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Is it really August Already? |
Annabelle
is now approaching 11 months old! I
can’t believe she’s almost a year old already. It really is a cliché to say it
but it is amazing how fast the time passes.
Cutest baby sailor in the whole world
Topic: Food
Today
I tried to introduce the classic American food – the thing kids scream
for, the food adults love to hate: Kraft Mac & Cheese. Well I love the stuff and I figured it
was a perfect time to introduce Annabelle to this children’s favorite. Well, it didn’t go over so
well. I included a single noodle on
the spoon with her rice and apricot muesli. And after 1.5 seconds, her tongue pushed
the entire contents back out again. (It was even lovelier than it sounds, but
unfortunately I didn’t capture it on film given that I was (futilely)
trying to shove it back in. Out it
came again. The girl definitely has
issues with texture in her food.
She’s a smoothie girl all the way.
Here
she is showing off her new and prodigious clapping skills. She claps for food
she likes, she claps when I walk into her room in the morning, she claps at the
doggies….
Speaking
of eating, I do have a series of wonderful pictures and video that give details
of her neat and pristine eating style.
Note: this is not for the faint of heart, the easily grossed out.
Isn’t
she a real little lady? And for
some extra special grossness, here’s a movie.
August_files\gross eating
habits.MOV
Topic: Outdoor living
On
other topics, in between the overheated days of July and more in cooler August,
we’ve been spending a lot of time outdoors. When it was really hot, we’d go to
the local wading pool almost every day. Annabelle loves the water. Since these photos, she’s already
gotten tired of the floaties and now wants to be fully immersed in the water
– no floaties for her, she’s a big girl now.
I’m
also getting back in the gardening swing and trying to rescue my lawn from
looking like an abandoned industrial superfund site. I’ve found that
Annabelle is content when I just put her on her blanket on the lawn and then I
toil away. She chatters away
and plays contentedly.
Topic: Photography
A
few weeks ago at Bryant park, a woman approached me and said “Your baby
is gorgeous, have you ever considered modeling her?” Well, Cha-CHING! Of course, that’s
part of “The Plan” of parental support. Anyway, turns out the woman works for a
modeling agency in town and asked me to send her a “headshot” of
Annabelle.
What
the hell is a headshot? (A headshot
to me is something I had to watch out for in
Luckily,
I got guidance from my beautiful entertainment industry friend Chandra who gave
me the lowdown. So first, I had to
get a photo. So I went to a
portrait studio and explained what I wanted. They said “sure” and
took adorable photos of Annabelle.
Then, after I paid up, they refused to issue a release for the photos -
So I couldn’t use them for the headshots.
So,
I decided “hell, I took enough photos of her in
Rakish
little sailor girl
This
sucks, I want to move, not sit still. And what’s the deal with this
thing on my head?
I hate
this stupid hat. I hate all
hats. You know that, why are you
putting this on my head?
I HATE
hats, mom!!!!! How many ways
can I tell you that?
Thank God
that’s done – another battle won after Mom concedes
defeat. Where’s my
soymilk martini, I’m bushed!
At
the end of the day I did get one photo I could use and now Annabelle has an
official headshot to shop around and make her a star and allow me to retire and
eat cheez doodles in bed.
Topic:
Daycare
*
At daycare the toddlers call Annabelle “Tinkerbell” instead, which
I think is adorable!
*
At daycare the teachers call Annabelle “the gymnast” – she
climbs everything. One day I walked in and saw her heaving herself over the
edge of a plastic gate – she pulled herself up and over. It’s
amazing how strong she is. So last
weekend I sucked it up and bought this playset at Toys R Us (Tarzhay
didn’t have it so my shopping mecca, and employer, let me down).
It’s going over well as you can
see from the three videos below.
August_files\up
the slide with the ball 2.MOV
Topic:
And
what update from the mericle household would be complete with yet another bath
photo and video. She really loves her bath, although she’s getting
annoying because she’s figured out how to pull the drain stop up and
thinks this is a mighty fine game and so it’s a constant battle to keep
the water in the tub.
I do love my bath.
I love all water. I love shoving my face underwater all the time and it
has added benefit of causing my mom to have a heart attack each time! Yay me!
August_files\standing in bath.MOV
Topic: My Margaret
Finally,
I found this really great wedding website of Margaret’s close friend
Cathy McIntyre. My parents and I
had not seen it before and it has all kinds of great photos of Margaret serving
as Cathy’s maid of honor at her wedding on New Year’s Eve this year. Marg looked so pretty in her dress, with
her hair all fancy! She called me
at midnight that night to wish me a happy new year (of course, I was asleep but
we chatted for about 30 minutes, her tipsy, me sleepy!) and sent me a picture
of this HUGE pile of bobby pins she took out of her hair that night (I must
have deleted that picture since I can’t find it). It was the first New Years in a long
time we hadn’t spent together.
We always argued about whether to go out (her) or stay in with videos
(me). I’m glad this year she
got to go out and look as glamorous!
I still cry every day as I think about our lives going on without
her. But I am able to smile
sometimes now when I think about her. Check out my beautiful sister.
PS – To
Cathy & her parents – you will never know how much it meant to us
that you drove through the night to be at Margaret’s service. We will never forget that. Thank you.
Okay,
that’s it folks. I’ll try for another update in September when
Annabelle celebrates her 1st birthday!
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