Cold Winter Day

We are snuggled indoors today protected from the cold.  Perfect time to wear her new sweater vest made by my long-time friend Laura St. Onge.  Thank you, Laura!  It is so beautiful.   

I've been putting tights under her thin pants for warmth.  Yesterday I heard her getting pretty mad about something.  I went to see what she was up to, and she was just a pulling and pulling and those dang socks weren't coming off!!

Christmas 2012

First flight!

Thankfully, she was a great flyer.  Ate, slept, played. Whew!

She was quite interested in the paper and was able to rip out the tissue paper from gifts.

I didn't think Annabel was going to be able to sit by Christmas as she was quite tippy just before we left.  But, she must have thought she ought to get her act together as she had people to impress.

Baby's 1st Christmas morning!

New blocks from Uncle Nick  "Look, I did this myself!" (not really!)

Christmas Day at Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa's

Playing with my cousin Robyn's Julia and Jack

Christmas Day in the evening at the Micheels' Christmas

Aunt Chelsea

Sisters--Eric's Aunt Karen and mother June

Made sure to maintain a firm grip on Sophie.

We were able to have Annabel baptized on Dec 23, 2012.  It was a wonderful service and she was so good the entire time.  Immediately after the service, however, she had "had enough."

Neil and Jodi (Eric's brother and his wife) are expecting a baby girl in February!  

Our favorite.  I found this outfit in storage at my parents.  It may have been my baptismal outfit, but I couldn't find pictures to prove.  

After the baptism, she was very serene, soaking in the event.  Or, very tired!

This adorable outfit was a gift from our friend, Imke, in Saskatoon.  The booties were made by Annabel's Great-Great Aunt Doodie.

My favorite part of Christmas.

We had a wonderful Christmas; so thankful to have been able to fly home to see family.  We traveled to Minneapolis for Eric's mom's family Christmas and made multiple short trips between Ridgeland and Colfax.  Gratefully, a lot of family and friends came to us for visits.  The Moen family Christmas had 83 in attendance--the brothers and sisters and their children (and now their children).  Three generations of Moens in one building (we had it at the community center, as we obviously cannot comfortable fit in anyone's house anymore).  I think Annabel was held by 75 of them; one of my cousin's 2 year-old even held her!  She was such a trooper and seemed to enjoy being passed around.

Eric was able to get together with some high school friends for dinner out a couple of nights.  I was able to meet some friends for brunch one morning, where they were able to meet Annabel.  Very fun to catch up in real life!

Annabel slept a lot when we got home.  It's funny that even babies can run on adrenaline.  She just kept going and going over Christmas and crashed when she realized the only two people she had to entertain was me and Eric.

Thank you to all who made Christmas very special this year.  

Christmas...what fun it was.

Big day today: 6 months!

In case you didn't know, Annabel is the first child ever born.  We are quite amazed by everything she does.  Eric and I are no longer saying "can you believe we have a baby," but are constantly saying "can you believe how lucky we are to have her?" 

Showing off her parachute move at at friend's house

She has quite a feisty personality and entertains us with lots of babbling and movements.  She's very determined, curious, fun, and sweet.  She started a new sound this week that isn't so cute, but is really funny.  She sounds like a sick goose or the sound you would make if you were imitating the buzzer at the end of a basketball game.  It makes us laugh a lot. 

This past week she has greatly improved her sitting skill.  It's so crazy how babies can all of a sudden do something new.  One day she was able to sit.  Of course, she still tips over often but seems to be enjoying playing from a new perspective.  She is making some distance scooting on her tummy, moving about 5 feet, so we really need to get a gate fast and rearrange some household dangers.  I guess the extreme drooling from last month must have been preparing for stomach for digestion rather than teething because, so far, no teeth.

On the first of the month, she tried her first solid food of pureed avocado.  She loves eating and grabs the spoon to bring it to her mouth.  Now that she is 6 months old, we will slowly keep adding new foods.  There are so many theories about what to feed and when, it's hard to know what to believe.  For example, the Baby Weaning theory states that a 6 mo. old's digestive tract is ready for any foods and we could give her a stick of cucumber or sweet potato and she could eat it herself.  It is hard to know where to start.  We'll just do our best and experiment with tastes here and there.  Food at her age is mostly for experimenting rather than nutrition anyway.

As I've said before, neither Eric or I had spent time with babies in the past.  I took a couple child development classes and held a few friend's babies, but just for a few minutes (until they cried).  When I saw a baby in public, I honestly didn't pay too much attention to them and I certainly had no idea how much planning had gone into that mom being in public or that she was keeping track in her head when her baby last ate or had their diaper changed.  But, the planning is getting easier as she becomes slightly more predictable with eating and sleeping schedules.

Love those tiny little hands holding up the bottle

A graduate student and her boyfriend graciously babysat for us on Thursday night so we could attend a professional production of The Sound of Music.  The play was spectacular!  Annabel was happy, content, and drank her bottle which was the opposite of last time they watched her a month ago.  

Yesterday we did a little Christmas shopping.  We watched Elf and The Family Stone last night to get our mind off all of the tragedy.  I love the Christmas movies where all of the family travels home and stays at the parent's house.  Growing up, I thought that looked fun, but didn't think we would live far away.  Well, traveling it is.  And of course the visits are not as romanticized as portrayed in the movies, but they are similar in many ways.

Three sleeps (that's how they say it here) until we fly for Christmas.  We are so blessed to be able to travel and see our families and friends.  The only thing I am worried about is if Annabel will get enough attention. :)

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Snow Season

I've been appreciating this star right outside our living room window.  We can see it from our couch.

It has once again been snowing most of the day with a couple inches piled up.  The temperatures lately have been hovering around 0 degrees or as Eric likes to say, there has been no temperature in Saskatoon for the past weeks.  We heard the snow plow budget for this year has already been used up, as there usually isn't this much snow before Christmas.

Beautiful hoar frost (per Eric's knowledge of frost identification) for the first Sunday of Advent.  The service was full of music, the choir sang Breath of Heaven, and Annabel jumped and flailed her arms and legs to the band the entire service!  She was so exhausted afterwards, she took her first ever 2 hour daytime nap! (but, now it is past 11:30 pm and she has yet to go to bed.  She's not crying, but nothing seems to be working tonight.) 

Knowing that few people will see our decorations and the fact that we won't be here for Christmas made it a bit hard to find ambition to put up Christmas decorations, but I put them up and felt better afterwards.  I just love sitting in the evening with Christmas lights in the house....I'll have to make hot chocolate some night to enjoy the scene even more.  We have one main living area with our living room and kitchen all in one, so all of our decorations are in the same space.  I had a bunch out, but felt it was a bit of red and green overload, so I put some away.  One day we'll able to put up a full size tree and get all of our ornaments out of the box.

The mall was offering a chance to see Santa where we could take our own photos.  I thought it was a good option because we weren't sure how Annabel would react.  She hasn't been afraid of strangers (or "making strange" as they say here), but we just didn't know about a man in red with a big white beard.  But, the line was so long we had to skip out.  I imagine we will get another chance since Santa doesn't have as far to travel from the North Pole.  He could probably manage to make a couple stops before Christmas Eve.
 
We have been Skyping quite a bit lately and Annabel is just starting to react to the screen by smiling and seems to be recognizing some voices and faces. 

It's helpful to have a sister who is an infant teacher so she can give me cute craft ideas.  Eric really enjoyed this Thanksgiving birthday gift from Annabel:

There is a neat one for Christmas using the baby's fingerprints as Christmas light bulbs and Chelsea said she wants to do a penguin one with Annabel when we are home for Christmas.  Fun stuff.

 

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Birthday!

Rarely does Eric's birthday land on Thanksgiving, but it did this year!  Holidays are the times it's hard to be away from family, but we are enjoying the day inside as it snows and snows outside.  I'm so glad I got my groceries and errands done yesterday.  

I think Annabel is understanding the holiday as she has already eaten so much she had to take two naps...and it's not even noon!

Eric went into work for a bit and thinks he'll be able to come home early and work from home.  We are skipping all the traditional food this year as there is no way I could get it all done.  We're having salad and lasagna, but least pumpkin pie for dessert.  And I got a few fun little gifts for Eric. 

All year we are thankful for a host of things, as we are very fortunate in so many ways.  This year I am especially thankful for my little turkey....

oh, and for this one too!

Have a very wonderful Thanksgiving and may the thankfulness continue every day!

Five Months.

I came from the other room and saw the cat had finally pinned her.

We think she may be starting to teethe as every toy is left in the same condition as if it was played with by a Saint Bernard.  The cutest Saint Bernard in the world, that is.

She continues to love her stomach.  We've made bets as to how long she will stay on her back on her playmat....it's usually less than 2 sec.  Sometimes at night, she has a moment of panic (like...."no, don't leave me like this!") when laid on her back.  She takes a couple quick breaths and then over to her stomach she goes, lets out a breath of relief...then goes to sleep.  Funny girl.

I am enjoying this stage where she can't get too far.  She can turn 360 degrees on her stomach, very slowly, and she tries to move forward to reach toys, but ends up scooting backwards a couple inches. Just the past couple days, she is sitting self supported for a minute or less by leaning forward at the waist with her arms supporting her or holding her arm on one of our legs.  She is really interested in our food lately, reaching out some and watching closely.  We have to be careful with hot drinks now.

Every day we make sure to watch the cars go by on our busy street (hurting for entertainment in this frozen tundra, we are).  She watches just like she would a tennis match.

We had been fighting a bit of a diaper rash, so she was doing a little naked time.

We haven't tried swimming yet and I plan to wait until she is 6 mo, but we've tried a bit of back and leg floating in the bathtub, which she seems to really enjoy.  Lots of splashing in the tub and corralling her two rubber duckies.

I knew it wouldn't be long before she found her toes; I think it was just days past her 4 mo. mark.  One time Eric picked her up rolled into a ball like this to let her continue the excitement on her play mat.  It reminded me of The Popples (my first rented VHS and, yes, we also rented the VCR)

Last month I wrote that she was just starting to reach out at objects.  It's amazing to think that she wasn't doing that just a month ago, as now it seems like she has always been able to reach for toys or things she is curious about.  Incredible how one month blends into another and it's so easy to forget, so I am savoring every moment!

She sits so nice for me while I take a shower and get ready in the morning.  She tucked Sophie the Giraffe in tightly.  She loves to wear that teething ring as a purse.

Testing the limits on her chair..I need to watch her like a hawk.  She is fascinated with the bugs on her feet.

She loves getting a hold on glasses.

Annabel's hair is getting really long and curly!!

Just starting to sit self-supported even if it is at an extreme acute angle.