Dear Miss 9 Month Old

Dear Miss Anika, You are 9 MONTHS old! How is it possible?

This past month has been a big one for you.

You met Santa and his elves. You helped us cut down a Christmas tree and decorate the house for the holidays. You learned how to wave hello and bye bye. You eat every food I give you by yourself, but you still get mushed up food at Mrs. B's house.

Oh, and You are walking! It started out with a couple steps here and there, but by your 9 month birthday you were taking 5 steps in a row (wobbly).  You get better and better each day at walking. Sometimes I look over and you are just walking from the chair to the tv table or from wall to stairs, etc.

hahaha

You wear 9 Month clothes. You weigh 16 pounds and 13 ounces. You are 27 inches long. The doctor at your 9 month apt. said you were perfect from head to toe.  Mummy already knew that :)
She could tell how active you are from our short appointment and said for a baby with your activity level, your small weight gain is perfectly normal.  She also asked if there were any athletes in the family.  I think you will be very athletic. You are saying dada and what sounds like dog and you say the "sounds like dog word" when you see Piri...but I'm not sold on that one :) your dad is though. I think you are still just mumbling but he swears you are saying dog. hahah

You still get a lot of attention no matter where we are!  It really is quite crazy.  People of all ages, men, woman and kids just love to talk to you. People will be walking by talking on their cell phones and stop to talk to you and then they will be on their phone saying "Oh Betty, you should SEE this baby I am talking to" People take photos of you with their cell phones as well. Sometimes people ask and sometimes they don't. I usually just ignore these people, but YOU DO NOT! You smile and talk back, especially if a camera is put in your face. Your dad is thoroughly embarrassed by all this attention. I am kind of embarrassed writing it. Nona said that you get lots of attention when you are with her too and she said it never happened like this with me or your uncle or cousins. I think Nona is saying you are cuter than  I was :)

We are SOOOOOOOOOO blessed to call you ours. I really look at you with aww most days and just cant believe you are all mine (and daddy's).  You are absolutely perfection from top to bottom and from the inside out. You know I am not a mushy mom, but you really are something.

You are still nursing and your night time sleeping isn't what it once was, but most nights I don't mind with where we are at. You go to sleep without a fuss in your own crib. SO easy, but sometime in the night you end up in our bed and you generally wake up there in the morning because I am too tired to bring you back to your bed. I don't mind this and when  you are hogging the bed or bothering me, I DO bring you back to your crib.  Sometimes you keep touching me in bed, and I hate that! I just want to say "STOP Touching me" haah. I know that sounds mean, but I am just trying to sleep in peace you see :) I still love you!  You had your first bug this past month. You got over it VERY quickly though and never even acted sick. I wouldn't even have known you were sick if you didn't keep throwing up for 11 hours AND you cuddled with me a little bit. I got you to watch a little bit of Curious George on tv the day you were sick. BUt, most other times you have absolutely No interest in TV.  I certainly don't mind. You love to play with your toys and look at books, BUT You wont sit still for more than a minute for me to read to you. I hope one day you want me to read to you because you have LOTS AND LOTS of books I would LOVE to read to you. You figured out how to rock yourself in your rocking chair. You climb the stairs from Bottom to top all by yourself.  We are teaching  you to come down safely since you learned how to go up. You love to help me load the dish washer and put laundry in the dryer. I think you will continue to be my helper. You love to pull all the toilet paper off the roll and take the safety locks off the bathroom cabinets. You stand outside the shower while I wash my hair and just watch and wait your turn. It is so cute. Then I bring you in and wash you up. You go pee on the potty almost every morning. I sit on the big potty and you sit on your little potty right across from me. We are Not potty training, but its very laid back and no pressure. Since I have to potty and you have to come with me anyway, I figured why not? You also brush your teeth the same time as me every morning. You LOVE to brush your teeth! Doing the same things together in the morning keeps you next to me and out of trouble :)

I am so proud of the little girl you are. You do throw little fits when you get something taken away that you want or when you want more of something that is all gone. We are working on sign language for you to communicate with me instead of screaming at me, but Im not great at remember to sign.

I LOVE you Miss Anika so much!

I want time to SLOW down though!

Here is a video of Anika walking...but its not great.  She can walk a lot further than this shows but she is still quite slow and most of the videos are long and would take too long to load...but here is a teaser :)

Weekend Review and Stuff

 If you MISSED MY BIG Post Yesterday,  IT is VERY COOL news, but it didn't seem very popular by my readers. I guess you guys are like Andrew...he didn't realize it was a big deal UNTIL he was there.

SO, after our big day Friday, our weekend stayed kind of busy.
Saturday morning was our last session of water babies. We are not signing up for the next session because I HAVE 5 ski races this winter on Saturdays :)  Anika will come and watch some, but she will go with Nona or a sitter for the others, so Andrew can come ski/board too.  My mom thinks Anika will have skis on before the winter is over :) 
Just because we are missing the next session does not mean we are done. We will be back to swim.

It was Andrew's turn this week.  The instructor said how well Anika kicks in the water and she must get it from all her tub time. BAHAHAH. She has had like 3 baths in her life! We do showers.  AND, the instructor tells all the parents how awesome their kids are.  I see right through her! Its like when all the kids get ribbons for participating. haha

Swimming to the toy....She is supposed to put her face in the water, but she just isn't into that.  I don't blame her. I dont like chlorine either.

Saturday after swimming, the 3 of us went shopping. I think we are about ready. We spent WAYYY more money on groceries than I would have liked.  I feel like its such a waste to spend so much on food. BUT, I try to remind myself that FOOD IS NOT A waste. It fuels our bodies and we only get one body for our life...so good, whole foods are important and worth the money. Ok, easy to say now- hit me up when I REALLY NEED new Laura Mercier moisturizer or other Sephora items.

I am teaching A the word GENTLE because she is always grabbing that buzzy bee mobile! AND my face.

Saturday night we went to my friend's Christmas party. The theme was crazy suspenders. IM so sad I didnt get a picture of the WINNER. It was cool and fitting for him.  I made mine that day. I just hot glue gunned a bunch of crap onto a pair.

The flash kinda made my shirt see through

We just picked Andrew's up at walmart that day too and I ran out of time to decorate, but we did put his American flag pin on there :)

ha, I had Anika's bib in my bag and Anna wore it :)

I made lots of my homemade all purpose cleaner as hostess gifts :) I actually need to make a few more. I got the spray bottles at walmart for 99 cents.  Made my labels and put some bows on! Easy.

My mom made me this flower arrangement for Christmas. My dad made the box. He made lots of them for her out of trees. literally. My mom gives these as teacher gifts too I think.

I had the manger on the secretary, but moved it to the only place I had room...the liquor cabinet! hahaha. Fitting?

Here is Anika in HER SUSPENDERS. I got them for the suspender party before I knew it was a No kids allowed  party!  I still put them on her before she went to Nona's while we attended the party.  SHe totally would have won though :)

Her American Flag from Daddy's ceremony.

Anika got  a few presents from Andrew's Auntie in NZ. ALso from his sister in NZ. We don't wait until xmas around here :)

Awesome shirt from a Maori Village where Andrew's aunt has a batch (holiday home) and his family is the ONLY white family who owns a home/land in the community because of something Andrew's grand dad did for the Maori many many years ago.

When I was going through Andrew's packet from his citizenship,there was a big envelope within an envelope that said "FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES"
and inside, ANDREW"S personal letter from OBAMA! lol.
Ok, it wasn't personal, but I made it out to be a big deal to him. haha

Then, Andrew got this card in the mail. IT WAS COVERED In Flags. I was PRETTY SURE I knew who it was from, but I wasnt sure and I was dying for Andrew to get home and open it! hahah

ANd, it was from my friend C. AND, she said the store ran out of Citizenship cards, so she had to improvise. I couldn't believe they even had a Citizenship section! ONLY in the City! lol.

I took Anika's 9 month photos and I will post them in her 9 month post. OH BOY! WAIT till you hear all the stuff she is doing. BUT, isn't this picture hilarious??? DO YOU SEE WHAT SHE IS LOOKING AT?? LOL

Sunday, I wrapped and did lots of stuff around the house.  Caught up on filing and organizing. Did some fun stuff with Anika too of course. Then we went to my aunt and uncle's house for dinner. My cousin and his kid were there. His kid is 11 months and RuNNING. I guess he started walking at 9 months. He and Anika played well together and it was quite cute to see them interact. I wasnt impressed when my uncle tried to give Anika a Christmas cookie, but owell.

MR. USA

Friday was a BiG DAY!  Andrew became a UNITED STATES CITIZEN! For those of you who do not know, he could have stayed a permanent resident forever.  As a Citizen, he gets to vote. And, he can work for the govt if he wants to. Andrew had no interest in becoming a citizen, but his company has a few contracts coming up with the military, so we figured it was best he had his Citizenship, so he was eligible for more job opportunities.

His swearing in ceremony was in Concord, The State Capital.

We had to be at the US District Court at 8 AM.

My parents and niece met us there.  It was REALLY windy out and we were kind of in a rush, but my mom got this photo as we were getting out of the car. No one looks happy, but we were. haha. I was trying to figure out what we needed to bring in. I had NO Idea we would be in there for 2.5 hours! For Anika, I brought in ONE diaper and her diaper wet bag...that's it! whoops. Should have brought books or toys or something.

There was quite a line to go through security. I used to go to the  Federal Court in Boston ALL the time. IN fact, I went there every single day for 3 months back in my former life. I knew we needed a photo ID to get in...there was also a big sign saying to have it ready when you go through security. MY DAD forgot his! My parents live an hour away from the court. My dad was all dressed up- even in a tie which he barely wears.  He was starting to get disappointed, but when we got up to security I told the guard my dad forgot his ID and he let him in anyway :) Thank God. Oh, but my dad had a pocket knife in his pocket they took (and he got back after).

That jacket my dad is holding. Ya, it is his jacket with a patch that says "National Rifle Association" ...he had that on and they STILL let him in! haha
Andrew had to go to the front of the court room where they had seats for all the immigrants.  He then had to sit there and we waited for all the other people to get seated. IT WAS a whole hour until the ceremony started.  As you can imagine, Anika had NO interest in sitting still. So, we went and walked around out in the hall. Oh, when we had walked into the court, I asked my dad about his "pet cat" in his house and told him "My friend" aka my blog friend Jenny was concerned about it. He wanted to know WHO the friend was and asked if she wanted to talk to him about it. I was like, no- She is pissed off you have a dead bobcat in your house! And I didn't want to say a blog friend but he kept being like 'have her call me if she has concerns about it" hahahah.. um, no.

PS. I had NO idea we were "matching" until people commented on FB! haha.  We had to get up at 5:30 AM and I picked the outfits last minute having no idea it would appear we were matching.

She wore her 4th of July bow since it is patriotic.

 I have been giving my ALL Time favorite light brown boots a break lately and have been wearing these black boots I got at the 2nd hand store for $15! They are leather and all. LOVE that store!

She was making so many friends at the court! She is just such a social butterfly.

Andrew registering

When we were outside the court room waiting.  Andrew had to stay seated in a seperate section, but all of the family had to just wait and wait and wait. We did have seats, but Miss A had no interest in sitting in them. My niece was a little antsy too. She got to miss the morning of school to attend the ceremony since it is educational. 

Anika practicing to be a judge!

The Governor of NH, John Lynch, made his rounds and was talking to a lot of people. The people to the left of him were from the Senators' offices and the House of Reps offices. They have people from those offices there because the immigrants are now VOTING Citizens! The Governor also gave a small speech, but he is coming to an end on his term and he is not running for re-election, so he was not there to get votes. HE was just there because he finds the process and ceremony important. I think that is pretty cool. He didnt say that, but I have heard that from other political people.

There was a class of 5th graders from a local school who sang a bunch of Patriotic songs. They did a fabulous job. My mom was video taping the whole ceremony, but was running out of tape, so she didn't get the kids singing. The Judge also gave a very heartfelt speech that I enjoyed. There were 37 countries represented and the Judge called each country and the New Citizens stood up when their country was called.  When NZ was called, my mom, dad, me and Kaelyn all cheered. After the ceremony ANdrew said NZ got the loudest cheer...which I was surprised it sounded loud to him because Im pretty sure it was just my family cheering! haha. When the Congo was announced, the people next to us did some kind of call..like a mating call..wait, not mating...but it was obviously cultural.  The Judge said a lot of the new citizens were very skilled people brought here by big American companies because of their skills.  There were doctors and engineers. There were many people who have been living here for 20 years already. There was a girl sitting behind us from Kenya. My niece is very social and was talking to her. Actually, my niece was also trying to show off and being fresh to me and I told the Kenyan girl to not do what my niece did! ha. The girls name started with an H. H told us her dad was becoming a citizen and he was a doctor, but they have been here for 4 years.  So, H asked my niece if she could get a picture taken with Anika!! haha. When I was in the hall H kept coming up to talk to Anika and kept saying how cute she was.  H had her own camera and gave it to my niece to take and my mom took some with mine.  I wasn't that hesitant about her holding her for a photo, surprisingly. AND, Ill admit, this is NOT the first time someone has asked to take their picture with A!  And, its not the first time I have said ok. I mean, the people are never visibly sick and I always wash Anika's hands. And, its in these types of safe situations, in my opinion. I know some people may think I'm a whack a doodle , but whatever.  I have my neurotic behavior about a lot of things when it comes to Anika, specifically the food/drink that goes in her body. I am pretty intense about it and she has a lot more restrictions than you probably care to hear about.  We all have our  own neurosis I guess.

ANika acted about the same as she did on Santa!! She was just like, whatever. 

Then my niece wanted a picture taken with her new friend too!

Then the family got to go through the gate and meet up with our immigrants :) Here is Andrew getting his Certificate.  This was after he had to do the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag and sang the National Anthem with the group.

The Governor (Who by the way said Anika's name right and Commented on her awesome patriotic bow made by Danielle), Me, Ani, Andrew and The Judge.

Same with my parents and niece. Luckily you cant see the big rip in my panty hose...oh, yes Anika ripped them after we were there for a few minutes. She was also farting up a storm. Gotta love her!

Leaving...

Anika is next to get her dual citizenship done...and then me.  One at a time, but Andrew's was definitely lthe most expensive to get done. AND, we didn't even hire a lawyer, I was our lawyer, otherwise it could get WAY more expensive.
After being at the court for 2.5 hours, we went next door to breakfast! I have NO idea how Anika was still running since we were WAY past the normal time she naps. I did have to nurse her in the court house bathroom AND change her nappie with her standing up because there was no changing station.

Nona and Anika at breakfast

She was such a good girl and ate LOTs of food.  People kept coming over to her to say hi to her. She is such an attention whore. One boy came over and actually pet her head. Ok, that one was kinda weird..and my mom was being nice to him and said "why aren't you in schooL?" and he didn't answer and then his dad said "he is home schooled' ha. whoops.   I then said I was going to home school ANka and my whole family laughed at me! Rude.  

Oh whoops this was out of order.

After breakfast, I had to go to work :( 
OH, I forgot t say before, my boss had someone from my firm come to the ceremony to take photos for us! So, I will be getting those photos as well. Her photos will be wayy better than mine. It was very sweet!

Friday night my friend Molly and her sister came over for dinner. Molly is home visiting from CA. I had not seen her since July. She brought Andrew an ice cream cake shaped as a FOOTBALL since that just says America! haha. It said congrats Andrew with a little American Flag on top. I forgot to take pictures before we all ate it!

Anika got a little American flag at the Ceremony. She was waving it at the ceremony and my work person took some photos of her with it, so I hope they came out. Here she is at home with it!

Also, Andrew wore a pin that his friend's dad in NZ gave him when he left NZ to come over here and marry me. The pin is an American flag and NZ flag together as one pin. IT was from WWII. Andrew wore it on our wedding day on his suit and obviously it was symbolic. He wore the pin on Friday too!  WE ALSO got MORE pins- American flag pins from the American Legion men at the ceremony.  IT wasn't until Andrew was sitting there that he realized what a big deal this whole thing was.  Its a big deal to become a Citizen of this Great Country and it was emotional. Well, it would have been more emotional for me if I wasn't trying to keep my baby quiet. I definitely felt proud to be an American. Oh that song played a lot! haha.

Andrew's brother called him this weekend and asked why him and his wife were not invited to watch. My mom had asked Andrew why is brother wasn't there too...to be honest, Andrew just didn't think of it. Again, he didn't think it was a big deal! But, he realizes now he was wrong.  He said it was very cool and he is glad he got to keep his NZ citizenship too :)

This weekend was VERY busy, but I will have a separate post for all that :)

UPDATED after I wrote the post: Andrew received a packet at the ceremony. I just looked at the contents. It contains a big yellow envelope within the envelop that says "A message from The President of the United States" Inside is a letter from President Obama welcoming Andrew. haha. Then, there is a book with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Another book called The Citizen's Almanac and contains a lot of historical events, speeches and letters. Also, a pamphlet called "The Voter's Guide".  A passport application  and a folder for his certificate of naturalization! There is also a card with the words to the Star Spangled Banner and the Pledge of Allegiance. Also, here is the oath he had to take:
"I hereby declare, an oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of The United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God"