Anya Videos

We actually film Anya quite a bit, but seldom upload the videos because it takes some time and we're lazy. But now that I don't have job I figured I would spend some time keeping the family up to date. I don't know what Amy's excuse has been...

Tool Usage

Anya has been getting more interested in the mechanics of the world around her as the following clips will show.

First, a recent favorite: The plastic key ring.



Another spot which shows off this new interest in manual dexterity: The assembly of the IKEA foot stool.



Acrobatics

Anya is renown amongst those who know her for her feats of daring-do.
Here we see her leveraging a ball to perform somersaults.



And no video anthology would be complete without the naked monkey video.


General Naughtiness
Anya is her father's daughter it seems.

21 months

Today Anya is 21 months old. Also notable about today is that it is 102 degrees in Seattle, an all time high temperature for the city. The little thermometer outside our bathroom window (in the shade) reads 106. Either way, it's really hot outside. And inside. We're just having a quiet-ish day indoors, trying to stay cool.

Over the last month, Anya figured out how to jump. So she jumps pretty much all the time now...sometimes across the room while yelling that she's a wallaby.

I also discovered that she can now walk a little bit on the balance beam without being spotted. She snuck onto it at the Little Gym on Monday and took about 4 steps before I could reach her. Fortunately it's only 6 inches off the ground, so she wouldn't have been seriously hurt if (when) she fell....just enough to generate tears and bumps since there are support bars she would have hit on the way down. She is too darn fearless. Perhaps a little fall would do her some good that way, but those mom hormones in me can't yet bear for that to happen. Still, did I give birth to a little girl or a monkey??!

In other departments....the only thing I can think of is that she finally likes puzzles and is decent at solving the age-appropriate ones.

She sings more songs (her favorites to sing are: Six Little Ducks, Twinkle Twinkle, ABCs, Ba Ba Black Sheep, Row Row Row Your Boat, BINGO). Her favorite for us to sing is Old McDonald, where she names the animal for us to sing.

OK, it is so unbearably hot right now. I'm going to cool off in the kid's room for a bit. And I may or may not edit this later.

dismissed

This morning, I dropped off Anya with Sheri (friend's nanny that we use 2x a week for a few hours) and her buddies. I guess I was hanging around talking to Sheri for too long, because Anya looked up at me and said blankly, "mama, you go home."

Guess I was cramping her style. Sheesh.

flyin'

Chris' dad took him for a helicopter ride on Friday. It was a beautiful day for it too. I am incredibly jealous. Chris' mom had Anya and met the guys where they landed in Arlington.

Chris and Steve over (I think) the Snohomish Area.

Puget Sound (did I mention it was a beautiful day?)

over our house (white one with brown roof). Hard to tell on a small image, but I'm in the backyard waving, along with our neighors Shannon & Riley, and our PEPs friends Loren, Deborah and Benjamin's dog Maisy.

Anya spots the helicopter

wading pool

The wading pool was open at Dahl Park today, so we took advantage of the nice weather and played for awhile.

Playdate with Sadye

...or as Anya often calls her "A-B-C-D" (C-D / Sadye, get it?) This was a rare occasion I remembered to bring a camera on a playdate.

We don't get to see Sarah, Jeff, and Sadye too often since they moved all the way to Timbuktu (otherwise known as Sammamish), so it was a treat when Sarah and Sadye had to run some errands in our neck of the woods today. We met up at Meadowbrook, our favorite playground in the area.

Anya stylin' in her sunglasses

Sadye in all her cuteness

When trash left at the playground does some good

Seesaw. A nice mom at the playground got behind Sarah (who took the picture) and waved her arms and made silly sounds to get the girls to look in the direction of the camera.

Holding hands (Sarah told the girls to hold hands and keep each other from falling into the creek just to the right of the picture)

On the bridge in her little jail cell



tossing leaves and sticks into the water, where they supposedly saw a "blue fish"

Portland

We headed down to Portland for a slightly extended weekend to visit family and friends. The visiting part was great. We stayed with Bob & Amy (Anya's aunt and uncle), and met up with friend Carlie, and Marc & Shannon, as well as cousins David & Heather and their new son, Jackson. Trips seeing people you like are always too short, and this one was no exception. We reminded ourselves that we need to visit those folks more often. A good time.

The drive back, however, wasn't so much fun. We hit heavy traffic around Chehalis through Federal Way and it added an extra hour and a half to the drive. Anya made sure to let us know she wasn't happy about it....over and over....and over. But we sang lots of songs ("Old Macdonald" with Anya choosing the animals was a hit), played some simple I Spy, fed her lots of peas, and all eventually made it home in one piece.

Anya, Uncle Bob, and Aunt Amy

gratuitous photo of Laika.

Uncle Bob demonstrates his Cesar Milan moves. Anya is appropriately calm-submissive.

Chris tosses Anya off the top of the stairs. Good catch, Uncle Bob!

cousin David and new cousin, Jackson. Is he cute or what?

Jackson meets Laika

Anya kicking back in her chauffeured car on the way home

bubbies

Anya and her newfound "bubbies". Today with Eva.

Running around in the grass at the dog park the other morning...

A serious artist at work. With serious artist hair to match.