FourthFest Celebration

It hit me today that this, the Fourth of July, is Annabelle's last holiday before she turns 1 year old. She has gone through one complete year of life and it overwhelms me to think that this is still just the beginning! What an INCREDIBLE blessing she has been to everyone in our family. Sometimes I wonder what I ever did to deserve such an amazing gift from God. Then it hits me: I have done nothing to deserve this precious little angel, yet God has chosen to entrust her upbringing with me anyway. That's grace in its purest form.

For our Fourth of July holiday, the hubby, the girls and I went up to our church for our annual FourthFest.....complete with BBQ, ice cream, and fireworks. The weather couldn't have been more beautiful and it was a great opportunity to just relax and mingle with friends. Annabelle seemed to really enjoy the change of scenery although by the end of the night (as the fireworks were starting) she was getting a bit cranky. We stayed way past her bedtime, so it's no wonder she was so tired. As tired as she was, though, she behaved like a champ! She was neither impressed with nor scared of the fireworks. She didn't really pay any attention to them at all...she was more interested in the rocks on the ground. We tried sitting in the grass, but Annabelle let us know in no uncertain terms that she didn't like the grass. So we were left with sitting on the concrete and it took every bit of energy I had left to keep Annabelle from putting handfuls of rocks in her mouth.

While we were at the FourthFest, Annabelle ate a popsicle for the very first time. What fun that was! I couldn't get her to hold the stick, so she just grabbed on tight to the popsicle and just chowed down. There was popsicle juice dripping everywhere and it took me forever to get it off her! It was a hilarious sight to see!


Annabelle enjoyed sitting on the curb "like a big girl".











Here she is, NOT enjoying the grass!












Sweets for the sweet:
















With big sis Gabby:











The music was great too!













A fantastic fireworks show ended the night. The fireworks were MUCH better than how they appear in the pictures! :-)

Hurricane Annabelle

With newfound mobility comes newfound adventures. With newfound adventures comes newfound messes to clean up. I suppose that is all a part of the precious "baby years" that moms love and treasure long after the kids have married and moved away. I can't remember the last time my house was clean and organized (like it used to be) but I am constantly reminding myself that these years pass so quickly and that I should enjoy them while I have them. I have formally given up following Annabelle to pick up all the stuff she knocks off the shelves or pulls out of the drawers. I love watching her like this - totally enthralled in the simpleness of everyday life. How great life would be if we all took such pleasure in the simple things! Sometimes it is a challenge to keep up with her (she has quite an advantage over me, as she is much younger and quicker than I!) and I sometimes find myself in the position of "choosing my battles" so to speak. Do I *really* care if she pulls all of the DVDs out of the cabinet? Is that *really* hurting anything or anybody? Does it *really* matter if she opens empty drawers and pulls them completely off their tracks? Is it *really* a bad thing if she dumps all the magazines out of the cozy little basket they call home? No, these things are not major issues. Yes, Annabelle *must* keep her hands out of the fireplace (the pilot light is always burning.) No, she *can't* play in the knife drawer. No, the litter box is *not* the same as a sand box. I have learned to pick my battles and not be as uptight as I used to be. In time, I will get the hang of it. Hopefully.

Besides, now I have a legitimate excuse for my messy house in the event that unexpected guests drop by and I haven't felt like cleaning that day. Or the day before. Yes, I blame it on the baby!

What's in a Name?

When it came time to select a name for my baby, I remember feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders. It was an overwhelming feeling of pressure combined with exhilaration combined with excitement combined with the possible feelings of future guilt over having picked the worst name I could have possibly chosen. Choosing the name that somebody else will carry for the rest of his or her life can be a daunting task. How will the name of our future child be perceived by others? Will our relatives and friends snicker behind our backs at the "stupid" or "silly" or (insert any derogatory adjective here) name that we find the most beautiful of all names? There are so many reasons for choosing one particular name over another. Perhaps one couple decides to name their child after a deceased relative, or name a newborn son after his father. In my family, our Jewish heritage states that the firstborn child must have a name that begins with the same letter as a deceased family member. Since my mother abandoned the Jewish faith, my name does not follow this rule (but hers does! My mother, Leanne, was named after her deceased grandfather, Leonard.) I met a family the other day whose newborn son, Ptolemy, was given his name because it is a "family" name. The name had been passed down for so long that it was actually expected for new parents to bestow this name on their firstborn sons. This particular family hated the name Ptolemy and called their baby boy "P.T." for short. But for the sake of family harmony, they chose to keep with the tradition, even though they hated the name.

So this brings me back to the actual choosing of the name. Why do we choose the names that we do? Are there proven studies that names can be beneficial or detrimental to our precious little ones? If we give our child a name that he or she grows up hating, or a name that other kids constantly mock, will our child be scarred for life? For my little girl, the last name of her future husband came to mind here. I personally know a woman named Candy. Nice, normal name. She married a man with the last name of Barr......now my friend is known as Candy Barr. Of course, scenarios like this are absolutely impossible to predict since we don't know the last names of our future sons-in-law, but the thought did cross my mind that my little girl's first name might clash with her future last name. This was distressing to me, as it was beyond my control and it began driving me crazy trying to come up with possible (future) last names that might not work with the name I dearly love: Annabelle.

Another consideration for choosing a name is the nickname that might result from the actual given name. Names like Cynthia turn into "Cindy", Robert becomes "Bob", etc. Can we handle the nicknames that stem from the given names? If you love the name Joseph, can you handle everybody calling your little boy "Joey" instead, even though you despise that name? That's something else to consider. I have a friend whose mother absolutely hated the fact that names were shortened into "nicknames", so she gave her daughter the shortest name she could find: Ruth. Monosyllabic, no middle name. No possible chance of this name being shortened into anything.

Another consideration is the popularity of a name at the time of the baby's birth. Do we want our children in a classroom with 8 other kids who have the same name? Or would we prefer that our children be the only one in the state with that particular name. Perhaps even the only one in the country with a particular name? How important is popularity to us? I remember as a child, I was so upset that my name was not one of the more popular ones. I wanted to be one of the 5 Jennifers or 7 Michelles in my class. I'm grateful now that my name is not as common as that, but as a child I assumed that if I had a popular name, I myself would also be popular. Then again, with a unique name, there is no need for a last name. Look at children like Suri. Or Shiloh. How many Suris and Shilohs are out there? After doing the research, I've found that Suri may very well be the only Suri in the country, but Shiloh is becoming more popular among average parents looking to name their children something different and unique. Of course, if a million people name their children Shiloh, then I suppose that cancels out the uniqueness of the name.


Then there are the insane names like "Apple" and "Banjo" and "Moon Unit". I thought hospitals were required to wait until the drugs wore off before they allowed a mother to fill out the birth certificate paperwork. I hope somebody was fired over these gross lapses in judgment.

After considering all these things, it came time for me to make the final decision for the most life-changing event of my life. I have absolutely adored the name "Annabel" since I was a teenager. I first heard of the name in the Edgar Allan Poe poem, "Annabel Lee". I had never heard the name before this, but found the name spectacularly beautiful, and have always associated the name "Annabel" (and any deviation in spelling) with a woman who was loved almost to the point of worship - a woman whose death caused a man to go insane. What an intense, powerful love! Then I met a very good friend who had a sister named Annabel. It was then that I decided I would one day have a daughter named Annabel...but I wasn't too sure I liked the way it was spelled. Even though "Annabel Lee" was a woman loved beyond comprehension, she died in the poem. I didn't like the association between my little girl and a dead one. So I firmly decided that my daughter would not have the middle name "Lee", and I would change the spelling of her first name. My beloved grandmother's name was "Belle", so I changed "Annabel" to "Annabelle" and gave my precious princess a name that I believe is the most beautiful name in the English language.

The popularity of a name is important to me. I did NOT want my little girl to have an extremely popular name, but I'm personally not too fond of the extremely unique names, either. I like traditional names (names that have been around for at least 100 years) and shy away from trendy names that tend to disappear as quickly as they appeared. "Annabelle" fits this category nicely.

I did some research on the name. The Social Security Administration keeps a list of names based on the birth certificates used to apply for social security cards. Every year they post the most popular names in the country. They list the top 1000 baby names for each year, going all the way back to 1880 and running up through the current tax year. I went back and researched "Annabelle" and here is what I came up with:

The name "Annabelle" didn't make to top 1000 list until the year 1995. It is in the top 1000 every year after that, with the various spellings hitting different positions on the list. As of the year 2007, here is the list of Annabelles and where they fall on the list:

Annabelle - #196
Annabella - #568
Anabelle - #733
Annabel - #798
Anabel - #950
Annabell - this is the most popular spelling in Germany, yet this variant did not even make the top 1000 in this country.

When talking specifically about the spelling "Annabelle", here is how it has fared over the years. The name is slowly gaining in popularity, creeping slowly up the list a couple of notches each year. A part of me hopes that this will level off and either stay where it currently is or drop down a little bit lower. Once a name becomes TOO popular, it loses a little bit of its uniqueness, and I am hoping that doesn't happen with this name. Okay, here is the chart for the "Annabelle" variation of this beautiful name, beginning with 1995, when the name first made the list:

1995 - #968
1996 - #924
1997 - #848
1998 - #641
1999 - #501
2000 - #463
2001 - #349
2002 - #331
2003 - #293
2004 - #300
2005 - #238
2006 - #206
2007 - #196

Only time will tell how popular this name will become.

A Fun Day at the Park

Today started out as a dreary, rainy, gray day. Then, around lunchtime, the weather cleared up and turned a bit sunny. The weather was not overly hot, it seemed just perfect for a short trip to the local park. We live in a small town, so our park is small.......but my Annabelle is also small, so it all worked out. Since Annabelle is not walking yet, we were able to go on the swings but not the slides. It won't be long until she makes it to the slides and the little tunnel. For now, though, the swing proved to be exciting enough, especially when there were other children around for Annabelle to watch. She gets so excited when she spies other children around and I always enjoy seeing her interact with them. Since today was a big day (her first time on a park swing!) I couldn't go without my trusty camera in tow. Here are the pictures of Annabelle enjoying her first swing ride:





Hmmmm........Annabelle has just spotted the other children on the swings. I'm not sure I can compete with them for her attention!




What a fun day today was! Next week we are planning to go to the swimming pool with a friend and her three children. That will be exciting!!

Better Than A Straw?

Current Novel: House at Pooh Corner (German version) by A.A. Milne

What could possibly be better than acquiring a new skill and putting that new skill to good use? Well, perhaps taking that new skill and altering it slightly so that it becomes a completely new skill entirely. And that brings us to Annabelle's new antics....unscrewing the top of her sippy cup, dumping out the contents, and then lapping up the water like a dog would. This has got to be one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time! Here she is, demonstrating her competence at making a huge mess:









Oh my goodness......what will she come up with next?

"The Last Straw"

Wow! So much has happened since my last entry, I can hardly believe it! I am slowly starting to get caught up on everything, so hopefully my entries will start getting closer together like they used to be. I enjoy blogging so much but, unfortunately, sometimes life starts to move at warp speed and it takes everything I have just to keep from getting sucked into the vortex of laundry and bills and dinners and carpooling and and and and............well, I think you get the point I'm trying to make here. Despite the busyness of daily living, I wouldn't want my life any other way. Umm, well....I wouldn't mind a maid coming in and doing my laundry and a rich benefactor to step in and pay off all my credit cards.....but other than that, my life is pretty good right now!

My little Annabelle has mastered the straw! Yes, she can suck up water like a professional fish! The only problem we now face is what to do with all that water once it is in her mouth. Annabelle's solution? Smile broadly so it all seeps right back out and onto the front of her clothes! Well, what else *should* she do with it? There will be plenty of time later to learn the swallowing part. Right now, though, it is fun to just let it all run right back out. Mommy likes doing laundry, right?!? Yes, watching Annabelle drink from a straw is one of the greatest pleasures of my day. And once she has her tiny little hands wrapped around her sippy cup, Heaven help me if I try to take it away from her! Sippy cups are her new favorite plaything.

And she waves now! Well, okay, that isn't entirely correct. She KNOWS how to wave, she just chooses not to. I know she can do it.....the first (and only, I might add!) day she waved it was so sweet! She waved to us six times that day, so I know it was a deliberate action on her part, not just a random muscle reflex. Unfortunately, though, she hasn't waved since. I'm not sure what the deal is with that. Now all she will do is put her hand up and then shyly turn her head away. She wants to wave, I can see it, but she chooses not to. That's alright, though, because I know she will. One day. When she's good and ready. I am slowly learning not to get upset when Annabelle doesn't reach her milestones when I feel (or when the doctors say) she should be reaching them. Annabelle is thriving and that is all I am concerned with right now. She is healthy, she is happy and she is thriving. What else could a doting mother hope for?

Even though it is a month and a half early, we are already planning Annabelle's first birthday party. I just can't believe she is going to turn 1 year old next month! Where has the time gone?? After much deliberation, we decided to have Annabelle's first birthday party at Chick-Fil-A. The way I figure it, she *probably* will not be walking by then (but maybe she will, who knows?!) so I didn't want to have her party anyplace where walking would be absolutely necessary for her to enjoy herself, and that ruled out most of the themed places like Fun City or Chuck E. Cheese. And I certainly didn't want a house full of children running around, either. So, I figured Annabelle could at least crawl through the tunnels in the Chick-Fil-A play zone, so that's where we'll be. I think it will be a lot of fun, too. Each of the children will get a kid's meal, a small plush cow, and an ice cream cone. Annabelle will get a large plush cow, PLUS.....the Chick-Fil-A cow will grace us with an appearance! What is the best part of having her party here? Mommy won't have to clean up after everybody!!! Yeah!!! I'm planning on having a cake there, too, even though the kids will each get an ice cream cone with their meals. I simply can't imagine Annabelle's first birthday party with no cake. I'm thinking it will probably be a princess themed cake, but I'm kinda fond of Elmo, too, so I'm torn on this one. I'll give it a bit more thought because, after all, I still have a month and a half.

The Technical Difficulties of Life

Current Novel: "Mr. Popper's Penguins" (German version)
by Richard and Florence Atwater


Once again, I must apologize for my long absence. Chronic computer problems, combined with several new translation projects, combined with the antics of a very active 9 month old, combined with houseguests have made blogging a difficult task these days. I'm hoping that after I finally get caught up with everything again (including the 1000+ emails that I still have yet to read!) I won't have any other such absences, and that I can continue blogging on a regular basis like I have enjoyed doing in the past.

I have had two more parts on my computer replaced. I honestly wonder why I even bother sometimes! It would be a whole lot easier if I just bought a brand new computer! Easier, yes. Cheaper, no. *SIGH* Alas, I guess I'm stuck with this arthritic one for now....or at least until I win the lottery, and since I don't play....well, it might be awhile before I win! :-)

My Annabelle is crawling now! And crawling like a champ, I might add! Now that she is crawling, she no longer voluntarily plays in her play yard anymore. No more confinement for my little angel! This is not necessarily a good thing, since I like to put her in her play yard while I'm cooking dinner or need to accomplish some household task without a baby attached to my hip. Now I either have to learn how to multi-task with the extra hip attachment, or tolerate the blood-curdling screams of one very unhappily confined (but safe!) baby. My choice depends on the mood I'm in at the time!

Annabelle is still not clapping or waving "bye-bye" yet. It looks like she wants to wave bye-bye.....her hand goes up, but she hasn't gotten the actual waving part down pat yet. And we aren't even close with the clapping, but we'll get there! The doctor has expressed some concern about the clapping, and the words "occupational therapy" actually came up at Annabelle's 9 month check-up (occupational therapy for a 9 month old who refuses to clap??!!?!?) My baby was a sitting a week later than the doctor said she should (the doctor told me that Annabelle MUST be sitting by 7 months old, yet my little princess didn't master this difficult task until 7 months, one week old) and now she sits like a pro. I'm not at all concerned about the clapping. She'll get it eventually (when she's ready!) and when she does, she will quickly and easily master it just like she has done with all her other milestones.

I am currently reading "Mr. Poppers Pinguine" (Mr. Popper's Penguins in German) to Annabelle. Now that she is crawling, she's not "stuck" in front of the book like she was before. No, now she just ignores me as she crawls away but that's OK because it's still good quality time I get to spend with my little explorer. I'm confident that the time I spend reading to her is not time wasted!

The following are Annabelle's 9 month portraits: