Mark it with a B

This is a video from early December--before we left Bend. One day this fall I did pat-a-cake with AnnCarter, and for some reason, she immediately latched onto the "mark it with a b" part. She copied me when I did the motion, which surprised me, and from then on she would get so excited to do it anytime you asked her to. It's something that I wanted to document, so I thought I'd post this video.  I love how she lights up when doing it. At almost a year old now, it's so fun to see her imitating and being able to communicate so much more than she could just 2 months ago--the development happens so fast!

AnnCarter "Talking"

This video is from Christmas as well. We were visiting my grandparents, Mama Ernie and Papa Bill (AnnCarter's great grandparents) in North Carolina. This is her "talking"--something she started doing a lot around the time we moved. I absolutely LOVE listening to her have conversations. It cracks me up how she over-uses her tongue a bit. The conversations have really developed, we'll get more on here soon.  People tell me she's a talker, so we'll see how that continues to develop as she gets older. In this my grandmother is talking with her her a bit (and there's great music from a western movie that was on in the background ;-)

Christmas Morning

AnnCarter's First Christmas!

Below are some pictures from Christmas morning at the Teague's. We always prepare a big breakfast together and then open presents right before eating. AnnCarter seemed to really enjoy the festivities. Above I'll post a video of her checking out one of her presents. I think her favorite part was being around all of the people :-)

 

 

AnnCarter at 10 months

Here are a few photos from AnnCarter at 10 months (all of a month ago :-) Just wanted to catch everyone up a bit.

 

AC with Marshall and one of his best friends, Rob--at Christmas dinner.

Larkin (Carter's cousin who's just 8 mo. older than her)--giving her a hug Christmas morning. These girls are already like best friends!

Christmas dress (from my mom--yet to be named by AnnCarter)

AnnCarter with my Dad before a carriage ride in Kennett Square, PA

Carriage Ride!

Eating with the grown ups at a fancy resturaunt for Laurie's birthday :-)

So cute (but soon after grew pretty tired--I had to nurse at one point during the meal)

Out to go check on the horses in the rain :-)

Reading with Dad

AnnCarter "Crawling"

Here's a video of AnnCarter's choice style of crawling--scooting rather. She first crawled at our friends' Collen and Andy and their son Aiden's house, literally a week or so before we moved from Bend.  There she did an army crawl. Shortly after we arrived back east, she began normal-style crawling, but finally decided to go for more of the scoot/monkey crawl (she does normal crawling sometimes, but mostly just when on carpet).  This video is from late-December, so she's really advanced in her skill since then. She can go fast! And is determined and adventurous in everything she does.  She loves to roll around on the bed (she wants us to roll her), and she loves to throw herself back on the bed too. It's like a trampoline for her. She's pulling up and sitting back down like a pro now. She'll often try to balance without holding on at all for a few seconds at a time, and she's been walking from object to object holding on since December as well.  I imagine it'll only be a matter of time before she's walking on her own. 

Can I have a kiss?

So I am planning to back track and update the blog soon, but I wanted to share this video in the meantime. AnnCarter has changed so much in the past month and I know it's only going to increase.  She suprises us every day with new things she's learning. This video is from just a few days ago.  We have no idea exactly where she learned to kiss--she just started doing it one day. It's our new favortie thing to do with her.