Does your child struggle to get things that are out of her reach? . . . Always.

The last time I went in for Annie's check-up the doctor's office asked me to complete a developmental screening questionnaire. One of the questions was "Does your child struggle to get things that are out of her reach?" My choices were always, sometimes, or never. I didn't really know if Annie did that or not. I think I checked "sometimes" and moved on. But since that time either I have paid attention to it more or she's really started doing it more. (I took her in for that appointment a couple of weeks before her 6 month birthday because she is part of a meningococcal disease vaccine study.) I took these pictures of her and the mess I was confronted with when I got out of the shower the other morning. That same day she broke our snack master machine when I had it sitting by her while I was trying to make lunch. She grabbed hold of it (from her Bumbo) and launched it off the counter. I had no idea she would be strong enough to move it. The worst part of it was that she looked SO pleased with herself for making such a loud banging sound.

Despite all these new antics, I told Brad today that 6 months is my favorite stage. I wish Annie could stay 6 months old forever. She is so cute right now! She's super playful with just about everyone she sees (especially if she's just eaten and/or slept). She's doing a lot better at sleeping in her crib at nights. She's learning to wave and loves exploring new hand motions in the process. She doesn't crawl yet. She's just so fun at this stage! I love it!

I don't know if any of you follow this blog because you don't see us very often, but just in case I think I'll give a brief update of our lives right now. We have three classes together this semester, which I was a little worried about (I thought I'd feel bad if Brad were smarter than I was), but it's been great. I still think Brad's the smartest, but I just love being in his group for things. I always think his comments are the best, and it's so fun to spend two full days a week together. I'm still working on finishing up my master's project. Brad has several other classes as well and he's been busy with medical school interviews, which we are so grateful for. The earliest he could possibly hear back from any schools is October 15th, so we're keeping our fingers crossed for an acceptance notification sometime around that day!

Labor Day Happenings

I wrote this a couple of days ago, but kept not posting it because I didn't have any pictures to put with it yet. But now I think if I don't post it right now, I won't do it at all. So sorry that there are no pictures.

We had an eventful Labor Day weekend. We started off the weekend with a quick jaunt down to Lake Powell with my classmates from my program. It was fantastic! We waterskiied, wakeboarded, and surfed - we also had a ton of fun with my classmates. I know it sounds cheesy, but I really do love the people I go to school with. It's been really fun this semester too because Brad is doing his MPH really fast, so he's taking all the second year classes (my year) and all the first year classes. I love that he's really getting to know and become friends with my classmates, independent of me. We took Annie with us, which makes things a little harder (of course), but she did pretty well, so no complaints here. We left Saturday night just in time to hear the last few minutes of the BYU game! Unfortuntately for us, the reception near Lake Powell was poor, so our game had the Mexican hat dance interspersed between plays. Despite the muffled reception is was so fun to listen to. Wow! How 'bout them Cougs! That's a game that will go down in BYU football history.

The next day was my 26 year old birthday. On Mother's Day I had tried to hint around at what I wanted, but Brad didn't pick up on it and I was sort of upset. After that fiasco he told me that I should always just tell him what I really want and then he will be happy to do it for me. So I told him up front that what I wanted for my birthday was a big breakfast (not in bed). Only later, did I realize I'd asked him to do that on fast Sunday. Once I realized this, I told him not to do it because that would just be mean. So he's promised that he'll make it for me later this week. :) We had a dinner that evening with all my family, which was really fun. We had steaks, roasted veggies, bran breadsticks (way yummier than they sound), chicken, homemade peach/raspberry ice cream, lemon cream cake, and chocolate cake. It was delicious!

Today, I accomplished a goal I set probably about 5 years ago - I ran a half marathon! Brad and I have been training for the last couple of months and we finally did it today. We are too cheap to enter into a real race (we thought of a lot of things we would rather do with the $70), so we ran the "Brad and MaryAnne" Half, complete with a water break and a cheering crowd (in the form of my sister and nieces and nephew). We basically did the Provo Half trail. You start up South Fork and then run down to Will's (we had to add a little to that). We felt really good and did it a little faster than we thought we would. We averaged 9:30s. Brad could have gone a lot faster, but I was grateful he stayed with me. Then to top off the day, Brad's parents called and asked if they could take us to lunch at Ruby River for my birthday and my mom wanted to treat us to a movie tonight.

Overall, it's been a great Labor Day/Birthday weekend!