Merry Christmas!

Most of you have probably received our Christmas card by now and have already seen this photo, but we got so many text messages about how funny it was that we thought we should post it on the blog too. We were lucky enough to have our camera on us when we happened upon Santa at a local nursery. Anna seemed excited about it while we were waiting in line, but as soon as we handed her off, she started crying the saddest cry. So cute. We left her on his lap just long enough to snap one photo and then comforted her with coookies! Prior to this Santa incident, I had tried in vain to get the perfect picture of Anna in her Christmas dress. I uploaded some of my best attempts below. I also uploaded some photos of our little family Christmas celebration from this morning... pancakes and presents!

SNOW!

The snow is coming down fast and furious right now! We buddled Anna up in her snowsuit for the first time. She walked around with her tongue hanging out trying to catch snowflakes while Josh picked a snowball fight with our neighbors.

College Bound

I'm assuming everyone knows what I'm talking about when I refer to the College Bound commercial where the kid is running around with a box on his head? Yeah, well, Anna pulled a College Bound move this morning. I found her walking around with training pants on her head, pulled down so far that her eyes were smushed and she could barely see. This may cause many of you to seriously question the veracity of my earlier "Anna, Girl Genius" post.

In other news, I'm battling through day 16 of lingering sickness and I've had just about enough. In my distress, I gave in a got us McDonald's for lunch today -- milkshake and all. Anna pretty much thought she died and went to heaven. What's super weird though, is that after polishing off her nuggets, fries & shake, she specificly requested peas and proceeded to eat seven huge spoonfuls. I wish I had more hankerings for peas. (Please disregard my nasaly, scratchy man voice in the background!)

Gymboree!

Last night Anna went to her first birthday party at Gymboree. I was really looking forward to it for her, thinking she would have a great time playing with all the other kids (not to mention burning energy!). Strangely enough, she wanted NOTHING to do with the other kids and spent most of her time alone in the corner sitting in an inner tube while all the other kids played. She also had little to no interest in the pizza and cake. How strange! And sad. I think she was just a little overwhelmed. I took her home afterward and we curled up in front of Mary Poppins. I think that made her feel a lot better. Maybe there is a little bit of me in this kid afterall! (This morning, by the way, she's walking around the house saying "Happy Burday").

Anna, Girl Genius

While we were impressed when she started counting to ten and when she passed the 100-word mark, it was the clear, unsolicited pronunciation of her "cousin" Eowyn's name that convinced us once and for all that Anna may in fact be a true genius. (Might I also add that shortly after this video was shot, she said "Nigh, nigh Eowyn" when we put the photo on her shelf at bedtime.)

Complete Abandon

I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels like there are an awful lot of things to worry about these days, so I thought I'd share this photo of Anna which I think perfectly illustrates what having a childlike faith is all about... total abandon... complete trust that you'll be taken care of.

Halloween, Of Course

There's not much better than a chubby little kid running around in a stupid looking costume yelling, "Can-ee, Can-eee" (i.e. candy). I was actually kind of surprised at how well Anna seemed to grasp the whole trick-or-treat concept. I could just hear her inner-monologue: Hm, so what you're telling me is I just walk up to a door, look cute, and they give me candy? Why didn't someone tell me about this sooner?

Our first stop was at our neighbor Linda's house. Anna got her first lollipop (i.e. "pop") and managed to get it all over her costume. I love this picture. Again, inner-monologue: This pop thing is amazing. Why has mom been messing around with peas and carrots and chicken all this time?

After one stop in our neighborhood, we met up with friends of ours who have a tradition of going to someone's house for cupcakes & cookies pre-trick-or-treating so we got to tag along. Anna downed an entire cupcake and a huge chocolate chip cookie.

I think she was kind of ticked off when the sugar fest ended. Meanwhile, we were left wondering if she'd ever fall asleep...

We trick-or-treated for over an hour and only got to about eight houses. Trying to get four girls under the age of four to cooperate was challenging. Anna occassionally got fed up and wandered off on her own to find more can-eee.

Here's Anna doing a thorough inspection of "the other Anna's" costume.

THE GOODS. (All of which mom & dad ate on the way home.)

Post trick-or-treat pass out (still clinging to her light up bracelet)

Just A Bunch of Pictures

A Little Update

Last week the tempurature in our house dropped below 60, but I wasn't about to fire up that oil fueled boiler! I bundled Anna up and we pushed through. I snapped this cute photo of her all toasty in her sweater at breakfast.

In other news, we have less than 48 hours until the cast comes off and it can't happen soon enough. She's had trouble sleeping without her sucking thumb and I can only go so many days without regular naps! Plus, it'll be nice to start putting her in some of the nice fall clothes we bought (as opposed to over-sized hand-me-downs which is all that will fit around that cast!).

Hot Pink

Yesterday we went to the orthopedic doctor so Anna could get her real cast put on. Since she was mistaken for a boy four times in the lobby, I decided to go with hot pink. As the pictures show, she doesn't seem to mind the cast one bit!

Down Jones Looks Good to Anna

Apparently everyone should take investment advice from Anna. She doesn't look too concerned about her stocks or ouse value. Ah, to be 16 months old and worry free!

Still Finding a Way

Anna fell asleep on the couch in front of the TV this morning. Super cute. And, yes, she's found a way to suck her thumb around the injury.

On the DL

It was bound to happen sooner or later. The fearless one fell off a kitchen chair and fractured her wrist, so we spent our Saturday night in the emergency room instead of in front of the Penn State game. For those of you who are counting, that's two ER visits in one month for the Heebners. Sigh. Fortunately, Hasbro Children's Hospital is right nearby, so we took her there instead of to Rhode Island Hospital. She got in right behind a seven year old boy who had "foreign object in nose". Nice. Anyways, according to Josh, it was about 100 times nicer than RIH ER, so we were super thankful.

We're Starting Her Young...

yeah, it's been a while

So, word on the street is that everyone's worried because I haven't blogged in a while. Something tells me that's more about a desire to see photos and videos of the eternally chubby one rather than a genuine concern about, say, Josh and me. Regardless, we're back and Anna's as cute as ever so you're all in luck.

Anna spent her first week away from home back at the beginning of the month. We shipped her off to the grandparents in PA so that Josh and I could get some work done around the house. We got lots of painting and cleaning done. In fact, according to the dumpster rental company, we threw out 1.63 tons of crap, most of which was lovingly left for us by the previous owners. As it turns out, cleaning out our creepy basement landed Josh in the emergency room -- or at least we think that's what did it. He got a nasty bug-bite looking thing on his leg that turned out to be some awful infection that had spread to his blood stream by the time he finally went to the emergency room. They pumped him full of antibiotics (thanks again Mr. Alexander Fleming!) and apparently he's going to live. I'm seriously considering billing the previous owners the $267 we paid for the dumpster plus $100 for the ER co-pay. Thoughts?

Once we found out Josh was going to survive, we drove down to PA to collect Anna and headed to Ocean City, NJ with my parents and brother for a week of vacation. Anna had a great time. Here are some photos from the beach:

We had a few visitors while we were in Ocean City, including Melissa and Eowyn who came down for a day. It's amazing how much the girls have grown in a year:










After the week at the shore -- and sadly saying goodbye to Uncle Dave who officially lives in CA now -- Anna and I spent a week in PA with the Kulp grandparents while Josh headed to MD for work. Here's a cute video I took of Anna dancing in a little puddle (um, of hose water, that is) at my parent's house:

Playing in the garden:

Feeding the ducks with Granddad at Penn State Ogontz:

The Pancake Grabber

The other night while I was making dinner, I looked up to find Anna carrying two big pancakes -- yes pancakes -- around the living room. It took me a second to figure out where they came from and then -- ding! -- I realized I had left them in the warming drawer earlier that morning! Whoops. As you can see in picture numero uno, Anna had helped herself to a gigantic mouthful of pancake before we discovered the crime.

In other news... we finally finished up another house project. We converted a window seat into a TV, um, nook (great word!). I was a little hesitant to close the windows up and lose the extra sunlight, but I think it was definitely the right decision for the room. Here are the before & after shots:

Should I be concerned about how much Anna seems to like the new TV?

And finally... here's a few pictures we took while we were in Boston this weekend. Josh's friend Peter came to visit, so we had to take him to his old stompin' grounds (M.I.T. grad). We had lunch at Quincy Market and wandered around Boston Commons during the afternoon. Anna had fun chasing pigeons until a homeless guy threw a sandwich at her. (No lie)