Author Archives: Julie

Annabelle is 4 months old!

That’s right!  Four months ago, Mike and I were BLESSED with the (fast!) arrival of Little Miss Annabelle Jane, who is such a beautiful and precious little girl.

At her 4 month check-up (last week) we learned that she was:

16 lb 6.5 oz for weight (90%) (meaning she’s just about doubled her birth weight of 8lb 11oz),
24 3/4 in for length (90%),
41 1/2 cm for head circumference (75-90%),
given a clean bill of health from the pediatrician,

…and required one emergency outfit change.  Let’s just say that when she puts her mind to it, nothing can “contain” my Little Lady.  It’s a good thing she has a neurotic planner for a mother who always over-prepares by packing her diaper bag full of back-up clothes and other “necessities.” 🙂

Other than pediatrician visits, Annabelle has been keeping herself busy these days by…

conversing with Teddy about politics, current events and their preferences on stuffed animals,

starring in (err…putting up with?) more photo shoots,

playing in her handy-dandy new Activity Chair,

and enjoying a visit from Aunt Ashley (a.k.a. “The Knower of All Things Baby” and/or “Mommy’s Lifeline When She’s Dazed and Confused”).  Life doesn’t get much better than this! 🙂

Standard

Ode to Halloween…Part II

We had a great time celebrating Annabelle’s first Halloween! We started the afternoon by carving our pumpkins…

Despite my best efforts, I ran out of creative energy pretty quickly. So I looked to Mike to finish up while I chatted with the Little Miss, who was also getting a little antsy. Annabelle might not look like me at all (even though I carried her for 40 weeks while her Daddy ate chocolate bon bons), but she definitely inherited my lack of patience.

Inspired by the moment, we thought we’d attempt to take a family photo for our Christmas card. Annabelle, however made it clear that she was much more interested in taking a nap…

So after a little snooze, we dressed up our Little Ladybug for some more Halloween festivities.

We were also visited by some special trick-or-treaters, Grammy, Grandpop, and cousins Ethan and Luke. I couldn’t get everyone to look at me and smile at the same time, but they all sure looked cute!

Now we look forward to next Halloween, when Annabelle can enjoy a bit more of the day (and the candy!…err, until it’s bedtime and all of the sugar her Daddy has allowed her to eat keeps her from falling asleep :)). We love our Little Ladybug!!!

Standard

Ode to Halloween

Last weekend Mike and I decided to take Annabelle to her first pumpkin patch.  I mean, sure, she’s only 16 weeks old and will likely remember none of it.  But, by golly, it’s her first Halloween!  So led by our determination to “make a family moment” we packed up the car and headed to a farm in eastern Durham.

The farm consisted of two large pumpkin patches, a petting zoo with pigs and goats, tractors pulling hayrides, a “corn crib” (i.e. a large trough of sorts filled with dried corn that kids could play in…kind of like the ball pit at McDonald’s…which Mike promptly called a “pit of bacteria” because he’s a big spoil sport ;)), and a corn maze (i.e. a dirt trail through ankle high brown corn stalks that never produced because of North Carolina’s ridiculously hot summer).

We started with the petting zoo, but Little Miss was NOT interested…

So then we headed to one of the pumpkin patches to try and take a photo of her sitting next to the pumpkins.  Here are just a handful of the MANY outtakes…

And the final winner…

Fed up with her goofy parents and their obsession with taking thousands of photos of her at every waking (and sleeping) moment, Annabelle decided that she had had enough and promptly fell asleep…

All in all it was a very fun afternoon!  Now onto the next “family moment”…carving the pumpkins we brought home!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Standard