Annie-21 months!

Here are a few notes on Annie this past month-she's a growing girl!!

More new words and phrases (I can't keep up with them all, but I have fun trying!):
Henry turned 4 on the 26th, and he was being asked how old he was by a family member on Facetime. He said, I'm four, and Annie piped up and said, I'm four, too!! and (no kidding) held up four fingers to show them! Steven and I couldn't believe it and cracked up! 
Cookie monster! Curious George!
When asked who her friends are, she recites them all...Owen! Scarlett! Ian! Baby Reid!Jaycee!
I wanna sit down
lotion-I want some, hand sanitizer (han sah-tie-suh)-I want some
Bubba? Where are you? Bubba? BUUUUUUUUBBBA!!! I see you, Bubba! (she also calls him Henny, but not nearly as much as bubba).
It was time to get out of the tub and she said-No! I wanna stay!
In the  morning when we leave her room she says, Bye, bye paci! Bye, bye blankie!
She's upset about messes she sees (like on the floor), and says-Oh, no! Mess Mommy! While gesturing to it with a sweeping hand  motion.
Ready, set, go!
Plays a game where she pretends to lay down and says, Asleep! Then pops up and says, Awake! She will often say Awake! as the first thing when we walk into her room in the morning or after nap.
When we put her in the shopping cart, she says, I want to buckle! and works and works at snapping herself in. She also looked at both ends of the strap at the buckle parts and said, 2 buckles!!
After church one afternoon she kept saying over and over again, I love you, Jason! (church nursery worker that spoils her)
I want juice, too! (when she saw Bubba getting it)...that really goes for anything he gets. She says, I want (fill in the blank), too!!
Annie's turn/Annie do it! (seriously.)
Turn the page, the end, good book
Hop on pop! and Monkey book! (over and over again-the girl loves books)
Ouch! Hurt me. Right there.
Bee-ma (for Grandma)
She's so sensitive to anyone sneezing or coughing or anything like that and ALWAYS says, Bless you! and adds their name if she knows it.
Fell down book, fell down ball (after she drops it)
Stop! (sounds like fop), Hey! (both super sassy and like she's been wronged. ha!)
I wanna play. Play here. (when we are walking in the house from the car from being out and need to go straight to bed but she wants to get down and play!)
Princess! Cinderella! (both so clear)
Yep! and Got it!
After hearing a baby crying when we were out-Baby sad. Sad baby. It's OK sad baby.
When we ask her a question and she doesn't know the answer, she just says, ummmm...ummmm. Over and over. Sometimes I can tell she's trying to start talking to us in her car seat, but all she can come up with is, mommy? (yes, Annie?). Ummm...ummm.

She's been sensitive to noises this month and runs to us and clings tight until it passes.
She had her first bubble bath this month-oh, the joy it brings now!
She gasps all the time, then says whatever she was going to say (Gasp! Look, mama!!! Gasp! Oh, no! Mess!!). She also always is pointing to things and saying "ooh"!! in a high pitched little girl way.
I trimmed her hair again this month. She now asks for a bow if she doesn't have one. She appreciates her hair being out of her eyes now!
She got hand, foot, and mouth this month from church nursery. It was a milder version than what Henry had a few years ago, and she was a trooper through it.
Went to a hockey game this month and she was all eyes-clapping and bouncing to the music and action/entertainment.
She's had a few time outs this month and does very well with it. She is upset, but says "sorry" on her own without being asked. Now when brother has been in time out for something and he is suppose to be apologizing to her after, she is the first one to go to him and say, Sorry, Bubba. Sorry. even though she's not the one in trouble. It's so cute!:)
She's added some of the teens to her counting. They aren't in order necessarily, but she is definitely adding them into the mix! 13, 14, 16...
She's such an awesome eater (except with H,F,M this month). She LOVES pizza and when she sees it on TV or somewhere she gets so excited and points and squeals and says, pizza! pizza! When we are loading in the car to go eat somewhere and tell her we are going to eat, she will automatically say, Yeah! Pizza! and get so pumped to go get it (even though that may not be where we are going!)
Her book obsession continues. She will have 3 books, and bring them all to you and ask to read. While you are reading one she is paging through the other and when you get near the end of the first book, she is already begging for you to read the next one. She's a mess! She will follow us around the house with a book in hand and say over and over, I wanna read book, Mamma. I wanna read. Even if I've read to her a ton already that day!
She's gotten to where she likes certain spots to plop to look through books-with her back up against any wall or in the 2 corners in the kitchen-she backs right into them and just looks and looks through whatever book (or 2 or 3) she has.
She's willing to do stairs, but she wants to hold our hand. She is much more cautious than Henry ever was in this department. Granted, we had stairs in our old house and he got LOTS more practice than she ever has, but she just also has a much more cautious personality in some ways than he does. Yet in some ways, she seems like a wild thing and a dare devil. I'm interested to see what she will actually be like as she grows

Book lover!!

Where is my nose, Annie?

Where is YOUR nose?

Where is your tongue?

Where is your hair?

Where is your hair bow?

. 
She loves to keep tabs on everyone. In the car she will call our name over and over. When we respond she will go to the next person in the family. So it goes: Hi, Mama. (Hi, Annie). Hi, Dada. (Hi, Annie). Hi, Bubba. Hi, Bubba. Buuuubba??!! (Hi, Annie). Then she will repeat the round over and over again!
She especially loves to keep tabs on Dada. Where'd Dada go? (He's at work) Oh. Bye Dada! I love you! Bye bye Daddy. (when we are pulling out of the garage in the mornings).
She's great about saying, I love you and it's so sweet.
She loves to pray before meals and hold hands and starts to sing God Our Father...She loves the Amen! at the end and says it enthusiastically. 

We can't believe how big you are getting, Anne girl. You are such a snuggly, sweet thing. We love your sassy spirit, and hearing you talk it a pleasure. Can't wait to see what next month has in store for you!

Annie-20 months

Annie just seems so big this month. She really is growing up. It's totally crazy to think she has only been walking for 2 months-she seems like SUCH a toddler and not a baby right now. Her vocabulary is exploding, and there is no way I can catch or record everything she says, but I do what I can! I want to remember those sweet little words and phrases as they develop. As my kids get older, I really do see that it's hard to remember them at any other phase than what they are currently in, so keeping up with little things about them helps me cope with that! As least I can look back and reminisce! Here are a few things about our girl this month.

-Some new words: pocket, earth (erf), open, close, jacket, hair bow out (informing us), shoe off (informing us), princess, I'm coloring (I cuh-nun-ning), balloon (boon), bread, candle, glasses (I got new ones-after she broke mine-and every time she saw me in them for the first few days, she would say, "glasses!"), monkey, santa (seent-tuh!), snowman, Annie! (when she sees a pic of herself or when she's talking to someone on facetime she will point to herself and say it), Henry (Henny), Scarlett, Zacky (both school friends), fell down, oh  no!, are you sleeping? (asked this when brother was covered up with his blanket on the floor-I had not idea she could say/ask that!), I wanna read book!, napkin, silly, tissue, washcloth, fish, kiss (both kinda sound like wish), paper (pee-puh!), hungry!, i wanna see (video on phone for example), reach!, I wanna hug you!, Wanna hold you (oh, how this reminds me of her brother!), pizza. pizza hot!, Bye Owen! Bye Ellis! (school friends), jammies (sounds like beammies), fist bump, sticker (sick-uhh), loud! (and immediately covers her ears), I'm sleepy (and will lie down on the floor), why!!??? (not always, but sometimes in combination with a fit she's throwing after she's been told no-and with such passion, too!), No! Mine! (perfectly on que....where did she learn these 2???:))

-Something I've really noticed this month is her singing. She would always join in enthusiastically when we would start to sing, but this month she's been singing to herself a lot, and I love it. In her car seat we overheard her singing "go to sleep, go to sleep" to the bear she was holding. She voluntarily sings the alphabet, too! I didn't know she could do this, but she's picked it up somewhere. She doesn't get it perfectly of course, but I love hearing her try. I need to video it sometime. I've also started waiting to give her paci until we are done singing our night night songs before bed. This means she joins in, and her little voice singing Jesus Loves Me (she says Jesus perfectly and especially emphasizes ME!), Rock a Bye Baby, I Love you and Bushel and a Peck, (and more) and then joining in to say thank you God for Dada, Bubba, Mama, Maggie when we pray is oh, so sweet.

-She counts everything!! I've noticed her lining things up and counting them (not perfectly, but using her little pointer finger and going through the numbers she knows). It amazes me! Our brains are wired for order so early! She is just a baby! She's done this with things like food on her tray, foam toys in the tub, etc. I guess it's with things that are the same. She definitely knows how many two is. She's gotten one of something like a cracker, and I give her another and she immediately, happily says, "two!" I noticed her do it with her duck push toy. She had it out, then also got the popper toy to push at the same time. She was so proud and said-"two, mamma!!"

-Books are still her main passion, and she ALWAYS has a book in hand and is asking/demanding to read. She takes them to the car with her and looks through them while we drive, too. Her second fave toy is probably her popper push toy. She also likes to put on necklaces and had had fun with the piggy bank toy lately that she got for Christmas. She can put the toy coins in the slot at the top herself.

-I don't think I've mentioned her sleeping in a while. She still such a great sleeper, and is SO, SO easy to put to bed. She's cuddly and requires so little. She goes to bed between 7 and 7:30, and I wake her for school at 6:40 or 6:45. Sometimes she's already awake in her bed rolling around and talking. She takes a nap from 1 to anywhere from 3:30 to 4:30, and wakes up happy. She still uses a paci just for sleep, and loves it. She also has her blankie and lovie to snuggle with during nap and night.

-She's still a great eater overall (esp compared to her brother at this age), but she has difficult times when everything ends up on the floor. She doesn't love her highchair, so we have started letting her sit in a regular chair some at home at the dinner table and use a booster at restaurants. She is very happy about this, so it is (usually) a win-win, except for the times when she starts feeling too free and wants to crawl up on the table or walk around the booth...then we have to go back to the high chair! She likes most foods, but one thing that is kinda funny that she refuses is green olives. Everyone else in our family loves them (including our extended family-even kids!), so she is different in that way! She always tries them, but the end up back out of her mouth with a bad face. :)

-Her fits/screaming have slowed down (yay!), but she's started throwing things now, too. She chucks Cheerios and crackers in the car, tortilla chips at the Mexican restaurant....a habit we are trying to change!:)

-This is random, but we find her sitting and quietly examining between her toes a lot! Sometimes she's super quiet in the car and we look back to see she's shed her shoes, socks, and is just checking out those little piggies! She does it at home too...we will wonder what she's doing and find her sitting almost cross-legged with two toes pulled apart just staring in between the two! So funny! Oh, and speaking of toes, she got her toes painted for the first time ever by cousin Emma. She was SO, SO proud of them, too. I had no idea she'd even care, but she was all smiles while they were being painted, and afterward went around to show everyone her feet. It was adorable-and such a girl thing!:)

-Annie LOVES bath and brushing her teeth still. Just recently we've started letting the two kids have the shower on for a few minutes once we are done with actual bath. She loves it! She is so crazy and wild in there and acts like it is a party...water in her eyes, mouth, nose....doesn't bother her! The more the merrier.

You're a sweet blessing, Miss Anne. Can't wait to see what next month holds!

Annie-19 months

Annie turned 19 months the day after Christmas! Here are a few highlights about her this past month!

-Some new words/phrases: mouse, donuts, unbuckle now, Cheerios, Merry Christmas!!, applesauce (sounds kinda like apple piss honestly!), home!! (when we pull into garage), I love you, excuse me (sounds like shooo-me!), cookie, chocolate, happy, sad, strawberries (sawbabies), can I have it?, wanna have it, Mommy!, read!!, heavy, help please, Mama!, play/I play, look, Mommy! look (over and over-sounds kinda like "wook"), shoe-wee! (when I change any diaper-whether dirty or not), Jesus, open, close, help.

-Nightly advent was a big even this past month for our family. Annie loved it and would dance around as Steven played the guitar, would love blowing out the candles when we were done, and learned the word chocolate because of the little advent calendar we opened each night. She was very demanding and excited about this-throwing fits and crying for it one minute, then giggling and all smiles the next because she got it!

-Annie has shown some serious attitude this month with lots of screaming "no!!" and fits, etc. Of course, she still has her sweet times, but she has shown her sassy and dramatic side in a whole new way this month! She learned to "jump" which for her is just raising one foot up and stomping it back down. She transferred this new move to add extra umpff to her fits, though, and sometimes will throw in a stomp while saying no. Sheesh!



-She is SO obsessed with books right now. It is the first thing she talks about in the morning or after nap. She says-read!! book!! wanna read!! She has laser focus and will not let us get away with us not actually reading to her! She is such a lap sitter, too, and wants to back up into our laps to be read to.

-She has started sitting up at the bar stools beside Henry now while I cook or when they eat breakfast, and she looks SO big doing this! She also pushes the bar stools (and other furniture) around the house now. She also loves to push the popper toy around and the wooden frog in laps from kitchen, dining room, LR, and back again. She also carries different bags around the house like a purse. I need to get her a real one I guess!

Annie's big gift on Christmas morning was a baby doll-she was adorable feeding it a bottle and putting in the paci. She had clothes on, but as you can see those got taken off quickly. Annie throws fits if I try to re-clothe the baby. Oh well!

-She adores her blankie and lovie, and this  month I have noticed her using her blankie to cover up different toys (Little People baby Jesus from our nativity set, her glow worm), and then she will say, "night night!"

-Henry was older when we let him start watching TV, but with Annie being the second kid, just gets exposed earlier. Oh well! She doesn't watch long before she gets down off the sofa, but she will sit beside bubba for a few minutes and just take it all in. So cute to see their little profiles side by side.

-The moved her up in church nursery, but she cries and when the infant workers hear her, evidently the go rescue her (especially if Mr. Jason is there). They spoil her!

-She just loves her brother, and she wants everything he has. Toys, food, attention, you name it. When he is on the floor she will go latch onto him like an octopus and "wrestle" with him. She is really tough and seems to like the tousle, but Henry is the one begging for her to get off and saying she is hurting him. Ha! She's gonna be a tough girl. When I do laundry, she always gets bubba's undies and carries them around the house, too. Ha! Oh, and she can say "undies". I think it is because they are Elmo themed ones, but still, it's pretty funny.

It's getting harder and harder to get a good pic of this girl-she is constantly moving as you can see!

-When I go to get her out of her car seat, she plays a game with  me. She has her head turned away from me kind of buried in the side of the headrest. I say, "where's Annie?" and she turns her head to look at me with a big grin...then immediately goes to hid her face again. We do this a couple times, then the game usually ends with he getting her neck with kisses-she is so ticklish! Sweetie.

-While we are out and someone asks her, "How are you?" she thinks they are asking her age and plays her game with them by saying, "two!!"...they don't really get it, but I do and think she's funny!

-We had a rainy December, and every time we would walk outside, she would start singing, "rain, rain, go away!" She counts!! She must have picked this up from Henry or school, because we certainly haven't worked with her on it. She usually starts with two and skips five, and her ten sounds like "bomb!!" for some reason, but otherwise she sounds so big doing this! She so articulately says each number (se-ven!), and does so in order. We are impressed, anyway!:)

We love you, big girl!! Thanks for being so much fun and sassy and so sweet, too. Can't wait to see what next month holds for you!

Annie-18 months!

Annie turned 18 months old on Thanksgiving day (11-26-15). To think that she is 1.5 is amazing! Time really has flown by with her. She had her 18 month appointment on 12-2 and did great. Her stats were: 33 inches long (33%), 24lbs 10oz (50%), and her head circumference was in the 25th percentile. I feel like these have basically been her percentiles from the very beginning. She has had a consistent growth pattern! She had a couple of rough teething days this month, but the ped says all her teeth are in now, so I'm so thankful we shouldn't have any  more of that for a bit! She also had her 6 month ENT appt this month and the doc says her tubes look great and are doing their job. She has been remarkably healthy for the past 7 months-it's been awesome! Here are a few other highlights about Miss Anne this month.

-The biggest news? She's officially a walker! The weekend prior to Thanksgiving I could tell she was getting more and more comfortable while we were visiting my parents in TN on 11/21. Throughout the week she seemed to WANT to walk and would "ask" to be put down (by demanding down! walk!). We were at Target on 11/24 and she wanted to walk the aisles. Big fits when we tried to pick her up. By Thanksgiving day, she was walking more than crawling. And here we are less than 2 weeks from that and all she is doing is walking now. She has changed from a baby to a toddler right before our very eyes! It is fun to see her exploring in new ways and toddling around like a big girl, too. My back is thanking her as well!:)

-A few other things I want to remember about her transition to walking-while she was still getting the hang of it, she and Henry would hold hands and walk around the house to practice. I couldn't get a good pic of this, but it was so sweet. She also went through a big phase of walking a few steps, then toppling down and immediately patting her head and saying "bonk!" (even though she didn't hit her head at all). She also went through a phase of putting her head down on the ground and her booty up in the air (like the first part of a somersault), then toppling over onto the carpet-over and over! She was so funny doing both of these things.

-She is talking SO much. The nursery workers all comment on how verbal she is and how much she communicates. Some new things she is saying this month are: I love you, Maggie, Mags, good girl, Mags!, up please, chalk, honey, jeep, socks, shoes, toes, side for outside, dink for drink, moe for more, cold (when she touched a cold cup, she said it), thank you mommy (repeating Henry), what's that (about everything!), trash, dirty, mess, yucky, slide, buck for cup, jacket, turkey, cleamup for clean up, right now! (oh yes), sorry mama, oh (after every answer we give her), rain rain! (the beginning of the song-if we walk outside and it's raining), poopoo and pats diaper, where pass go? (for where did my paci go?), I wanna have it, I wanna eat now, whoa! (EVERY time she sees the Christmas tree), big (when I give her a whole banana) and so many more!

-She wants to keep account of ALL the family all the time, so she is constantly asking, "where's dadda? where's bubba? where's mama?" As soon as she wakes up in the morning or from nap, the first thing she says is "where's bubba?" When I say, "bubba's sleeping" (or whatever), she says, "oh". If we are all in the car and Steven jumps out to run in somewhere, she immediately says, "where's dadda?" It is kind of amazing how aware she is of us all at all times. She is also in a phase of just saying all of our names over and over again in her car seat while we are driving like she is making a list of everyone in the family. Mama, dadda, bubba, Maggie. Over and over! She is attached to her blankie and will say "where's blankie", too.

-She loves to write (ie-make lines) with chalk outside, loves to use paper and crayons/pens/markers, etc, and loves to play with playdough. She dances to music when she hears it and tries to sing along to songs she knows-Jesus loves me, old McDonald, twinkle twinkle, etc. It's so cute to hear her baby voice try to say the words.

-She likes to throw trash away and will walk from the living room into the kitchen with some trash to throw away when we ask her to. She is totally obsessed with her toothbrush and goes and gets in the drawer herself and gets it out to "brush" her teeth. When we brush them at night it is a battle because she wants to do it herself, so it usually ends in major fits and serious sadness when teeth brushing time is over.

-She remains an awesome sleeper. She is so sweet and easy to put to sleep, and she NEVER cries when being but down. When we ask her if she wants to go night-night, she ALWAYS says, "uh-uh!" and snuggles right in. She loves her bed and will stay in there a long time once she wakes up just rolling around and playing with her blankie.

-She makes a monkey noise when we ask "what does the monkey say?" and also now knows more body parts-head, back, arms, legs, tongue, mouth. When she doesn't have a bow in her hair, she pushes her bangs back out of her face herself, and she looks like such a big girl. Steven and I both think it's so cute when she does it.:) She also plays with her hair while she goes to sleep in her car seat if we are driving somewhere.

-She knows her name and can say it. When we ask her what her name is, she points to her chest and says "Annie!". She also knows a joke-it is so funny and we don't know where she learned it. When we ask her how old she is, she holds up one finger on each hand and says, "two!". We say, "no! you're ONE!" and she says, "no!" in a teasing way. It is so cute and she laughs and does it over and over. Henry likes to do this with her.

-She's very friendly while we are out and is always waving and saying "hi!". At the grocery store the other day, she held her arms out to FOUR different women for a hug, and of course they ALL came over and gave her one right away. It was hilarious. I don't know what got into her!

-She is still in the baby nursery at church and has a special friend named Mr. Jason who spoils her and gives her all kinds of attention. I didn't realize how sweet their relationship was until some of the workers told me he is recently divorced and his 2 young kids are with his wife up in TN much of the time, so he comes to volunteer in the nursery and wants to be with Annie bc she reminds him of his daughter. They are 2 peas in a pod, and it is so cute! He comes on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights to be with her. So sweet.

And she's off!

Rock, rock, rock!

It's hard to get a pic that's not blurry-she's moving all the time!

Had to include this one of her saying night night right before Steven was putting her to bed.:)

Fall Break 2015

We had such a nice fall break this year! I have resigned myself to being ok with just not being able to keep up with posts like I used to (just trying to keep up with Annie's monthly posts is enough for me!), but I really want to document some major events when I can. I figure just getting some pics up is something!These are out of order, but oh well!

Friends Blakeley and Winnie babysat Annie while Henry and I got to go to Disney on Ice on Friday!

He was beyond thrilled!!

On Thursday after our beach trip we went to the farm to pick up Maggie and got in some farm time.

Before the farm, we ran by our friends' house who has baby chicks. Henry was loving it at you can see. Annie loved it too and kept making cheep cheep noises, but I just couldn't capture it!

Is that pic a framer, or what?!

We met my folks at at condo in Orange Beach from Friday through Wednesday and had a wonderful time. The weather was beautiful.

We got a pic of Annie in front of "Annie Girl" at Zeke's Landing, and I was happy it was there again! The pic isn't very good in the dark, but oh well. Now I am hoping this can become a tradition of a photo op each time we go!

Practicing her standing skills on the sand!

This was on the way!

She kept putting the shell in her hair and saying bow.

Annie loved the water but HATED the sand!!

And Henry was a fan of both!:)

We attempted some family beach shots. This always proves to be a challenge:)

We were sad to come home on Wednesday...sniff, sniff! It was a great trip!