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.

First Food

Fun times with Mimi

Orange Bowl

We watched the Orange bowl with some friends. Anya was dressed as a Yellow Jacket and partied until late into the night.

We played the Wii during halftime. I took down all of my challengers in fencing. You are probably wondering how I won any game that involves the use of a controller. Jury is still out on that one.

Mark demonstrates proper fencing technique.