Spring Break 2011 - Woo Hoo!

This year's spring break has been a blast. The weather has been awful and cold, but we definitely made the best of it. Monday we spent the morning at Monkey Bizness ("indoor bebow"). Tuesday we went to story time at the library and the Children's Museum with Sara and her kids (we spent 3 hours there! And she was just there for 3 hours a few days ago with Tim!). Wednesday Anna got sick with a bad sore throat, so we stayed in and relaxed. Thursday was actually sunny and a bit warmer, so we went to the outdoor bebow and had a wagon ride. Then after my doctor's appointment we enjoyed a nice meal at Sweet Tomatoes, which brought back memories of when we used to do that when I was pregnant. It was a little different having silly little Anna there in person, eating the food all on her own! Today we managed to get a little play time at Proksa before the rain started, then we went to Adrianna's 2nd birthday party at Gymboree. Anna had a really good time until the end, and then she seemed to feel sicker and wanted me to hold her. I felt bad for her, because I can tell she still doesn't feel good. Tomorrow is supposed to be the nicest day of the week (at least I really hope so), so we are going to Starved Rock to do some hiking. I hope Anna enjoys doing that kind of stuff, because we have never really done that with her before. I just remember liking it when I was a kid, so it'd be nice if she were the same way! I have really enjoyed my time with her this week; she has made it such a joy to be home!

"I Did It!"

Anna has been making huge strides toward her independence lately. Some of the things she is working on are: taking off/putting on her shoes, coat, and pants, getting in/out of her car seat, and climbing anywhere she possibly can. Whenever she accomplishes a goal, she says very excitedly, "I did it!" It's so cute. Right around Christmas she got the hang of climbing out of her crib, but luckily she only does that on very rare occasions. We told her that all she has to do is call for us and we will come get her, so that has actually worked out well. One thing that hasn't progressed (and maybe has even regressed) is her independent play. It seems like she used to be able to play on her own quite well, but now she always wants me to play with her! It's not a bad thing most of the time, except when I'm trying to drink my coffee! She will bring me a book and demand that I "read it," or she will bring me Jessie and make me hold her and talk like her forever! It's actually a little amusing.

Anna's vocabulary is HUGE now. She is saying full sentences now, can follow complex directions, and has even begun to explore imaginative play. She sometimes will have her dolls talk to each other, which I absolutely love to see develop. To me that pretty much defines being a child.

2nd Birthday Party!

I know I've been very delinquent with updating this, but rather than overwhelming myself with trying to catch up, I'll just post recent stuff! Today Anna celebrated her 2nd birthday (even though it's not until next weekend) at Chuck E. Cheese's! She has never been before, so we were expecting her to like it pretty well. Naturally she got a kick out of the mechanical cars, but she didn't seem to care for the fake pony ride (she must be spoiled since she's ridden on real ponies before). Even just walking around and looking at all the games seemed to amuse her. When we got there it was pretty empty, and that was pleasant for quite a while. Then we all sat down and had pizza, and they put on a birthday show for our little squirt. Chuck E. Cheese himself came out to sing to her, and she absolutely loved him. She got a fun little blow-up hat and a medal to wear around her neck, and she got to go into this thing called the "ticket blaster." It's this booth that swirls all these tickets around you, and you have to try to catch as many as you can. It was pretty crazy! After that it was present time. She got a lot of really great things: a "White" vacuum cleaner from Mike and Emily, a pretty dress and Woody doll from Auntie Carrie and Uncle Jamie, a White light from Dano, a Princess book collection from Unckie Eye (even though he is back in Germany today), and college donations from Alicia and Grandma and Grandpa Pachla. Her big present was from Bubby and Bobby, and it was her very own trampoline!! I set it up for her tonight, and it's tons o' fun! Anna earned about 300 tickets, so she was able to pick out her first prize. Surprise surprise, she picked out a princess figurine! She fell asleep almost instantly on the way home and slept for about 2 1/2 hours. It was a busy day! We ended it with playing with all her new toys (which she has played with very equally) and watching Toy Story 2.

Just in case I forget to update this on her actual birthday, I should go over some of the things she does now. It's pretty tough, because she has grown by leaps and bounds lately. She can say simple sentences, like "Woody go?" or "Door locked." She loves to sing songs like "I'm Wishing," "Jingle Bells," and "One, Two, Button Shoe." She knows all her letters, upper and lower case, she can count from one to ten, and she even knows several colors! I am still amazed at how she literally learns new things every day. She still loves Yo Gabba Gabba (or "Good Day," as it is still sometimes lovingly referred), and she also loves Sesame Street and Toy Story. She is truly a real kid now and no longer a baby. It makes me very sad, but she's more fun than ever!

I'm Singing, Singing...

I can't believe what a horrible blogger I've been lately! No posts for the month of November? Terrible. I still don't have time to update, but I need to mention how trick-or-treating went and Thanksgiving, and how much Anna has changed (in mostly a good way!!) recently! Hopefully I will have the chance to do all that coming up very soon, but until then, I just had to post this video. Hearing Anna sing a song that I could recognize made my heart melt, and it still does every time it happens. I managed to capture her singing on video; the first part of the clip she is singing a Gabba song with modified lyrics. She's already arranging her own songs?! Amazing. The second part of the clip she is singing "I'm Wishing," from Snow White.

I-L-L!

This year was the first time that I have ever participated in homecoming at U of I - and it was also Anna's first visit to Chambana! We took Friday off of work because I had to be at rehearsal in the afternoon, so we drove down in the morning to get there with plenty of time. We ate lunch at the new Chick-fil-A that they have at the Union - we took it outside and ate on the quad, because it was a beautiful day! Anna enjoyed that, because I think she was fascinated with watching all the different people. We made our way over to the band building, which for some inexplicable reason Anna seemed to love. There were these metal panels on the floor that she got a kick out of jumping on to make noise; she also liked climbing on the podium. Once music rehearsal started Tim took her to roam around and entertain her. I must say that it was really nice to play in a band again! I got to eat dinner with Tim and Ms. B, and we even caught a bit of the parade on our way to the stadium. Then I had a 3-hour marching rehearsal, and Tim took Anna to Rantoul so that Grammie and Grampy could get her ready for bed. They were nice enough to take care of her for the night so that our goofy schedule would disrupt her sleep (turns out that it didn't work anyway, because she conned them into staying up late!) However, getting up and ready really early the next morning would have bothered her, so it was good that she got to sleep a little later. She ate breakfast with Tim and Grammie and Grampy, then they went to the stadium to watch MI's and Fossil Band's pregame. The game was good too, with the Illini easily winning, but Anna got pretty squirmy (I can't blame her; I'm not a huge fan of football either). After we were all done, we drove up to Cracker Barrel for a delicious, huge meal to finish off the day! I definitely hope I get to do this again! And who knows, maybe Anna will enjoy it more once she's a bit older!

A Frightening Fest

I have been really bad about keeping up with the blog lately. October has been busy! We went to Fright Fest with Grammie and Grampy, and boy was it crowded! It only got worse the later it got too, so it was a good thing that we rode all the rides the last time we were there. The place was decorated very nicely, and I think Anna enjoyed seeing all the spooky sights. Lucky for her the only things that weren't crowded were the kids' rides! She enjoyed the Wiggle World thoroughly, especially since that gave her a good chance to run around and play at the bebow. Plus there's the Big Red Planes and Big Red Cars. She can also ride some things in the Camp Cartoon Network now, and the boats she was able to ride all by herself! She's never ridden anything alone before, so this was a first. We saw a show or two, and Anna naturally enjoyed the music. We also rode the Jester's Wild Ride and Hot Air Balloons, both of which aren't actually kiddie rides but don't really have a height limit. So technically they were Anna's first "big kid" rides! By the time we left the park around 7:30 or so, the line for Batman had to be around 3 or 4 hours long! Yikes! It was a fun, but very very busy day!!

Columbus Day

Anna and I had a wonderful Columbus Day today. The weather has been unusually warm the past few days, but thankfully it has also been dry. We started off our day at Countryside Park and played there for at least an hour. Anna loves the choo-choo, the springy dinosaur, and the bridge that's on the playground. Afterward we went to the book store and found a Snow White book, since that's Ms. B's new favorite thing (she also picked out a Beauty and the Beast and Pooh book, and since they were only $1 each, that was fine with me). Then we went home, got some food together, and walked across the street to have a picnic in the park. Of course she was more interested in playing than eating, but I kind of expected that. Then it was naptime, then Gabba time, then dinner time, then bebow time again, and then she had a bath and read her new stories. I definitely had a great time with her today, and hopefully she did too. It made our summer days seem like a distant memory.