It's a....

I had my second ultrasound today so the family joined me at the doctor's office to find out if Burckart #4 is a boy or girl. The tech spent a lot of time going through each part of the baby's body and telling us that everything looked normal which was a blessing. As she went through each part, I realized that my focus for this appointment was what gender the baby would be and it never occurred to me how important the ultrasound was to determine that everything else was developing as it should. At last it was time to find out the gender.... it's a GIRL!!

Date Night with Daddy

On Tuesday nights when I have my prenatal swim class, Anna gets to stay home and play with her daddy. Here are a few pictures that my husband took of our busy little girl playing with every "toy" she could find. I think she has a lot of my personality in her (yikes!) for in one picture she is even organizing the DVD's - she's going to love the label maker I asked for for Christmas, hahaha!!

Playing in the Leaves

Here in Raleigh the leaves have finally turned and started falling from the trees so this weekend we decided to do a little yard work. Anna loved being able to play in the back yard (which is usually off limits because of the dog poo and prickly bushes). She explored the entire yard and whenever daddy had the leaf pile big enough, she would run into it and play. The past few weeks I have been continually amazed at what a big girl Anna is becoming. She can reach counters and shelves that were once unreachable. She can walk wherever we go without stumbling. She can communicate, in her own way, with us and tell us exactly what she wants (or what she doesn't!). I guess she is getting ready to be the best big sister ever!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Daddy's Little Steelers Fan

Anna got a Pittsburgh Steelers cheerleading outfit for her birthday and wore it yesterday to cheer them on.

Squeak... squeak squeak... squeak

A friend of my mom's came home from Atlanta with some shoes for Anna. These were not just any shoes, they squeak with every step she takes - YIKES! They are called Mooshu Trainers. When we first put them on Anna she took one step, heard the squeak and then was afraid to take anymore steps. It was rather funny. Thankfully she only paid $1 for them, for I'm not sure how often we will let Anna wear them.

A brand of shoes that I really like are Puddle Jumpers, especially the Polka Dot collection. They fit well on Anna's foot since they tend to run a little big.

A Weekend with the Cousins

This past weekend we made a quick visit to South Carolina to visit with one of my cousins and her family. This was the first long car trip (~4 hours) and overnight trip we have made since Anna was 7 months old. We left in the morning after breakfast - in the past Anna would take a morning nap during car trips, but since this is no longer her "schedule" she was in need of entertainment for the few 2 hours. We tried out the DVD player which worked for a little while, but Anna was still very antsy in her seat. We decided to stop for an early lunch to let her get out and stretch her legs and fill her belly. This worked great because once we were back in the car, she slept the rest of the way.

My cousin has a 2 1/2 year old daughter who had been asking for Anna to come visit for a several months and so Anna had an immediate playmate.

The next obstacle was going to sleep in the pack n play. Anna has never slept well in it - and acutally doesn't get many opportunities to try. We even planned this trip to one stay one night for fear of not getting any sleep over the weekend. Anna went to bed great with no fussing since she was exhausted, but decided around 11:30pm to start crying out in her sleep every minute. We tried holding her, rubbing her back, putting her in our bed (gasp!), but nothing seemed to work. Around 12:30am Anna was wide awake and ready to play, not good. My husband took over at that point and Anna slept soundly from about 1:30 until time to get up at 7:30pm.

The next morning it was time to play a little longer before we headed home. There was one final obstacle to go. At one point Anna rubbed her cheek on one of the chairs since she was getting tired and her cheek broke out in a rash. We are thinking the rash was a reaction to cat dander. I took Anna upstairs for awhile away from the cat and the rash went away. It was soon time to go for Anna was exhausted and fussy so we loaded up the car and headed for home. Anna was asleep by the time we hit the interstate and slept over 2 hours.

It was nice visiting with my cousin but I have to admit that there's a part of me during every trip that realizes how much easier things would have been if we had just stayed home. I know I can't let obstacles stand in the way of visiting with relatives or taking a vacation, but sometimes I sure would like to :(.

What a Memory

I don't know if this is normal, but Anna has a great memory - especially for treats at stores. For the past month (as I've mentioned before), everytime I go to the grocery store Anna is quick to spot the balloon area and point. Tonight we entered through a different door and tried to keep her away from the balloons. None the less, Anna pointed to the balloons. Last weekend we went to BJ's and Anna was going crazy pointing and saying 'dis', 'dis'. I had no clue what she wanted, but turns out the last time she was there with her daddy she saw the car and he told her she could ride next time. She's amazing! The Bj's worker was amazed as well and kept going on about how smart Anna is. Maybe this is part the age since Anna points at everything, but either way I'm going to run out of quarters soon! :).