13 Months!

It has been crazy in the Waechter household, thus the very much overdue 13 month post. In short, after being sick for numerous days leading to a trip to the ER with severe abdominal pains and several tests later I ended up having surgery to get my gallbladder removed. That was on Feb 6th. Grandmom Wenck flew in that day to help with Annabelle while I recovered. Unfortunately, my recovery wasn't textbook (surprise, surprise) and took a few detours so it has been a slow and frustrating recovery. Luckily Grandmom was able to stay the whole time and my new job (yes, I got a job!) was very understanding and pushed my start date back a week. So I am finally starting to feel human again and Grandmom is able to leave tomorrow (a hard goodbye that will be).

Now to the most important thing, Annabelle turned 13 months! With that she also is full-fledged walker (check out the video below)! She loves walking and is doing such a great job at it. She literally walks all over the house and even gets frustrated when she is constrained and can't walk. Her wonderful personality is developing and illuminating each day and she is seriously so happy! She loves to spend her time playing with all her toys, exploring the house, watching some baby shows on the TV (limited!), climbing stairs, playing with the dog and cat, and cuddling with anyone who wants too. She has become a great eater over these past several weeks. She is completely off formula and is only eating true people food and drinking whole milk. And no more bottles! A sippy cup is all Annabelle needs. It took about 20 trials of different sippy cups, but we finally found one she loves. Another big hallmark is that she has started daycare and she loves it! The napping schedule is taking some time to get use to, which is expected, but besides that everything is going well. The teachers say she is such a happy girl who loves to play! I couldn't ask for a better report.

Watching Annabelle learn and grow each day and develop into her own little self has definitely kept us going through this crazy month. A smile from Annabelle is definitely the best medicine I found!

Happy First Birthday! 12 Months!!

Apparently your first birthday is a bid deal since so many people wished me happy birthday, I got lots of wonderful gifts, my Mom kept trying to put a stupid cone hat on me, and I got to try a cupcake! Unfortunately my mom made a mistake and scheduled my doctor's appointment on my actual birthday, so I started my big day off with four shots! But I was tough and only cried a little. The doctor told us that I weigh 17 lbs 7oz and 31 inches tall. Even though I am only in the 4th percentile I am healthy and growing nicely. I am in the 65th percentile for height! They did encourage me to start drinking more milk, but I am usually pretty finicky with my bottle so we'll see if I decide to follow the doctor's orders. I get to start drinking whole milk instead of formula now that I am one and I am no longer limited to any foods! I still love my sweet potatoes, and now I love anything with cheese, bread, fruit, peas, yogurt, and did I mention cheese? Yum! My Mom keeps offering me these different kinds of food, sometimes I like them but other times I just spit them out and ask for my favorites. Oh, I should add cupcakes to that list because I loved playing with and eating the icing.

Over this month I have gotten pretty good at walking along furniture and I can even stand by myself for almost a minute. I haven't taken any steps yet but I am definitely getting curious and thinking about giving it a try. I also learned to wave and clap this past month. I love clapping and do it whenever I feel happy. I still love going for walks (even if it's cold, I just wear my hat and gloves), going to Gymboree, going to the day care at my Mommy's gym, and playing with all my wonderful toys. My favorite toys are my walking dinosaur, musical play table, musical vacuum cleaner, and any little toy I can bang together, make noise with, or put in my choppers.

The cupcake aftermath.

My parents keep telling me they can't believe I am one! They say this year flew by and has been the best year of their lives. I liked this past year too, I have learned so much, developed my own personality, met so many people that love me and that I love back, and made many first memories. Definitely a year for the record (or baby) books. Thanks to everyone who has made this a great first year!!

Merry Christmas! Annabelle's first Christmas!

From exploring the house's Christmas decorations, meeting Santa, opening presents, and dressing up in her Christmas clothes Annabelle had a wonderful first Christmas. We loved experiencing this special time with her and will never forget our little Annabelle's first Christmas. Even when we went to go decorate the house we found having a child during the Christmas time changes everything. There were decorations that needed to find new homes since Miss. Annabelle wanted to pull everything down, chew on it, and play with it. No biggie though, everything found a new home and even some of the "safe" decorations were put at her level so she could explore and play with them.

James' work had a family Christmas party with arts and crafts, yummy food, and best of all photos with Mr.and Mrs. Claus. Annabelle loved Mrs. Claus. She  and was ok with Santa but if he was holding her more than a couple of minutes Annabelle would start to get an unsure look on her face. It was a great party where lots of memortable photo's were taken. I am sure next year the Santa experience will be a different story, unfortunately she probably won't tolerate Santa as she did this year. We'll see.

Christmas was in Florida this year. We flew down the 23rd and stayed for a week. The Waechter Christmas is always a fun time with lots of family time, celebrations, and sunny weather. Santa definitely came to Florida as all of us got wonderful gifts, of course Annabelle made out the best though (as it should be). We were even lucky enough to have the Wenck grandparents fly down for a couple of days so we all could all go the Irish Bowl Game. It was wonderful being around both of our families and celebrating Christmas together.



We flew back the 31st so we could bring in the New Year in our hometown. Annabelle was definitely excited to be home in familiar surroundings. Christmas 2011 is definitely a Christmas that will always be remembered and cherished.

11 months!

Unfortunately, half of this month I was sick. I had high fevers and a bad cold. The doctor's were worried I was developing Croup, but thankfully that never happened. I did have several trip to the doctor's office and some long nights awake because I was coughing too much to sleep. Finally though, I am feeling better and on the mend. Besides being sick, this month has been a blast. I am still crawling like crazy and getting better at standing. At times I can let go of whatever I am holding onto and stand by myself for several seconds, it's very cool! I have almost mastered waving, although I only like to wave "hi," not "bye." Lately my Mom has been working on teaching my how to clap. I'm getting the hang of it. I have definitely grown this past month. As of two weeks ago I was 17 lbs and 7oz. My leggies are a little chubbier and my Mom says I  now have a cute "baby" belly. I like to play with my belly, especially my belly button, while I am in the bathtub. Speaking of bathtubs, I love my baths! I think they are my favorite thing. I crawl, splash and laugh the whole time. I have been feeding myself most of my meals, so I usually need a bath, or at least a wipe down, after I eat. I love feeding myself, it's so much fun. My favorite foods are yogurts, cheese, bread (with almond butter), cheerios, oatmeal, peas, and ravioli. There are more, but those are the foods that my Mom says "are always a given." I am excited for the next several weeks with Christmas coming and then my first birthday!!

Annabelle's First Thanksgiving!

Playing the piano at Grandmom's.

Thanksgiving Family Picture

The Waechter family traveled to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving. Annabelle and I got to for a whole week, James joined us for the long Thanksgiving weekend. Needless to say, we had a great time. For Thanksgiving we traveled to my Aunt and Uncle on my Mom's side and had a big Helms' Thanksgiving. Annabelle even had a real Thanksgiving dinner with some turkey, ham, stuffing, cranberries, and mash potatoes. She loved it! We also got to see the Wenck family since they all came up for the Notre Dame game on Saturday. It was wonderful seeing my high school friends, catching up with the family, and celebrating Annabelle's first Thanksgiving.

Aunt Kate comes to Denver!

Taking advantage of the day off on Veteran's Day, Aunt Kate came to Denver for a long weekend. James, Annabelle, and I were so happy to see her and she was so happy to see Annabelle. I am sure she enjoyed seeing James and I, but I know she most enjoyed being with her niece (and who can blame her?). Kate loved watching Annabelle play with her toys and crawl around the house and Annabelle loved having Aunt Kate to play with and show off her smiles to. We went to Gymboree so Aunt Kate could see Annabelle in her glory, took some walks around the park, ate lots of food, drank some wine, watched some football......it was a great weekend. And only about six weeks until we get to see Aunt Kate again at Christmas, and it's not just Aunt Kate, but the whole Waechter family!

10 Months!

Hello, everyone! I am now 10 months old and loving every minute of it. Last month I thought I was mobile, but it's nothing compared to this month. I think I can now call myself an expert at crawling, I go so fast. Sometimes when I am headed to the dog water bowl or the toilet paper roll, my parents have to RUN to catch up with me. Most of the time they win, but sometimes I win and get to the dog bowl and play in the water or pull at the toilet paper until it's all over me-it's a blast! I may not be an expert at it, but I definitely have gotten very good at standing. I can pull myself up very easily and stand (while holding on) for a while. I even started to figure out that if I move my feet I start to move while standing! I can only take a few steps while holding on to the furniture, but it's still pretty cool. My parents keep saying that I will be walking in no time, I am not sure what that means, but if it has anything to do with being MORE mobile, I am all for it. I still love playing with my toys, rolling around on the cat and dog, taking walks with Mom, going to Gymboree (I moved to level 3 last week!), and playing at the gym daycare while Mom works out. I am still drinking my bottle, but I am also eating lots of solid food. Some days I like eating better than others and lately I haven't really been liking my vegetables so my Mom has been mixing it with yogurt or cottage cheese and that makes it yummy.

My Dad has been pretty busy this past month with school and work so I haven't seen him as much as I would like, but when he is around I love playing with him, especially the airplane game. My Mom has been working on these things called resumes and cover letters because she is looking to "go back to work." She says that when she goes back to work I get to play with other babies and new toys, so that sounds like fun. My parents are telling me the "holidays" are approaching and are excited to celebrate them with me for the first time. It sounds like fun since I get to see lots of family, eat food, and get some presents!