The day after the walk, Anna and I ran down to Carmel for a quick visit with Tori and Kole, who were out to see friends run the Big Sur marathon. Anna had her first celebrity sighting, and it was a good one: Clint Eastwood ate brunch about 10 feet from us. (He had some salmon, I saw him dishing it up at the buffet table. He's very good-looking, though shorter than I thought he'd be. He's about my height, I'd say.) We sat in the sun at brunch, and didn't ask Dirty Harry for a photo or stare (much). And then we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and THEN the next day we went to the Oakland Zoo. Very busy, very fun. Click on the photo below to see more from the weeknd.
It was a beautiful day and the six miles went pretty quickly, even with the babies! Lots of husbands came, too, which helped a lot. Thanks to Anne, Jessica, Erin, Leigh, Stacy, Levi and Rachel, Anna and I raised $300 for premature babies. All together, our group raised almost $2000. Thank you so much for donating! To see more photos, click on the one below.
The photo of Anna crashed out in the stroller is from Azla .. thanks, Azla!
Anna may have just figured out how to manipulate her parents. She kept getting up and getting up and hollering and not going to sleep. And then Brian walked by her bed and saw her make the sign for "more." He said she didn't eat a lot for dinner, so we fed her. And she's been awake for at least an hour since. Sigh. Here's Anna getting her "midnight" snack tonight. I fear she's learning to work the system.
Officially, Anna understands everything we say. I thought about listing all the ways she's showed us this in the last week, but it would be too long of a list. It's craziness. I thought the milestones were moving quickly a few months ago, but now ... man! She opened her mouth the other day when I asked her if something was in there. She opened her mouth when I asked her where it is in Spanish. She fetched her tennis shoes when I requested them. She can give kisses (see below). She knows where to go for her bath, a diaper change, for a meal or to go outside. She's un-freaking-believable. We throw out sentences on a lark, just to see what happens and she understands! So cool. She even weighed in on the war in Iraq the other day! (kidding) I know everyone's kid has done this/will do this but we're new to this parenthood thing, you'll have to forgive my enthusiasm.
Well, I guess I was wrong when I said Anna is way too young for a date (below). At playgroup yesterday Anna turned a playdate into a real date by planting a very sweet little kiss RIGHT ON Jack's LIPS! Anna's been giving us kisses, and her stuffed animals kisses, I even saw her give a book a quick kiss the other day. But it's been mostly prompted, and she hasn't given any kids kisses ON THE LIPS that I've seen. It was awesome, and shocking and fantastic. She kissed him all cute-like, and then, because of the reaction she got, she went back in for two more kisses! Here's the only photo we got, Anna in the foreground and Jack's reaction: