Ahh, the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade. When we went last year, I was one week away from giving birth to our sweet Anna, and I found myself looking ahead to this year as we would enjoy the festivities with our little girl. I envisioned a warm, sunny day; maybe little Anna could wear the green-and-white striped sundress and matching hat I had recently bought her; perhaps she would even be walking, toddling around in little sandals, the sunshine illuminating her golden curls…

… instead she looked like this:

Yep, it was a cold gray day, so we were all bundled up in layers. Weather issues aside, she’s not walking yet, that particular dress is still way too big, and she still doesn’t have much hair. But that’s ok. We had a great time and our little girl was absolutely wonderful. We manipulated her schedule a bit so she would take a nap before we went, and it worked—she was in a great mood the whole time! She seemed to enjoy watching everything and everybody and being with mommy and daddy.

Our friends the Allisons went with us. Here’s Emily with the youngest of their three daughters:

The Lyon College Pipe band:

Our friend and fellow musician Joe with his Irish Wolfhound:

Dancers from the O’Donovan School of Irish Dance:

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Did you know the Faulkner County Library has a program for babies under 2? I didn’t. I just found out on Saturday, and I took Anna there this morning for her first story time! She was certainly attentive; she just sat in my lap with a wide-eyed expressionless face, staring nonstop at everything going on, probably wondering what in the world her crazy mommy had brought her to. But towards the end, she finally cracked a smile. I feel certain she’ll warm up to it if we go every week.

Afterwards I let her play alongside the other toddlers in the little kitchen play area there. I tried to get Anna interested in the pots and pans, but as soon as she discovered that she could push the chairs around, that’s all she wanted to do. (She rearranges the furniture in our kitchen pretty regularly these days!)

We’re definitely going back. It’s on Mondays at 10, if you have a wee one and want to come along. The library website actually says it’s on “Monday’s”—jeez, they ought to know better! But then, they also have it listed under their “teens” tab rather than their “kids” tab, which may explain why I’ve never heard of it.

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For a couple of weeks now, I’ve noticed Anna holding out her arm toward Sasha like she’s waving. How sweet, she’s waving at the dog, I thought.

But then I realized that’s not what she’s doing at all! Whenever we tell Sasha to sit, down, or stay, we use hand signals. We don’t even think about it anymore; it’s just automatic. Apparently Anna has picked up on this, and she’s going around flinging her arm out in Sasha’s direction whenever she’s around her. That’s obviously what you’re supposed to do around a dog, right?

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… especially when it keeps her occupied while I’m cooking dinner.

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… er, month, that is… Anna is eleven months old today! But it also seems like the “eleventh hour” in that the deadline for soaking up every moment of her sweet baby year is all too quickly approaching. I can’t believe she’ll be one year old in one short month. My baby is disappearing before my very eyes and is being replaced by a little girl!

Anna is quite active right now; consequently, David and I are too. It’s incredible the things she tries to get into, some successfully, as the rest of you parents know. She loves taking things out of things, like pulling stuff out of her diaper bag, pulling laundry out of the laundry basket, pulling her books off of her bookshelf, etc. She’s really cute with her books; she’ll sit there surrounded by the little pile she’s made and just flip through them and look at them for a few minutes. She likes music and will smile and rock back and forth excitedly when she hears it. She’s cruising everywhere now, just crawling when there isn’t something to hold onto to get from point A to point B. And she’s finally eating some solids now; she likes bananas (as a whole chunk she hold and eat), yogurt, cheese, peaches, applesauce, and most any kind of bread/crackers/cereal. Oh, and taco meat. She is definitely my child.

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This was my sweater when I was a baby. How cool is that?!

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She has her own whistle—a little green Clarke Meg that cost 3 dollars. But I’m letting her play my Michael Burke Narrow-Bore Brass, which cost… um… more than 3 dollars. Why, exactly?!?

So do you think she can learn a jig in time for St. Patrick’s Day?

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Apparently Anna has finally cut her first tooth! She won’t let me get a good look at it, but I can feel it when she gums my finger.

That sure was easy! She didn’t really show any signs of teething. Does that mean the rest of them will come just as painlessly? I hope so!

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It’s so much fun to see Anna learning what to do with various objects—not just playing with them, but really trying to use them the right way! Here are some things I’ve seen her do lately:

Brush her hair: After I brush her hair, I’ll hand her the hairbrush and she’ll tap it on her forehead. Hey, it’s a start.

Write: While grocery shopping the other day, she really wanted my shopping list and pen, so I gave them to her (the pen was retracted, of course). Then she started putting the pen to the paper like she was trying to write.

Talk on the phone: She’ll hold the phone up to her ear and utter a little baby coo into it.

Play pennywhistle: The other day while I was practicing, I gave her one to play with. She put it in her mouth and was making sounds vocally at first; then she actually blew into it and got a little sound out. I’m so proud!

(Update) Put on socks: Ok, I had to add just one more. I was sitting on the floor today putting my socks on, and she picked up one of my socks and laid it on my foot. This is so cool!

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Anna got to have a playdate with little W. Upton this morning! I think they had a good time. And I learned I can take care of two little ones at once. Imagine that! In fact, with W. there, Anna pretty much stayed where he was instead of crawling all over the house, so in some ways it was actually easier. Of course, I got a few pictures:

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