Finally! Another product review! thinkbaby Trainer Cup

Just a quick post to let you all know that I finally did another product review on my other blog, Geared Up Mama. One of my resolutions for 2009 is to be better at updating my blogs. Since that's out there now, hopefully it'll hold me accountable!

Anyway, the review is for the thinkbaby Trainer Cup, pictured to the left. In my quest to find the best and safest sippy for Annabel, I've bought a few, which I'll review on my other blog.

Hope everyone is doing well and having a great 2009 so far! More pictures of Annabel, coming soon!

Cheers!

Foto December

So I have some photo blogging to catch up on for sure. Annabel is growing like a weed, and it seems like she hits a new milestone on a daily basis. As Chris likes to say, we feel "cognitive dissidence" because on the one hand, we are so excited to see her do new things. But on the other hand, it means she's growing up so fast and too soon will not be our little baby anymore, which makes us a little sad and wistful. Oh well, we just have to remember to treasure every moment with her. Fortunately, we live in the digital age, which makes it easy (and cheap!) to take thousands of photos and capture hours and hours of video of her.

Annabel has been crawling for several weeks now. She's got the army crawl down pat! And she's also learned to pull herself up. At first it was to her knees, but now she's getting all the way up to her feet and using her toys to walk from one end of the living room to the other.

We'll start off with a video that Chris took of Annabel awhile ago when she first started crawling. She got under the exersaucer, and Chris is encouraging her to get herself out.


How about that ending? I guess we forgot about the 30 minutes after eating rule!

She seems to particularly enjoy getting UNDER things. Here she's under the coffee table.

Annabel gets a better view of her singing stage toy by getting up on her knees.

And, crawling into the coffee table again...

We catch her under the coffee table again! She tests the distance to the ground...

"Think I can make it Mommy?"

And there she goes!

Another favorite spot for Annabel -- under the exersaucer!

As you can see, she doesn't have much trouble getting out from under it anymore.

In other walking news, Annabel's Ba Ngoai bought her a fun walker. This wasn't originally on my list of must haves for Annabel, and our pediatrician has said they are quite dangerous. But, I think it's like what they say about bath seats -- you just can't leave your baby alone in them. As long as we're not letting Annabel run amok in her walker unsupervised, it's safe.

And I gotta tell you... Annabel LOVES her walker! She loves being able to follow me around in the kitchen. She frequently gets stuck and is still getting the hang of it, but she's really enjoying it nonetheless.

Our little cutie pie in her walker.

The toy on the front of this is called "The DJ." Annabel spins some tunes and says "Take it away, Mommy!"

Ever the curious one, Annabel tries to figure out what makes this thing go. Is engineering in her future?

Moving on! Annabel goes whizzing around in the walker. Hmmmm... maybe RollerCoaster-geneering is more likely in her future.

On the eating front, we've added Cheerios and Gerber Puffs to her finger food repertoire. And she is loving them! We're probably creating a monster, but whenever she gets fussy, all we have to do is put a few Cheerios within reach, and she is effectively distracted from whatever was making her mad.

The other new thing is, all of a sudden, Annabel is a GREAT eater. For most of late November and December, eating her meals would take at least 30 minutes. On the bright side, we burned lots of calories ourselves from all the singing and dancing that it took to get her to open her mouth. However, just in the past week or so, she has become a very enthusiastic eater. It could be because at her eight month mark, we added meats to her menu (chicken and turkey so far, and no, I haven't cooked those for her yet). Still, even her vegetarian meals are gobbled up with zeal lately. We're pretty sure she's having a growth spurt.

The faces she makes when she's eating crack us up.

Annabel's accuracy rate is pretty erratic. On a good day, she'll get 3 out of 5 directly into her mouth without us having to hunt for the dropped ones (in her lap or chair). When she's feeling lazy, she'll get maybe 1 out 5 and push the rest overboard for Baylor and Macee to gobble up. (They LOVE her mealtimes now!)

Goal! A Cheerio makes it in!

Annabel is also an on-the-go eater. The other great thing about this walker is that we can take the toy out and put Cheerios and Puffs in the tray.

Yummmm... drive-thru.

LOL! I just love her expression in this one. Maybe she ran out of Cheerios and is waiting for Daddy to give her more. Impatiently, it appears.

She has her Cheerios now, so she's happy again!

And finally, I'll close with this video of Annabel. Since she's always on the move, she hears Mommy and Daddy say "No no, Annabel!" quite a lot. So, she's learned to give us a dose of our own medicine...



Our New Year's post coming up...
Cheers!

Annabel's First Christmas

We had a wonderful and laid back Christmas for Annabel this year. What with the economy being the way it is, and in an effort to cut back, we tried not to go all out on the gifts for Annabel. And, as you know, I was encouraging our friends and family to give Annabel the gift of a college education in lieu of clothes or toys. For Chris and myself, just having our beautiful baby girl underneath the Christmas tree was all the blessing we could ask for. It was a very special Christmas for us.

Earlier in the week, Tia Ana came over to give Annabel a present for her to open before she went out of town.

What a cute First Christmas outfit! We all know how I feel about Annabel in hats. Irresistible! Thanks, Tia Ana!

Then... the big day! We get our sweet girl to open some presents under the tree.

Annabel discovers that she has some shiny packages under the tree.

A Christmas morning snapshot with Grammy.

Grammy helps Annabel open her present.

A book (among other fun things)! Grammy and Annabel check out her new seahorse book.

On to the next present! This one is from her sitter, Ms. Margaret.

And a cute onesie from JP! It says "Best Gift Ever." Ain't that the truth?

Annabel seems to be more interested in the box, though. I guess cardboard is yummier.

Another present from Tia Ana! Annabel helps Mommy open it.

Annabel gets a present from Santa. She is so excited!

Or, maybe she's just excited about the box. It's so big! And so yummy...

Annabel takes a break from all the present opening and scoots around in her new walker from Ba Ngoai.

Later that day, we went to my grandma's place to spend the evening with the extended family. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, but fortunately Ba Ngoai took many pictures! So when I get them from her, I'll post them to the blog as well.

In addition to the photos you see here, there are many, many, many more in the online album on Photobucket. The password is annabel.

Annabel is growing and learning and moving around... she's changing so fast! I don't think I can keep up. I'll post more later on that. I just transferred some cute video too. In any case, I hope you all enjoy your New Year's! Looking forward to 2009!!

Cheers!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Well, it's actually here. Christmas! (OK, technically it's tomorrow, but festivities are definitely already underway.) What a year this has been. It seems like it's been a very long one, but one that has flown by. I can barely believe that at this time last year, I was pregnant.

2008 has been a banner year for the FabersInFrisco. Annabel made a very distinctive arrival in April, and our lives have never been the same. We were warned, but you really just don't know, until this little baby actually shows up just how much your world is rocked. In a good way... in a super fantastic, fabulous way. I mean, seriously... we were happy before, but this is nuts!

I think we've learned as much (if not more) from her as she has been learning from us. We continue to learn patience and flexibility, as each day brings us a new challenge from her. We learn awe and respect, as we discover that we can take nothing for granted. We learn joy and laughter, as we see our world through her eyes and her reactions to things.

I thank you for reading this little blog of mine as I try to capture all these precious moments of our lives with her and share them with you. I hope that you had as wonderful a 2008 as we did, and look forward to an even better 2009!

I'll leave you with Annabel's first photo with Santa. This was literally the first photo that they took of her, because immediately afterwards, she took one look at him and decided she didn't like him. She commenced to crying, so we swiftly whisked her away. I kind of wish we got a picture of her crying, but they didn't offer and I didn't think to ask. Oh well, next time!

CHEERS!

Future Bear? Tarheel? Longhorn?

We started a college savings fund for Annabel earlier this year, and plan on opening another one early next. Why the two different plans? Because their purpose is for two different types of savings.

The plan we already started is from Upromise. Upromise is a two-part program. One is their 529 plan, which works like most other 529 plans. It's basically like your 401(k) or other retirement savings program, only this one is specifically for educational expenses. I went to savingforcollege.com, which is sort of an "everything you ever wanted to know about saving for college" site, and the Upromise 529 ranked really well for performance. The other reason we chose this one is because we also participate in the Upromise rewards program. This works similarly to a points program or frequent flyer/diner/shopper program. When you use your registered credit cards at certain merchants (both online and offline) or buy certain products at your grocery store, that merchant or brand will contribute a portion of your purchase to your college savings plan. It's basically free money for Annabel! And her family and friends can also register their credit cards and earn free money for Annabel's college too. (Her Uncle James already registered his -- thanks, Uncle James!)

So the reason for this post is aimed at her family and friends who are still shopping for a gift for Annabel. We are very blessed in that Annabel has lots and lots of clothes, and lots and lots of toys. So we'd like you to consider contributing to Annabel's 529 as her Christmas present this year. The minimum gift amount is $15, and just consider that $15 today will grow into a whole set of books for a semester of college, or lab fees, or at least a credit hour by the time she goes to college. We are grateful for every little bit of help.

Click here to get the gift contribution coupon to contribute to Annabel's 529. The money you send goes directly to her account, and I will be notified of your gift. Annabel thanks you for her first steps towards becoming a Bear, Tarheel, Longhorn, Razorback... or whatever she wants to be.

I know I mentioned that we'll be opening another plan for her. The other plan we're looking at is the Texas Tuition Promise Fund (a reboot of the old Texas Tomorrow Fund). I'll go into that at a later post, though.

Foto Friday is on its way, so until then...

Cheers!

Foto Friday

It was a light photo week, but the ones we have are pretty fun.

Last week, Ba Ngoai came to help me out when Nanny Kristi had to call in sick. She and Annabel had lots of fun playing and bonding time together.

Apparently there was a memo that went out that GREEN was the color of the day.

The girls go for a little stroll around the kitchen.

Annabel also got a new toy this week! She shows off her cool new play table.

Safety first! Annabel checks out the legs on the table to make sure it's safe.

And we have more adventures in eating -- drinking from a cup and finger foods!

Daddy helps Annabel as she learns to drink her juice from a cup. Pear juice seems to be a favorite of hers. (She did not like the prune juice at all!)

Yum! That's pretty good, Daddy!

Annabel loves to play with faces. She particularly loves Daddy's nose.

She checks to see if there's any juice left.

Annabel also got to try her first finger foods this week. Here we try banana chunks. She's still working on getting them to her mouth, but she sure has a lot of fun practicing!

She's thinking maybe if she mashes them up, it'll be easier to put in her mouth.

Later in the week, we try avocado. Why does Mommy keep picking the slipperiest stuff?

"Shhh... don't tell Mommy, but I hid some pieces in my pants to save for later."

"Wait. Where did they go? Did Baylor eat them?"

That's all for this week. Hope everyone is staying warm this winter season!
Cheers!

Christmas Card Pet Peeves

I started working on our Christmas cards earlier this week, and we've also already gotten several in the mail. Wow... I'm impressed! I'll consider myself lucky if these cards reach my friends and family by December 24.

As these cards arrive in the mail, and as I'm working on ours, it brings up some little Christmas card pet peeves of mine. These peeves mostly pertain to those ever-so-popular photo cards that we're getting more and more of every year.

DISCLAIMER! Now, before I get going on this post, if we have received (or will receive) a card from you, and the card you sent reflects one of these peeves, let me just say I'm SO HAPPY and NO LESS appreciative that you put the Fabers on your list. I love all the cards we get, simply because you thought to send us one. This is all just my humble opinion.

First of all, why is it that people send photos of only their kids? Now, I love kids, and I love kid pictures. But if you're sending me a Christmas photo, I want to see you, too! You were my friend first, before the kids came along. Did you cease to exist as a person once those babies were born? Are you no longer [insert your name here]? Should I now refer to you as [insert your child's name here]'s Mom or Dad when I send you an email or call you on the phone? (This kind of goes along with my pet peeve of people who use their kids' photos as their profile pictures on Facebook or MySpace.)

I absolutely understand the urge to plaster your child's photo all over everything. I just gave birth to a super cute, gorgeous, should-be-on-the-cover-of-every-magazine baby girl. Of course I want everyone to see pictures of her! But, she is not the representation of who I am. You won't find me on Oprah 15 years from now, a desperate housewife who has lost my identity because I've just been "Annabel's Mom" or "Chris's Wife" for all these years (at least, I hope not). Anyway, I digress. I just would love to see pictures of the whole family on Christmas cards.

My second pet peeve is about how impersonal this whole process has become. Last year, almost every photo card we received had no personal note or even a handwritten signature on it. (The few that did were from my friends that already knew this was a pet peeve of mine). Some of them even came in envelopes that had obviously been addressed by computer, not handwritten! Hello! Nice to know we're part of an assembly line. Christmas cards are the last remaining dinosaur of personal correspondence (aside from Thank You cards) that we take the time to send out anymore. If you're not even going to sign it, then it might as well be an email. I have a lot of people on my Christmas card list, too. And while I can't write a super long and personal note on every one of them, I at least extend handwritten salutations and a signature so that hopefully you know that I absolutely meant for you to receive this card.

This year, I even received a folded card that was not signed. All that room for a signature, and none could be found. It was as if I was on somebody's direct mail list. Oh well, at least I was on the list!

OK, OK, I'm off my soapbox now. I just had to rant for a little bit about that. Like I said, I do truly love the cards we've gotten because they are from dear friends and family. And I probably have had little or no impact on the way you're going to do your cards this year. But, at least now you know what I'm thinking about as I'm starting to do mine. Whether you wanted to or not.

Hope you're all having a great holiday season!
Cheers!