Independence Day

On the Fourth of July, I got an early start to my day participating in the Freedom Festival 10K with a few ladies from my ward, while my sister Katie and her husband Jack ran in the 5K. It's nice to go to races with friends these days. In the past I felt like such a loner. It was my first 10K and I felt pretty sore the next day, but all in all, I was pretty happy with the race, averaging 8 min./mile.

We decided to take a dip in the neighborhood pool. Anna loves leaning off the side even though we dunk her every time. Those swim lessons we took in April are paying off.

Ooh! Cheetos! This was the highlight of Independence Day: her Aunt Katie brought Cheetos to our family picnic and let her eat some. By the end of the evening I had Cheetos fingerprints all over me.

This was Anna's first time watching fireworks. We can see the fireworks from our front yard, so last year we put Anna to sleep and brought the baby monitor outside. This year, Anna wasn't about to miss the party, but when the fireworks started to go off, she started to whimper and tried to bury her head in my chest. Even though I am mostly selfish and didn't want to miss the fireworks, I eventually took pity on her and took her inside. But as soon as Anna realized that everyone else was still outside watching the fireworks, she pointed at the front door and whined. So we went back outside and she nestled herself between my legs. She was pretty rigid and tense and as soon as the fireworks ended she sat up and started to look for the Cheetos again.

Bathtime and Bedtime

Look at this kid, flossing her six teeth and at such a young age. Actually, I think she just figured out that the floss tastes minty and is trying to lick all the wax off.

Another not so great thing that Anna is doing these days is peeing in the bath water. I'm sure she's been relieving herself in the water from the beginning, but I never had to see it before. Ever since she started walking, she likes to stand up in the tub when I first put her in. As soon as her feet hit that warm water, she pees. It's just a little disheartening to see, but I'm getting used to it.

Lately, our nap time routine has changed a bit. Up until about a month ago, every time I put Anna to sleep, first we would rock in the rocking chair and I would sing her lullabies to calm her. Recently she decided she wanted me to read her books instead. Her favorite books are Counting Kisses by Karen Katz and Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox. I can almost recite both books, but they are teaching her her body parts. Already she anticipates the kisses on the nose and points to her nose.

Just this past week she started saying "hi." Now she likes to walk around the house saying "hi." I guess that's how she does things. Several months ago she walked around the house saying, "Mom?" and then for a few weeks it was "huh?"

Junk Food

I have tried to instill good eating habits in Anna. As my mom can willingly tell you, I was a picky eater as a child and afraid of most fruits and vegetables. It's something I'm still working on, but I don't want Anna to be like me. I guess I could only keep the junk food away from her for so long, especially since we're setting a great example by eating it ourselves. She loves Cheez-its and she likes feeding them to Dad too. And in the picture below, that's a chocolate Pirouette she's eating, not a cigar. In the photo above she's holding a rice crispy treat, but she didn't actually get to eat that. I just gave it to her to calm her down after she stuffed a Hot Tamale in her mouth. I was eating them at Bear Lake and she kept begging me for one. I knew that they would be too hot for her, but somehow she got one in her mouth. I think she took one from Grandma when she wasn't looking. We didn't even notice she had one until she started to cry and she spit it out. But when I tried to take it away from her, she grabbed it back and stuffed it in her mouth. Then she started to cry again and she spit it out. She did this one more time before she willingly gave up the Hot Tamale. Perhaps you can see the red all around her mouth from her Hot Tamale drool.

This photo has nothing to do with junk food. I just think it's cute. She didn't actually get to go for a ride since we didn't have a life jacket her size, but she was happy just to sit while the other little kids got on.

Family Trip to Grant Teton National Park and Yellowstone

This year we decided to take a trip with just our little family to Jackson Hole. While I was still in grad school, Dan and I had visited Jackson Hole when I presented a paper at a conference held in the area. We've been wanting to go back and we thought it would be a great place to take a little kid because she could be outside and no one would be bothered if she decided to be noisy.
These green chairs were probably Anna's favorite part of our trip. They sat right outside our room and were the perfect height for someone her size to climb into. If we tried to take her inside, she would cry and point to the door. As soon as we opened it, she'd be back outside in these chairs.
The first night we were there, we drove into the park at dusk to see some wildlife and managed to see a herd of buffalo including this one and two more who crossed the street right in front of our car. That night we also saw a buffalo calf with the herd. During our stay we saw some antelope, elk, and moose, including a baby moose with its mama, but no bears. Ironically our best views of moose came as we were driving through Star Valley. On our way to Jackson, we saw a moose standing near the road and on our way home we saw a baby moose and its mama eating from a tree right by the highway.
Unfortunately for us, it rained quite a bit while we were there. Everything was green and pretty, but it was hard for us to go on a hike if we thought it might dump rain on us. So we spent lots of time in visitor's centers, but we did manage to squeeze in one hike around a tiny peninsula near Colter Bay on Jackson Lake. This was Anna's first time in our new kid carrier backpack and she did pretty well.

On Friday we drove up to Yellowstone to see Old Faithful. Anna didn't much like waiting for it to go off. She wanted to push her stroller, which usually involves running into other people, or walk around, darting in and out of all the people walking around, which I didn't much like. But when it finally went off, she was impressed. We spent some time walking around looking at the other geysers near by before stopping to eat at a restaurant on Yellowstone Lake.

No one got much sleep since we were all crowded into one hotel room, but that just means that after a fun trip, we were ready to get back home to our own beds.

Lesson Learned

the hard way.

After I handed her a cup full of chocolate Teddy Grahams and let her eat as many as she wanted during the drive home from Target, I discovered this messy baby in the backseat. The funny thing is that since then she's refused to eat them again. I guess I can't complain since it's junk food. I just think it's interesting that she seems to have had her fill of the cookies.

Do you have any cucumbers for my eyes?

I take a high chair photo about once a week. I don't know why I find these so entertaining, but I do. Today she smeared yogurt and oatmeal all over her face. This picture doesn't really show the full extent of her work. I ended up putting her in the bathtub to get it all off. Even if she does like to rub the food in her hair, she's a pretty good eater.

Happy Easter

So the Easter Bunny was a little under prepared for Anna's Easter basket, but she didn't seem to mind. When I was a kid the Easter Bunny brought us only candy: Robin's Eggs, solid chocolate eggs, jelly beans, Peeps, and Reese's Eggs. Dan's Easter Bunny brought fancier stuff like See's chocolate and presents. I'd always gaze at the giant cellophane wrapped baskets in the stores and wish the Easter Bunny would bring me one of those toy- and candy-filled monstrosities. But, no worries Mom. Now I look back on my Robin's Eggs and Peeps with nostalgia.

Since Anna is too young for candy (although she would tell you otherwise), the Easter Bunny brought non-food items, but only two: a board book about Easter and crayons. Now it seems a little lame. He could have at least got her a toy or something, but I figure she's too young to care and maybe next year the Easter Bunny will plan a little better.

Saturday afternoon our ward had an Easter egg hunt. It was the highlight of my day. Anna hasn't spent much time on the grass because her mom doesn't think to take her out much, and in my defense, the weather hasn't cooperated much this spring. She's still a little scared of the grass, so she was walking on her tiptoes, while other kids her age where ambling along if they weren't running. Can you see the look of concern in this photo? I think she was even nervous about sitting on the grass.

She also didn't really understand the idea of picking up the eggs. And I think she was nervous about getting her hand so close to that prickly grass. So I'd pick up an egg, hand it to her, and try to get her to stick it in the basket. Then she started taking eggs out of the basket. I wasn't worried about her getting lots of eggs since we were going to eat the candy anyway, but it was pretty entertaining trying to help her understand the concept of an Easter egg hunt.