A great Colorado adventure, and nine months old today!

We got back from Colorado on Friday afternoon. We had such a great trip! We spent a few days in Denver, where we went to the zoo, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and a butterfly pavilion.

We then drove to Estes Park, where we stayed in a great condo right on the Fall River (this is the river I fell in when I was a little girl). We spent our days hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park, walking around Lake Estes and exploring the downtown shops and restaurants.

Annabelle did great...she really enjoys nice weather and being outside. I felt like we asked a lot of her on this trip, and she responded beautifully! She was in a great mood, and attracted a lot of attention everywhere we went with her big blue eyes and sunny personality.

Today she is officially nine months old. I can't believe it. She is going to be in school before we know it. She is such a joy in our lives.

Annabelle Updates

Annabelle is doing wonderful...she is going through a very hilarious stage right now. Everything is funny! She laughs and smiles all of the time, except, of course, when she's fussing. Every time she sees Gatsby, she starts laughing, and she loves to ride on his back (with some help from her Dad).

She's really into scrunching up her nose at everything...she does it when she smiles, she does it when she's mad, she does it when she's concentrating. And when she does that, she shows off her bottom teeth! We've been having a great time going for walks, going swimming, out to eat and shopping. She loves to go out now. Every time I put her in her car seat, she gets excited!

She's also talking a lot. The other night, she got mad at me for some unknown reason, and she then proceeded to chew me out while Chris held her. It was very funny. And she even waved at me today when I waved to her. Chris and I were shocked!

She ended up sleeping through the night two nights in a row last week. But then she got what may have been roseola, and hasn't slept through the night since then. So hopefully we'll work back to that some day. At least we had two nights!

We're leaving on Friday for Annabelle's second vacation. We're flying to Denver, then after the weekend driving to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. We're very excited! Hopefully, the plane ride goes as smoothly as our trip in April to Arizona. And I hope that the little girl has fun on our trip!

A miracle?

On the night of September 2, 2007, when Annabelle Grace was eight months and nine days old, she slept through the night for the FIRST time. That's right, she SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT! One-time fluke, or a sign of things to come? Wee hee!

Wear silly hats while you can

Yesterday when we went to the park, I put an especially silly and bright hat on Annabelle. She looks adorable in it. It was quite shady where we were swinging, so Chris kept trying to get me to take the hat off Annabelle. I think he was slightly self-conscious for her!

But I wouldn't take it off her. This is the only time, besides when she's an old lady, that she can wear silly little hats without caring or being embarrassed. So I say, bring on the funny hats! She's too cute in them.

Annabelle has had a wonderful week. She's still not crawling, but she's into everything. I just weighed her a little while ago, and she is coming in at 17.8 pounds! Big girl! She is adorable. This morning on our walk, she had a 30-minute conversation with herself. It sounded quite important and interesting. She is a very smiley little girl, although you'd never guess that from the pictures we take. I love it when she's really excited and smiles so big, she wrinkles up her little nose. And shows us her two little teeth!