Crawling

Finally...a solid she likes!

We have had a little bit of difficulty with Anya and solids...she just is not all that interested. OK, she hates them and resists vigorously. The other day I was eating a grapefruit and she showed interest, so I gave her some and waited for the "EWW, yuck! That was sour, Mama" face, which came breifly only to be followed by another enthusiastic bite.

Standing

Anya is becoming increasingly mobile, and she has become quite good at pulling up to standing. Here she manoeuvred her way over to a stack of papers which she enjoyed plundering.

One of her favorite spots to pull up is the oven. Probably because it has a nice ledge to grab, and we spend much of our time in the kitchen.

Her latest challenge has been the rocking chair (it moves while she pulls up!) She is quite a risk taker...she certainly does not get that from me.

Sometimes she even shows off by letting go with one hand.

Baby Cousin!

Anya and I traveled up to SC to welcome her new cousin, Benjamin Christopher, into the world. He weighed over 8 lbs and his hair is so long it comes over his ears! He certainly got some of the cipolla genes! Here he is with Papa C.

Benjamin and Anya are introduced.

Anya kept occupied while everyone admired the new baby. Here she is spending time with Papa C and Aunt Lorraine. She also got to play with some fruit, which is one of her favorite activities.

Here Uncle Jonesy introduces her to a balloon, which became her "Precious." She scooted around the room with it, never letting it go. She would shake it hard and make funny faces, she would visit with her favorite people...but the balloon never left her chubby little hand. She even took an entire nap clinging dearly to her balloon.

Here are some much belated snow pictures. We had 4 inches! Anya enjoyed for a short while. We had her halfway dressed in a snow suit that no longer fits and half dressed in her buzz attire. She will hate us later for dressing her so, but she was warm.

Solids are not going as well as we had hoped. We started at 8 months on the nose, and the first effort was the best attempt so far. For 1.5 weeks we tried every day, but she is a pro at avoiding food. She shakes her head, closes her mouth as tightly as possible, and if a morsel happens to get in, she spits (or spews) it out. We took a little break and are now just trying again. She willingly took 3 bites yesterday.

This happy picture was taken after I stopped trying to feed her, of course.


Once Anya figured this one out, I could no longer work in her room (put away clean laundry, etc.) while she was going down for a nap. She would peek out and cry if she saw me.

Just a random video of Anya playing with her toys. She is getting very good at sitting up.

Before introducing Anya to any solids, we were told that we would know when she was ready when she was reaching for our food and moving her mouth. Well, she has been doing that for months. Recently as I was eating a cookie, she grabbed off a piece and studied it carefully (as Anya is quite thorough in her examination of all items.) I wondered if her food grabbiness really was a sign of desire, as we had been so advised. So I let her have the crumb and watched to see what she would do. After she had finished examining her specimen, she turned to me and put the crumb in my mouth. So all this time she really wanted to play, not eat. Below is a video of her feeding her daddy.

Sippy Cup

Anya's first attempt with a sippy cup.