Annabelle @ 4.5 months

I just became so fascinated with toys. They are mesmerizing!

Not sure what to do with the spoon. And do I eat the cereal off the bib? It's all so confusing.

Yummy cereal

Little Nugs eats cereal for the first time!

Celebrating my 3-0

Bill doing some fine work on those ribs.

Annabelle wants to sample the magnum of wine.

Bill surprised me with a b-day BBQ. He sent me off on a scavenger hunt all over LA to keep me distracted. Here is the banner that my brother printed up (he and Bonny-Kate came for a surprise visit). We have no other pictures from the event - we forgot to take them!

Why I didn't sleep last night...

I didn't sleep last night for two reasons:
1) No need to state the obvious, but I will. We have a baby, and I don't sleep well because of that. I say "I" because Bill usually doesn't budge when Annabelle is crying during the night. He asks me in the morning if she woke up during the night.

2) Jack Bauer is back in my life. Having watched 4 consecutive episodes of season 3 of 24, I kept waking thinking there were terrorists in our house. We were late adopters to the 24 craze, so we've been playing catch up for the last year. I can now say that I know what it is like to be addicted. When we watch a season of 24, it takes over our lives. We don't sleep, we're cranky, we don't answer the phone, our caffeine habits gets out of control, I get jittery and have nightmares. But yet, we want more. As gut wrenching as it would be for a week's time to lapse between episodes, I think I could digest the show better that way. Instead, Bill and I get in a 24 stupor like we did last Sat. and spend the entire day watching episodes. Today, Bill was cursing me that we started season 3 (it was my idea). We really didn't need anything else to keep us up at night.

Taking a dip in the pool

My first dip in the pool with my friend Mattie Miller.

With Uncle David

Happy to meet my Uncle Dave

Oh, look at the treat Uncle Dave found in my dad's car. I guess you can say that my dad has been a bit preoccupied and hasn't cleaned his car in awhile.

Happy 4th

Dressed for the 4th.

There are too many bows on my outfit. Whaaaaaa!!!

With Nanny Ellen, my Aunt Emily's sister, who takes care of me on Mondays and Thursdays while my mommy works. She's got the magic touch! Or maybe it's the magic sling, my warm and cozy hammock, which always puts me to sleep. When my mom loses the great nap battle (when I won't sleep in my crib), this is where I sleep.

Ahhh, the magic sling....

I can't get enough of these things they call fingers!

The Girl from Ipanema

Tall and tan and young and lovely.
The girl from Ipanema goes walking....
Here is Miss Annabelle donning her first bathing suit a la Brazilian style. Thanks to Golda, my grandmother's friend, who picked up the suit and hat in Ipanema beach in Rio, Brazil.

Loving the beach

With my Aunt Emily

What's that SHIELDing my view??

View from my front yard this morning. As I mentioned in a previous post, Fox continues to shoot scenes from "The Shield" in our neighborhood. And now, it's our street. In this photo, Fox was filming at the apartment complex next door to our house. Come to find out, they use our neighborhood for the ghetto footage. My neighbor mentioned that we shouldn't be alarmed if we saw a gang of scary dudes walking around. They would be actors. While it was novel at first, I am "marginally annoyed" (to quote Bill)that I have to keep moving my car so they can park all of their trailers, equipment, etc. The funniest thing was that Fox moved the stray grocery cart (very common in these ghetto parts for those of you who don't know the ways of the ghetto), which had become a permanent fixture in the grassy patch between our place and the apartment building. After they were done, they put it back!

Will I be a redhead???

Annabelle looks like she might turn into a redhead. What do you think? Add your vote below.