Happy birthday, Anna!

Anna did a lot of special things today to celebrate her first birthday. Bryan took the day off from work so he could spend the day with us. First we took her to Sears to have her picture taken.

We got there before the store opened, so we spent a little time looking around the mall...

... and checking out some neat toys.

Once we got home Anna got to open a couple of presents from Mommy and Daddy.

Anna read the instruction manual aloud while Daddy assembled. What a team!

Checking out a new toy!

At lunch Anna got to have a cupcake for dessert. We've discovered that Anna is much more receptive to the idea of cupcakes if we scrape off the icing. This is definitely fine by me!

She doesn't like to have sticky fingers.

After Anna had a nap we took her to a mall to see a monkey. The monkey was wearing clothes and was walking around on a leash. If you gave it a nickel it would take the nickel from you, put it in his pocket, and tip his hat. Anna thought this was pretty interesting. We don't have any photos to show you, though, because you were not allowed to take pictures.

After seeing the monkey we went to Chuck E. Cheese where we met Grandma and Grandpa Van Hal and Uncle Mike for dinner.

If you click on this photo you can see Anna's new tooth on top.

Whew! It was a fun and busy day. Happy birthday, sweet Anna! We love you!

Such a charmer

Anna has something new to show you

Can you guess who's in the blanket?

Ear Tubes

On Friday morning, Anna had ear tubes inserted. She did very well beforehand, even though she had to get up a bit early and take a rather long drive through the snow. She was bored beforehand, and she passed the time by roaming the halls of the clinic.

The procedure itself went well. She had to be given general anesthetic and Tylenol. When she woke up, she was very upset. Her ears hurt, and she was quite confused. She screamed for the next 40 minutes as we headed home. By the time we arrived home, the Tylenol had kicked-in, and she was doing much better. She was a bit moody all day, but she did ok.

By Sunday she was doing much better. Her ears did not appear to be bothering her at all.

Ear tubes!

Anna started off her morning quite happy despite the fact that we could not feed her before bringing her in. She did frequently sign "more," her way of requesting food.

Anna had fun playing with mommy...

...walking with Daddy...

...inspecting her bed...

...hanging out with Daddy...

...and pretending to use her barf bucket.

After her surgery was a very different story. Anna was very, very upset!

Tubes are in!

I'll post in more detail later, but I wanted all of you to know the surgery went off without a hitch. The ear tubes are in and the doctor said it was good that we did it because her ears would not have drained anytime soon.

The last bath without earplugs

It's playgroup time!

Another way to use your Exersaucer

Anna's doll enjoys it, too.