April Van Brocklin Pensacola Visit

This post is long over due. In April we went to Pensacola to visit Grandma and Grandpa Van Brocklin, and Aunt Tracy. We had a blast there. Anna LOVED all the wa-wa as she called it. She didn't really care to go in her grandparent's pool, but she loved running in and out of the ocean waves. She also had a bunch of fun playing in the sand. Our little Anna is so social. She met a bunch of friends on the beach. I spent a lot of time chasing after her as she went to sit with other kids and play with their toys.

Andy's parent's got Andy and I a gift certificate to an oceanfront restaurant for our anniversary. They watched Anna while we went out and had a great time together. They said she slept a lot while we were gone. We spent a lot of the days at the beach or just hanging around the house swimming in the pool, or playing in the bay. One of the days we went to visit Destin, ate at the Hard Rock Cafe and did some shopping. For my birthday Andy's parent's took us out to a restaurant called McFadden's while Aunt Tracy stayed home to watch Anna. It was a neat restaurant with dollar bills all over the place. I ordered a Reuben that I couldn't end up eating because my indigestion was making me feel very sick. I ate it a few days later and it was great. On our last day there Andy's parent's threw a birthday party for Anna. His mom made wonderful raspberry chocolate cupcakes. Anna opened gifts and she received a savings bond and clothes from grandma and grandpa. Aunt Tracy got her a savings bond. It was a wonderful trip that we hated to see end.

Christmas 2009

This Christmas was Anna's second Christmas. She showed much more interest in her gifts this year than she did the previous year. We spent Christmas day at our house. When we placed all of Anna's gifts on the floor for her to open she squealed with excitement. She has been trying to get to those gifts for weeks now they are laying right there for her to get her hands on them. The first gift she opened was a Xylophone from her G-ma and G-pa Van Brocklin. She was so interested in playing it she didn't want to open any of her other gifts. I had to open most for her b/c she was so busy playing with her other toys. That day she ended up receiving a Xylophone, books, daisy doll, Sleeping Beauty DVD, and a polar bear with shirts from her G-ma and G-pa Van Brocklin. She opened and Cabbage Patch Kid and Leap Frog Tag Jr from Santa Clause. She also received a neat Tinkerbell book with a wand from her Great G-ma Van Brocklin. She has a good Christmas. Anna and I both had a cold so we felt a little under the weather but it was still a great day.

For dinner I made a Beer Butt Chicken that didn't turn out. It was an Emeril recipe for a 2-3 pd chicken and I bought a five and didn't make the comparison until it was time to start cooking. It didn't end up getting completely done, so we didn't eat it. The Boston Baked Beans turned out really good though. We had Brownies with Ice Cream for desert, which Anna loved.

The following Monday we went to G-ma and G-pa Fields's house to celebrate Christmas. We opened presents when we got there. Anna received a Fisher Price play center with many bins, Elmo, and a stocking full of goodies from her G-ma and G=pa Fields. Aunt Meg got her the game Whack A Mole, which was really cute. Uncle Nelson got her a Crayola toy that she can color on and the faster she colors the faster the music plays. We had a lot of fun that week playing board games, Mario Cart on the Wii, going shopping, and out to eat. Andy and I had the chance to go to Roanoke and see the movie "It's Complicated", which we loved. After that we went to dinner at Texas Steak House. It was very nice to have some alone time, and equally as nice to get back to our smiling Anna. We were there for a week. On the last day we all took Anna to see "The Princess and the Frog", it of course didn't work out. She was so amazed and captivated for the first 20 minutes but she could not stay still longer than that. We ended up leaving. I figured it wouldn't work out but it was worth a try.

Aunt Megan and Grandma was going to come see us in Pittsburgh for a few days after we left but it snowed for a week straight here and in West Virginia so they didn't make it here. Her Grandma Fields is planning on visiting us in a bout a week instead because Grandpa has an out of town meeting coming up so we are eagerly awaiting her visit.

Anna's First Snow and Visit With Santa

Anna got to play in her first snow in the middle of December. We recieved about 6 inches of powdery snow. I tried to make a snow man for her but the snow would not pack together. She enjoyed the snow, but the cold got to her. She liked swiping the snow to see the grass. She was so amazed to see the grass. We took her in after she was angered by falling face first into the snow.

After we went inside and got cleaned up we decided to go to the mall to get a pic with her and Santa. We stood in line for about an hour. Anna met some friends in line that she got to play with while we waited. When I handed her to Santa she started screaming. I am sure her face in the pictures will explain it all. In order to get her to calm down, I had to sit with Santa and hold her but she still wasn't happy.

Anna at 19 Months

Anna is a little girl bursting with energy. She loves to run around the living room and play. She is now more of a little girl than a baby. It is very neat to witness the transformation of her going from baby to a little girl. She now treats her baby doll a little better. She used to throw it out of its stroller, but now she gives it water to drink from a cup and handles it much more gently.

Her language development is a little slower than I expected it to be. She has said quit a bit of words but she doesn't re-visit them much. The one she uses most frequently is eye. She points to her or someone else's eye and says eye, eye. She says momma and dada but not very frequently. She has tried to say I love you before by saying I you when we have said it to her. She says various other things but they usually don't return. She knows what we are saying to her, she will point to almost anything when we ask where is is. She knows all of her body parts, including her hair and tongue.

She is still so in love with the kitty. Every time she sees him her face lights up and she gets very excited. She is a little rough with him though. She likes to kick him and we try to get her to stop but she doesn't always listen. She also loves turning the TV off, over and over again. I tried to put tape on the off button but she just took the tape off. She is learning to break through barriers now with a lot more ease than I have been used to.

She went for her 18 month appointment a few months ago and her weight is still in the 2ND percentile. I don't like this, it worries me a lot, but I feel better because mom keeps reminding me I was identical to her as a baby. I hate more than anything when people tell me I need to feed her. If they only knew how much I work on that everyday. She usually eats decent amounts. I try to keep feeding her throughout the day. I add carnation to her whole milk. I do everything I can. Sometimes she eats great and sometimes not so well. I can't physically throw her on the ground and shove food down her throat. Her doctor is having me bring her in between appointments for weight checks. I am worried but I also know she is very healthy. She always has a ton of energy and she is reaching her development milestones at a great rate.

Putting her in her crib at night has been very challenging lately. We used to go through the whole routine of reading and singing to her in the rocker, then Andy coming in and rocking her for a few minutes, then we put her in her crib and she went to sleep. She is no longer going to sleep when we put her in her crib, she stays up crying for hours. We are going to start putting her to sleep an hour earlier so she has longer to go to sleep before Andy has to be asleep.

Having Anna in our life is such a joy I would never have been able to imagine before we had her. Some people talk about all you have to give up in order to have kids but I feel as though it isn't such a sacrifice because she gives us so much more in return. She has brought to our lives a smile that gives off so much light it melts every worry in the moment she is doing it. We give up certain freedoms we used to have such as being able to go to the movies or grab a drink at the bar, but that is now replaced with pride for wonderful little girl whose life we get to shape everyday. We also get to relive our childhood through her. We are so proud of the wonderful little girl we are raising.

Thanksgiving 2009

For Thanksgiving this year Grandma and Grandpa Fields came to visit us. We were very excited to hear that they were coming b/c we originally didn't think they would. It is so nice having as much family around as possible for the holidays.

I spent most of the day cooking. We had the turkey(of course), mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, stuffing, macaroni and cheese casserole, and rolls. I brined the turkey this year, which is new to me. It turned out pretty good. Anna ate a little turkey, mashed potatoes, and macaroni, but what she loved the most was the cranberry sauce. We had apple pie for desert, which Anna loved.

I put the tree and Christmas decorations up the day before Thanksgiving, it was easier that way. Anna is obsessed with trying to get the ornaments off the tree. I put the tree on an end table to make it harder to get to, but she still finds her ways. She climbs up on the couches trying to get them. Grandma and Grandpa Fields left Saturday morning after we went out to breakfast at Bado's with them.

Halloween 2009

Anna at Trax Farms.

Anna painting a pumpkin with WASHABLE finger paints. This ended up turning into disaster as I chased her around with paint all over her hands.

Watch out Grandma!!!

I know I am very late on this blog entry. For Halloween 2009 we dressed Anna up as a lady bug, and we gave her a plastic meat cleaver. She didn't go Trick-or-Treating yet b/c she was still a little too young for that. We ended up taking her to a local mall because we thought maybe she could go to some of the stores to Trick-or-Treat, but they really didn't end up having anything. We ended up just getting dinner at Houlihan's in the mall.

Her Grandma Fields made it her to see her dress up as a lady bug, we were all happy for that. It was actually Grandma Fields that got her the cute lady bug costume. I was thinking about making a costume and dressing her up as a Dr. Seuss Who, but mom called and said she saw the cutest Lady Bug costume so I said ok. It worked out really well.

New Orleans and Pensacola

We just got home a few days ago from a week long trip to Pensacola, Fl and New Orleans,LA. We went to New Orleans for a couple days for Andy's anesthesiology conference, and Pensacola to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa Van Brocklin since they live there half the year.

New Orleans was fun but we were ready to head back to Pensacola after a couple days. Andy and I loved the New Orleans food, with the exception of the Red Beans and Rice I ordered at Mulate's that had a bug in it. At K-Paul's I ordered Jambalaya and Breaded chicken and it was wonderful. We went to the River walk while we were there, I got the chance to try the french doughnut Beneits, which are wonderful. On our second day in New Orleans we took Anna to the New Orleans aquarium which she really enjoyed. There was this glass circle in the floor that you can see the sharks through and she laid face down on it like all the other kids and watched the sharks swim around, it was very cute. We walked on Bourbon Street a couple times while we were there, I felt out of place being there with a 17 month old so I wasn't so fond of that. On Sunday G-ma and G-pa Van Brocklin watched Anna while Andy and I went to Harrah's to gamble. Andy played Black Jack and we lost $40 pretty quick so we quit. We walked around Bourbon Street again but ended up at a bar close to the Bienville House which is where we stayed. We had a couple beers and some cheese fried there. It was nice. When we got back Anna was in bed, they told us she cried a bit when we left (she has been having separation anxiety lately). We had the hotel for another night but we headed to Pensacola instead since we done everything we wanted to in New Orleans. We would have loved to go on a ghost tour, cemetery tour, Swamp tour, or any tour really but they were all to expensive for us.

We got to Pensacola on Monday and just kinda relaxed that day, G-ma and G-pa VB made us some delicious steaks. Tuesday we went and saw G-pa and Tracy at the new Building they have for their business. Then Aunt Tracy showed us her nice apartment. Then we went for lunch. After lunch we headed to Pensacola Beach and it was so nice and beautiful. Anna had a lot of fun playing in the water and chasing sea gulls. After the beach we went to look at the beautiful house G-ma and G-pa VB ended up buying on the bay, then we went for pizza. Wednesday we spent the whole day on the beach, it was very fun but a little too windy which made Anna a little more skeptical of the water. That evening G-ma and G-pa VB grilled us burgers on the beach as we watched the sunset. Thursday we went to the aviation museum which was neat to see all the different types of aircraft, Anna had a lot of fun in the play area. And our last day which was Friday was a little more hectic. We went to a bar called Florabama, located on the Alabama-Florida border. It was an ocean front in door and out door bar, very redneck but fun and interesting. I think it is definently not a place for kids like Anna, we stayed outside most of the time since it was too smokey for our Anna.

We had a lot of fun, and really enjoyed the beautiful, warm, sunny Florida weather. The air travel was kinda hectic with Anna. We had to carry her and a lot of bags at the same time. On the plane she did not want to sit still. She was happy when she could watch her portable DVD player. We were very happy when she fell asleep on the plane. All and all she was pretty good aside from a few episodes.

We are looking forward to seeing G-ma and G-pa Fields this weekend. They are coming to see Anna as a lady bug for Halloween. We are thinking about taking her Trick-or-Treating at the mall.