Funny Duck

Anja's favorite thing to do is stick out her tongue. Although, she does have some other tricks, among them a funny little fake cough that she does whenever someone around her (including the dog) coughs, sneezes, or makes some other kind of noise with their mouth that might resemble one of the two. Also, she does it randomly sometimes just to make me laugh.

Okay, I'm totally ready to have another baby. It seems like EVERYBODY is having babies these days. Plus, I'm ready for Anja to have a playmate. Last night she and I went up to my parents' house for dinner and the Antonios were there. She had SO MUCH FUN playing with them. At one point I had an errand to run, and she was having so much fun with Grace that I left her there and when I got back, she didn't even notice me. And then she only woke up three times in the night!! She must've been beat after all that fun with her cousins. But another good thing about her having a playmate here is that I'll be able to get stuff done. I often think about how appealing the idea of downsizing is. I love our house, but a part of me really adores the idea of purging half our stuff, and moving into a small apartment. A house can be overwhelming by way of housework, but on top of that, I have to take Anja with me wherever I go. I can't leave her alone because I can't always hear her if I'm in another room. Sometimes I dream of living in a apartment where everything is visible from the main room, except the bedrooms and bathrooms, which obviously have doors.

I've been cleaning out Anja's room and it's looking great. Did I ever mention that I lint-rolled the carpet? After vacuuming it a number of times and it STILL being covered in dog hair, I took the lint-roller to it and it took awhile, but it worked! Now her room is not only usable, but also very enjoyable. It's the warmest room in the house, and I've started keeping the door shut in order to keep the dog permanently out. Anja has a basket of toys in there and there is nothing in there that is "off limits" to her, so she can go to town and with the door shut, she can't escape! I feel like I've posted all this before...

Yesterday Martino was able to spend some time at home in the afternoon! It was pretty great. He was going from his conference in Indy up to Fort Wayne for school visits, and in the time he was at home we were able to have a giftcard starbucks date (I know it seems like we have a ton of starbucks giftcards. This is true. People keep giving them to us, even though we don't even like starbucks and I don't know why anyone thinks we do! But who complains about free money, right?) hang out a little bit, and take a family nap late in the afternoon. It was awesome. When we all woke up, he packed up quickly and hit the road, and that's when Anja and I headed up the hill for dinner.

Tonight is the last night of the travel season! Martin will be home tomorrow evening and then it's over! Hooray! This season went by a lot faster than last year, for a number of reasons, and I'm really glad it did. And glad it's over!

Here's Anja all ready for the winter! The hat in the top picture is the one I made and the one in the bottom is the one I got from GlobalFest. Her little red sweater is the same one she wore last winter, when she was so tiny. It looks smaller in the pictures than it does in real life... and she had a winter coat, but the red one makes a nice thick jacket for fall because it's lined with fleece. And it has those cute toggles!