A New Year

Anali is crawling fast and pulling herself up now. I'll come in from the kitchen and find her standing against the sofa! Six and a half months. Who knew?

Snowshoeing at Snoqualmie Pass

Whee!

Bran and Anali

Anali's First Christmas

Anali made all the difference in our celebrations this Christmas. She was the centerpiece at every table. Since she's eating in a high chair now, she was delighted to join us for Christmas dinner. She even had butternut squash...very festive. Watching her open her little gifts and squeal with delight once she realized there was more than a bow was alone worth the pains of labor. I've really enjoyed my two weeks' holiday at home with her.

And She's Off...

It has been quite a week here in the Johnson household. I was trying to figure out why Anali was crying this afternoon, as it's become a rare occurrence, and the checklist was shocking. Could it be her new tooth bothering her? Or maybe her runny nose? Maybe it's her frustration that she can't crawl faster. Or maybe it's the immunizations she received today. Could it be the rice cereal bothering her? Holy schmoly. It's all happening at once! This week Anali turned six months, popped out her first tooth, began eating rice cereal, and started crawling. At this rate, she'll be getting her driver's license by February! Despite this afternoon's misadventures, we've been having a ball together. All of these new accomplishments are exciting. Brandon and I love watching her explore her environment and express her pleasure and frustrations. She likes to get into her toy basket and take out each toy, one at a time, shake it till it's "dead," then reach in for a new toy. Sometimes she even pulls herself up to kneeling to peer in for a better view. It's so precious. We have a hard time not waking her from her naps sometimes so we can play with her sooner. "Fetch" is our new favorite game now that she's crawling. Sometimes those naps are treasured time to catch up...on sleep. But we're surprised to find how quickly we miss her when she's sleeping during the day. Our lives are so carefully knit with hers, yet we don't feel a loss of ourselves, as individuals. At least, I don't. I'm speaking for Bran while he's in the shower, but I'll be sure to ask him when he gets out. Brandon stills gets out to play basketball with his friends and help others out with projects. And I am fiddling with sewing and reading more than I did before I had her. I even joined a writer's group this fall, and I'm trying to discipline myself to write more often. If I made New Year's resolutions, which I generally don't because I know myself well enough to know they won't last past January 5th, I'd resolve to write more. I'm working on an essay on the humor of our New Year's celebrations and resolution-making rituals. Do you have any observations or tidbits I can work in?

The Great Outdoors

Brandon enjoys taking Anali out around our home in a little backpack. She loves it!

It feels like we've been on a short camping trip. Along with much of Puget Sound, we've been without power for two days. We've cooked on the barbeque and stayed put by the fire. Fortunately, the lights came back on this afternoon. So Anali wouldn't feel left out in the dark last night, we gave her Brandon's small headlamp to use to find her toys. It was pretty stinkin' cute!

Pookey!

A Bite to Eat

This is what happens when we leave Dad in charge!

...And when Mom's in charge.

Additional landmarks this week

First Food: Mom's paycheck. Seriously. She ate part of the envelope.

Second Bite to Eat: A sliver of a candycane she somehow unwrapped. The pink drool stain on her sweater was evidence enough for me! They say start with veggies. We'll see how she does starting with peppermint. I think this is payment for my saying last week that she'd never get candy.

Lesson Learned: You really can never watch too closely!

Thanksgiving 2006

Dear Lord, I've been asked, nay commanded, to thank Thee for the Christmas turkey before us...a turkey which was no doubt a lively, intelligent bird...a social being...capable of human affection...nuzzling its young with almost human-like compassion. Anyway, it's dead and we're gonna eat it. Please give our respect to its family... Berke Breathed, "Bloom County Babylon"

Red Barn Tree Farm

We enjoyed our morning with our friends Paul and Susan and their daughter, Jasmine at the Red Barn Tree Farm. Since I'm not pregnant this Christmas, I took longer than thirty seconds to pick out a tree. Last year: 30 seconds, 12 ornaments, one string of lights. Not priceless. Probably worth about $5.75. It was funny to open the boxes I packed away in the attic. You can tell I was one tired woman this time last year. Surprisingly, I'm much more rested this season. We're so excited to celebrate this first Christmas with Anali.


Note to concerned mothers of the world: The candy cane is in the wrapper.
Ani will have no sweets...ever! Until I cave, at least. But since she can't talk, she can't talk me into it! She can have candy, if she doesn't mind sucking on it through the wrapper. Then her dad eats it.

 

Five Months Old

Mind you, she doesn't do this often. Hence, a picture-worthy event!

We let her unwrap her Christmas present early!

 

First Snow

Anali was so tired after our ten minutes in the snow, she wiggled her hat just so and promptly fell asleep.

We had a beautiful day yesterday! Saturday afternoon, Brandon thoughtfully brought home two pairs of snow shoes and a child carrier for an adventure on Crystal Mountain. We were excited to introduce Anali to her first snow, and our merriment was evident in the serious overpacking we did. You should have seen our 18-gallon Tupperware filled with scarves, hats, pants, socks, boots, gloves, coats, vests, granola bars, extra scarves, extra hats, extra socks. And that was just for Brandon and me. We packed three different fleece outfits for Anali alone, in addition to the one she was already wearing! We wouldn't be left out in the cold!

It wasn't until we were bundling up at the lodge on Crystal Mountain that we realized we had left the only truly essential item back home in our kitchen: the diaper bag (No, not our baby. I know you tried to go there, but really, Who does that? Not us...yet!). That glitch dampened our plans a bit. We recognized our fault - without needless blame-shifting, I might add - and made the best of our adventure. And anyone with a baby and no clean diapers knows that's an adventure. I can see that as the next big reality show. Survivor: Dirty Diaper!

We walked up the hill a bit to give Anali a taste of the snow, and she loved it! I can't remember the last time I had so much fun! It was windy and cold and perfect! We snapped just enough pictures to keep us oohing and ahhing for the rest of the winter at the precious moment Anali discovered God's beautiful, sweeping snowscape.

Crystal Mountain

20 Weeks Old

She is actually eating his hair!


She's getting so much better at sitting up.
Still a bit tippy, but she likes to play with her toys while sitting.


When Anali was first born, I couldn't wait for her to be four months old. It only took me a moment, of course, to realize that in the difficulty of the moment, I was wishing away days I would long for again. I learned quickly that each stage is my favorite. She is so active lately. It's great fun to play with her down on the floor.

Anali's new tricks include rolling over, scooting (inches, mind you), screaming (with glee, though sometimes I have to be looking at her to realize she's happy), passing toys from one hand to the other, and somehow always managing to smell like vanilla muffins. I'm trying to teach her to recognize her own name, but I'm having a hard time referring to her by the name we gave her and not as "Muffin."

 

18 Weeks Old

Anali looked so precious in her little dress this morning. I couldn't wait to show Grammy. We didn't make it to Grammy's before I had to change her, though. I can' t tell if it's the diapers I'm using or the incredible vitality of her bowels. When she struggled so much with gas in those first couple of months, I prayed and prayed that the Lord would perfect the inner workings of her digestive system. There is always that discrepancy between what we pray for and what it looks like when God answers, isn't there? Today, my prayers looked like a poopy dress.




A day or two after Anali was born, Grandpa held her and marveled at the length of her beautiful fingers. I have no doubt that one day those lovely fingers will make music at the piano, just like her grandfather's fingers do.

Four Quick Months

We asked Anali where she'd like to go to for her first bite of solid foods, and she just couldn't decide between a local burger joint or an authentic Mexican cafe. We compromised and took her to Chevy's, Tex Mex. For such an occasion, they bust out the sombreros. OK, I'm kidding, kidding. We were there for my mom's birthday. First, I'm not ready to feed her solids yet. She's just a baby! Second, we decide where to eat, since her schedule determines when we actually eat - it's usually cold - and when we leave for a nap. Third, that's not even Anali under that big ol' sombrero; it's her stunt double. I mean really, who would torture their precious baby with a giant hat for a silly photo? 

Personality!

Brandon's idea of teaching Anali to sit up.
His mother confirms this is how they did it in the good ol' days.

Yummy Piano!

I bought Anali a new toy today. It took me about an hour and a half to find a toy that makes noise, but not too much noise. Noise that I can handle hearing seventy-five times in a row. Noise that isn't a patented-name-brand frog-voice that guarantees my daughter will ace her SATs and establish a $90,000 nest egg by 25. Instead I chose a toy that makes noise and guarantees she will be able to open her mouth wide enough to actually eat a triple-decker BLT.