Summer

A lot has been happening since I posted over a month ago. Annie is growing and becoming so advanced (we drove back from Pensacola this morning, and she didn't sleep any of the way. She's sleeping right now, so I'll see how much I can get posted.)

We went up to the beautiful Northwest for a couple of weeks because Tim had a conference and we wanted to visit our families. It was the first time that my dad and siblings, and Marian and Ransom got to see Annie. It was a great trip for us, and Annie had a fabulous time as well. Pictures to come...

In the past week, Annie's hand-eye coordination has sky-rocketted. Instead of mearly batting at things and grabbing things that happen to come in contact with her hands, she now accurately reaches for things, takes hold of them, and brings them to her mouth. It's quite amazing how fast the transition from not being able to grasp, to accurately aiming and grabbing what she wants was. She has also rolled over twice now, but hasn't figured out how to repeat the action.

[finishing this post two days later. Baby woke up from nap after last paragraph.]

But she's napping again, so we'll see how long this lasts. There's not been a lot of consistency in how long her naps are, except that the longest she's been sleeping without needing to be resettled is maybe 50 minutes on her own, usually 30 to 40 minutes. If I hold her the whole time, it might last longer.

Eventually she will learn to fall asleep on her own, but that time has not yet arrived. We thought she'd eventually fall asleep on the way back from Pensacola, because she was acting tired and fussing and closing her eyes and everything, but she just couldn't drift off to dreamland without parental help. Oh well, gotta love the stage when she sleeps in my arms while it lasts!

On her cousin Ruby's first birthday, Annie will turn 5 months old! I can hardly believe the time has gone by so fast. We went and saw Josh and Paula and Camilla in Pensacola last weekend, which was a lot of fun. We took them their wonderful baby swing back (what would we have done without that? Thanks, guys!), because they are expecting little baby girl #2 any time now! We're excited to meet her!

Mostly now it's just really hot here these days. It's hotter here right now, according to wunderground.com, than in actual Panama in Central America.

Now for some pictures:

This first batch is from before our trip up north, she's about 3 months old in these...






Annie is signing a thank-you card


I think this was around Easter. Annie still had that thick hair in back, and was still pretty bald on top. This have changed!


When Tim came into the living room and sat down to read this book with a big bowl of ice cream, it reminded me of someone. Can you guess who?

Our Trip North


View from Tim's grandpa's house



Grandpa and Grandma Marston on the ferry



Waiting for the ferry...I went to see my family for a few days while Tim was at the conference.



Aunt Annie holding baby Annie



Auntie Jane



(Uncle) Peter and Tim at the family reunion