Fancy Annie

Annie loves to read, which is great. Except that she just wants to read the same book over and over and over. At her baby shower, her Aunt Laura got her a whole huge basket with tons of books. As she gets bigger, she discovers more and more of them that she's interested in. A few weeks ago, she discovered Fancy Nancy. It's a cute little story about a girl who likes everything to be fancy, even though her family is pretty white bread. Well, Annie's obsessed. This is somewhat ironic because I've been telling her for months that bows are for fancy girls. Yet even now that she apparently loves the fancy, she pulls those cute bows right out of her minimal amount of hair and hands them back to me. Anyway, we'll read it once and when we tell her to pick another book, she just picks it up again. The other day, as Annie was roothing through the books, I told Matt that if she picked Fancy Nancy I was going to gouge my eye out. Luckily, she chose This Little Piggy so I could keep my eye, but alas...her second choice was, of course, Fancy Nancy. Here's Annie and Daddy reading the book for literally the fifth or sixth time yesterday. Note: Annie's wearing the ugliest pajamas on the planet. She saw them at Wal-Mart and freaked out until my mom got them (and another equally ugly pair of Elmo ones) for her. Uh-oh.

Summer Fun

Thanks to Gigi (or Granny Pat as many like to call her), Annie is the proud new owner of a blow-up backyard pool. We tested it out this morning, and it was quite the success. Annie braved the frigid temperatures of the hose water and jumped right in. This makes her already a better woman than I, because I stepped in for 30 seconds, got cold and sat back in my chair in the sun. She, however, couldn't have loved it more. She was splashing and clapping and generally having a fabulous time. :)

Filling up the pool is fun already!

Pouring freezing hose water on herself

She's actually a lot happier about falling into the water than she looks

Bouncing on the side of the pool! This was part of a good 20 minutes where she climbed out, tried to climb back in, fell in, splashed and repeated.

He's Sort of a Big Deal

My guilt at the lack of graduation pictures has translated into a need to post a picture of Matt on his first day of work. This actually turned into his 6th day of actual work and his second day on the floors. Orientation wasn't that exciting anyway, and he hid from me after the first day so I couldn't take his picture. Anyway, this is Matt in all his legitimate doctoring glory. Post-call and everything (hence the droopy eyes from lack of sleep). When I called him yesterday, he told me to hold on and I heard him talking to someone using all sorts of medical terms about how he "called the cath lab" and "sent him to the ED." These probably aren't very exciting if you're an actual doctor or medical professional, but they sound impressive nonetheless. Also, when we went to bank the other day to straighten out some issues, our banker greeted him as "Dr. Ralls." I almost started laughing out loud. I don't know why it's so funny to me. He is legit now.
**edited to note: Apologies to those offended by the giant block M on his white coat. I know it's hard to see for some of you, but they are willing to give him a paycheck, so he's willing to sport the coat.

Check Out All My Hair!

Our bald baby is growing some hair these days! After one year and nearly five months, we have finally opened our first bottle of baby shampoo. The standard body wash just isn't cutting it anymore. So for all those who bought us shampoo for our baby shower way back when...thanks! Her current style is your standard mullet -- short in front, long in back. Matt won't allow me to cut it yet. I've been trying to make him understand the subtle, but all important, difference between a ponytail and a rat tail (I don't even know how to properly type that!) But, in the bath, this is neither here nor there. Here are some pics from her most recent bath and visit to the Salon de Daddy

Dog Food Is Yummy

Kerri: What is Annie doing in the garage?
Matt: Probably eating dog food.
Kerri: No. She didn't like it last time she tried it
*insert red flag here. We need to watch our child.*






I guess I haven't learned my lesson. Annie got into Sydney's food again this evening. Apparently dog food is an acquired taste. Annie got a nice sample this evening, and she really seemed to enjoy it. We had to to pry those tasty little morsels out of her mouth. Hence, she got an extra teeth brushing today. Gross.
*And again, excuse her hair. It's really out of control lately, and the peach juice she smeared in it at dinner didn't help.

So Long Toledo

We are officially Michigan residents now. We sadly said goodbye to Toledo on the hottest, muggiest day of the year and headed up north, as they say. Matt's mom and brother helped us move, while our wonderful (former) neighbors Jake and Jenny pitched in, too. Jake generously helped move stuff even though he was post-call, and Jenny played with Annie while we worked. And, it was their wedding anniversary! We'll miss them in Michigan :( Right before we left, though, Jenny took some great pics of Annie and little Madison. Annie loved to play with Madison and even hold her! Great practice for November :)

Annie and Madison

The night before the move, The Manleys took over Annie duty. They've been so great with Annie since she was born. She loves visiting them. They have all the fun toys and tons of animals to play with. Last week, Annie even got to hold their newborn kittens. Sadly, the visit had to be cut short because Annie didn't quite understand the concept of 'gentle' with the fragile kittens. She went a little Lennie on them (though no kittens were actually harmed in the process). Not such good practice for November, huh? Anyway, we're also going to really miss Amy, Rod, Carolyn and Garrett, and we hope they'll come visit us in Ann Arbor. Here are some pics Amy sent of all the fun with Annie.

Annie and the kittens

Annie and Carolyn on the trampoline

Sweet Annie in her jammies on the trampoline

A Baby Sister!

As our final hurrah in Toledo, we had our big ultrasound to check on baby. And, just as Matt and I suspected, baby #2 is a healthy baby girl!! So it's more pink and bows and baby dolls for Matt, the poor lone man in our house. We are both so excited to be having another girl! We told Annie, but didn't get much of a reaction out of her yet :) We're sure she'll be a lot more excited when her little sister actually arrives. I would scan the ultrasound, but really who can read those things? Take it from us, she looks pretty cute already.

Just Call Him 'Doctor'

Matt is officially a doctor! He graduated from medical school just before our exit from Toledo. After four long years, he's now Matthew Ralls, M.D. We are all really proud of him! :) I have no pictures of this event, as I lost my camera. Turns out that camera was actually hiding in the diaper bag at my feet the whole time, but ah well. I assure you it was an amazing moment when he walked across the stage. It seemed like a long time coming, but now it's as if it flew by! Congratulations Matt!



That weekend, the Ralls stayed in town for some family fun. We took the kids swimming, had a little cookout and just hung out. As I'm sure none of the adults would appreciate their bathing suit clad bodies pictured on this blog, we'll just show the happy cousins after swimming.

(L-R) Brady, Ella, Mallory and Annie. (Please excuse Annie's Corey Haim hairdo. Not sure how that happened.)