I’m trying to get through the bazillion photos I took in Michigan while we were there for my brother-in-law, Steve’s wedding.  Anna was the flowergirl in the wedding so I got a bunch of great photos of her.  This one, I think, is my favorite.  It’s not posed (for the most part) and her smile (laugh) is genuine and not forced like it almost always is when I command her to smile…  :-D  I just love this one.  I’ll have all the pics up on my gallery site soon.

Love this photo I took today…just wanted to share.

Anna has decided she wants curly hair, much to my dismay.  I have super curly hate and hate it.  I’ve always wanted straight hair and straighten mine from time to time when I’m not feeling too lazy.  So I love the fact that Anna has straight hair.  Not sure where she got it from..definitely not me!

Anyway, I bought a thing of curlers and put them in her hair last night.  I probably shouldn’t have used the smallest ones in the pack, nor should I have rolled them all the way to her scalp because when I took them out this morning her hair was so curly that it was about 2 inches above her shoulders….and she has LONG hair!  I was able to pull it down some and it turned out pretty cute.  Next time though, I think I’ll use bigger rollers and not roll it up all the way.  Here are some pics.

Please ignore the lack of a shirt in the last few pics.  She was in between wardrobe changes..  :-D  Cute though, right?

Check out this backbend Anna did yesterday!

This was her backbend at the beginning of June (so a little less than 2 months ago):

Good progress, huh?  I haven’t helped her at all with it.  I read somewhere to not help with the backbends, that if you force it before they’re ready (for under 5 years old)  it could cause damage.  I even noticed in her gym class that her teacher only puts her in the position to push up and then lets Anna push up on her own.  I don’t think the teacher has ever pulled her into a backbend.  So Anna has pretty much figured it all out on her own.  I was really amazed when she pushed up so high on the trampoline yesterday.

Anna did a flip over the bar at gymnastics today all by herself!  Wish I had video, but I snapped two pics while she was doing it:

It’s amazing to see the progress since she started in April, about two and a half months ago.  She wouldn’t push up on the bar at all when she first started, definitely wouldn’t flip over on her own.  She also could barely push her back off the floor when trying to do a backbend (bridge) and now can push up so her head is off of the floor.  She can almost kick up to vertical in a handstand too, though she doesn’t get the bottom leg all the way up yet.  Here’s one she did at the park the other day.

They learn so quick at this age!  And she’s still enjoying it too which is great.

We’re packing up today to head off to Seattle tomorrow.  We’ll be gone for two weeks.  I’ll try to blog from there but probably won’t.  My blogs are few and far between these days…

See this photo?

(It’s not great, I know. I took it with my cell phone and had to zoom in which brought the quality WAY down.)

Anyway, I took this pic and she saw me take it. She went back around through the obstacle course that was setup and climbed back up on the vaulting table and yelled across the whole gym “MOMMY! TAKE A PICTURE!” Oh how I wish I had my good camera. She NEVER wants me to take a picture! Luckily, her class (of only her and one other little girl) was the only class in the gym. Ah, the things that come out of the mouths of little ones.

Anna has been doing SO GREAT in her gymnastics class.  She listens and does what the teacher tells her.  It amazes me since she’s always had a hard time listening and doing what she’s supposed to in every other activity she’s done.  I’m so proud of her!  She’s really picking up on things too and loves practicing in the living room.  She’s even started trying to do handstands on her own.  They teach them in her class by having them climb with their feet up a wall like this:

..but she has started trying to do them on her own without the wall.  Here’s a video:

Sorry, crappy quality. I took it with my cell phone.

So today they got their sheets that tell the parents what class to sign their kid up for and Anna was already promoted to the next class! From Preschool 1 to Preschool 2! I know part of it is age, but part of it is also skill and she picks things up so fast. She’s only been at this gymnastics school since the beginning of April. I was so proud of her! Her teacher (who I LOVE! She’s awesome with the kids.) told me that she’ll get a medal at her last class. All kids who move up get a medal, though I think she might be the only one in her class. I’ll get lots of pics.

Here’s a video that I compiled from today. In the first part it’s kind of hard to find her. Her group is in the back corner of the gym (it was too far to zoom way in) and she’s in a blue/pink leotard.

Check out Anna’s handstand!  Not bad, eh?  (They teach a beginning handstand at gymnastics by having the kids “climb the wall” with their feet.)

I’ve recently started making hairbows for Anna. It’s interesting to see my progression from the first hairbow I made (which I don’t have a picture of) to the ones I’m making now. I think I’m getting pretty good. I don’t think I’ll ever make any to sell, but I do enjoy making them for her…and boy does she have a lot of hairbows now… Today I made 6 to add to her growing collection. Anyway, here are a bunch of the better ones I’ve made. Enjoy! :)

This is one of my favorite shots of Anna from the trip. She’s all like “Yeah, you can only wish you were as good a skier as me!” :-p

The rest of the photos are here.  (I probably won’t get the last few days up for another day or so.)