All This AND Good Looks too?

Today Annabelle has shown me that her memory and sense of humor are definitely starting to do their thang! No, she isn't signing yet, but she did 3 really cool things today!

1. Keith has been on the road since Tuesday, and now he's in Seattle. Belle hasn't seen him for 5 days now. Fortunately, both of us have Skype with video so we're able to see eachother. Usually Annabelle will look at the monitor when she sees movement on it, but this time you could tell that she really recognized her Daddy! She got all excited when he was talking to her just like she does when he's here. This technology is so great for our situation because as anyone with a kid knows, babies don't really get the concept of the phone (except that it has cool buttons to push and tastes yummy). This is the first time that she's really reacted to him like that! Then later today, I video skyped with my parents and she did the same thing. She was all excited to see her Grammy and Grandpa and was entertained by the funny noises and silly faces that they were making! :) So cool!

2. I played "Hide-n-Seek" with Annabelle today. I would get Annabelle's attention, then crawl away into a room down the hall. She'd see which room I turned at from down the hall, then come to find me. When I got to the room, I hid behind another object, then when she got in the room and found me, she cracked up! It was so fun! Hard on the knees, but fun nonetheless!

3. I got out a drum/music set that Keith got as a gift to use with Annabelle (it's actually for 3+ years, but we watch her closely with it). We played with this a couple of weeks ago, and she didn't quite get the concept of hitting the drum with the drum sticks yet... Instead she just used them to chew on. But today, I showed her how to hit the drum again and she did it with no problem. THEN, she wanted to go over and play with Practice Annabelle (her "baby" now) and give her kisses, leaving the drum stuff behind. The after a few minutes, she noticed the drum stick again (which she'd left a little ways away from the drum itself) so she grabbed the stick, crawled over to the drum, and began to beat on the drum with the stick again! I was so proud of her for remembering what to do!

Now about me... I have had a busy last couple of days so I haven't run since Wednesday. I was determined to run this evening, and even got dressed and ready to go. Before I could put my running shoes on, Annabelle threw a fit (she's been pretty cranky these last couple of days!), so I decided to try and breastfeed her a little before we left (she didn't eat much at dinner so I figured she was hungry). This worked to calm her too well... she fell asleep! It was late enough that it wasn't a "nap", but early enough that it was a light sleep. Since she hasn't been sleeping too well, I decided to put her in her crib and got creative. I setup the baby monitor outside by the front door, and started to run around the outer perimeter of our yard. I got ONE time around, and "Waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh"! She woke up! I think Macy's barking at the neighbor dogs did it. :( By this time, it was getting too dark to go far, so I went and got Annabelle and put her in the stroller in the yard to watch me run around our circular driveway. The only good thing about doing that is there is a slight incline so I got a little bit of an "incline" in. :) I did that for about 15-20 minutes (until she started fussing again), then back inside. Even if it wasn't a tough workout, I should at least get effort points; right? :)

Update: I forgot one of the "smart" things that she did yesterday... Raspberry Belly Kisses! Annabelle was crawling around me on my bed, saw my stomach, and put her mouth on it and blew a raspberry! She did it a few times, and did it again today. :) So cute!