Weekend in Ohio

Last weekend we were in Ohio and Indiana to celebrate my grandpa's 89th birthday. We also spent some time in Eastern Ohio visiting Tim's family. Here is a photo of everyone at the reunion and also a link to some others.

http://annienuetzel.shutterfly.com

Oh Short Round!

We just got back from Annie's 18 month checkup...and we were right. She has a big head. Her head is in the 90th percentile for circumference, 70% in weight and 60% in height...short with a round head! Well, not that short, I guess. Anyways her doctor thought she was doing really well and was very impressed with her toilet skills, which she is still trying to master. Tomorrow her Great Aunt Ruth is coming to visit, so it should be a fun weekend!

Oh yeah! Forgot to say I asked the doctor about babies and kneecaps and guess what...they don't have them when they are born, they have very small disks of cartilage that start growing around 18 months, and then eventually turn into bone, and voila, by 3 you have your very own kneecaps. So, all you doubting Mark Nuetzels, now you know the truth. (and since you were wrong, Tim and I get the Queen sized bed in Park City!)

Word Explosion!

Annie's vocabulary exploded over our vacation. Now she can say Nana, Papa, Mamma (Grandma), baby, and many more. But the weirdest of all, is Elbow. Don't ask me who taught her that one. We've been telling her that her elbow is her hammer, long story. Anyways, she is definitely picking up words alot faster lately, now all she has to do is figure out how to link them together into sentences.

Our trouble maker

It seems like Annie is trying to get as much use out of her teeth as possible! Apparently things weren't going as smoothly as she liked on Monday, and so she bite another baby in her class! Annie! Oh well, Ms. Shelly says it happens every once in a while and they just took her aside and told her that it's not right to bite your friends, and told her to use her words...which is kinda funny to me, the only sentence she can really say reliably is "more milk please."

We are leaving for vacation this evening, so if you are in Ohio, we'll see you soon! Annie can't wait to show off her smarts, and new crazy haircut (courtesy of Daddy) to all her family back there.

Happy Fathers Day!

This morning Annie made her Daaa some tasty pancakes with strawberries...the special ingredient was of course love! Then we were off for a hike up by Mount Evans with our good friends Tim and Erin. On the way home, poor Annie got car sick, 3 times. I guess the long hike, the twisty road and the tired baby don't mix well. Oh well, all in all a good day. I tried to call my Dad twice, but he never answered the phone, so if you get around to reading this, happy Fathers Day, Dad! I love you.

It's Potty Time!

Lately Annie has been letting us know that her diaper is dirty by smacking it, so we took this to mean that maybe it was time to try out her new potty chair. And it works! Ok, it works sometimes...sometimes we put her on the seat and away she goes (she claps when this happens). Other times we put her on and she just sits there, playing with the seat, flushing it, or just hangs out. But I'm pretty proud that at least now she realizes when her diaper needs changing, I guess you have to start somewhere!

A first for Ms. A!

Over the weekend we went out for dinner and Annie likes to keep herself occupied by scooping the ice cubes out of our glasses and sucking on them. There happened to be an empty bowl on our table so I put a few cubes from my glass into it (kinda getting tired of Annie flavored lemonaid) and she started to scoop up the cubes with a spoon, and put them into her mouth. She must have gotten about 3 cubes in there, and all of the sudden she looked up at us, grabbed her forehead and said "ouch". Annie's first ice cream headache! Too bad it was from ice cubes, not tasty ice cream...

Sunday Hike

On Sunday afternoon, we hiked up to a fire lookout which you could see over 100 miles in each direction. It was a pretty neat view, and you could even see downtown Denver from the top of the tower. The hike was pretty short, only about 1.4 miles up. We had packed a sandwich and some fruit to have a picnic up at the top. Annie really enjoyed the picnic, and socializing with the other families that had made the hike, especially the ones with dogs.

The best $2 I ever spent.

Annie and I hit some garage sales this morning and we found a Flintstone car for only $2! So of course we had to buy it. After spending a few minutes trying to stuff the play car into the Honda's trunk, finally got it to fit in the front seat, but then we could only have the Honda in drive, no room to move the shifter to reverse! So I've had the whole morning to do whatever I want, while Annie has been occupied by spending the morning playing with her new wheels, honking the horn, giving it car washes, and generally going in reverse...I guess her car has some issues to work out before she can go in drive.

Annie's favorite songs

The other day I noticed that Annie was singing to herself (I think) and she even had hand motions to go along with the songs. So I talked to her teacher to figure out what song she could have been singing, Ms. Shelley thought it might be either "The wheels on the bus" or "If your happy and you know it". So yesterday I started singing those songs to her, and her face just lit up and she started doing her hand motions, rolling her arms around each other for "the wheels on the bus", and stomping her feet and clapping her hands for "if your happy!" It was really neat to see her so surprised that I knew the songs they sing at school, and now we can sing them together.

Bath Time!

Tim usually gives Annie a bath in the evenings, but the other day I did while Tim did some work in the yard. I was surprised by all the crazy stuff she does! First off, she took one of her squirty bath toys and started to fill it up with water and then squirt herself in the face, she did this over and over again, always laughing when the water shot into her eyes. Then she wanted to lay down in the water and kick her legs like she was swimming, then she washed the shower doors with her wash cloth. Then she started putting her face down into the water to blow bubbles. Tim told me he taught her to do that to clean all the boogers out of her nose! After seeing how much fun she has in the water, I think we will try and hit the pool a few times this summer.

Playground Party!

Today after dinner we walked down to the playground with Annie, she has gotten so much better at climbing things and going down slides, and she really likes it, as you can see in the photos I attached below. I think today she had even more fun because there was a boy, about 8 years old who was playing there and singing to Annie, making her laugh and smile. He asked me if I was taking pictures of him, or of my sister. I thought that was pretty cool, I guess to 8 year olds, either Annie looks a lot older than she really is, or I look a lot younger! I'm hoping it's the second one that is correct.

Garage Sale Day!

Our garage sale started out great! We sold most of our big stuff before we were even open, and guess what...someone actually wanted the broken tv. I think we are going to close early though, nobody has bought anything in the last few hours. Oh well, here are some photos of the merchandise that is still left. If anyone wants any of it, let us know...

Watching the Elephants play

Gorilla Mama and Baby

Sheryl and Adam

Watching the Hippos eat

Day at the Zoo!

Today Annie and Reynee took a trip to the Denver Zoo with our friends Sheryl and her new baby Adam. Annie especially enjoyed the elephants since they were out in the yard, playing with a big ball. We also saw a rhino rubbing its tusk on a metal door, making a lot of noise...we guess it wanted to go outside to hang out with the other Rhinos since it was such a nice day. We also saw a baby gorilla, and went into an bird aviary where you could feed parrots nectar from a cup.

Tomorrow our neighborhood is having a community garage sale so we are trying to get somethings together for it. So far I don't think we have anything that anyone would want to buy, but you never know! Anyone looking for a fooseball table with bent handles? How about a broken tv set...