Big Happenings

A few weeks ago, we had Anna's adoption legally finalized. I admit that I was a bit anxious that someone might show up at the last minute and challenge her adoption, but things went exactly as planned.

Last weekend Anna was sealed to us. They brought her up to the sealing room ten minutes after we all gathered there so that the sealer could say a few words to us. He had a lot to say and after about ten minutes we heard a little whine out in the hall. The whines got longer and louder until the sealer finally said "I think I hear a baby." Anna brightened as soon as she saw us and she was beautiful in her dress.

If you'd like to see more pictures, just go to justbecausephotos.blogspot.com.

Where's Anna?

Anna's new favorite thing is to roll up in her blanket. She'll roll onto her tummy, grab her blanket and then take it with her as she rolls back to her back. Sometimes it turns into a game of peek-a-boo (that is, when Mom is paying attention enough to play her part). Sometimes she just likes to take an up close look at her blanket.

Try This

This is the worried look Anna gives me when I put something new in her mouth. In this case, it's a small piece of white bread.

The doctor told us to start giving her actual solids like Cheerios or bread. So I've been dutifully putting Cheerios on her high chair tray, but she mostly ignores them. I've given her long pieces of cheese and a couple green beans. She's picked those up and squeezed the life out of them before finally letting go of them. Nothing makes it to her mouth. I had to put that piece of bread in her mouth. Since then I've decided to let her decide what goes into her mouth. I think she's the only baby who doesn't automatically put everything in her mouth.

But the other day we gave her a french fry when we were at the Citris Grill. That went into her mouth almost immediately and she gave us this look that seemed to say, "What have you done to me and how do I make it stop?" A few minutes later I gave her a second french fry, after the first was squeezed to death, and she put it right back in her mouth with the very same look of confused anxiety.

Peek-a-boo

Anna has recently learned to play peek-a-boo. She'll hold a blanket over her face and then when we ask where she went, she'll pull it down and reveal a big smile. It's very adorable, except the other day she decided to play peek-a-boo with her bib, which was covered with carrots. I immediately pulled the bib down, but as you can imagine her face was also covered with carrots. I thought about taking a picture, but instead I decided to clean her up. After all, she's not the first kid to smear carrots all over her face.

In other news, last week she had a runny nose. Her snot was always clear so I wondered if she might be teething. Now I'm pretty sure that it was just a cold, because I now have a nasty cold and my snot is clear too. So much for that old rule of thumb.

Pick and Suck

Now this is what I call multitasking.

The Things Kids Do

Being the oldest of seven, I thought I knew about all the funny things babies do. I know each child is an individual, but lots of babies do similar things and I thought I had seen them all. Recently I've learned that I wasn't paying as much attention as I thought.

Whenever Anna wants to stick something in her mouth, like say, her stuffed Snoopy rattle, she always shakes her head a little bit and it looks like she wants to tear into that thing and rip it's head off.

And why is it that babies often pull their pacifier out just so someone will put it back in? Anna really only uses her pacifier when it's time to go to sleep, so it must just be her way of asking for another drink of water or any of the other things kids do to stall.

I've also noticed that lots of babies suck in air and make a sort of high-pitched wheezing noise. Being the self-absorbed parent that I am, I thought it was only Anna until I heard all sorts of other kids doing it too. But in Anna's case this noise also doubles as a poop alarm. For some reason she likes to wheeze as she pushes out. The first time she did it she was less than a month old and we thought she was dying until we discovered the present she left us.

She's not teething yet

but her new favorite thing to suck on is the Baby Bjorn. It might look like she's just resting her face on the front of the carrier, but don't be fooled. She's actually sucking pretty hard and making lots of slurpy noises while she does so. As long as she's content and willing to let me get a few things done, I don't mind.