A Winter-y Mix

This post is about the past week, and there are quite a few things that have occurred:

We went in for the more-detailed 21 week ultrasound. The single umbilical artery was re-confirmed, but more importantly, everything looks GOOD! The ultrasound tech really spent a long time pointing out our little dude's anatomy and explaining why what she saw indicated that he is normal- so no visible birth defects! Dr. Dickerson reiterated the tech's report. We breathed a sigh of relief!

He was weighing in at about 1 pound, which is 50th percentile on the growth charts. It is so amazing what you can see on the ultrasound! We saw lots of brain development (both hemispheres, sulci and gyri, corpus callosum), kidneys, stomach, bladder, hands, legs, feet, obvious boy parts, and below is a picture of his face. It's a little freaky, but I think it is so cool!



And here is the 21 week belly shot:


Anna was getting ready for the Saints game and modeling her "Who Dat" wear, created by Shaun. Actually, this was his mask, but Anna absconded it.



Shaun has been singing "Pants On the Ground" to Anna, so here is her version of it:






We decided to paint our (very beige, boring) kitchen over the weekend. We were going for a sunny, happy shade of yellow...

Anna wanted to help, but was just too tired to paint when this picture was taken.



She did, however, help us tape up the kitchen before her nap.




Once she woke up, she was raring to go! Aren't Shaun and I brave?




Anna actually painted for a while, and did a great job covering this corner by the door. A couple of minutes AFTER this pic was taken, she painted the door... So I put her to work making some coffee in her kitchen.



Here are the results. It's a little, um, brighter than we expected. The border is another project down the line...

We are fairly pleased by the results. At least it's not beige anymore.

Cold(s)

During the first few weeks of January, we endured a cold snap that seemed to last forever! We had an entire week of highs in the 30's! This wouldn't be much of a problem further north of here, but our plants and buildings were not made for such low temperatures!

So why do you see such big smiles? Because school was cancelled!! Yay! The Yankees would laugh if they knew under what conditions we had our "snow day", but we appreciated it nonetheless.




So on our day off, Anna and I went to the Pasquier's house to play!



Here's Anna, pretending to be like Kristen and me (the momparazzi).



She's starting to get the hang of taking pictures...



And, of course, she and Sara have to play "dance party":




More "dance party"!




Once the cold snap had passed, Anna had a little "cold" of her own. It quietly escalated into a nasty respiratory virus. In fact, I think Anna was running fever for about two days before it dawned on us to take her temperature- she felt warm (which we attributed to her inability to stay still for more than 20 seconds), but never acted sick. When I finally took her temperature on Sunday afternoon because she was a little whiny, it was 101! I put her to bed for a nap and hoped it might go down on its own...

Unfortunately, Uncle Stephen was already on his way to visit. Anna awoke and I could tell she felt bad. However, as soon as Stephen walked into the door, she had a miraculous recovery! He made her a CD with some fantastic songs, so here are two videos of their "dance party":








Do I get the award, "worst mom of the year" for letting my child go bananas while she had a high fever? I hope not. Anna's fever was finally gone this morning, but I kept her home to recover. We were both going a bit stir crazy, so we took a little walk down to the park.



Here's where Anna grabbed the camera and started taking pictures. She finally understands about getting the subject into the picture, though I can't say that the "two year old" angle is the most flattering- yow.



This is one of my favorites: Anna's point of view. "These my pink neakers, mommy!"

Christmas

We went to New Orleans for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Special thanks to Sara for loaning her dress from last year to Anna!

Anna spent most of the night climbing up and down (and up and down) the stairs.



Around 10:30, Anna started playing around on the floor, so we knew our time was limited.



My cousin Matthew and his girlfriend, Annie, got engaged just before Christmas. We are all thrilled! Annie made some "reindeer food" for Anna to put outside so that Santa would know where to stop, since we stayed at Edmund and Kathy's house for the night.



Then, she brought Anna outside and helped her spread it out.



It was extra sparkly so that Santa and the reindeer couldn't miss it!



Santa made sure to leave lots of presents for Anna. Here is one of them. Once Anna had unwrapped the entire huge box, we asked her, "What do you think is inside of the box?"
She replied, in an almost exasperated way, "Kids in the box!"



Once Uncle Stephen woke up, he and Anna watched one of the movies Santa brought. The night before, Anna confided to me, "Uncle Teven, I yuv him!" This was the first time she said she loved anyone or anything, so I asked her excitedly, "Anna, do you love Mommy and Daddy?"
"No," she responded flatly.



A LOT later, we opened family presents. Anna helped everyone open theirs.



She got a wooden train from Stephen and my parents, and several movies from Amy and Mike.





On the day after Christmas, we drove to Ft. Walton Beach, where Shaun's parents were staying. Carl's birthday was on the 25th, and Mary Jane's was the 27th, so we ate some cupcakes. Anna LOVED the frosting, though she didn't really eat it.




Nanny asking, "Anna, why don't you lick your fingers? That's good frosting!"



Things went further downhill after that.

There was lots of "Nanny and Anna" time while we were visiting. Anna really enjoys all of the attention.

Here is the view from the condo. Beautiful.

We went out one day when it was a bit warmer and sunny. Anna had a good time playing in the sand. Too bad she didn't like it back in July.

Godmom Amy came over so that we could visit and exchange gifts. She brought Anna a cute T-shirt from Disney World.

This was the best picture we could get. Anna had just woken up from a nap (notice the princess nightgown she insisted on wearing?) and was very cranky, despite being showered with presents and attention. She was picking her nose in every other picture we took.

What a great Christmas holiday! We had such a nice time with family and friends. It was back to school on Monday of this week :-(