Laughter

"Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body." - Elizabeth Stone

I tried to find a quote about children's laughter, but I liked this one! Ani's laughter is definitely one of Monte and my favorite sounds.

Deep Thoughts

Ms. An-Bon in deep thought...

Some new things in Ani's world include clapping her hands, shaking her head when we say "no, no", and splashing in the bath tub. She's also added a word to her vocabulary which makes me happy ---> Mama!

Ani's 1st Bike

Is it just me or do they have the same look on their face?

Cowboy

During Monte's work trip last week to South Dakota, he met up with Snakebite and his wife for a few drinks. Afterwards, he hit Old Chicago by himself to grab a bite to eat. A true cowboy from Oklahoma was sitting at the bar, complete with the hat and boots. He was friendly and asked Monte in his true cowboy accent, "You wanna split a pizza?" Monte agreed and proceeded to split a pepperoni pizza with his new buddy.

Another funny thing - there was also a deep conversation about assless chaps.... to which another gentleman at the bar asked, "Aren't all chaps assless?"

Oh the stories Monte brings back from the Dakotas!

For All You Clones...

We're starting her early.

9 Months

Yep, she is already 9 months old! All the cliches are so true....they grow up fast. I sound like a broken record but it's true! We are enjoying every little moment with Ani though. She has been sleeping through the night, like 9-10 hours straight (knock on wood) and is eating like crazy! We have her 9 month checkup tomorrow so we'll see how much she weighs . (little peanut....only 16 lbs. 6 oz.!) 

I'll probably be adding a lot more variety of food to her menu as well. In the last couple of days, she is just learning how to pick up food from her tray and put it in her mouth. It's fun to watch! And she's still climbing up on everything and seems to get into everything she shouldn't. She likes plants, the stereo cabinet, drawers in the kitchen and bathroom... and the list goes on. Ani's very interested in the paper I use to write down how old she is too, so we had to put it out of sight and out of reach on the top of the recliner!

Ski Trip

We left our little one for the 1st time last weekend. Monte and I took a ski trip to Copper Mountain/Frisco, Colorado for 4 days, one of which happened to be my 32nd birthday. It was really hard, especially for me, to leave Ani but we had a very fun time and Ani enjoyed hanging out w/ Grandma & Grandma Dirks.

We were able to hang out with my nephew Gavin and college friend Tolzmann who both live out there. Snow conditions were great, Copper got dumped on the 1st day we skiied. Kind of cold, but nice powder day. The next 2 days of skiing were good as well, bluebird days -- not a cloud in the sky! So beautiful.

Oh and we saw Swing Crew at the Copper Top Bar in Breck. Always a fun time! Alice, Alice, who the.....is Alice? Monte is hiding behind Dennis.