It’s way past Halloween, but I’m just getting around to posting a bunch of pictures of Anna in her ladybug costume, along with a few other recent photos. Click here to open the album!

The new Central Library is open! The entire basement floor is the children’s area. Anna enjoyed checking out the various seating options.

Marc came to visit and we went to the zoo. Of course, a ride on the choo choo train was in order.

Here’s a quick update on Anna, since it’s been a while since we posted anything. First of all, she’s teething like crazy. We just spotted her first molar, and her front teeth are coming in quickly. She’s also starting to put words together; this morning when Maria asked if she wanted breakfast, and Anna told us “toast, bowl” to mean that she wants toast for breakfast, but she wants it in her bowl (to carry around), rather than in her chair. She also likes just yelling out her name a lot.

It seems that we have officially lost the afternoon nap, which is unfortunate timing with all the teething going on. Anna can get pretty stressed out after 5pm these days, but we try to keep her active and she does alright. We’re getting a lot of use out of the new beach up the street from our house, and a lot of early evening baths.

Anna continues to love Sesame Street, and she’s grown especially fond of Elmo, Abbey and Snuffaluffagus. She also likes to do a lot of pretend cooking, and feed her stuffed animals (as well as Maria and I). Otherwise we read a lot of books, take a lot of walks, and look out the windows. Oh, and she’s also very helpful when we put away groceries.

We’re really excited for all of our travels coming up – we have three weeks in a row with family reunions and a wedding. Anna will get to meet a lot of new family members, and see a lot of new places. Wish us luck for some long naps in the car.

We dressed Anna as (what else?) a banana for Halloween, which gave us the chance to make lots of jokes about slipping on her costume. Click on the banana for more pictures from the past month!

On Saturday morning, Anna took what we think were her first steps (who knows what she does in her crib all night long). Since then, she’s been taking a couple of very short walks per day – usually only a couple of steps before reaching something to grab onto or sinking to the floor.

Much like her standing, walking usually happens when she is distracted, and I’m not sure she even really realizes that she’s doing it. She has really come to love walking while holding our hands, though. She often reaches up for your hands and just wants to go as fast as she can all around the house.

Other than that big news, Anna is doing great. We’ve started feeding her a lot more solid food; she does not like peas, but otherwise she’s a very good eater. We have also made the move to letting her fall asleep on her own for naps and at bedtime (good since she’s pushing 20 pounds). She’s getting pretty good at it, though she still wakes up a couple of times per night.

Anna turns nine months old on Thursday, and has a checkup on Friday. We had her into the doctor a week or two ago for an ongoing eye infection. Thankfully we got some ointment that has really helped clear it up. She’s been in very good health otherwise.

Still no teeth, which is good because occasionally she wants to bite my nose.

Maria and I realized we haven’t posted a new album for quite a while! We’ll try get an album of pictures from the good camera up here soon, but until then here are a few from my phone that haven’t made it to the website yet.

This morning I realized that Anna is about one Packers off season old. The last time the Packers played was January 15th when they lost in a lackluster performance against the Giants – Anna was four days old, and she spent most of the game napping on my lap (preventing me from cursing at our secondary too loudly). Tomorrow, the Packers return to the field for their first preseason game against the Chargers, and Anna will spend the game sleeping in her crib.

But a month from now, when the regular season begins, an almost-eight-month-old Anna will be awake and chewing on my Packers hat, watching the game with Mom & Dad.