14 Months Old

Anni is growing so fast! All of her 12 month clothes fit and she's moving into 18 month on some things and not so much on others. We bought some 18 month old pajamas for her to grow into and they just drown her. She doesn't mind so long as it doesn't impede her walking. She's goofy baby and such a cuddle bug. She still just loves that puppy. She'll grab him by one ear and carry him everywhere.

She doesn't like posing for the camera much, so to get good pictures I have to take tons and sort through to get the best. Usually the cutest ones are when she's not even paying attention to the camera. After all this time of being skinny she's getting a fat little Buddha belly. I love this picture because she's just jutting it out there.

She loves to open and close doors and if one of us isn't home, she'll go through the whole house opening and closing every door looking for us. If you go into a room and shut the door before she can follow, she'll stand outside it and pound on it, just screaming. She doesn't like not being allowed to be right in the middle of what we're doing.

Anni still loves bath time and loves being naked, like all babies. She was biting her pirate here and just let go of it with her hands, so she kind of looks like a dog with a toy. She does it a lot.

School Update

Kelly is kicking butt in school. He's acing all of his quizzes and goes in early to study so he can spend a little more time with Anni and me at night.

How could you stand to be away from this face?

They're kind of like boot camp as far as the dress code. He has to be in full uniform all the time: a toque (the hat), jacket, pants, shoes (polished), apron, side towels, and cravat (a tie thingy), it all has to be perfectly pressed and clean and he has to be clean shaven (except for existing facial hair).

Yesterday we found out that he was awarded a $1500 scholarship for an essay that he wrote about why he was going to culinary school. I'm so proud of him, and all the people in his presentation group are really happy to have him with them now.

Anni wearing Kelly's toque.

After this week he's done with his first class, skills 1 and sanitation. Skills one was mostly knife skills and some product ID. He's gone through about 30 pounds of potatoes at home and in class practicing. The hardest cut is a chateu. It basically looks like a 7 sided football that's 3 inches long. Today, he had to ID 80 herbs and spices for a final. Tomorrow is the knife skills final, he has 2 hours to do 5 chateus, 8 large dice, 12 medium dice, and 12 paysanne of potatoes, 18 julienne and 24 brunoise of carrots, 12 julienne of green pepper, 12 batonnet of celery, half an onion in a perfect medium dice, chiffonade 6 leaves of spinach, and supreme 1 orange. A paysanne is 1/2 by 1/2 by 1/8 inch cube, a brunoise is a very, very fine dice (1/8 inch cube), a batonnet is a perfect 1/4 by 1/4 by 2 inch rectangle, a chiffonade is the finest strip you can cut, and supremes are perfect segments of citrus with no peel or membrane.

Monday he starts Nutrition and Writing/Composition. He won't be using his knives for these ones, so they'll get packed away for 3 weeks.