Happy 1/2 Birthday Anna!

Mom trying to take a new picture with Anna, instead I get spit up down my shirt and in my hair and she has a smile on her face. Take two. Much better.
Anna's New Ride - Day One
End of ride 2. :) Note: Wally the Walrus in upper left corner. She's sitting on the other side of the tub now as she'd much rather sit up.
Peekaboo!

Love that smile!
Jumping is hew new favorite pasttime.
What a killer smile she has!
The end of mommy's photo shoot.

Hard to believe that Anna has been apart of our lives for 6 months already! It seems like such a long time ago that I woke up to know that this was the day we'd be bringing our baby into the world. And here we are, a short 6 months from that day and Anna has grown and changed so much!

She's quite a character these days. She giggles when you tickle her neck and tummy with a gruffy voice. She will eat anything from her shoes and socks to prunes and sweet peas. We've moved on for the most part from 3-6 months clothes to 6 month and some 6-9 month clothes. I'm still trying to put her in as many warm new clothes I have before spring and summer truely get here. So she may only wear an outfit once at this point. I've loaded her closet up with her new 6-9 month clothes and have to put her clothes away in shifts as they don't all fit very well. She has a turtle in her crib that plays music and lights up. Now that she can shift her body all over the place, she gets rough with the turtle and starts kicking it with both feet. At bath time, we have Wally (the purple walrus) and if he takes a dive or is out of her sight after she has him, the world has ended. She scrunches her nose up like I did when I was little when she laughs or smiles, she blows bubbles and rattles her tongue. Those big blue eyes don't miss a thing. She is starting to look for us if we get out of her sight, like whips her body around whoever is holding her to see the other. Everyday is a new experience, exciting or scary, but she's more than amazing.

I hope we've ended the boughts of sickness, for awhile anyway. Last week we brought Anna in to the doctor to have her checked out. She seemed to run a slight fever on and off and pull at her ears sometimes. She's at the stage where she may start teething, but it ended up being an ear infection. So I brought her back in a couple days later to see if it was on it's way up or down. It was getting better, so we didn't need to do antibiotics. The doctor applauded us. :) She's such a trooper.

We continue to introduce new foods to her and she takes them all, some with a slightly sour face, but ends up whinning for more with her mouth wide open. On the right, I've made a list of what she's eating these days. :) She rolls all over the floor now, trying really hard and sometimes succeeding in reaching her scattered toys. She can stand up by the couch, but doesn't know how to move her feet or hold her balance. She loves it! We're practicing sitting up with some success. It usually ends in a reach to whatever she wants in her mouth and back on the floor we go.

The weather has finally cooperated for us to go outside! We invested more into our darling daughter with a bike trailer so we can all go on bike rides. Gary is currently the lucky recipient of pulling her. The first trip, a bit brisk, resulted in crying and a short ride. Tonight, it was beautiful and we had a half hour trip. She started out hanging out with scary hairy guy and ended up crashing for the duration. Along with that, we put shoes on her. She didn't know what to make of those things on her feet. It's almost like she forgot how to stand. It was hilarious.

I could gush more about the amazing Anna, but I think that's all the excitement for the past week or so. :) Gary and I are doing well. Enjoying the outside and seeing Anna really experience it for the first time. We're still in the midst of spring cleaning (the basement right now) and am still working my theme for the year of "decluttering". So far, doing alright with that. :)

I hope this finds you all enjoying the beautiful weather!

Love,

Gary, Christie and the Baby Boogarino (yeah, we call her that sometimes)

Beans and Butterflies!

Never a dull moment at the Tidd house. First, Anna has been introduced to the art of computer building with Dad last Friday evening. What a momentous occasion for all!
I feel your pain, Anna. (She's not always smiling). :)
Then just when you think it can't get any better, we introduce green beans to the arsenal of yummy mushy Anna food! Once again, she ate it like a champ and still does. We also tried carrots later in the week, but we think it either didn't agree with her or she's teething as she spit up a lot that day after eating it. So we're going to try another veggie tomorrow.

Then we treated ourselves to an afternoon at Fredrick Meijer Gardens to see the Butterfly Exhibit. It was beautiful and Anna wasn't going to miss a thing! She followed the butterflies all over and enjoyed touching (not grabbing, we're learning to be gentle) all the foliage. We can't wait to go back and walk the sculpture park.

I finally got a picture of Anna with her Easter baskets. She doesn't really sit by herself, but we managed to get a couple pictures in before she attacked her basket. She, of course, went for the chocolate. Good girl. :)

I don't know if most of you know that Anna has a mullet. She's had it since the day she was born and it's great. I wanted to get a picture of it before she started to get more hair. She also loves pulling on our hair and our face.

She has quite a grip! Speaking of grip - she loves to sleep on her tummy so at night when we checked on her she had her arm a little bit out of the crib clutching the bars. So we moved her away so we wouldn't be woken up to cries of being stuck. Then we went to wake her up in the morning (yes, we have to wake her up usually) and she had her whole arm out of the crib.

So we rounded out the week a day home with mom b/c Anna had an upset tummy from the carrots we think. But now we think she's teething. No signs of teeth that I can see or feel, but I'm sure they are on their way. That morning, we left her on the floor on her blanket to get stuff ready for the day. About 2 minutes later we check on her, this is what she did. What a character!

And the week wouldn't be complete without a sunny photo shoot with the lovely Anna. I can't resist! All of my discs for my camera since she's been born have been labeled Anna and the month. She's certainly taken over our lives in such a wonderful way and can't imagine life without her!

We've been thrilled to be able to take walks, open windows in the house and the car and see the sun again! It sure makes such a difference. Gary and I are doing well. Work is good. Sidework is good. We've been working on being better stewards of what we have. I didn't really know what the word meant until recently and it's been on my mind ever since. We've been having people over to our home for dinner and sharing in fellowship, going through our boxes of stuff and getting rid of/donating what we don't need or want anymore, recycling things to better the environment, things like that. I guess we're following the trend of being more "green" but it's really doing what God has already commanded us to do a long time ago and "rule" of the earth and treasure it for what it is. It may be small, but a little goes a long way sometimes.

Have a wonderful Lord's Day tomorrow and I'll leave you with this picture. We talk a walk with Anna, it was a little breezy and apparently it took it all out of her. I put her down on the floor for 2 minutes, came back and this is what we found. Too cute!

Love to you all!

Gary, Christie and the Booger

The Boog

Aww.... she looks so peaceful.

Reading with mom - the attention span is very small. :)
Family bowling and pizza night! Alex always has this look of confusion.Again....
Aren't we cute? :)
See that letter "C" - yeah, that's me. I whomped everyone that game with a 180.
Easter pictures! A photo shoot soon to come with this outfit. Hehe. :)
Isn't she the cutest?
Dad feeding Anna, but what she really wants is a place to put her foot.

This was hilarious. I finished feeding her and almost immediately her eyes got real heavy.
Eating an orange with grandpa. She liked them almost too much.
Fiber may be a better way to go.

Anna is certainly showing her personality these days. She always rolling from her back to her tummy and back over again. She's almost to the point where we could walk away and come back a couple minutes later and she'd be across the room. We need gates ASAP. :) Most of the time now she ends up on her tummy when she's sleeping. We hear her struggle a little at night when she's finding a comfortable spot and she's down for the count. She's talking loudly quite a bit, laughing, giggling and of course, showing off her flirty smile to anyone looking her way. Gary said he's going to have a talk with her. :) I think the next few weeks she'll start to put sounds together a bit more than screaming.

She has figured out how to make noises with her mouth, like boat sounds and thinks it's hilarious. In the meantime, she drools like a sive and should be wearing a bucket around her neck. No teeth yet, but I'm sure those are on the horizon as well. I thinks she's finally outgrown all her newborn clothes (hehe) and most of her 3 month clothes. I discovered last night that she has a giant Rubbermaid container full of clothes for 6-9 months. Yay! This weekend may entail going through the clothes in her room and replacing them with a new wardrobe. I wish I got a new wardrobe every 3 months. :)

Despite trying to keep her clean from all her drool and dribbles, her daily bath may have given her a case of eczema on her legs. So we bought a vat of Euciderm and it seems to be doing the trick. What else... she holds her own bottle most of the time and doesn't want to when she see's moms hand by the bottle. Still sleeps through the night. She sees something from a bit of a distance and puts her hands out to get it. Still loves to put everything in her mouth. And this weekend begins baby food: round 1. Not sure what yet, but it'll be veggies. She enjoyed the juice from an orange last weekend with grandpa, but we're going to hold off on other big people foods for awhile yet. She's also gained yet another nickname of Booger or Boog, probably b/c of all the runny noses we've had in her short 5 months.

As for Anna's entourage: Gary's been dealing with a cold like sickness along with most of his office. Oh the joys of working at a college and coming home to a child who's been in daycare. Hopefully we're on the mends now. Work is going well. I'm keeping busy at work as our busy season is starting up soon - good thing I'm getting another graphic designer in here to help! We're both doing quite a bit of side work this year - a couple of big websites for local builders. I'm also doing some of my own graphics stuff while Gary keeps fixing peoples computers. We're trying to develop a routine and designated nights to work on side work. We're getting there! We are so ready to get outside - we've been looking at strollers/carts to attach to our bikes so we can all go out on a bike ride. And I'm ready to get some flowers and maybe veggies in too! So many things, so little time.

We enjoyed the Easter weekend in Chicago with my side. We had a trecherous drive in. It took us 4 hours instead of about 2 1/2. Saturday we went bowling and I cleaned up with a 180 and 140! Then we had pizza and finished up the night with a round table discussion of homework and planning a baby shower. Sunday we went to church and saw a lot of Anna's little friends. We had a good dinner with the Tiemens and Madany's. Then scooted home in the normal amount of time and got Anna back to her normal schedule. It was a great weekend!

I hope this finds all of you well! Have a great rest of the week and pray for no more snow!

Love,

Gary, Christie and the Boog

Spring is in the air!

My goodness, it's been so long since we've seen the sun or the grass or heard the birds chirping. 40 degrees sure feels like summer from what our winter has been like. We even were able to get out on Friday night for a walk! She loved it, checking everything out, head held high.

Let's see, where did we leave off from last post? Gary has since gone and returned back from DC, I think with a bit more knowledge than when he left. Anna and I managed without him, but loved to have him back! Gary and I do a lot of things together and when he's gone I realized how much I do value all that he does. I don't want to say help b/c we do it together, but his portion of what we do, I appreciate him doing it. :)

Anna is starting her 3 week of rice cereal and we love it most of the time. She has even gone up to 2 Tbsp of cereal and usually eats most of it. This week and next of the cereal, then we can throw in veggies. On to multi-color surprises in the diaper! She is talking up a storm, sometimes with her tongue other times really finding her range of voice and noises. She especially likes talking to her hands - they are wonderful company. :) She has successfully figured out how to roll on her tummy, get hand she always got stuck - unstuck and somewhat enjoys it. She, of course, did that when daddy was out of town. So you leave her for 30 seconds on her back and you come back to her groaning on her tummy. She also enjoys sleeping on her tummy much to our nervous and paranoid first parents dismay. I know that she's now strong enough to get her head up and fall asleep or cry for us. But still. She can grab for things that are sitting in front of her and of course, eats them. Her new favorite toy as of today, Pink Peep Bunny from Grandma Carol.

She had her first (early) Easter with Grandma and Grandpa Tidd today and a special basket from "Grandma" Carol. She got socks, PJs, hats, headbands, toys, a book and shoes all in a pink purse and a oinky pig basket. Way too cute. She's the sparkle in all their eyes and they spoil her rotten. :)

I'm keeping quite busy at work now that our busy season has arrived due to trade shows and new advertising campaigns. Gary and I are also keeping busy with website jobs and me trying to work on my Etsy shop (www.christabelle81.etsy.com). It's fun. We're also in the midst of my "declutter" resolution. We started going through the basement as it's becoming a bunker for all of our stuff. I'm letting go of things that I'm just holding onto for no good reason. I'm excited to get the house back into shape and get rid of all the stuff weighing us down. Gary is doing well at work - keeping busy there. We're always on the go, here there and everywhere, so we're trying to slow that down, but it doesn't always work. Sigh.

That's the low down on what's going on with the Tidd's. We're excited for spring, to get the yard all beautiful with new landscaping and flowers. To go to the beach, take walks and get outside! I hope everyone has a great week!

Here are a bunch of pictures to look at. I'll upload a few to the blog, but for now here's them all for the 5th month of Anna! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=31134&l=2f860&id=501622976

Love to you all!
Gary, Christie and Rolly Polly Anna

What a beautiful day!

Mmm.... rice cereal, not too sure about it but it's wonderful to wear!

This is her new way to talk - looking slightly unsure and using her tongue.
Aww... so precious on daddy.
What a cute family. :)
The proud grandparents

What a beautiful day today was! It was sunny, warmer than it's been, together with family and friends to celebrate Anna's baptism. In our baptism class a couple weeks ago, Pastor Mical explained what the sacraments meant in a unique way. God gives us all a check with our names on it when we are baptised. Written out to us, with today's date, paid in full and signed by God. From there, we decide what we do with it. When we decide to profess our faith and understand what God has done for us through his Son, that's when the check is signed by you to cash in. Sometimes the check gets lost or torn up, but He always give us another one when we feel it's time for us to profess our faith.

It was also very special that Anna was able to wear my mom's baptism dress as she's named after her (Deanna Lynn) and wear the locket her great grandma and grandpa gave her. We were also surrounded and supported by our family and friends on such a special day!

On the other side of things, Anna had her 4 month shots on Thursday. She screamed something horrible when they did it, but a switch turns when she gets Tylenol and she's out. She did pretty well considering - she woke up at 4am that night, but went back to sleep when we gave her her pipe. The next day at daycare, she was running a fever but Grandpa Tidd saved the day and brought some Tylenol to her, gave him a quick smile and shortly there after took a 2 hour nap. Poor little girl. She's still stuffed up and on to coughing quite a bit. My guess is that it's draining into her throat and hopefully we can get over this sickness we can't seem to get over!

Saturday was another big day for Anna. She started on rice cereal. She wasn't quite sure of it at first, but after she realized it was ok, she wanted more. So for about a month we'll give her some twice a day and then start introducing veggies. We also found out that when she's in her walker, she loves to talk! After dad and Martha arrived, she carried on for about 15 minutes. It was really funny b/c she uses her tongue to do this kind of talking. She's really developing her own personality. She's now a hefty 11 pounds 14 ounces, 23.75" long and has a large melon (50th percentile). She's getting so big considering how small she was when she was born.

Gary and I are still doing well. Both of us are fighting different sicknesses still. Getting rather old, but we're managing. Saturday Gary heads off for a few days to Washington DC. Anna and I are going to hack out together for the couple work days Gary's gone. Work is certainly picking up for me and Gary is keeping busy as well. We're ready for this snow to be gone and we can get to spring.

Well off to bed to start another week!

Love to you all,

Gary, Christie and the Babbler

Trying to get back to normal

How adorable!
Our new thing to sit in! I can't really touch the ground yet, but it definitely keeps me occupied.
How can you not love this face!
Mom and Dad!

She looks a little freightened, but it's still a darn cute picture. This is Anna's new friend, Ethan. He's only a month older than Anna. :)
My current favorite picture.
What's going on out there?
Just chillin' while mommy takes more pictures of me.

I think we managed to kick the sickness out of the house today. Gary finally got something yesterday, whether it was something he ate or the flu just getting him now, but lets just say he didn't make it home in time. :) I'm feeling just fine and Anna is just about over her cold. Her cough is gone, thank goodness!

She's giggling all the time now, half the time she laughs at the wall or herself and sometimes for us. It's great! She's seriously the happiest baby I've ever known. She smiles and flirts with anyone she passes by. She only really crys when she's hungry, wet or just wants to be left alone. She still sleeps through the night and going to be around 8:30 every night. She has come to fear when mom's hand comes in front of her face b/c it's suck the boogies out time. :) She'll thank me for it later. She takes everything in and hates to miss anything (not like mom at all....). Gary and I talked tonight about how did we ever live life without her? She's so amazing and her life has only just begun!

This weekend is a big weekend for us. Anna is being baptised on Sunday at our church. All the grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends will be around. What an amazing thing it is that we can be a part of the family of God and what the sacrament of baptism is. We were able to take the baptism class last week and it was great to hear more in depth what it truely means.

We're starting to revamp my website and I'm starting to sell things on my newest addiction, Etsy. You can check out my items for sale at http://www.christabelle81.etsy.com/. Soon I'll have my new site up and it'll be linked to that site. I'm also partnering up with a good friend of mine and we're going to see what the two of us can do! So stay tuned for new sites and items to purchase!

We're sick of the snow and cold. Our jobs are going well. Cars still run. We're doing well. :)

Enjoy the pictures!

Love,

Christie, Gary and the Banana