Mischief maker

Annaka sure loves Russel. She is always on top of him or sliding down his back. Good old Russel takes it like a champ.

This is what happens when you run down stairs to do laundry and leave your little one by a carpet with dirt under it!!

And this is what we do when we watch our favorite video. She thinks she is such a big girl!!

Old Good Friends

My friend Lisa was up from Arizona this week. We were able to meet in Rochester at the park. Annaka loved the swing and Lisa loved Annaka. Annaka has really started to get daring with her walking. She is standing a lot more on her own from a sitting position and walking from one piece of furniture to another. We will have a true blue walker in no time!

Exploring the deck

Today we spent some time outside. Annaka seemed so amazed at the lawn chairs. She kept touching and feeling them. She was very suprised she could look over the edge of the deck. She loved it. When the wind blew she put her hand up to grab it.

Practicing

I finally got a new camera, so I am practicing with it.

Annaka is getting new tooth, it has been making her kind of miserable . Her nose is running non-stop. Now she will have 3 teeth on top and 4 on the bottom.

Here are a couple of pictures I took with my new camera

Changes

Annaka is changing so much. She wants to walk so bad, she stands up and balances and then will take a couple steps. I know in about 1 month she will be all over the house. Her personality is really changing to. She gets so frustrated when she cant get a toy to do what she wants it to. She will scream until you come and help her. She also loves books, she will crawl over to you holding a book, she loves to sit in my lap and look at all the pages.
She continues to throw what ever she can down the steps. We have 2 DVD cases on the steps right now. You will see her make a b-line for the steps with a toy in her hand so she can toss it down.
She seems to play differently with Ally and Andrew. I have noticed she is much rougher with Andrew. She will yell for him and loves to crawl all over him on the floor when he is trying to watch TV. But with Ally she is more gentle and likes to have Ally play with her and her toys.
I will be going back to work in 13 days, it seems so hard to imagine that my maternity leave is over. I am so glad I am only part time. Annaka went to daycare for 4 hours again on Tuesday this week and did really good.
Her are some pics of the kids. Ally with her buddy, Daisy. Andrew doing what big brothers do. And Annaka checking out her Easter basket.

Annaka's first pictures

Here is a look at some of Annaka's first pictures. They turned out so nice. This is only 3 of about 20 that I had to choose from...

Its been a while

My camera broke so my blogging has really slowed down. I finally drug out my old camera to get some pictures.

Annaka went to her first 4 hour day of daycare today. She did really good. She was all smiles when I picked her up so I know she had fun. It was hard to let her go, but I realized on the way home that we had waited 2 1/2 years for her and now we finally have her. It still amazes me when I look at her and realize that we have only known her for over 9 weeks.

She has come so far. She laughs, babbles, loves the animals and adores her brother and sister.

Last night we decided to let the kids go in the whirlpool to play. Ally and Andrew used to do this at least 3 times a week. We blew up a boat for Annaka and put on her swim suit. You will notice that Andrew has a life preserver on .... we have no idea why...

Oh, it is getting harder and harder for me to take a picture of Annaka looking at me.. This is the best I could do.

Play time

Annaka loves to sit facing the steps. She has a fun game she plays with Comet. Comet goes on the other side of the steps and he tries to bite her fingers. Its all fun and games until Annaka gets bit to hard and decides she is tired of the game. Then she cries and looks at me to console her... Scott had to lower the gate because we were afraid she could scoot under the gate. So now it is low enough that we will not have to worry about her. Excpet now Ally' s cat Daisy cant get her fat tummy under the gate to go downstairs. Such is life they say.

Chicken Pox???

Well, the latest in our household is that Annaka has chicken pox. I took her to the doctor yesterday because she had a very strange looking rash, well to my surprise it is chicken pox.
I still have my doubts, but I do think it probably is. The thing is she hasn't gotten a fever yet or really had much more bumps appear. I talked to one of my friends who is a nurse and she said sometimes children can get a reaction to the chicken pox vaccination. Annaka had her chicken pox shot on Tuesday, but the amount of pox that she has is to many for only a reaction to the shot.
Today Scott and I were supposed to bring her up to the Twin Cities for her post placement meeting but we had to reschedule. We will have to see how she does this weekend. hopefully she wont get much worse but I think that's wishful thinking.

Had to write to tell everyone that I took Annaka in for a second opinion. It just didn't make sense to me, because we were not seeing anymore spots develop or a fever. Turns out she has "folliculitis" it is a inflammation of the hair folicle. She also has a boil, which is pretty big. He put her on a oral antibiotic for 10 days. I am so glad that I brought her back. This makes so much more sense to Scott and I.

A little of this and a little of that

Annaka continues to change everyday. She is getting more verbal. Yesterday I took her to the doctor for her immunizations and while we waited she chatted with a older man. He didn't have much to say to her, but she sure talked his ear off and had to show him her play phone. I had to chuckle because I don't think the man knew what to do or where to look.
She has gained 4 pounds since we have been home. Her crawling is getting better and better, before I know it she is has usually crawled down to Alyssa's bedroom.
We finally made it to a coffee date about 1 week ago. I took a picture of Kaelyn, Laney and Annaka enjoying some play time. The girls are so fun to watch.
Annaka has a favorite toy that seems to sooth her. The yellow ducky that NaNa gave her. She brings it to every room we are in. When she holds it her soothing tongue sucking starts, its so cute to watch her do that. I am glad she found something in the orphanage to make her feel secure.
My sister, Paige came to meet Annaka. Unfortunately, we were side tracked by the goodbye's for Echo, but they still got to know each other. Annaka seems amazed at hats and glasses. When Paige was leaving, Annaka kept wanting her to hold her.

My Forever Friend

This was a hard week for me, on Tuesday I had to let my cat, Echo go to Heaven. He would have been 20 years old on April 2nd. Its hard to imagine I will not touch, see or hold him again. I know he is in a better place, he can run, jump and play like he did when he was young.

I found this poem and thought I would share it. Thank-you to everyone who was there for me. Thank-you for all the cards I recieved and for all the comfort everyone showed me. But most of all thank-you Echo for being such a special part of my life. I will never ever forget you.


They will not go quietly
the cats who've shared our lives.
In subtle ways they let us know
their spirit still survive.
Old habits still make us think
we hear a meow at the door.
Or step back when we drop a tasty morsel on the floor.
Our feet still go around the place
the food dish used to be,
And, sometimes coming home at night,
we miss them terribly.
And although time may bring new
friends and a new dish to fill,
That one place in our hearts belongs to them
and always will....

Playing around with her Best Friend

Laney came over to play on Saturday (along with her mom, dad and big sister). Laney would not get off of Annaka's little rider, she sat on it most of the night. Can you guess what she is getting for her shower gift from us? We finally got a good picture of the girls together. I had to show you all. You probably can't see that Ashley is hiding behind Annaka holding her up. It was the only way we could get them both to sit on it. Trying to get a picture of 2, 13 months old is really tough! The girls had a lot of fun.
Annaka is changing everyday. This morning was the first day she actually played in her crib when she woke up. I finally went in to check on her and she was talking to her stuffed animals. I can see her becoming more and more comfortable everyday. She talks away to me in her car seat whenever we go anywhere (that is when she isn't crying, she doesn't like her car seat!).
I have noticed my posts are getting more and more infrequent, sorry ,but I am having a harder time keeping up with things now that she is crawling. Think of my life when she starts walking!

Little Miss. Stinker

This has become quite the activity to keep Miss. Annaka busy. She loves to go to this drawer and pull everything that she possibly can out of it. I try to hold it shut with my foot sometimes and she gets very mad at me. Take a look at all the intresting things she has managed to throw on the floor!!! Then she looks up and me and tells me all about them... How fun, huh?

A little of this and a little of that

Annaka is exploring her new environment. She loves to dig around in her closet.

The two end picures are Annaka in her highchair and then less than one minute later she was fast asleep. I must have really worn her out this morning. By the time I got her lunch out of the cupboard she was out for count!

Painted toes

Our pink eye has made it full circle. Annaka came down with it yesterday morning. I will have to take her in today for a check up. She looks pretty beat up today. Its hard to get the crud out of those slantey eyes!!Our weekend was pretty non eventful. We got Annanka a Johnny Jump Up and she loves it. She bounces away and swings side to side. It has been really neat to watch her with the new things we give her. She is so amazed by everything. She gets so excited when the kids come home from school and when Scott comes home from work. Her eyes disappear she smiles so hard. I had to take a picture of what a 9 year old and 7 year old do when they are stuck in the house all day. What ever you do, don't say anything to Andrew about this picture. He was not happy I took it, but it cracks me up. He loves to get his toes painted!!

So, the pink eye is gone but we have another problem

Okay, so my next problem. This is what happens when you hold your daughter on your lap and let her play with the romote!!! I can not believe it turned out this bad. Annaka is not allowed to hold any remotes anymore! What a week! (oh, and this picture was taken before my shower, I have some pretty bad bed head going on!).

Playing around in only a diaper...

NO,I'm not tired, I have PINK EYE

This is what an adult looks like with pink eye! I look like I have been out drinking for a week straight! When the doctor saw me he couldn't believe it. He said I will look like this for about 3 or 4 more days. When Andrew had it a week ago he had a couple crusties and I thought that was bad... Lets hope Annaka doesn't get it.

Exploring her enviornment

Annaka is getting very familiar with her surroundings. She is really crawling and loves to pull herself up on anything she can.

She keeps us laughing with the funny things she does. She has met a lot of new friends and family and everyone seems to adore her. How could you not? Here are some pictures of her exploring around the house. Jade seems to put up with her as long as she doesn't take her chewy toy away.