It's a Wonderful Life!: April 2014

I think we can officially call Anna a "toddler." She walks (finally). And talks (constantly). She has more hair than most 2 year-olds. And every day she seems to learn some new trick or word or skill. It is so fun to see all the new things she is learning to do!

Anna took her first steps right at about 14 months, but it wasn't until about two weeks later that she really took off walking. Even though she can walk by herself, she still loves to hold your finger and walk next to you. I finally bought her first pair of shoes a few weeks ago. She loves her shoes and always tries to put them on by herself.

Anna continues to babble constantly, but she can say quite a few recognizable words now. In addition to "Dada" and "Mama," she can say "ayyy" (amen), "nigh-nigh", "bye-bye", "hello", "pss" (please), and "uh-oh." "Uh-oh" is definitely her favorite word at the moment. She purposefully drops things on the floor and says "Uh-oh!" over and over. One day she clearly said "Anna" several times in a row but hasn't said it again since, haha. I've also taught her a couple signs that she uses occasionally. She knows the sign for "hungry," "milk", and "more." She can also do a several animal sounds including snake, monkey, doggie, horse, cow, fish, and alligator. She's pretty selective about when she chooses to do them though. :)

Another thing she loves to do is point to body parts. She knows eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, hair, ears, tummy, belly button, fingers, and toes. She loves to point out both hers and ours...meaning we don't do "belly button" in public haha.

Anna got her first real hair cut at 13 months. I tried to do it myself before, but it wasn't too pretty, so this time I took her to a salon. She did really well and only cried when they sprayed her hair with the spray bottle. She has so much hair!

After her first hair cut

Anna still loves to dance and likes being able to do more moves now that she can stand and walk. She likes to bend her knees and "bounce" and "twirl" by walking around in a circle. She will bring the remote control to me or Derek indicating that she wants us to turn the music (Pandora) on.

Anna has also mastered going down the stairs. She's taken a few tumbles, but she does really well for the most part. I like not needing to carry her up and down all the time.

One of the cutest things she does right now is fold her arms during prayers. Most of the time, we don't even remind her, she just does it as soon as she sees you doing it. She's also figured out patterns to when it's time to pray at church...like after the hymn she'll start folding her arms because she knows the prayer comes after the song. And she always says "Amen!" at the end. :)

Anna's favorite activity right now is pulling objects out of their containers and then putting them back in again. She loves the drawer in our bathroom and she will just sit and pull out the toothpaste, chapstick, lotion, band-aids, and whatever other miscellaneous objects are in there and then put them back again. She does the same thing in the pantry, taking cans off the shelf and putting them back again. I've started collecting little containers--shoe boxes, sour cream containers, etc, and little objects--pom poms, pipe cleaners, blocks, scraps of fabric, etc that she can pull in and out of the containers.

Playing in the pantry

Playing with her "puff balls"

Anna has really started to enjoy playing with other kids. We don't have a fence in the backyard and when Anna sees our backyard neighbors outside playing, she'll stand at the back door and cry because she wants to go outside and play. We try to do play dates with them and some of the other moms and kids in the neighborhood once a week or so.

Anna has gotten to be super cuddly and affectionate lately, and I love it. She loves to snuggle on our laps in the mornings with her blanket or teddy bear. She still loves to give kisses to anyone and everyone (including her stuffed animals and dollies). When it's time to say bye-bye, she immediately starts blowing kisses. When Daddy gets home each day, she immediately runs to the door and greets him with a big hug. She really is such a sweetheart.

Kiss?

Anna has also discovered her hyper-mode. It always happens right before bedtime. She gets so wound up and crazy! She will roll around on the floor, bounce up and down, crawl all over you, and giggle her head off. We need to get it on camera because it is hilarious!

Getting her to eat has been my biggest battle lately. She's drinking some cow's milk and eating more solid food, but not enough to really get full. She just doesn't like to sit still to eat unless she's nursing. She'll only sit in her high chair long enough for a few bites before she's trying to climb out of it, so I usually just end up chasing her around on the floor trying to sneak bites of food in her mouth while she plays. She's also kind-of picky. She loves green beans, smoothies, olives, Cheerios, and graham crackers. (We joke that she's a "pack-a-day" graham cracker eater, haha) Most other things, it's kind-of hit and miss. Some days she'll eat it fine, other days she won't touch it. She's also gotten funny about bibs, and doesn't like to wear them most days.

Here are some of Anna's current favorites:

Favorite games: Peek-a-boo, "chase" (she runs away and we have to chase her), "fetch" (you throw the ball, she goes and gets it and brings it back)

Favorite book: There's An Alligator Under My Bed by Mercer Mayer. She loves pointing to the alligator and making "chomping" noises when the alligator is eating the food. (A few weeks ago, her favorite was "Hairy McClary" but I guess we read that one too many times and she doesn't like it anymore. We'll see if the same thing happens with the Alligator book because we seriously read it three times a day.)

Favorite songs: Anything with a beat she can dance to.

Favorite foods: Graham crackers, Cheerios, green beans, olives, smoothies.

Favorite toys: Her teddy-bear and puppy, cars, legos, her little colored "puffs", and new favorite...bubbles!