Anastasia's First Birthday Presents

Heh I needed to put this one up too.

Anastasia's Birthday

Bathtime

Ok, four months later :)

Blurb Booksmart

Make your our bookstore quality photo albums with Booksmart . I've recently discovered an incredible application/website called Blurb, that lets you make wonderful, professional books out of your own pictures. I think this site blows away Lulu's book making software. Forget scrapbooking, forget the photo albums you buy at Costco. Here are some points from their site.

• Commercial-quality — Books feature four-color printing on 80# coated, semi-matte paper.
• Flexibility — Books can be 20 to 440 pages.
• Sturdy covers — Choose from black-linen hardcovers with library binding and custom 4-color laminated dust jackets, or softcovers with durable perfect binding.

• Affordable — Prices start at just $12.95. Order one or many.
• Fast turnaround — Once uploaded and ordered, your book will arrive in approximately
  7 to 10 business days.

I'll put up posts as I publish books. :)

Two front teeth!

We can make it official today, Anastasia has two lower front teeth popped out. She has been such a good baby, we really didn't know she was teething beyond a lot of drooling.

Quite a day!

Many fun things happened today. First, it has finally melted out there enough that we were able to get the ice off our deck. Sonya is very happy to see the deck again. Now if only the three feet of ice we are walking over in the walkway to the front door would melt a little more :)

In the afternoon, we went for a little walk. It was a much shorter walk than yesterday, as we went all the way to town then. Anastasia was cranky today so we came back rather soon. We only counted seventy cents worth of discarded bottles walking away from town compared to the six dollars worth we counted yesterday.

On the way home, we met a neighbor named Mark. Nice guy, we asked him a couple of questions about our road. One of them was, why is all of the land posted on Union Brook Road? We asked that because Northfield seems like a pretty old-fashioned Vermont town and it's not real Vermont to post your land. Mark related that none of our neighbors would have a problem with anyone hiking or exploring around, but folks are pretty greedy about the deer. :) That still does not seem very Vermont-like though. I wonder if it is all a consequence of the problems with Vermont's deer population a few years ago. Mark was interested in our house and wanted to come by and see it sometime, as it was his grandfather that converted it from a school into a house back in the 50's! Of course we invited him to come by! The last thing we asked Mark (as Stasie was screaming by this point) about was the name of our road, Union Brook. We had noticed that we have a neighbor down the road named Fred Union. Since our next door neighbor Barb Aseltine said the Aseltine Road was named for her ex-husband, and it is an easy guess that Fernandez Road is named for the farmer who owns most of the fields around here. Was the road named for Fred? Mark said, "Close, it was named for Fred's father." Mark then told a funny story about what Fred's father (who kept all his money under the bed) said about rescuing his wife when the fire department came to the burning house many years ago....

The last big thing of the day was Anastasia's first solid food meal, rice cereal!


Like I said quite a day.

She'll be coming round the mountain

She'll be coming round the mountain
When she comes
(Toot, toot!)
She'll be coming round the mountain
When she comes
(Toot, toot!)
She'll be coming round the mountain,
She'll be coming round the mountain,
She'll be coming round the mountain
When she comes
(Toot, toot!)

She'll be driving six white horses
When she comes
(Whoa back!)
She'll be driving six white horses
When she comes
(Whoa back!)
She'll be driving six white horses,
She'll be driving six white horses,
She'll be driving six white horses
When she comes
(Whoa back! Toot, toot!)

Oh, we'll all go out to meet her
When she comes
(Hi babe!)
Oh, we'll all go out to meet her
When she comes
(Hi babe!)
Oh, we'll all go out to meet her,
We'll all go out to meet her,
We'll all go out to meet her
When she comes
(Hi babe!
Whoa back! Toot, toot!)

We will kill the old red rooster
When she comes,
(Cluck Cluck!)
We will kill the old red rooster
When she comes,
(Cluck Cluck!)
We will kill the old red rooster
We will kill the old red rooster
We will kill the old red rooster
When she comes,
(Cluck Cluck!, Hi babe!
Whoa back!, Toot, toot!)

She'll be wearing red pajamas
When she comes
(Scratch, scratch)
She'll be wearing red pajamas
When she comes
(Scratch, scratch)
She'll be wearing red pajamas,
She'll be wearing red pajamas,
She'll be wearing red pajamas
When she comes
(Scratch, scratch,Cluck Cluck!, Hi babe!
Whoa back! Toot, toot!)

She will have to sleep with Grandma
When she comes
(She snores!)
She will have to sleep with Grandma
When she comes
(She snores!)
She will have to sleep with Grandma,
She'll have to sleep with Grandma,
She will have to sleep with Grandma
When she comes
(She snores!
Scratch, scratch, Cluck Cluck!, Hi babe!
Whoa back! Toot, toot!)

Also,

We'll be havin' chicken and dumplings when she comes, etc.

We'll all be shoutin' "Halleluja" when she comes, etc.

Stasie's 4 month visit to Dr. P

Anastasia went to her 4 month well-baby visit. She is still small but quite healthy (24 1/2 inches long, 15 1/2 in. head circumference and 12 lbs. 10 oz.). She gained about a pound and a half in a month. Sonya (who has been acting neurotic around this issue) can relax because the formula and breast combination has been working. Anastasia is thriving. Dr. Pattison has given the go ahead for rice cereal and the beginnings of fruits and veggies. We will be starting this April vacation since Sonya wants have all the fun and not let Teila (daycare provider) have the fun of feeding her yet. Anastasia is trying to stand in the worst way and will even try to "walk" with help. We will still try to force her to crawl though; brain wiring and learning disability link. A little knowledge is always dangerous. She is the star of daycare and loves going to visit all her friends. Mom can't wait for April vacation to spend more time with her. Poor Daddy, he doesn't get any fun anymore. However, he gets two days with her when daycare is closed.

Frog in the Well (North America)

There was a frog lived in the spring.
Sing song kitty can't you kimey oh.
He was so fat he could not swim.
Sing song kitty can't you kimey oh.

Keemey O ma kimey O ma direy O ma wear
Me hi, me ho, me in come Sally Single,
Sometime Penny Winkle, In stepped nip cat,
Hit him with a brick bat,
Sing song kitty can't you kimey oh.

The frog went swimming 'cross the lake.
Sing song kitty can't you kimey oh.
He got swallowed by a big black snake.
Sing song kitty can't you kimey oh.

Keemey O ma kimey O ma direy O ma wear
Me hi, me ho, me in come Sally Single,
Sometime Penny Winkle, In stepped nip cat,
Hit him with a brick bat,
Sing song kitty can't you kimey oh.

And Happy New Year

We have been very busy for the holidays, but I do have a bunch of new photos. Hope you enjoy! :)