicately twisted each kernel off, we knew this would eat up tons of time (pun intended), allowing us to eat our dinner without needing to tend to Annalise. We grinned ear to ear (pun intended again) in satisfaction, but then our smart Anna bug knew this wasn't going to meet her stomach's demand for consumption. She figured it out quickly after. Alas.

You may not know, but Annalise is actually a vacuum. If it wasn't for the pretty face, arms, and legs, you'd think she was a vacuum sucking up every last bit of food in sight. Annalise has always been good about eating, but now she REALLY enjoys eating. Always interested in whatever food is being consumed and mostly willing to shove whatever type of food in her mouth. Packed ever so tightly, Annalise loves to cram her mouth silly with food. We usually try to prevent this chipmunking-style of eating as it lends itself to choking.

Here are some pics of her in action.

Fireworks weren't going to be an option for us because of Anna's bed time. Wait a minute, what's with our neighbors setting up chairs in the street. Wowee were we in for a treat. Little did we know, we live very close to a local fireworks venue. Cool!

The day after the 4th of July, we took a trip to Mission Bay park and enjoyed the surroundings and nifty kiddo park. We'd never been Mission Bay park, despite the number of years we've lived in SD. Annalise...

Played in the sand

Went down a slide

Met a friend

Went on the swings

Took a break

Stood on a big fish

After the park, we had lunch and went to Belmont Park. Neither of us had been to this seaside amusement park. It's more a boardwalk carnival with a handful of rides. Annalise was trying to determine if she was tall enough to ride the roller coaster.

Though no roller coaster, the next best thing was the Merry-Go-Round. Annalise's very first amusement park ride and she loved it! I'll admit I wanted her to melt and cry just for the cute photo op (like this), but after 1 or 2 rounds she really started enjoying it. By the end of the ride, Anna was telling us she wanted more. Of course, we did it again, but this time Momma went.

After this it was homeward bound, cotton candy in hand (not for Annalise), blanky in position for the ride home, and our minds full of fun memories.

All by herself. :)

Thanks mama! All your hard work paid off.

At 4 months....

At 17 months...reading on her own.

The other morning mommy came into a quiet living room and found her little tot reading peacefully on her chair. How cute!