Daddy's Hat

Matt has had this hat as long as we've been together. Plenty of people have recognized him by the hat alone, and one of our friends refers to him mostly as "Matt in the red hat." Annie got a hold of this precious (smelly, dirty) hat the other day. It looks just as cute on her as it does on him!

Matt's Weekend Off

This past weekend was Matt's "golden," as they call them --his only full weekend off all month. So of course, we packed up and headed to Cleveland for a wedding. It was a great weekend. We got to see Jackie and Matt, who were both in town for the wedding. We haven't seen Uncle Matt for awhile (it's a long trip from Arkansas!), but Annie is quite excellent at saying his name. We got a great picture of the two of them, which I'll post when Matt e-mails it to me. And she got herself in majorly with Aunt Jackie by saying "Dackie?" when Jackie walked away. She watched a lot of shows with Gigi and played outside with everyone for a long time. We also met Jackie's new puppy, Paisley. Tiny little Paisley was scared of us all, and I would be too. Annie called her "Baby" and kept climbing into her cage with her! Matt (Hageman) thinks child services is coming if they see this blog, but here are the pics anyway. :)



We also hung out with the Ralls fam on Sunday. Annie and Mallory entertained each other quite nicely, which was great because all four parents were draped around the living room arguing about whose turn it was to watch the girls :) The very nice neighbors also let the girls jump on their trampoline. It was quite the thrill for the girls. Mallory has perfected jumping and landing on her butt, while Annie was in awe of the way her own feet could run on the trampoline. All the excitement was too much for Annie, who was so keyed up she stayed awake for the majority of the ride back to Michigan. So we're home finally, but we'll be visiting again soon!

Arnold Palmer

I thought about titling this post "Why Matt is Awesome," but I didn't want it going to his head. This amazing drink pictured is the Arnold Palmer, 1/2 lemonade and 1/2 iced tea. I've been a fan of this concoction from way back. Recently, Matt and I were talking and he referred to it as an "Arnold Palmer." All those years enjoying it, and I never knew that the golf legend made it famous. Learn something new every day, right? So, today Matt was coming off call and called to say he had a surprise. He brought me home a piece of pizza AND a jumbo sized, original Arnold Palmer. I was so excited, I had to put it on the blog. Matt is sleeping now or I would have had him take the picture, with my smiling face next to it. (No jokes about the pregnant lady posting about food please.)

Ann Arbor Art Festival

Annie and I decided to check out the famous Ann Arbor Art Festival today. When Grandma Ralls found out we were moving to AA, she said her friend told her about this fabulous festival. Apparently, it's quite a big deal. When we got there, we saw why. It was huge!! There was tons of stuff to do for everyone. They had every type of art imaginable--including clothes and jewelry. We walked around and took it all in. And Annie made herself a princess hat. She is quite the little artist.

She Loves Food

Just like her mom :)

Taco Night :) She loves anything made with ground meat. It's hilarious.

The Doughnut Caper:

The other day, after her nap, I went to get her a new diaper. When I came back into the living room, she had discovered my half-eaten doughnut and was already enjoying it herself. These pictures don't really do her justice, she had powder all over her face!

And if you're wondering why she apparently never wears clothes, it's because our a/c is broken and it has been hotter than heck here. Matt has been hiding out at the cool, air conditioned hospital while Annie and I slowly melt :)

Visitors!!

When Annie and I finally arrived back in Michigan, Matt was working. We were a little sad, but it all worked out because we had lots of visitors this past weekend :) First, Uncle Mike, Stephanie, Emma, Owen and Liam came to visit. Uncle Mike and Steph are fabulous and very generous, so they stopped by on their way to their vacation to drop off some furniture for Annie so the new baby can have her stuff. They looked a little like the Beverly Hillbillies, with their car top carrier, full car and U-Haul trailer dragging behind. But they said it didn't slow them down, and everyone arrived safely. I forgot to take their picture :( We had a fun sleepover, and then they were off to their vacation. Thank you guys for everything! We really appreciate it, and we love you :)

Then, on Saturday, we had more friends! (This is amazing, I know). Erica, Bethany, Callista, Jason and sweet little Bella came to visit for the night. We went to dinner in downtown Ann Arbor. We got a little lost due to a miscommunication between Matt and I, but we found a restaurant just the same. The girls stayed downtown and hit a fun little sangria bar, while the boys got baby duty and went home. :) When we arrived home, we had a rousing game of The Yearbook Game. Erica was by far the winner of the night, correctly identifying such former classmates as Jim Cirigliano and Joe Zwerlein, among others. Kudos, Erica. :) We think Annie and Bella had fun together. They are awfully cute. They were running around being crazy. It was so nice to see everyone. They are great friends!

Annie (still in her jammies with crazy hair) and Bella (looking quite cute in her little skirt and curls. I am so jealous of those curls.)

Port Clinton

Hi! Annie and I are still in Ohio, enjoying the lovely weather and the Lake Erie view from Port Clinton. We miss Matt, so here's a bunch of pics and a video of Annie having fun to hold him over until we get back and see him on Saturday. Annie loves the water! She splashes and tries to swim and jumps right in. Pretty much, she'll do anything for an audience. Yesterday, I dunked her underwater and when people clapped when she surfaced, she loved it! She spent the next 15 minutes clapping for herself and yelling "More!" Her audience was happy to continue the praise, so she was happy to perform. She really is a little Matt :)

She loves to play with the fountains that spray into the pool. They are the perfect height for her!

Sticking her little face right in there. The hat helps offset the hard stream :)

Again, here we are. This time sticking her little feet over them to spray everyone within a four foot radius. Fun!

Oh, No! It's her favorite thing to say...about anything!

Using Gigi as a human swing in the water.

Just for fun

4th of July Fun

Annie and I had a very exciting 4th of July! We missed Matt, who is still back in Michigan working, but we took lots of pictures and videos so he could see. So here is a very informative post about our day :) We started at Gigi and Grandpa Jeff's to watch their development parade. It was not very exciting, but Annie got a frisbee and she looked very cute. She was dancing and waving to everyone.

Later, we went to Ella's first birthday party. They had a bounce house that was tons of fun for the kids. Annie, being Annie, threw herself right in and started bouncing. She loved it. She also loved the sandbox, but her bevhavior there left a little to be desired, so we had to stay away from that. Ella looked very cute and got tons of good presents. She was toddling around like a champ. Annie and Mallory also had fun going down the slide. They spent what felt like hours climbing up and sliding down.


Annie and Brady in the sandbox. As you can see, Annie liked to fling sad. Hence, her banning from the sandbox.


The birthday girl enjoying her cake!

The kids bouncing around: Also,don't mind my annoying and random commentating. I was on the phone with Matt while I was taping and forgot it would record me.



After a slight meltdown at the birthday party, we left to go see the fireworks downtown. Annie was getting tired but did pretty well. She got to go inside a firetruck with Grandpa, but as the picture shows, she was little freaked out. Maybe next year she'll like it more! During the fireworks, she started to get a little stressed out by the all the loud booms. She was frantically rubbing her lovey and started saying "All done, Mama! All done!" But I slapped Matt's study headphones on her ears, and she loved it the rest of the way. She was clapping and oohing and aahing :)

Annie and Granda Jeff in the fire truck. Click on the pic to make it bigger so you can see the terrifed look on Annie's face up close :)

Annie and Grandpa Jeff, much happer this time, with part of the lovely Cleveland skyline.

Annie with her headphones on watching the fireworks. My dad cut me out of his picture :)

Monkey

I guess it was money well spent on those baby gymnastics classes at the Toledo YMCA. Annie can, and does, climb anything she can find. It was cute at first, but now it's just getting downright dangerous. A few weeks ago, Annie was playing with some toys in her room. I walked just across the hall to my own room to clean a few things up. When I came back to check on her, she had given up on the toys and was peacefully sitting and brushing her hair...on top of the changing table! I put her down, then watched out of her sight as she walked back over and climbed right up again! Matt didn't believe it until she did it right in front of both of us. Being the responsible parents that we are, we continued to let her do it over and over until we caught it on video. I have no idea where she got the idea that this would be fun, but here she is....
*When my mom saw this the first time, she said it looked like Matt and I were far away while videotaping. As in, if Annie fell there was no way we could have caught her. We were actually a lot closer than we looked. And yes, at the very end of the video she is trying to eat diaper cream. This blog is by no means an accurate reflection of our parenting skills. She is actually very well taken care of. Promise.

Michigan Friends

We have made some Michigan friends! :) Last week, we all went to a free concert and show in downtown Ann Arbor called Top of the Park. They do it every summer, and it's open to anyone. We sneaked in some sandwiches and beer (for the non-pregnant) and had a great time. We went with our friends from Toledo who also are starting residency at U of M, Jamie and Jerry and their 2-year-old daughter Riley. The girls had a great time running around being crazy. But we decided it was time to leave when the hippie musicians lit up a doobie (yes, I just used the term doobie) just feet from Annie. Ah, Ann Arbor, she's a liberal town.


Top of the Park. I didn't take this picture, but this is the general idea.

Today, Annie and I met up with some friends at the Sprayscape in Plymouth. Annie had so much fun running through all the sprinklers and water guns. She especially like her new friends Elise and Katherine. She did a great job sharing all the buckets in the Sprayscape. She also had a fun time feeding Elise crackers when we ate lunch. :) I forgot to take a picture of her in action, but here are the girls after their spray fun.

Sprayscape

Katherine, Annie and Elise. Doesn't Annie look so excited to have new friends? The other girls not so much, but it's ok, Annie. They did like you. I swear. :)