The pinwheels I bought last year have definitely seen better days, but the girls still love to play with them. Anna calls them “flowers” and holds them up in the sky to try to get them to spin.
I think I’m going to have to look for some new pinwheels soon!
Dear Anna,
Today you are 20 months old. That’s a lot! I feel like I can’t really say that you’re one and a half anymore, because when you’re only talking 20 months, 2 is a pretty big percentage of that.
You now have 13 teeth. And you *love* to brush them. Of course Daddy or I get a turn, but you’d chew on that toothbrush for hours if we let you. You also really love bathtime. For a while we were doing nightly baths, but it’s not really practical with the amount of time we have between dinner and bedtime to do them every night. But you certainly would not complain if we did!
Your language skills are improving by leaps and bounds. You now say “Nikki” instead of “Nee-Nee” when we’re having a playdate with your best baby friend. It’s a little sad actually…Nikki’s mom and I were expecting you to call her up in high school and say “Nee-Nee, do you want to go to the movies with me?” You will also jabber entire conversations. Only one or two words might actually be recognizable, but baby, do you love to talk!
Your favorite foods this month are fish sticks, apple juice and coooookies! You are my little carnivore, and will frequently pass up bread or fruit for more meat. Or cheese, can’t forget the cheese! You still eat quite the variety of foods, but I have to be slightly careful what order I offer them to you in!
You love slides. You haven’t had much of a chance to use them – actually, really only at the kids’ haircut place, where they have some toys in the waiting area. But you don’t call them “slides”, you call them “wheeee!”s. Kind of makes sense, really. I guess we’ll have to get out our baby slide once we’re sure winter is over and done with!
Your most very favorite toy right now are Lego Duplos. I just recently got out our big bin of them, and you can spend forever with them: dumping, picking them up, playing with the Duplo people. I have also seen a change in your play – you starting to do imaginitive and role types of play, putting Little People in their car and driving them around; feeding baby dolls bottles and carrying them around.
It’s so much fun watching you grow and learn and blossom. I can’t wait to see what each new month brings!
Love, Mommy
There was still snow on the ground, but it was so warm yesterday afternoon that the girls wanted to play with chalk.
It might not have been short-sleeves warm, but Carrie insisted…
Anna and I took a walk this morning to enjoy the beautiful sunshine. Every few steps she’d say “look!” and point to something. “Look, snow!” “Look! Dir-tee snow!” “Look! Trees!” “Look, mom-ee, look!”
And every puddle in the drainage ditch: “Look, fishy, look, Nemo!” (I didn’t see any fish, but maybe I wasn’t looking hard enough!)
My favorite comment, though, was “Look! Sill-ee!” When I asked her what was so silly, she said “the bird-ee!” and pointed to a fat little robin hopping around on the grass.
Who knew there was so much to look at in a quarter mile of suburbia?
It’s a bit warmer in the mornings now when we go out to wait for the bus, so I’ve been putting Anna in her coat and boots so she can come out with us to wait. And then we go right back out in the afternoon to catch the bus home, and play a bit after that. The girls love playing in the snow! I think maybe next winter I should find myself some snowpants, though…
A conversation with Anna…
Anna: Say, “‘appy”!
Me: Say “happy”?
Anna: Say, “app-oh joose”.
Me: …apple juice?
Anna: Say, “app-oh”!
Me: Apple!
Anna: Say, “da-da!
Me: Da-da!
Anna: (giggling madly)
Me: Say, “belly button”!
Anna: (looks at me like I’ve lost my mind)
(Apparently, I misunderstood the nature of the game.)
Dear Anna,
Today you are 19 months old. You are definitely out of baby mode and full-on into toddler mode…and an independent toddler at that! You are very much done with the walking bit. Now, you run. And when you’re not running, you’re climbing. You have no fear. Not one little bit!
You thrive on our routines. Every night, you climb up the stairs, go straight into the bathroom, climb up on the step stool, and wait (impatiently, I might add) for your tooth brush so we can brush all 12 of your teeth. From there, it’s into your room, where you demand that I turn on the lights so we can get you the rest of the way ready for bed. And you live for the bus, every afternoon. You wait with me (well, at least on the days you wake up from your nap early enough) until we see the bus coming around the corner. And then you light up with excitement over seeing “Dee-Dee”. (We think that means “sister”, but I suppose it could mean “Carrie”.)
You are completely hooked on TV. Your favorites are Dora (still), Mickey Mouse (which you call Nikki’s Mouse), and you even like to watch “Ar-fur” (Arthur) when your sister comes home from school. It does sound like a lot, but I really do promise that most days you don’t watch all of those things.
You are starting to grow out of your 18 month clothes. You have an enormous amount of clothes to choose from: your big sister’s old clothes, Nikki’s old clothes, clothes that I saw and wanted to buy for you…some days I feel like I’m drowning in little girl clothes! And now it’s time to dig out the 24 month clothes and sort through everything once again…
You absolutely can’t get enough books. We sit on the couch and snuggle together and read for a half an hour at a time. At that point you usually wiggle your way down and go play, but that’s a darn impressive attention span for such a busy little girl!
And you are busy. Busy driving cars around while making “vroom vrooom” noises, busy stacking blocks and “reading” books and getting into mischief. You are my little monkey, and you keep me on my toes!
Love, Mommy
I hate to say it, but it’s entirely possible that Anna has watched one too many episodes of Dora. After puzzling it over for a while, I’m pretty sure that what she’s been going around all morning saying is, “Oh, Man!” And the only time she would have ever heard that phrase would have been on Dora.
I think there are probably worse things she could be saying. Right?
Vital stats:
18 months, 6 days old
24 lbs. 14.5 oz.
32″ tall
Anna had her 18 month visit today. She’s still pretty much right in the middle of the growth charts for height and weight. The pediatrician was impressed with her vocabulary and how tolerant she was about being examined. She only needed one shot today, and only cried for a moment – as soon as the nurse stuck that Hello Kitty bandaid on, she was happy to meow for us instead of cry!
So, if the sled is for ages 6+, and there’s a 5 year old and a 1.5 year old sitting on it, that’s OK, right? (Don’t bother reporting me, there was maybe an inch of snow and no hill – not much danger there.)
Oh! And this was taken with my second attempt at a new camera. Much better.