Today our little Anna is One!

wow, time sure flew. I (mommy) can't believe that Anna is One. Anna is such a happy baby and has brought soo much joy into our family. Today, I thought about Anna's mom, because a year ago today, she was in labor giving birth to a beautiful baby girl, and she made her decision already to place this beautiful baby girl for adoption. I have some pics of Anna that I am going to send to Guatemala, so our lawyer can give them to Anna's Birth mom, so she knows just how loved her daughter is. Because of her, we are truly blessed to have such a wonderful little girl.

So at One year old - Anna talks a lot - as Peter would say, she has a lot of baby talk to say. Anna is very loud, she fits right in with the family. Anna also likes to babble to herself. Anna has 4 teeth now (two front on the top and two front on the bottom), and she looks so adorable when she smiles with those little teeth. Anna is quick in getting around - right now she is a hot rod on all fours. Anna is walking around the house holding onto furniture, and if there is no furniture to hold onto, she'll grab onto your pants leg so you can hold her hands to walk. On occassion, she'll turn and walk away from the furniture - thinking she can walk on her own - but she'll fall onto the floor and just pick herself up again. If you walk by her and she wants to get picked up she'll get your attention (by being loud) and hold out her hands for you to pick her up. It took a little bit for her dad to catch on that Anna wanted to be held, but he got the knick of it after awhile. She claps her hands and has so much fun clapping them, and she clucks her tongue and makes different sounds. She loves watching Max (the dog) and Peter plays, she just giggles and giggles while she watches them play.

One evening, mommy put Anna in the jumperoo, so mommy can get the dinner dishes cleaned up. Daddy was in the bedroom, and then mommy heard Anna. Mommy went into the living room and Anna was on the floor playing with hot wheel cars with her brother Peter. Mommy asked daddy if he took Anna out of the jumperoo and he said no. Then mommy saw a Big smile on Peter's face, so mommy asked Peter if he took Anna out of the jumperoo, and Peter said yes, because he wanted to play with her. It's nice to see that Peter wants to play with his sister, but we'll have to keep an extra eye on Peter to make sure no one gets hurt. Peter loves his baby sister a lot. When people joke about taking Anna home with them, Peter gets upset and tells them that she is his sister and they can't have her. When strangers come up to Anna to talk to her, Peter continues to be the Big Brother protecting her, and will step in between the person and Anna, to keep that person away from Anna. Peter also, has his moments where he tries to do his "power ranger moves" on Anna, so mommy or daddy always has to remind him that Anna is a baby right now. And we tell Peter when Anna is older, he'll be able to play with her a lot more. Personally my bets are on Anna, because she might be short, but she is heavy - she can sit on Peter to put him in his place. LOL

As for Anna's Birthday, this Sunday (7/20) we are having a BBQ (with Carvel ice cream cake for dessert) for Anna. Peter keeps on thinking that the party should be for him and Anna, but slowly (the more we explain it) he understands that he will have his party in a couple of months. Peter went shopping and got his sister birthday presents, and he did pretty good. He got her My 1st Tonka trucks, which are these cute rubber small trucks (5 of them) that Anna loves to play with, when Peter lets her play with them. Peter also got her a toy that attaches to the high chair, so she has something to play with while eating. And of course Peter had to get Anna a dirt bike with a driver on it - Anna hasn't had the chance to play with that, because Peter told Anna that she got enough of gifts, so Peter has been playing with it. It'll be interesting to see how the party goes with Peter and how many of Anna's gifts will become Peter's. Luckily, Peter does share - so Anna will be able to play with all her gifts.