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I don't know why I stopped posting here. I guess I got overwhelmed being a single mom and busy teacher. Since pinterest has become so popular, I have noticed a lot of mother's blog pages and it reminded me of how I started this one. I also talked to my sister about how she wants to do a blog about her family and then make a book at shutterfly with her blog. Because of these two things, I decided to look back at my blog - I'm proud of me! I did a pretty good job and it would look great in a book.



So here is the update: Anna is now 2 years old! Having a 2 year old is an adventure in and of itself. Some of the fun parts of having a 2 year old - she is such a cuddle bug, jokester, and brilliant child. When you ask her, 'What does papa say?' She replies, 'grumpy, grumpy.' The other day she was grumpy herself and aunt Cassie said, 'Anna, you are grumpy today!' She retorted in an angry tone, 'I'm not grumpy, Cassie, papa's grumpy!' She can name all of her basic colors and count to 2. She is brilliant with fitting and matching shapes together and can name those shapes. She is fascinated with the moon and in a bit I will write about her experience with an eclipse. She will randomly come up to me and hug me as she says, 'awww, I wuv you, ma.' That's right, 'ma' - she has started to call me 'ma', which I don't appreciate because I feel like I'm in the middle of a scene from Little House on the Prarie. I have been trying to potty train her and it's been a battle. My hopes are that she will have no accidents by the time I have to go back to work. Being a mom is still exhausting and rewarding at the same time and I wouldn't trade it for the world!

Anna's birthday wasn't a big hoopla like her first year birthday, but it was still fun. When we sang Happy Birthday to her, she danced just like her namesake would do when we sang Happy Birthday to her. Then just before she blew out the candle she called out, 'Blow a wish!'. And that girl has a set of lungs! She blew out the candle with one puff. After that she kept saying, 'blow a wish again?', and now whenever she see's a match lit she runs to it and yells, 'blow a wish!'

During mother's day I didn't think or expect any presents because Anna is too little to understand, but my sweet dad surprised me. We were at my parents visiting and Anna and I were in the living room while my dad was in the family room, and called for Anna to come see him. She ran in there and then minutes later she ran back to me yelling, 'Happy mudders day!' In her arms was a pot of white cala lilies.

I was near to tears with the love I felt for both Anna and my dad. We immediately went out to grandma's flower garden and planted the lilies. I'm not sure which gift was the best - Anna giving me the actual flowers, or the experience itself. Whichever, I will always remember that moment as being one of the best memories in my life.

Later in the month of May, we had a full eclipse. Aunt Megan gave grandpa and grandma a couple of specialty glasses for us to look at the eclipse. Since Anna has such a fascination with the moon, I was excited to let her see the eclipse. I gave Anna one pair and I put on the other pair to show her how to wear the glasses and then told her to look at the moon. She turned and looked, then excitedly said, 'Oh wow!' Everyone kept trying to share the glasses, but Anna kept taking them because she was so amazed by the eclipse.

We are now in the middle of June and we are very close to aunt Cassie's due date. Anna doesn't really understand that she will soon have a new cousin. We are all concerned that we will have to deal with her being jealous, but I hope not - we'll see.

Now we are all caught up and I will try to post again after Indipendence Day.

Where have we been???

Its been too long since I posted something last. I don't have a lot of followers, but I have a great idea to one day turn my blog into some type of scrap book for Anna.

Since I wrote last I have returned to work, thus my excuse for the lack of writing. Being a single working mom is so very very time consuming. I'm amazed at the single moms I know and all the work they do to stay on top of things. Here it is December and I'm gradually beginning to take control over the chaos. With all the classes I took in college, you would think I could use that knowledge to be super mom - eh, not so much. Mondays and Tuesdays I feel like I have everything under control, and then Wedensday comes around with early morning faculty meetings and I unravel. I'm exhausted by Thursday, and Friday I crash and burn. Over the weekend I'm able to rejuvinate and then the roller coaster called my life begins again.

For the Holidays that Have Past...

For Halloween, Anna was a ducky. She was the most adorable little ducky. Her dad came down and spent time with her and we took her trick-or-treating to her grandma and grandpa Paxman's house, and to aunt Megan's house.




For Thanksgiving, it was quiet and simple for us. We stayed in St. George and spent time with my parents and sisters. Anna actually slept through the dinner, so the holiday was uneventful.

Christmas was more fun for me than Anna. I was excited for Anna's first Christmas and went a little over-board on her gifts. Anna's daddy came down for Christmas and they had fun with each other.




As you may have guessed Anna's New Year was quiet (what can you do if your only 8 months old?) We both went to bed early.

Anna's Achievements...

Anna can roll over from her back to tummy and from her tummy to her back. She can sit on her own and sometimes she attempts to do an inch-worm movement to get somewhere, but she usually ends up scooting away from her destination rather than toward it.

Anna is cutting teeth, and she has two in now. She looks like a little pumpkin head when she smiles. She also mimics others' actions more and says 'mamamamamama' and 'bababababa' which sometimes turns into a robust shout of "BOB". I joke about how she keeps talking about some guy named Bob.

Family and friends are beginning to call Anna a momma's girl, but I don't mind. I love how she gets excited to see me, and she reaches out toward me when she wants me to hold her. She has become ticklish, and like her mom, she works hard to hide it and hold in her giggles, so its become a fun game for us to to battle with giggles versus tickles. Most of the time I win.

Whenever anyone is eating, she wants to be on that person's lap and expects them to share their food. She can be completely full from eating her baby food and drinking her bottle, but she will still beg for a taste.

My winter break has been wonderful. I'm ready to go back to work because I miss my students, but I dread leaving Anna during the day. It would be so wonderful to be a stay at home mom full time. I'm greatful for my mom and all she does to help me raise Anna and I know Anna is in good hands while I'm at work.

I will try to keep up on this blog a little better, so I can have fresh Anna stories to share.

I'm trying to get the hang of things still. Being a mom has been the biggest and most rewarding job I have ever had, however, I haven't had time to keep this blog current. Here is the latest and greatest:

Anna just celebrated her first Fourth of July. The day began with the usual: naps, bottles, diaper changes... and then we went to grandma and grandpa Paxman's ward where Anna was given a name and a blessing: Anna Elizabeth Needham. Grandpa Karl gave the blessing, and so did my childhood bishops: Bishop/President Tom Lamb, Bishop Jensen, and Bishop Perkins. The current bishopric also helped with the blessing. Grandpa Karl immediately wrote the blessing down and you can find a copy of it in Anna's scrap book. It was short, but sweet, and powerful. Anna looked so beautiful in her blessing dress, but she didn't like it. I think it was hot for her and there was a lot of fabric to deal with.

Anna's daddy and grandma Naoma came for the blessing which meant a lot to me. Anna was passed back to grandma Naoma and then to Moki, Anna's dad. Anna gave Moki a big, beautiful smile when he first held her. Seeing this melted my heart. I want Anna to have a good relationship with her dad, and she hadn't seen him since she was born. After church, grandma Naoma and daddy came and spent some time with Anna.

That night, we all met as a family at aunt Megan's house to watch fireworks. Anna didn't like the fireworks because they were too loud and flashy, so we didn't stay long because she began to be fussy.

Before the fourth of July, Anna and I moved back into our apartment, so we have spent most of the month of July trying to adjust to being just the two of us. It hasn't been easy so I asked Jim to bring me to California for a small vacation. A couple of years ago, I went to Newport Beach for the first time and I fell in love with the area. We are now in Irvine California, and yesterday we went to Balboa Pier on Newport Beach. This was Anna's first visit to the ocean. At first she was calm and content, but soon began to seem tense, and the more time we spent on the shore, the more she fussed. In the end, we decided she didn't like the loud noise of the waves crashing. I love the beach and ocean, so we are going to attempt this again tomorrow!

Welcome to the World!

Welcome to the world my little Anna Banana. You were born May 2nd, 2010. You came 9 days early. I worked with my teaching up until April 30th, and a lot of the other teachers joked about how I would go home for maternity leave and go right into labor. They were right!



I felt fine on Friday, just extremely tired. Then on Saturday, it was the first Iron Man triathlon in St. George. Jim was visiting from California and wanted to go check out the finish line on Main Street. There wasn't any where to park, so we parked a couple of blocks away from the finish line, and then walked the two blocks to the finish line, and another bock past so we could get a really good view of the runners coming in. I felt pressure in my low back, but just thought it was from the walking.



That night, when we came home from the triathlon, we watched a DVD that Jim bought. The DVD was meant to teach new moms what to expect when they go into labor. After watching the DVD, I was exhausted and went to bed. Around 3 a.m. I began feeling the contractions, and started counting the time in between like the DVD taught me to just hours before. By 5 a.m. the contractions were so painful I woke up Jim and called my mom and the hospital. By 7 a.m. I was in the delivery room ready for you to come.



I sent a text message to your daddy, Moki, and he came down from Salt Lake as fast as he could in terrible weather. He walked into the delivery room just in time for me to start the delivery. I had your grandma Debbi Paxman, and your aunt Cassie Wilkes help the doctor and nurse with the delivery. Jim, Grandpa Karl, your daddy, and the doctor and three nurses were all in the tiny room. It didn't take long for you to come, and you were born at 12:34 p.m. that day. Your doctor was a bishop of a college singles ward, and came into the room just in time!



After you were born, the room filled with even more people: Your aunts Donna and Becky, your uncle Matt, and Jim's daughter, Ellie, who considers you her little sister, and has been a great big sister to you.



I brought you home the next day in the late morning. Those first few weeks were very frightening to me as a new mother. I had a lot of help from the wonderful women in our ward, and from your grandma Debbie, Grandma Naoma, and aunt Cassie, Donna, and Becky.



With Jim still in California, I was struggling taking care of you all on my own, despite the help I got. We are now living with your grandma and grandpa Paxman and plan to stay here until Jim is finished with school in California.



You are now 6 weeks and 4 days old! You no longer fit into your newborn clothes which is still a shock to me. I can't believe how fast you are growing!! Since last week you have started smiling a little bit, and you have laughed a couple of times. You have been diagnosed with acid reflux disease. You were vomiting twice a day and sometimes more, I was worried about you not getting enough to eat so I expressed concern to your pediatrician, and he put you on a prescription called Prevacid. You are now drinking 4-6 ounces of milk a day, and that is a huge relief to me because I know you are feeling better and eating well.



I love you so so so very much. Words can't even explain how much I love you, and I hope you will always know how much I love you. I have enjoyed these early days of your life, I look forward to the next year until your first birthday celebration, and I also look forward to watching you grow years beyond your first year. Welcome to the world, Anna. You have made my world so incredibly full and exciting, and I have never been happier.