10 months

10 months

As I type this, everyone in Richmond is traveling from grocery store to grocery store, looking for bottled water and batteries in preparation for Hurricane Florence. And me? I’m prioritizing my girl’s 10-month update, because my neighbor told me that the last time a storm this big came through, our neighborhood lost power for TWELVE

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9 months

9 months

Anna is nine months old, but when I sat down to write this post I accidentally wrote “8 months” in the title. I don’t think you can blame me. No one, not anyone, could be expected to keep track of the months when they’re moving as fast as this. I’m not exactly sure what happened

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8 months

8 months

There comes a time in every baby’s life when they realize they are destined to be bipeds — descendants of homo erectus. As soon as the baby realizes this, it is the only thing they can think about. Practicing standing becomes the baby’s only focus, their sole pastime. It’s their browser home screen, their phone

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7 months

7 months

When people read the title of this post, I imagine them doing the same thing I did, “Seven months? That can’t be right.” Then holding up their fingers to count off the months, “November, December, January, February…” Sure enough, seven months with sweet Anna Leigh. But it can’t be seven months… (By the time I

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6 months

6 months

Anna is six months old, and she is all chub and drool and baby smiles. She is delightful, cuddly, ticklish, and almost always happy. People stop me all the time to tell me she looks like the Gerber baby, a Cabbage Patch doll (I actually agree with that one), or to comment on her rolls

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5 months

5 months

Tom’s dad has always called Anna Banana. I mean, almost everyone calls her that but he really commits to a nickname. One day he was holding Anna, saying, “Hi Banana! Such a sweet banana!” David walked by and said, “Pops, why are you calling her ‘Banana?’ She doesn’t look like a banana, she looks like

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4 months

4 months

Even though I still feel like Anna was born yesterday, or maybe even five minutes ago, this month she has transformed. She is no longer my sweet, cuddly newborn, but a babbling baby that chews on her fingers and trills when she smiles. So many of the parts of the newborn stage that were so,

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3 months

3 months

Anna is three months old, and the best way I can sum up the past month is: everything has changed, and everything has stayed the same. Certain things are the same. Anna still prefers to be held, fights naps, and wakes up at least twice at night to eat. And just like every other month

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2 months

2 months

We call her fat face. It’s a nickname that stays in the family, though. We wouldn’t want it falling into the wrong hands and resurfacing just in time for middle school. But, for now, if the shoe fits, ya know? This month sweet Anna Leigh had her second cold, celebrated her first Christmas, started smiling,

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1 month

1 month

On the weekend before Anna turned one month old, we got a snowstorm. In the morning we had bacon and pancakes, then bundled up to go outside. Tom helped the kids make an adorable snowman family in our yard (Mary Virginia’s snowgirl is holding snowbaby, Anna) and then everyone came in and warmed up with

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