Anna does not like...

Fun things to learn about Anna...she does NOT like popsicles (or anything put in her mouth except her bottle or fingers).

Anna also does not like Target after about 10 minutes...so we screamed our way throughout the store (yes, I was THAT parent that everyone felt sorry for and moved out of the way so you could get out of the store quickly).  But at least she had a cute shopping cart cover (thanks, Hannah) - it was my first attempt to try Anna in the cart instead of pushing her in her stroller.

Finally, Anna does not like having to wait for her bottle while in the carpool line - but thankfully there is a (mostly) willing participant to assist with feeding.

Back to school and family outings

We successfully attempted a family outing on Saturday to New Orleans for lunch and a visit to the Chalmette Battlefield (the site of the Battle of New Orleans in 1815).  Anna did pretty well, and thankfully it was cloudy so it wasn't too hot!

This was our best one of about 80,000 attempts to get everyone to at least look in the general direction of the camera...

On Sunday Anna wore her new dress, and Nate took a picture for me!

And today was back to school for the "big boys"...

...and this is really how they felt about going back to school

Sweet Will continues to shower attention on Anna...sometimes she is less than enthusiastic about all the interaction, but she does love her brothers!

more exciting adventures

So we decided to try some more baby food - we have done some, but really need to get sweet little Anna eating more than the bottle.  She wasn't too impressed with the peaches, but we'll keep working at it.  However, I am happy to report that she weighed in at almost 17 pounds at our last doctor visit - quite impressive, since she only weighed 13 pounds when I first met her!

The other day we were out running some errands, which included the bank.  I thought it would be fun for Anna to meet the sweet lady who spent a long time going through $100 bills for me to take to China for the orphanage fee...I didn't realize what an ordeal it would be to find clean, unmarked, and unfolded bills...but poor Kathy at the bank spent quite some time helping me out.  Everyone had been so kind, and they were all happy to meet Anna!

Anna continues to make great progress - her interaction with us is so different than even just a month ago.  Lots of smiles, and she even loves it when David holds her high up in the air now (used to scare her, poor thing).  I am also happy to report that she is doing great with supported standing - I can't believe how well she is doing with that!  She isn't always happy about it, but I feel right at home helping a poor little baby stand at a table-top toy...

Now to other news on the sporting front - there was a crash the other day, and a very remorseful 3 year old came in and confessed to throwing a baseball through our bedroom window.  I think, although I can't really be sure, that he wasn't actually throwing at our window on purpose...but there was such great sorrow at the event that I chalked it up to an accident for this time.  Hopefully it won't happen again soon, as this is our 2nd window in a month that has fallen prey to runaway baseballs.  In the picture below Alex is expressing his shock at the whole thing while Will relives the painful moment...

I am also happy to report that Nate and Alex won their last basketball game on Saturday, which makes them CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD (or at least of the YMCA 7-8 year old summer league basketball teams)...hence the 2 medals.  Nate managed to score 4 baskets in the final game, which was very exciting, and both boys had a great season.