First Halloween

Today Annabelle celebrated her first Halloween — as a goldfish. At first we weren't going to do a costume since she's too young to trick or treat, but we finally couldn't avoid the temptation and got her a costume. I'm really glad we did. It was a lot of fun and she was so cute!

She went to a sing-along at the library in her costume and had a lot of fun. And then Chris took her to get her portrait made this afternoon. Of course, our little goldfish went to bed at 6, so she didn't get to take part in the neighborhood fun. But maybe next year!

So there are a ton more changes going on...the biggest one is that Annabelle started "officially" crawling yesterday. She's still a little timid about it, but give her a few days and she's going to be all over the place. We're going to be remembering her immobility with fondness. And I found two other new teeth this morning on top, bringing her total to SIX!

We went to Conroe this past weekend for Chris' last half Ironman of the triathlon season. We had a lot of fun. Chris gave Annabelle a kiss when he came out of the swim. You could hear the crowd go, "Ahhhh." It was adorable.

10 months old today

Unbelievable! Our little girl is already 10 months old today! She is doing great. She's been a little grumpy the last couple of days and we can't figure out why. It either has to do with a growth spurt, teeth coming in, or her stomach hurting. But of course, she could just be a grump!

Her two top teeth have FINALLY broken through the surface. Now hopefully the other four that are waiting up there will get a move on. We'll see if weaning is in the near future!

She's pretty much crawling, although she's a little timid about it. But she seems to be getting braver and ready to really take off. She loves to pull up on us and get help walking. She looks like she's walking on a very rocky ship! And she loves to kiss, but not us. She'll kiss her books, her stuffed animals, her reflection in the mirror, and now she's into kissing other babies. But when we ask for a kiss, we get a hand to the face and she turns her head away!

SO Many Changes!

Wow...The last week we've seen a lot of changes in Annabelle. First, she's SO tall! All of her pants are too short on her, so they've become capri pants. I'm washing all of her clothes right now that are the next size up so I can see if they'll fit her. Since she's only in the 25th percentile for weight, I'm afraid they'll swallow her. But the length of her other clothes is getting a bit ridiculous.

I really think she'll be crawling within the next week. She is trying so hard to do it! She has the components down. She just needs to put it all together. But she finally seems to be determined to get around by herself. I'm excited about seeing her crawl, but at the same time, I'm dreading it!

And she's getting into a sitting position by herself now. She basically just scoots backwards until gravity takes over and she falls onto her butt. She is so proud of herself whenever she makes a successful landing! It is so adorable to go into her room and see her sitting up in the middle of the crib.

And Annabelle is talking more and more. She's always babbling and trying new sounds. My favorite, of course, is "ma ma ma ma ma ma." She is into that today and that's pretty much all that's coming out of her mouth.

She is also imitating us more and more and just seems to be soaking everything in. She actually seems to want to know what things are called and is starting to point to pictures in her books to find out what they are. So cute!

9-month checkup

Annabelle had her 9-month checkup today a couple of weeks late. The doctor seemed pleased with her development!

Our little girl has now reached the 90th percentile for her length. She is now 29 inches long!
Her weight percentile has gone down between the 25th and 50th. She's weighing in at 18 pounds. She's weighed that much for at least a month now. She's very tall and skinny.
And her head circumference is holding steady at 75 percent! She'll always be on the high end with that!

She had to get a flu shot today and had to have some blood taken from her index finger. She was NOT very happy about those two events. She screamed so loud when she was getting her blood taken. Mainly it was because the lady was holding on to her finger so dang tight. By the end of it, she was covered in tears, snot and drool and her face was bright red and splotchy. But she recovered by lunch, although Chris had to hold her during the entire meal.

So we have to go back in four weeks for a second flu shot for her. They break up the doses for little babies. She won't appreciate that at all!

Our funny little girl

Annabelle continues to be more flirtatious out in public and is just so darn funny. Yesterday, we were eating lunch at Panera, and we were in a prime spot for her to people watch and flirt. She looked at every single person who went by in line. For most people, she smiled and flirted, but every once in a while, someone would get a stone cold stare. We don't know how you pass the Annabelle test. But it sure does cheer the people up who are deemed flirt-worthy by her! She does this practically everywhere we go.

We also started Gymboree on Tuesday with about 8 other babies around her age. It's a weekly 45-minute class that builds on what they are starting to discover at her age. She absolutely loved it. Mainly, she loved being around the other babies. I took my eyes off her for one second, and she had her hands around an 8-month-old's neck! She didn't seem to mind though. All of the babies in the class were crawling, even a six-month-old. Annabelle was almost the oldest and was the only one not crawling. Maybe the other babies will teach her!

She does seem to be interested for the first time in being mobile. She wants to practice standing and stepping more than crawling, so maybe she'll skip crawling altogether.

Annabelle caught her first cold from me this weekend. She had one rough night where she was adjusting to a stuffy nose, but she's done just fine since then. We put a humidifier in her room and I guess it's helping.

And she got a visit this past weekend from Nana and Gary. She had a blast with them!