Sunday, January 17, 2010

Anna: version 1.5

I meant to get this post done when Anna turned 18 months, but I'm still within the same month, so that's pretty good for me. Here are some things about Anna right now:

She has recently become obsessed with what she calls "baby, gorilla" which is one of those "Your Baby Can Read" movies that has words and objects and of course babies and gorillas. It is the first thing she has ever attended to on TV and I have to say I think it's awesome. Twenty minutes of no one hanging on your leg is priceless. She requests it the minute we: walk into the house, get her out of bed in the morning, touch the remote, or basically make eye contact. She claps her hands and runs over to her rocking chair to climb in as soon as we start to put it in.

She knows about 11 body parts and can say 8 of them. She loves labeling them on you and will not stop until she runs through the whole line of them on you.

She is obsessed with playing with spices and will shout for them as soon as I get the container out. Not really sure why, she just kind of holds them.

She loves hats, but really she loves skirts and the diaper covers that come with dresses as hats much better and has one or two on more days than not.
She loves to be naked and is getting better and better at getting all of her clothes off and this includes her diaper. She can no longer wear zip up jammies to bed. This all started about three weeks ago when we forgot to turn the heater down on her space heater when we put her to bed. I heard her cry around 4:30 and then being the attentive mother that I am I realized around 5:30 that she was still crying. I went in there and she said only "water". Poor girl, it was probably 95 degrees in there. I gave her a sippy which she downed, turned off her heater and then put her back to bed. It was still pretty warm in there but not horrible. She cried for about 10 minutes and then it was quiet. When she finally woke up at 8 I went in there and she was completely naked laying down. Poor girl had to strip down to avoid heatstroke, but impressive problem solving don't you think?
She loves to talk and labels everything. This is our conversation in the car,
"Mom, Mom, Mom" "What Anna" "baby" (she's holding a baby)
"Mom, Mama" "Yes Anna" "hat" ( the baby has a hat)
"mom" "what" "milk" (also has some milk)
"mom, mom, mooommm"
"What Anna" "hi", "Hi Anna" "hi"
It's cute 4 minutes in, not so much 40.

She has to kiss everyone at least twice before bed, even if they are not family or even if she doesn't know who they are.

She has discovered the thrill of the tattle and will run into the room to tell me "Mama, Jackson, head" or "Jackson, baby" ( he hit me on the head, he took my baby).

She has about 15 babies and stuffed animals and two blankets that she insist on sleeping with every night, I've had to slowly hid them because she was running out of places to sleep. They are all usually on the floor by the time we come get her.
She can say her name really well now and labels everyone just so she can say her name and get praised. She has also begun to use the term "Anna's" when she sees something she wants or wants to make sure no one else gets.

She is a big tease and will take a toy from Jackson and take off running because she loves nothing more than to be chased. (Preview for the future...?)

Anna LOVES to throw things away and will yell "away" at you if you try to throw her diaper, orange peel, or dryer lint away with out letting her do it

Shoes have been very important to Anna since she was little, she loves them and has very specific ideas in mind on what she should be wearing. These two are her current favorites, never worn matching, always one of each. These shoes are both size 2, she has freakishly small feet.
Anna loves wipes and will play with them forever, she will hold one the enitre time in Walmart wiping the cart. She also chased Patrick around the house last week because she spotted his runny nose, went and got a wipe and chased him around the house yelling "mose!" at him.

Anna told her first joke two weeks ago and was also one of her first two word spontaneous phrases, it went like this. Anna tooted and I said, "oh Anna that's stinky" She looked at me pointed and said "Mama, stinky" this of course got a big laugh from Mom and Jackson so then she proceeded to label Jackson and I as the culprits.

Ok, I know that is way more than anyone cared to read about my little Anna, but this way I will remember it all in 6 months when she is a completely different person.
She really is a doll and we just love our "Anna-goo" to pieces. She is nearly always smiling and still as easy going as she was a year ago. I can't believe my baby is becoming a toddler.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Christmas

Here is the it's almost too late to even post, post for Christmas. In my defense we switched internet providers and for some reason it will not let me upload pictures. Everytime I try it knocks me off and then I have to reconnect and try again and again one picture at a time... ok I feel my heartrate rising just writing about it. Hopefully this will be resolved soon, in the meantime, here are the pictures I could get to load.

Jackson's much anticipated green lightsaber and star wars jammies set to go with. He spends 3/4 of his life in jammies so this was a good gift to receive.



I love the true to life reaction of Anna opening her doll from Santa. As soon as she got the wrapping off she said "off" to get the box off. The baby has a bottle that makes sucking sounds and then cries when the bottle is taken off. She loves it and pats her saying "ahh" and telling us to "hug" her whenever she cries.
The tutu's I made were a big hit and she said"on" the minute she saw them. As soon as she had one on she cuddled her baby and kept insisting, "All done, eat" every time someone would open a present or give her one to open. She was done and wanted to get to her favorite pastime, eating.

It was a great day and so fun to have a Christmas morning with two kids who were excited to open gifts and get into the whole Santa part of Christmas. Jackson even set out carrots for the reindeer the night before and insisted that we not only set them outside, but in a bowl in the middle of the yard because,"The reindeer can't come inside and the sleigh won't be able to fit on the porch for the reindeer to reach the carrots". So true. Ahh, writing the blog makes me excited for next year already :)

Monday, January 4, 2010

Christmas cookies

Making Christmas cookies with the family. Now outdated pictures of us making cookies.
This picture is of Jackson's first cookie with a full go ahead on the sprinkles. After I "encouraged" him to use less sprinkles, or "killed Christmas" as Dustin put it by reigning in the sprinkle use, it was smooth sailing from there.