Fingers

My mom tells me that as a baby I was always found sucking my ring and middle finger on my left hand and twirling hair with my right hand. It made my heart happy to see Annick with these same fingers stuck in her mouth the other night when a friend was holding her.

Like mother like daughter.

Baby Blessing

Annick was blessed on December 4th. She wore the dress that I wore for my blessing. Both my sisters wore it as well. My grandmother made it and my aunt did the embroidery. I lay her on the white blanket my grandma gave to me for my blessing day. (I used it with Ryan as well.) Annick wore some little booties that were my grandma's when she was a baby--made by either her mother or grandmother. I felt a curious sense of connection to my family by having these little heirlooms, even though no family members could be with us for the event.

Siblings

A few photos from yesterday. :)

Halloween 2011

We had a fun Halloween this year. We met Adam at the Dental school for lunch along with other friends and their kiddos. We had a fun visit to the Dean's office, and Ryan showed off his kangaroo hop to the office staff. Annick had a cute festive onesie from her Grandma with a spider on it. Of course during our visit she had a massive blowout and finished the rest of Halloween in a plain old pink sleeper.

In the evening Adam took Ryan out trick-or-treating on our street while I stayed home to nurse the baby. Then we met up with a few friends and did the trick-or-treating again. Ryan definitely loved it, and we have enjoyed eating his candy. He got 28 bags of chips (the main thing given here, it seems) that Adam has been snacking on. Since there are no other kids on our street the people were apparently giving him extra bags.

Baby Dress

Here's another sweet little dress from when I was a baby. I really DO like this one and wish it were still long enough for Annick.

Pink Frill

It's no new news to anyone that one of my fears in having a girl is "pink frill"- both the pink & the frill. Well my mom brought up this little dress I wore when I was a baby, and, despite the pinkishness and frillishness of it, I put it on Annick. It was quite cute. :)

Sadly she will not wear it again because what fit ME at 4 months:


is a bit of a midriff show on her at one month. I guess that could be expected when she started out life 2 1/2 inches longer than I did.

Annick Nicole

Our sweet Annick Nicole was born on October 7th. She weighed 8 lb. 11 oz. and was 21 1/2 inches long. Her birth was a beautiful experience and I couldn't have asked for things to go any better--maybe I'll blog about it sometime. The name Annick (pronounced An-eek) is very special. It is the name of a French woman who is like a second mom to me and my sister Tina. She passed away a few years ago from cancer and left a hole in my heart. I want to honor her life through naming my daughter after her, and I hope that my own Annick will be as full of life and laughter as she was. The middle name Nicole is the name of another lovely French woman that I care about. I hope that Annick will be humble, creative, and have a love of learning like this surrogate grandmother of hers.

Annick has a good amount of light brown hair, blond eyebrows, and ridiculously long eyelashes.

Ryan was right through my entire pregnancy that he was going to have a sister. He couldn't be more proud. He absolutely adores her and can't handle not mauling her for a moment...

I was sad when I realized this week that these wrinkly feet lost their wrinkles a long time ago! Why do babies grow so fast???

Thank you Helene for taking these beautiful pictures for our family when Annick was just a day old.