Mama! (Just found this from April 24 I hadn't posted yet...)

How do you really classify a "first word"? Is it the first time the word is spoken or the first time the word is spoken AND baby knows what it means? Not sure why I'm asking as the answer really doesn't matter because Annabelle said "mama" so that's her first word whether she knows that's me or not! Oh how sweet that sound is. She said it for the first time on Good Friday, and boy was it!

We've had quite a good week this week. Steve had a follow-up CT scan this week (he is almost 6 months post-op). Before he had ca and would have a test while we were trying to figure out his cough I was never nervous as I guess I kind of have the "eternal optimist" outlook and always just knew nothing would be wrong. This was his first scan since November when I realized I was wrong and something was wrong and I was incredibly nervous about it. But, everything looks good and my darling husband is still healthy and cancer free for which we are all so thankful!

We also spent some time outside with Annabelle this week both at the park and on a bike ride. Steve really enjoys biking (not the little bit over the top, dresses like he should be in the Tour de France type), but just nice, relaxing rides so we finally got around to getting a little bike trailer for Annabelle to ride in behind her Daddy. There are some great bike trails that go right through our neighborhood so we took her out for her first spin yesterday and she just loved it! She cooed and squealed the whole time we were out and really seemed to enjoy the breeze blowing in her face. She's such a happy baby all the time anyway, not really sure what I expected. What I am sure of, though, is that I'm glad he's the one pulling back up the hill to home and not me!

I really have grown to love Easter more and more every year. The weather is (usually) quite nice and spring-y and it's extra special to us since we got married on Easter weekend. Now, here we are 5 years later celebrating Annabelle's first Easter and now it will more special again since she had her Baby Dedication service on Easter Sunday! Steve & I had been talking about it for a while and trying to come up with a "compromise" for how we wanted the service. He grew up in the Church of England which, shockingly, is just a little bit different than my Baptist background. Naturally, he had his visions of just how the service should go as did I, and although the end result of both of our thoughts was the same, the specific details were not. Thankfully, however, the discussion was settled when God's timing intervened and sent the Outlaw family home early from Kazakstan! This meant that the same pastor who married us was able to do the service, making it that much more special.

After the service, we had a nice family lunch at The Hermitage Hotel, complete with the Easter Bunny. The whole weekend was really very nice and makes me look forward to all of our Easters to come!


Pics to come!

5 years/7 months/1 week

Five years of marriage. Seven months with Annabelle. One week without her. Steve and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary with a trip to Barbuda, sans Annabelle. Leading up to the trip, I did not want to leave her behind. Note, I didn't say I didn't want to go, just didn't want to leave Annabelle! But we did, and it was just fine. On one hand, it's so nice to know that we can leave her with her Nana & Grandpop and know that she's safe and healthy and basically just as happy as she is with us. On the other hand, it's a bit deflating to realize that if Steve & I dropped off the face of the earth tomorrow it probably wouldn't affect her all that much.

Light House Bay Resort, Barbuda

On our Fifth Anniversary

Anniversary cake

morning coffee on the beach

Our Suite

We both love that little girl with every ounce of our being. In just 7 short months, she has truly become my everything. With that being said, Steve and I truly had a fabulous time together last week. Yes, we missed her terribly. No, we don't plan to leave her for a full week EVER again (yes, I realize by our sixth anniversary, we may have changed our minds especially if she has the terrible two's her big sister allegedly had). Before her birth, I read Babywise which is partly, in a nutshell, about how important it is for parents to remain close partners and have the baby fit into our lives and still putting each other first rather than us conforming to her. At first I was a bit iffy about how much I agreed with the book as I never thought we would raise a baby according to what a book told us to do, but as I knew nothing about babies, I went along with the scheduling & feeding suggestions and by 5 weeks she was sleeping consistently through the night, and I'm talking 8-10 hours. We had our first 7 hour night at just under 3 weeks old and now she's a 12-13 hour sleeper. And her mealtimes and nap times are almost like clockwork. I guess my point is that although we didn't really need a book to remind us to stay close as a couple, Steve & I do and have always done everything together,  I must say that it was kind of nice to have it in "black and white" that it's okay for us to have "us" time to celebrate our five incredible years of marriage!

lunch on our deck

deserted beach

During our week away, we had long, hard days of doing almost nothing! Barbuda became just about our favorite place in the world when we visited the first time in 2009. The resort sits on about 16 miles of uninterrupted, gorgeous pink and white sand so we were able to have some really nice looooong walks, rested on the beach after those walks and just truly relaxed. We skyped Annabelle at least once, usually twice, daily and of course told everyone we spoke to about our darling little girl back at home. By the time Saturday came back around and it was time to come home, for maybe the first time ever, I wasn't longing for a few more days. I was ready to see Annabelle again! As we climbed into the tiny helicopter we had to take back to the airport in Antigua, all I could think about was that I hoped the pilot was quick because I didn't want to be squeezed into such a small space for very long. That thought quickly went away when he pointed out mother and calf humpback whales splashing and playing just below us! The pilot took us down to just a couple hundred or so feet above them and circled for about 20 minutes as we watched their incredible acrobatics, jumping, tale slapping and just playing like mommies and babies do! I really don't think I've ever been moved by anything as much as I was watching those beautiful creatures. Over the years I have been slowly becoming more and more of an animal rights activist (no, not PETA-like, I still love my steak!), but I don't think I'll ever be able to take Annabelle to Sea World, aquariums, etc. Nothing as beautiful as what we watched should ever be locked away in a tank anywhere, for any reason! The only sad part about it is that I will probably never see anything like that ever again. The entire week was totally worth those 20 minutes! And watching that mommy & baby made me love mine even more.

On the chopper

That speck waaaaay in the background is our hotel

My sweetheart

Hotel way in the distance again. Love the rugged
driftwood behind me.

Steve with some of the staff 

You can see the calf under the water here and
the tip of the mom's fin in her huge splash

Here is a short video of the whales. Please excuse about the first 30 seconds, I didn't want to risk missing anything when I knew we were coming upon them!

Humpback Whales

Annabelle had started crawling just before we left, but during our week away she became much better at it. She also started pulling herself up to standing just the night before we left. What a big girl she's becoming! She now moves around quite quickly, usually in the general direction of Macy. Thankfully (for her) Macy is still much faster than Annabelle. I do wonder how long that is going to last. I know that she had a great time with her Nana & Grandpop during her week with them and wasn't spoiled at all. Sure. She absolutely loves to swing, so of course Grandpop had to hang a swing just for her at their house. And I have noticed at least one pair of shoes that she didn't have before we left, courtesy of her Nana. How lucky we all are that she has such wonderful grandparents!

Crawling away from her bath

I know she's our baby, but seriously, how cute is she?!! I love that look of pure and total joy on her face in the pics of her swinging. And I love the sweet and innocent look as she's escaping after her bath. Basically, I just love every little thing she does! And as I've said so many times before, life just keeps getting more fabulous every day!

We have a little crawler!

She finally made it to Daddy!
Look at that happy face!

Today Annabelle truly and officially crawled. She made a little creep across the floor quite awhile ago and over the weekend started doing a bit of the army crawl forward, then up on her knees and backwards but today was an official "hands and knees" crawl! She's still quite slow (thankfully) but we're just loving her excitement in this new discovery of motion. She came across the living to get to me this afternoon (or maybe Macy) and tonight it was much quicker to get to her Daddy. I feel quite certain now that she can make her own way she would probably cross a desert to get to him.

The past week has actually been an eventful one in her little life. We visited Steve at work last Monday night when he was on OB call (I brought dinner, she brought dessert). While we were there another physician came into the lounge and oohd and ahhd over Annabelle. As she left, of course she said "Bye bye" and waved. Straight out of nowhere, Annabelle picked up her little arm and waved back! Then another guy came and went; she waved again. Wondering if it was just a two-time fluke, I waved and said "bye bye". And she waved at me, too! I find it incredible just how observant she obviously is as we haven't tried to teach her that yet, she just noticed that's what people do. So now it's what Annabelle does, too.

Over the weekend, Annabelle developed her first little cold and it just melted my heart. It is basically already over now, but for three days she had a snuffly nose, chesty little cough and sneeze sneeze sneeze. It's probably ridiculous that I even found her little cold to be cute, but it was. Often when she feels a sneeze coming on, she calmly removes the paci from her mouth, gives a huge (tiny) little sneeze, coos and puts the paci back into her mouth. It's almost as though she likes to sneeze. Who knows, maybe it's fun for such a little baby to make such a big sound.

We're both really glad she started crawling this week. Next Friday is our 5 year anniversary and we are going to Barbuda without her for a week. When we booked the trip Annabelle was of course adorable, but she didn't "do" as much as she does now. I had been so worried she would start crawling while we were away and we would miss it. So much that I had instructed my mom to knock her over (gently) if she started to crawl next week! I know that it will be good for us to be together "just us" for the week, but I just know we are going to miss this little girl like crazy. For all of you who told me before she was born that  I wouldn't want to leave her: you were right! I know I said I would still want to go places with just Steve because for 5 years that's been such a big part of our lives. And I do still want to go all over the place with Steve, but Annabelle better be ready because she's going, too!

Already miss these two!

And I thought We Were Happy Then...

There have been so many times over the last several years that I've thought I couldn't possibly be happier. Steve and I are coming up on our 5 year anniversary and of course I thought our wedding day could never be topped. Then we'd have those times we'd be sitting on a beach watching the sunset or having a picnic in Paris or just being silly and playing games at home that I'd think "It can't get any better than this". This time last year, I couldn't imagine ever being happier. Wow...I didn't know anything. Just over 6 fabulous months have passed since sweet Annabelle's arrival to this world and literally every day is happier than the one before! She has a bit more personality every day, a bigger smile, a funnier laugh and seemingly, a new favorite food. This month was, of course, full of firsts again. Can you imagine what it must be like for virtually everything in your world to be a "first" or "new" almost every day? It's really no wonder she sleeps between 12 and 13 hours every night, all the excitement of a "new" every day must be exhausting!

6 months old

Beignets!

One of the big "firsts" this month was a weekend away from each other. Steve had a conference in New Orleans so we went for the weekend while Annabelle stayed with her Nana & Grandpop. We definitely missed her, but we enjoyed ourselves. It was the beginning of the Mardi Gras parades and we accidentally got caught on the wrong side of one and had no choice but stay and watch as its route was between us and our hotel. We had some delicious meals, a visit to Cafe du Monde, brunch at Commander's Palace and generally, a relaxing weekend. It was, however, absolutely wonderful to come back home to our little girl.

Steve outside a YUMMY spot

New Orleans

Sippy Cup!

One of Annabelle's favorite parts of every day at home has now become mealtime! She graduated from just milk, cereal and oatmeal to fruits and veggies now and seems to just love them all. We started out with fresh pureed butternut squash, which she just gobbled up as if it were the best thing she'd ever put in her mouth. Actually, it probably was, at that time. Then we moved on to peas. Loves them. Sweet Potatoes, yum. Bananas, apples, carrots, pears. Love, love, love. Honestly, we've never yet had one of those moments that I give her something and she spits it out; she just loves everything. I have been making about half of her baby food and was really worried that after the time and effort spent making it, she'd refuse it, but there's something incredibly satisfying about going to the extra effort and having her gobble it up every time. 

This month she has also mastered the art of sitting up all on her own, like such a big girl. She really enjoys sitting in the floor amidst all of her toys and trying to grab Macy as she runs through. Annabelle is so quick that a few days ago as Macy passed by, she grabbed poor Macy's back leg. It didn't hurt Macy, just annoyed her a bit and taught her to make her loop just a bit further away! It is so cute to watch Annabelle giggle and squeal as Macy runs circles around the living room. I think as she gets bigger, these two will be the best of friends. Or at least that's my hope.

As I'm trying to remember everything our little girl has done this month, I'm sure I'm forgetting so much. We had a fun day at the zoo with Kimmie (back before it was winter again). We enjoyed a day with Kristin, Liz & Lily and one with Hope & Baker. Annabelle had her first (two) experiences on the swings....which she LOVED. We had a "family" walk with Annabelle in her stroller trying to decide if she'd rather look at her Daddy and Maggie or her Mommy and Macy. 

 These photos were all taken on Annabelle's "6 month Birthday"!

And here are some pics of how we spend some of our time:

Not sure she loved the hat...but I did! 

This is how she says "Good Morning"!

Loves her Daddy playing guitar & piano, too

Loves her paci so much...

...sometimes she has TWO!

With Kimmie & the zebras

Swiiiiiiiiiiing

Just relaxing in her crib (hehe)

Such a big girl

A day spent with cousin Kayla

And of course, as she is 6 months old now, we had an afternoon with the ever fabulous Brandi Pitts!

AnnaBELLY

Basically, this has just been the most fabulous month ever. And the best part is that I know next month will be, too!