"This is the time"

I'm a firm believer that God has a sense of humor. Too many things in my life have happened to be followed by a little "wink" from the man upstairs for me NOT to think that.

Take last night for example. We had a marvelous day at Epcot. Lots of smiling and laughing, par for the course when you take a toddler to the Mouse House. But AnnahLilly is getting to that age where she's more engaged than ever. So this was an extra special trip.

Lots of character greetings. Lots of running around. Lots of cranberries (they're giving them away free at the new-this-year cranberry bog). AnnahLilly even won a dance contest at downtown Disney just before we got out of town for the evening. ...

So there we were at the gas station across the street from downtown Disney, about to fill up our tank, when a Billy Joel song came on.

"This is the time to remember
'Cause it will not last forever
These are the days
To hold on to ..."

Such perfect lyrics to give pause and serve as a reminder to cherish each memory made, every precious little moment. These ARE the days to hold on to ... because before we know it, AnnahLilly'll be asking for the keys to the car. No matter. She'll always be our little girl. The little girl giving Duffy the Bear a peck on the nose.

What a day!

AnnahLilly's 8-month birthday sure was an eventful one.

She sat up on her own.

Her fourth tooth (left front top) busted through.

And finally, after much practice, AnnahLilly took her first big crawling steps last night with nanny Erin. Thankfully Erin had her phone video camera at the ready!

We just love the big wind-up with her arm.

Ready to crawl

AnnahLilly has been rocking on her hands and knees for weeks now, but she appears ready to get moving even more.

To wit:

With Mom on Saturday, she took a pair of "crawling" steps. Mom called Dad at work, but AnnahLilly didn't want to duplicate her feat with him on the phone.

Dad and AnnahLilly skyped with her great-nan on Monday and she took another pair of "steps" right toward the computer screen. Ever since, she's been acting like she's ready to shoot across the floor ... but not yet. We have the video camera at the ready for when it happens.

We'll keep y'all updated.

A sneak peek

Lovely Leaves Story Christmas 5x7 folded card

Shutterfly has classic, elegant Christmas invitations for your party.

View the entire collection of cards.

Humor at the grocery store

What do Winston Churchill and AnnahLilly have in common?

Well, nothing really, except for a funny line a neighbor dropped on AnnahLilly and I on a recent trip to the grocery store.

Fran -- she's an older lady, probably in her 80s -- hadn't met AnnahLilly yet, so I was happy when we ran into her in the deli department of our local Publix. She came over and was just enthralled. I'll try to sum up what she said:

"Oh, she's just beautiful. With a lot of babies, you say that, but they're not; they look like gnomes. ...

"Some of my kids looked like Winston Churchill!"

Food files

First brown rice cereal.

Then oatmeal cereal.

Green beans, sweet peas and squash -- they've all followed.

AnnahLilly's adventures in eating has been in full swing for a few weeks now. And she's been doing really well, too, with the majority of the food ending up in her belly and not on her face!

Here's a video from the second day of her eating brown rice cereal:

Spinning round and round

AnnahLilly apparently was a helicopter in a past life.

Go into her room at several points during the night and she'll have circled the wagons.

Ninety degrees; a complete 180; 270 ... sure, why not? She's got it all in her repertoire.

And now that she's rolling over, too, we've seen her with her cheek up against the backside of the crib.

Call it extreme sleeping.