Little Miss Chatterbox

We have almost survived our first "both of us being teachers and writing report cards" season.  By almost I mean--I'm done, Dave's not.  So a few more days and hopefully life will be back to "normal".  We've already declared next weekend as a "no-schoolwork-allowed" weekend.  Hopefully we can get some of our Christmas stuff up! 

Anneke, on the other hand is doing great!  She is growing so much and learning so much, it's really unbelievable!  She's totally catching onto things we do and wanting to do them too.  And I have to raise the bar with my cooking efforts now because she wants to eat everything we eat.  So that means trying to get supper ready and Anneke-appropriate quickly so she can eat with us.  A couple of the latest things:
~She's learning to say "please" in sign language
~She loves her stuffed animals and is almost always carrying one around
~She's been playing with her cars and making car noises as she drives them around
~She says "woof, woof" when she hears a dog
~She's got hilarious new sounds effects (I'll have to try and post a video later this week when I have time to let it load....)
~She still loves reading her books and watching Baby Einstein/Praise Baby movies (we've also tried a Veggie Tales or two....)
~She can climb the stairs on her own and get back down
~She's practically running everywhere--yesterday she walked all the way around the block!
~She's learned to "talk" on the phone and everything is a phone, including the calculator!  And after she babbles for a minute on the phone she does this hilarious little click of her tongue.  It's priceless!
~And she's growing like a weed!  I had to wash the 24-month clothes this week!

Enjoy a few pictures (we haven't been very diligent with the picture taking lately...)

This is what "determined" looks like:

"I will feed myself!"

(What you don't see in this picture is me holding the food jar and my hands also covered in food!)

Visiting the Farm

Grandma and Grandpa babysat for two days this week while Dave and I were at the teachers' convention.  They took Anneke to see Uncle Matt's cows.  Apparently she was a little scared and would not pet them!  Here's some pictures:

Autumn Fun

Dress-up Round 2--Our "Charlie Brown" child.

 If ya can't ride'em, push'em!

 Fun in the leaves.



Growing Up: Reading and Dressing Up

Our baby is growing up!  Here are a few pictures to show what she's been up to lately.

She loves the chair she got for her birthday from Uncle Matt!  And is really enjoying all the new books she got!

 And here's an example of some of the heavier reading we've been doing with her.  (For those who can't read the title it's "The Hobbit".  Tom, we're getting a lot of use out of your book!!!)

 And today while I was sitting on the couch she brought over her red shoes, wanting me to put them on for her.  Once those were on she went back to get her winter hat.  So I guess dress-up is the next stage!

Birthday Bash

Our beautiful little pumpkin has turned ONE!!!!  We had a small birthday party for her on Saturday; here is a small montage of photos from the day.

 Balloons and ribbons were quite a hit!

 She got to spend lots of time with Grandma and Oma!

 A cupcake....looks interesting.  But I don't really like it.....

 Opening gifts:  She was more interested in the tissue paper and in climbing on the colourful boxes than with unwrapping the boxes.  Once they were unwrapped, however, she loved playing with all her new toys!  (I thought it was about time Tom and Sarah made it on our blog!)

 Here's our big girl! 

Anneke, you have brought so much joy to our lives!  We love watching you grow and learn new things.  We are so blessed to have you in our family!  Thank-you for all your smiles and hugs!  We can't wait to see what exciting things the next year will bring!  We love you as big as the sky! :)  ~Mommy and Daddy

September Whirlwind

September has felt like a whirlwind.  All three of us have been thrown into totally new situations, so it has been a huge transition.  But we're all surviving!  Dave is enjoying school.  His class is good (so far!), the drive isn't too bad yet, and the staff there is great!  So we're glad he's feeling welcomed and that things have started well.  My job seems to be requiring more brain power than I have some day and I often feel like I'm totally confused most of the day.  There are a lot of new things to learn in Resource, and French is a lot of work too.  But I'm hoping that once I figure out how everything goes it'll settle down.  Anneke has been doing well at the babysitters.  She cries every morning when I leave, but the last couple days it only lasted a couple minutes!  She has several other kids to play with and they all love her, so we're glad that she's fitting in there!  It was pretty heart-wrenching to drop her off that first morning, but it's getting easier every day!

Anyways, here are some pictures from the last few weeks:

"There's no place like home!"  Anneke got these shoes from one of the teachers I work with and they fit now!  So I took some pictures to show her and thought I'd share.

 Daddy was racing her around the living room in the laundry basket, very fun!

 But now Daddy left, and I want out....how to get out.....

 Success!

 The laundry basket is a pretty cozy place to watch baby einstein from.  By the end of the movie she was totally leaning over sideways with her head on the side!