Thomas the Tank Engine (well, Percy that is)

Anna got this cool Percy train from her Papa Jan and Granma Shirley for Christmas. She's enamored with it and loves making it go herself.

Daddy's shoes this time 12/20/06

Really nothing is more fun than wearing grown up's shoes. She's gotten to the point where it's actually quite easy for her to walk in them.

No Grunts 12/19/06

Anna saw me open a bottle of nailpolish, and so she kept handing it to me, asking me to open it again. I didn't want her playing with it, so I pretended it was too tight to open (I grunted and pretended I couldn't open it). So before I got the video camera out, she was hilariously attempting to open it herself, grunting (faking it) with the effort. I got laughing so hard I wanted to immortalize it. Of course she stopped doing it when I filmed her, but her expressions were so funny in this one I had to post it.

Pigtail 12/17/06

This is definitely where the term "pigtail" came from. Anna's first hairdo captured on film. Girls rock.

Lounging 12/17/06

Mute this one. It's really just a quick visual to show Anna in her bouncy seat 12 months after she used to use it all the time. I finally acknowledged it might be time to put it away, and so moved it from it's home next to our bed into the hallway, and Anna rediscovered it, and decided it'd make a great loungechair. Not a thrilling video, just a moment in time. I love how she kicks her legs in the recline position. And how big she is in comparision to last year.

Dancing Mrs. Claus 12/16/06

What's better than standing on the ottoman and showing off your moves for the assembled masses?

Climbing Mrs. Claus 9/16/06

Another one where my voice is waaaay too loud - but enjoy the visuals of our cllimbing girl.

Mrs. Claus sans chapeau

No thanks to the hat. (Mute this one if you can, my voice is sooo loud.)

Big shoes are all the rage 12/12/06

This is the most fun thing she loves to do this week - wear grownups' shoes that she finds around the house. Her Dad helped her here by lacing them up so they stay on better. She loves it.

I urgently must bang 12/7/06

I love how quickly she's moving in this video. It looks like the camera speeded her up, but this is true to life.

Maniac runner 12/7/06

Pre-bath runaround. Always a necessity.

HELLO - First word

I think we have first worditude. Hello. HeLLO! Hello. Nice. I am in love with the sound of this word coming out of her tiny mouth.

Fake laughing blueberry face

We have awareness of the video phone. You see in this video how she stares at the camera, and then laughs her little fake laugh as she eats her raisins (post-frozen blueberries, which adorn her face).

Fork Skeels

THis is the skill of the week - Anna's now REALLY good at using a fork. She insists on feeding herself, so all food must be soft and spear-able. This video's about a minute long, so call me crazy mama, I just couldn't stop filming.

Kissing/Bopping Daddy's head 11/18/06

Anna's a very good kisser now, she loves giving kisses when requested. That and bopping her dad on the head.

Hilarious Daddy, Swinging Girl 11/18/06

I love this laugh. Nothing compares.

A 13 mo old and her prat falls 11/16/06

Speaking of our little comedian... this is another thing she just started doing. She finds falling into the bean bag hilarious, but mostly she looks over, hoping you're laughing at her when she falls.

"The Face" 11/15/06

In the tradition of Emma and Calvin Pruitt, Anna's been doing "The Face", which is this crazy wide grin that makes everybody laugh. Unfortunately, this video is a very subtle example of "The Face". But if you watch it a few times you can see she does it twice. She's becoming quite the comedian.

Pushy birthday 10/7/06

Anna and her friend Ava having fun at the birthday party.

Rattle the car 10/7/06

Ha ha ha! Ava is so funny, it makes me want to rattle her car :)

Olives and conversation 10/1/06

As we approach Anna's first birthday, this very knowing, responsive grunting has become her primary communication. It's cool because we really can tell what she's saying, and most of the time it's starting to seem like she knows what we're saying. The ouch on her forehead comes from an adventure standing in a mixing bowl, falling, and landing head-first in a 2nd mixing bowl. Hence the curve-shaped bruise, poor lamb.

Gasp! 9/25/06

When you blow in Anna's face, she thinks it's pretty funny, and she also gasps this sharp intake of breath - it feels like she's truly shocked every time. And at the end she's pointing at the ceiling fan - she adores ceiling fans. When she walks into a room with a fan, she insists on it being turned on. She just stands there and points at it until you turn it on. Very determined.

Well, they kinda rock, except when there are new toys 9/22/06

Pull Toys ROCK 9/25/06

Given the choice, Anna would like to drag toys on strings around behind her all day every day.

Smack Dab in the DaDaDaDa Phase 9/22/06

This is the kind of communication that we had for most of September. Dadadadadada sung over and over, and note the deliberate "More" sign language... although she can do the "More" sign, it rarely actually means "More"... oh well. Ahhh chooo!

Bubble popping 9/22/06

These bubbles are made of glycerin instead of soap, so they're incredibly long-lasting. Anna loves popping them; we call her "Destructo".

The ability to turn machinery on and off 9/20/06

As the fan season came to a close, Anna had a blast walking her cute little self over to the window fan in our room and turning it on and off, on and off. The quick intake of breath as the fan blows in her face is pretty hilarious. That and Daddy coming over to do our normal unplugging task... (Aw, Dad!)

Amateur Baby Proofing 9/5/06

Ah, mum - I'm totally 11 months old and your AMATEUR job of babyproofing this cabinet is laughable. I laugh at you. Ha.

Nothing gets in her way 9/4/06

She is constantly in motion, and no matter what's in her way, she gets by.

More banana

Because one video of this isn't enough.

Monkey 9/3/06

Anna has at least one banana a day, and she bites it like an adult - it's amazing. And here she is holding it herself, I don't know why I think this looks so funny.

Eating real dinner 9/3/06

She eats real food these days, even though she only has two teeth (and one new tooth nub).

Walking 8/30/06

Just in the past few days, she's really started to walk places - taking tons of steps, and just looking so stable. Most walking stints are about twice as long as the one I filmed here.

Chasing game 8/30/06

She loves being chased now.

Annie Get Your Gun 8/27/06

She brought back the machine-gun laugh. So fantastic...

Boppin' to the tunes

She loves to sit by this little song thing on the side of the washing machine and push the button to play the different songs over and over again. I hope she has her father's sense of rhythm. So far so good, I think?

Taming the monster kitty

Anna has somehow consipired with Pocheen, our formerly evil cat, and they are now friends. Pocheen lets her pull her tail, laugh loudly in her face, bang on her back, pull her hair... and has not (yet) given her a swipe. I know it'll happen eventually, but I'm shocked every time I look over and Anna has a handful of Pocheen's fur, and Pocheen is just looking at me wistfully, remembering the days before this little hellion arrived.

I wanna play COMPUTER

Determined, to say the least... she always wants to play with the computer. I especially like the laughing she does now whenever she's headed somewhere.

Button pushing

On, off. On, off. On, off.

Walking girl

Anna's been doing this level of walking for about a month now, that teetering, careful stepping... here's 10 steps caught on film, finally.

How big is Anna? 8/20/06

So big! This is a new trick that the west coast Chanoffs taught Anna when we were on LBI.

Aili and Annie bop with their dads on LBI 8/18/06

Anna shows Olli and Lexy's daughter Aili how she dances. She also gives us a signature Anna face towards the end of the video, and shows off her new "Mama" skill.

Cripple Creek 8/18/06

The first recorded "high five" occurs at the beginning of this video, as she and David Chanoff and Ev dance to Up on Cripple Creek.

Our girl's got some energy 8/18/06

She knows the word "dance" 8/17/06

All you have to do is ask her if she wants to dance, and she starts dancing. Evan's concerned it doesn't bode well for high school.

My daddy is hilarious 8/10/06

Killer giggles.

Caps lock baby 8/10/06

This is the oft-discussed skill Annie has developed of clicking only the caps-lock key on the keyboard, since it makes the light go on and off. She is a true computer genius.

Anna is a ham 8/4/06

In more ways than one. She loves eating it, too.

Dancing 8/4/06

Anna works the remote control here, replaying the part of the song she loves and dancing to it.

The Creeper 8/4/06

Although Annie can walk without support, she still loves "creeping" around, leaning on the furniture.

Soy cheese mustache

Today for lunch Anna had a bunch of soy cheese. It was sooo hot out, it melted on her tongue and she stuck her tongue out, covered in cheese. Then she brought her tongue back into her mouth, giving herself quite the funky mustache.

Skeels. Our girl's got skeels.

Evidence that our girl is BRILLIANT. I kid you not.

Poop - Shudder - Clap

Love this combination of events... the elusive poop - shudder - clap. Ha. I can't stop watching this one, the shudder is so fantastic.

Can you pinch an inch?

Anna's a pincher now. She pinches me all the time, but here's a rare moment where she turns the talons on herself.

Somebody can eat WHOLE blueberries now

Technical Difficulties

Apologies for the lack of video - the place where I post video is a free service, and it hasn't been letting me post video for a few weeks now, I keep trying, to no avail. Next month I'll work on trying to find a new host for all the fun Annie WALKING videos I've been shooting. For now, this pooping face will have to tide you over.

Pie eating contest

Anna is pulling a little bit of a Stand By Me face here...

FIRST STEPS today

As Annie's been learning to walk, we've had to define what we'd consider her first steps. We decided that we'd call it when she was standing there, and then took one step, landed it, and then took another. It would be OK if she fell on that 2nd one, just as long as we had one "completed" one. And today she did it. Three of them. She fell on the third step, but yay! Here's her trying to recreate the experience (and not quite succeeding) for her Daddy & Sash when they got home.

Wobbly fall

Weebles wobble, and sometimes they fall down. (Again - didn't we have a similar video a long time ago?)

Fun with noises

Today Annie discovered a new thing her voice can do - this high inhale thing that she now does all the time. She was doing it as I worked this morning, so I thought she needed to be recorded = I love that she gets such a kick out of herself.

High chair mess

One of those wicked boring videos, but just needed to prove what Mum and I were focused on when Anna was sneaking over to the cat's water bowl (see other video from today).

Cat's bowl = Annie magnet

When Mum and I were focused on how messy Annie's high chair was post-meal, she hightailed it over to the cat's water bowl and did what she always wants to do. We caught a bit on film.

Anna's new laugh

This one really speaks for itself. I LOVE this new laugh.

The end of the jumper era

It's been quite a ride (literally), and although Anna hasn't put up with spending time in the jumper in months (because she wants to be crawling around) we thought it was important to commemmorate the offical ending of the jumper era. This is her last jumper jump (on her 9 month birthday, no less).

Blocks are awesome

I can't possibly talk to you, Mum - I'm working on my blocks.

Waving at the watermelon

Now she's a waving fiend - can barely keep her from waving at anything and everything.

Learning to wave

Pretty fantastic that our girl can wave now. At this point it's really already old hat.

What a weekend!

three McDaniels met up with three Hansens in Cary, NC ... See my Tabblo>

A moment of calm

An hour before the flight home, Anna's new tooth started really bothering her, so we were that family with the screaming baby. We really felt like lepers - and the dread as we boarded the plane with Annie already going ballistic was just terrible. There was one moment of calm, though - and in my dizzy delight at having her pacified for a moment, eating grapes in Daddy's lap, I had to snap a video of her chubby hand shoving grapes into her mouth.

Our toy stealer

Poor Hanne was an absolute trooper about having this little crazy baby at her house playing with all her stuff all weekend. In this clip you get a moment of Hanne taking control at the very beginning - where she marches over and gets her toy back from the stealer that is our daughter - but then Hanne sees the camera and comes over to visit. Spending time with the Hansens is always a neat glimpse into the future for us, and I realized my days as a videographer of Annie's milestones might be numbered - see how Hanne reacts to the camera for a glimpse of Annie next year.

Annie and her new friend Hanne

We spent a long weekend down in NC visiting Mary, Christian and Hanne, and had a fantastic time. Hanne is a year older than Anna, and we learned a few things down south. 1) Hanne sounds too much like Anna, so Annie was her name this weekend. 2) Age difference of a year makes for hilarious toy snatching and squealing from the one girl who is more aware of her toys and her house. We can't wait to turn the tables next year when it's Anna's turn to squeal and not be able to believe Hanne is such a toy stealer. 3) Our girls are really just too much fun and too gorgeous for words.

Who says babies aren't helpful?

Annie helped me pack for our trip today.

Mmm grapes

What's better than grapes on a hot day?

Ha!

Something is tickling her funny bone here. I love that it's such a fake laugh.

This book is hi-larious

I left her alone in her exersaucer today, while I went into the other room to grab something. I heard a funny noise coming from my office where she was playing, and I peeked around the corner. She was turning the page of this book back and forth, and every time she saw the dog (or maybe the cow?) on one of the pages, she would laugh uproariously. Must have been a really good book. The video shows me sneaking up behind her to catch the laugh. Stick it out and watch the whole video, it's about a minute, and towards the end I've edited a 2nd clip in there where you see her expression change - it's really TOO fantastic.

Mischevious grin

Her most mischevious moment is when she crawls over to the corner of the living room and starts to get close to the entertainment center cords. We call out, "Anna?" and she turns around with this great grin on her face. She knows it's not allowed and loves to torture us already.

Annie wants a Mac

Someone takes after her mum and dad - Annie wants a mac. I know, they're quite addictive, sweetheart. We're gonna wait until you're just a bit older. Maybe for your first birthday... ;)

Grab that phone

When I go for photoshoots, parents will often say that their child dives for the camera, so they can't get any pictures of him/her. Anna is more video'd than photographed, so she has the video-dive down pat.

She's humoring me now

Now when we smile at her she gives us this trite little grin with her eyes all squinted up. It's really as if she's humoring me.

80's Dance Star

We've bred ourselves a little 80's pop star dancer... check out her moves.

The sniffing stage

Annie's in this fun stage this week where she repeats what we do -- actually playing little games now. The latest is a sniffing noise - when we sniff in and out, she squishes her little nose up and does the same thing right back.

Zwieback toast

We're at the zwieback toast stage. It's an amazing stage, I have ot admit.

Just another day in the high chair

All sorts of adventures with flapping arms in the high chair. Some people say she's trying to fly.

Sniff sniff

When someone she wants to greet walks into a room, she gives the cutest sniff...

The littlest Red Sox fan

Hanging out in the back yard at Gran and Grandfather's house, wearing her new Red Sox hat. She's a true fan.

the Granny face

The face of the week is the Granny face... she sucks in her lips, and, teethless, gives us what we call the Granny face.

Someone is ticklish

Congratulations, Miss Anna... welcome to the world of ticklish people. We're glad you've arrived, because it's really WAY too fun to tickle you.

What's better than a giggling aunt?

Annie's still coughing to get our attention these days, and then banging her rattle into her aunt's head...

Where's Annie? (I mean, where's her video?)

Annie's Aunt Linds is visiting this week, so we're not posting to the blog because we're playing so much :) Video posting will return next week with some fantastic crunched up faces to show...

Chewing on the pack and play

It's so relaxing to hang out outside in the sun... eating the edges of the pack and play.

Standing under the table

We needed to remember the time when Annie could stand up straight under the dining room table.

Where's Anna?

Somebody now understands this game in a way she never has before :)

Annie and Pocheen

Pocheen actually likes it when Anna "pats" her like this. She purrs like crazy.

Pay attention to ME!

Annie doesn't like it when she thinks adults are talking to each other and not to her. She'll often just burst out an exclamation like this one.

Some giggles - not many, but some

Ben and Jen are doing what?

It's really important to keep up-to-date with the gossip magazines. Anna takes this very seriously.

Sticky fingers

Another not-so-interesting video, but I do love to watch her chase the stars around the tray, and then capture them with her sticky little palms.

Neck rolls

Annie is ticklish now - that's a fun new development. And this video mostly just shows the best part of her neck... the fact that the rolls remain intact even when she stretches her head back.

a.k.a. Cinderella

I've found it's a lot easier to have Anna do the housework rather than try to find time to fit it into my busy schedule. She's an excellent floor buffer.

The "Talk-Cough"

This is her most recent funny mannerism - I had to immortalize it since it's a pretty constant part of our lives these days. Wait until the very end of this clip and you'll experience the Anna "talk-cough". She starts talking, and then gets so excited that she's making noises come out of her mouth that she doesn't stop to take a breath, and so gets to the point where she runs out of breath. Pretty fantastic.

Da Da Da Duck

What's your favorite part of the bath, Annie? Is it your duck? Of course.

Me and my boots

She spends much of her free time these days holding on to the entertainment center for dear life. She gets herself standing up, and then doesn't know how to get down. But it's still fun.

Big buildup... wait for it, wait for it...

Only interesting to those real Anna-philes... this one has a long (yes, LONG) buildup to the end, when she pulls herself up. It also slightly refutes the earlier video which shows her responding to her name. She now goes by Darth/Ms. Heavy Breather.

Look who knows her name!

Best part of this video is the last few seconds, when our girl responds to her name. For the first time!

Standing by herself

Actual video evidence that our girl can pull herself up to standing. She learned this today, and boy is she proud.

"And then, I sat in the grass..."

This afternoon, in her funky capri pants and her chinese jacket, Annie went on a walk through Fresh Pond. Ok, she was carried - but you can tell she wants to talk about the first time she played in the grass...

Weebles Wobble (and sometimes they fall down)

The girl is obsessed - she can't believe how fun it is to be vertical, and to be under her own control. All she wants to do now is stand up. Look how proud she is of her teetering self.

Standing is really funny

It is REALLY, really funny to stand up, don't you think? (She learned this today, on her 7 month birthday.)

Diving for ducks

Here she is, showing off her newest skill: diving into her toy bucket to get what she wants. OK, so maybe she gets herself stuck a bit, but I love how intent she is on her duck. (She lurrrves her duck.)

Ballistic Baby

We've taped it before - that fantastic time of day, just before Anna is so exhausted she starts crying, when she thinks we're absolutely hilarious. Her belly laugh is fantastic. For some reason, here, she thinks her gran blowing into the red block is much funnier than the blue one. Understandable.

The Magic Disappearing Cheerio

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who did amazing magic tricks in her high chair. Here's a video of one of her tricks - the magic disappearing cheerio. Watch carefully - she's a skilled magician and she really makes us think she eats it.

A Swinger

What a big girl, in a swing at the playground. Soon after this video was taken, she tipped forward and started watching the ground go by - back and forth. She thought it was truly hilarious, and stayed staring downwards for a while, giggling all the way.

I love (cough) eating this (cough) food!

Anna's having a blast with her little star snacks, getting them stuck on her hands and then trying them in her mouth. Even though these days any solid food (even mushed up food) makes her gag and vomit, that doesn't deter our girl! She's willing to give it a try. What a trooper.

Who is that hilarious baby on the wall?

Anna loves the big photo we have of her hanging in the kitchen - it was too intense and funny to put into a frame, so it made its way under a magnet on the kitchen wall. We'll be walking past it and she'll get chuckling, noting that hilarious girl on the wall...

Terribly ill

Anna's new way of getting our attention is to cough, and she does it when she wants to stop eating, too... because she's sure I'm going to think she's WAY too sick to continue with her cereal.

Mmmm oatmeal

So she takes a couple of showing-off bites in the beginning, but what she'd really rather do is feed this bite to her Aunt Lindsay, through the camera.