Anna Merriman

Just shot this clip (#qik) http://qik.ly/BNEnI

Just shot this clip (#qik) http://qik.ly/BNEsV

Just shot this clip (#qik) http://qik.ly/BNEte

Here is the second part to the compilation of videos taken last night…

Sitting Down Inside Attila Restaurant

Quick Look Around Outside And Inside Attila Restaurant in Astana

Front Entrance To The Restaurant

More Dancing

Just shot this clip (#qik) http://qik.ly/BMP7D

Anna Sat At The Table Like A Big Girl

This is another toy that the authorities held onto for a while before allowing the parcel to eventually arrive (after a large amount of fees were paid). The push along car extends so you can place a seat on it, and since her birthday, not only has her walking improved (perhaps a coincidence, but in any case she can now control the car well), but she is able to get on and off it (when the seat is put in place), without our help, and normally she even ends up facing the right way!
She hasn’t yet started pushing herself along when sat in it, and doesn’t seem to want to raise her feet from the ground to allow us to push her, but in any case, most mornings she can be found ramming sofas, walls or any slow moving cats with glee. (The glee is hers, our cats have tended to jump out the way a lot more quickly now.)

Not much to say with this video, as you may have guessed from the title, it features Anna on her birthday, about to taste her first ever birthday cake. The rest of the year, we’re pretty careful about sugar (and salt) levels in the food she eats (a little more difficult here in Kazakhstan, as the selection is narrower), but for that one day, pretty much anything was allowed
Anyway, here she is, sat in her highchair (this one is a little seat that you can attach to most normal “adult’s” chairs, and worked out pretty well), having already blown out her candles…

This video was shot after the presents were opened, and the bubble machine tested out side. Although we had to wait for the box it was transported to Kazakhstan in to pass Kazakh Customs, it is definitely one of Anna’s favourite toys, especially since we took the audio from her favourite DVD of children’s songs and put it on the player’s memory card. The controls are simple and large, the player lights up during use, and Anna has figured out what most buttons do already…

OK, just got to the end of Anna’s Birthday videos that I had already uploaded to the YouTube account, and realised that the last (in terms of the time it was recorded) is better suited to this post. Anna and her MP3 player in the evening, with us realising you needed to set it to play one song, three songs or thirty minutes worth. (Or something like that).

OK, I think I’ll skip my normal routine of providing the date that photos and videos were taken of Anna. The next few Anna’s Photos and Anna’s Videos posts are all based around her birthday, which is the 21st of February. If you’re reading this over on her blog, please assume the same date for future posts with Birthday in them
One of Anna’s presents was a bubble blowing machine. As she hadn’t seen proper bubbles before (ignoring bubble baths), we wanted to buy something that would produce a lot of them, with less mess than the normal setup would involve. Going outside, with Anna suitably covered from the cold (should any Kazakhs be reading this, the weather was a LOT warmer over in Britain than in Astana), we turned the machine on, and waited to see if it would catch Anna’s attention or not…

I won’t be posting any photos today, as the hard drive is back at home, and we’re still with Irina’s parents. Both Anna and Irina has picked up some sort of lurgy, and so rather than transport Anna home whilst not 100% (and risk up chuck on the car seats), we are staying a little while longer than usual. So if you have sent me a skype message/left a voicemail on the landline, either call me on the mobile if it is urgent, or wait until we get back home.

Anyway, back to this post… The videos were shot on the 21st of February, meaning we’re still on Anna’s first birthday. This set of videos were shot when Anna was opening her presents. This was her first time ripping the paper herself, and it took a while to get through them all. There are a lot more videos of that morning, but I’ve just tried to pick the ones that stood out for one reason or another…

Alternative title might be “The introduction of Zimmer Framer to the Russian language”…

This clip was shot on the 18th of February 2010, when we had just got back to Britain. Anna was (and to a point, still is) at the stage where most items of interest need to be tasted at least once. When they are new food items, this isn’t a problem. When they are Anna’s own shoes, this can cause a little concern. Anyway check the video to see Anna tottering around in the kitchen, and the soon to be classic phrase (in Russian) of “Anna, where is your zimmer frame?”.

Just to explain quickly, although Anna quickly found herself happily walking and running around Mum and John’s house, she would sometimes find a large (just about) movable object to push or drag around with her on her travels. In this case, it was a stool that she liked to direct around the kitchen when she was walking. The noise wasn’t exactly the most pleasant to encounter, but the look of joy on her face when she found she could reorder the places of furniture was certainly something to behold…

The 17th of February saw Anna completely at ease with Gwen running around the house, and just as importantly, Gwen feeling brave enough to actually play in the same area as Anna. Having heard of the sort of situation Gwen has found herself in when John’s granddaughter had a birthday party with a few friends in the house, I’m amazed Gwen didn’t hide herself away when Anna turned up on the doorstep!
To anyone concerned with small children/unattended dogs in the house, you can literally take the food out of Gwen’s mouth whilst she is eating, without a whine of protest.

As promised around ten days ago, here we have the video of Anna listening to John’s instructions on how to play some percussion, and then proceeding to have a go herself (as well as having a quick taste of the drumstick itself. It would seem that this sliver of wood is not in any way related to the similarly labelled chicken drumsticks!). I’m still not entirely sure whether the photos and this video were shot on the 15th or 16th of February this year, but to be honest, I can’t see this lack of accuracy ever causing problems for anyone… So if you want to check out John and Anna playing with a drum, cowbell-like sound implement, or a tambourine, do please click the play button just below this text.

Just shot this clip (#qik) http://qik.ly/BIuYd

Anna outside Mega… Just shot this clip (#qik) http://qik.ly/BHQKg
As with all these posts that contain videos and started life as tweets, you’ll either need to click the qik-ly link or the (0) link to watch the video.
Just noticed that if I use the proper longhand embed code, rather than the short version, it is displayed properly, even in these Asides-style tweets. I’ll try and get round to editing the other Qik posts some time soon.