Summer fun and Annabelle is 9 months old

Annabelle is 9-months old today (well,she was on the 16th)! It’s been the briefest 9 months I’ve ever seen blow by in my whole life. The last three months have gone by especially fast, which I didn’t expect. I thought that once children got a little older and were able to locomote on their own a bit that daily life would get a bit easier. Maybe it has, but someone forgot to tell me about it. Developmental milestones achieved include: pincer grasping, crawling, climbing, standing up with assistance, and generally just more mature overall. But, alas these activities never do enough to sum up a child’s general awesomeness, even though they are the only things the pediatrician wants to hear about.

Annabelle is a raucous, commando crawler with a need for speed, the vocal chords of an opera singer, and a pointer finger that won’t quit. She has rapidly gone from “visual confirmation of kitties mode” to “search and destroy mode” although there’s not as much harm intended as the cats tend to perceive. A few weeks ago, Tabby actually took quite nicely to Annabelle’s feet as she quietly (key term) nursed while lying on the Boppy. Tabby would curl up and give her feet little kitter kisses and nestle her head right into the child. That stopped one night when Annabelle’s kitty proximity detectors finally went off and she popped her head up and screamed in delight. Tabby left and hasn’t been back since.

So, it’s like a week later and I’m finally getting to finish this up--geez. The past month has flown by, but we’ve done a lot, which always sounds good to say on your blog, right? We went camping for the first time, in Baxter State Park and hid in our tent from the rain. However, we did manage a beautiful hike up the side of Mt. Katahdin the next morning. Also, Annabelle took her first international trip, to Quebec, and enjoyed adulations made en francais for the first time. I came prepared with a response (since she is a magnet for such praise anywhere we go), but in the moment could never remember what it was. Merde. Anthony and I learned some Franco-American history and also a lesson on how to spot a crappy Spag a tini restaurant snubbing you and your noisy child. We visited during their summer festival, where of course, Sting and Celine Dion were headlining. There was music on every street corner which all of us enjoyed. Anyway, we posted some pictures and videos to our Picasa site depicting our latest adventures.

http://picasaweb.google.com/CassnAnthony/July2009?feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/CassnAnthony/August2009?feat=directlink