Sibling Love

I love watching these two interact!  A clearly adores her big brother and I think he feels the same way about her.  It is so sweet to catch them in action!  

April Trip to Cincinnati

 In April, when Anna was 2 months old, I took her to Cincinnati to meet the rest of the family.  

She traveled well...she either slept or was awake and happy for most of the flight time.  :)

Anna loved getting to spend some QT with her Nana!  

  

We got the chance to spend some time with "not-so-big" Willie.  He was our cat from around 2003 until we moved to San Diego in January 2000.  Since then he's lived with Mom and Dad.  He's probably pretty old at this point (got him as an adult cat).  He's recently gone blind and is having other health problems, so I was very happy to get to spend some time with him while he's still with us.  

For Easter we went to Jeannie and Frank's house for brunch.  They had an amazing spread and it was fun to watch their daughter, Lia, and June collect easter eggs in the yard.

Really this trip was about spending time with family.  So we got in as much of that as we could.  Even Gogo held Anna!  

Cincinnati in the Spring is beautiful!  We enjoyed an afternoon at the Krohn Conservatory where they were having their annual butterfly show.  This year it featured the butterflies of Costa Rica.  It was awesome!  

Colleen and I also took a quick trip to the zoo on one of our last days.  The tulips were stunning!  We did see a few animals also, but the tulips really stole the show!

On our final night in town we had dinner with Andy, Colleen and June.  Loved getting to spend so much time with these guys.  They are such a fun family!  

Here we attempted a photoshoot of June and Anna wearing the same dress.  Unfortunately we timed it right when Anna was ready to go down for a nap.  :)  

Smilles for Quinn!

Has it really already been 6 weeks??

I can't believe that tomorrow Anna will be 6 weeks old.  People always say that this time flies by, and I suppose I have to admit that they are right!  I'm not going to lie and say that I've been having the time of my life or anything...spending most of my day at home breastfeeding an infant isn't exactly the most exciting way to spend my time, but it is fun getting to know this little person.

She's doing great!  Eating well and maybe starting to figure out this sleep thing a little bit (we will occasionally get 5 hours).  She has started to smile at us, although eliciting those smiles often requires a monumental effort.

Here are just a few photos from the past 2 weeks.

A's morning nap (between 6-9am) is usually in our bed.  I'll bring her over to feed her and then quietly climb out to start my day.  She's always so sweet in the morning light tucked under the covers.  It's hard to not take her photo on these mornings.  :)

 I let Quinn stay home from school yesterday.  He's been wanting to have some time at home with us and I thought it might be fun.  I had the opportunity to observe him interacting with Anna during more of her quiet awake time.  

He's a great big brother and is always the first to try to sooth her when she gets fussy.  He's the one who discovered how much she LOVES her new toy from Heide in Germany.  She's even started to smile at it (more reliably than she'll smile at us!)  :)

I have sworn that I would not dress my little girl in all pink, but here is evidence that it can't be avoided.  We've received so many clothes from generous friends (many of which are pink) and this sweater was knitted for me by Grandma Smith (Biggy's mother) when I was a baby.  And I've gotta say that Anna certainly can rock the pink.  :)

And finally here's our girl having some tummy time on the rug that my Nana made for me.  I'll have to dig it out, but there exists a very similar photo of me on the same rug at about the same age.  

One Month Old

Mission Trails Family Hike

Jeff pointed out today that we haven't been hiking the way we used to.  In an attempt to remedy that problem we headed out to Mission Trails for a midday hike.  It was Anna's first and the first for Quinn in a few months.  We've got to be better about making the time to get out and enjoy nature!

Quinn started the hike full of energy!

The boys attempted to catch lizards, but were unsuccessful.

Anna's first hike...she was wide-eyed and really interested in the light coming through the oak trees...

....until 5 seconds later when she was completely over it.  

Q was really excited about our picnic spot...he did a bunch of climbing!

A pretty much zones out as soon as we put her in the babyhawk

Look what I found....lashes!  :)

Getting to know each other

Well our little girl is now three weeks old, so we've started to figure things out.  One thing is for certain...Anna loves to eat.  And eat and eat!  She will occasionally also sleep.  We've had a couple of longer sleeps (6-7 hours), but 3-4 is more the norm.  I guess it's to be expected.  :)  Below are just a handful of photos we've snapped over the past few weeks.  

Jeff with his magical thumb hold!

They sure do make some cute girl clothes!  

The sleepy smiles are one of my favorites!

 Some of Anna's favorite faces:

Not surprisingly, she seems to enjoy car trips.  Was crying as I put her in the carseat, but after a few blocks she seemed quite content staring out the window.