Weeks 74 & 75

Someone was enjoying a snack... and so was her face.

On Mother's Day, she wanted to pose with Grandma...wearing Gram's glasses.

Grandma bought her this nifty stroller for Mother's Day.
Daddy & Mommy bought her this dolly.

We went to the park to play and swing.

She was completely intrigued with the person swinging next to her...
and kept smiling at her the whole time.

On Sunday, she kept asking for her bow.
Then she would promptly take it out.

On Tuesday we went to the Lake Farm Park.
She liked to keep the animals at a distance.

After a long nap that day, she woke up all smiles!

On Wednesday she was given a ride from Grandma...
I took many many pictures, of which she looked at me for none of them.
So, this is the best one with her showing us her "baby muscles".

We have been enjoying the nice weather so much the past two weeks.  It has been a lot of fun.  We have met up with some friends who have kids roughly Anna's age, gone to the park to swing, slide and play.  We've seen animals at the Lake Farm Park and the Nature center at the metroparks. We've also taken in a few baseball games.  It has been a fun few weeks with gorgeous weather!!

Anna is a full-fledged walker now!  It is so much fun to see her walking around. She looks so much older in just a matter of 3 weeks. (Three weeks ago today -Thursday- she took her first consistent independent steps on her own.)  I just can't believe it!  It is so much fun having her walk.  Now, I'm just trying to get her to listen better when she is walking.  Guess it's all a learning process, right?

Anna was sick last week with a cold, so she wasn't much for food.  Her love was her milk cup!  She did eat a  little bit here and there.  She continues to love hot dogs, and LOVES to drink from my water bottle too!  She usually is willing to try a lot of things, but it may not make it completely down the hatch.  I'm starting to realize that she has a very sensitive gag reflex... of which I am told she has her paternal great-grandmother to thank. And she is very good at gagging herself if she has something that she doesn't like, if she gets too upset about something, or if something is just at the right spot in her throat.  We've had a few episodes in the recent past.

I am starting to transition Anna over to 18 month clothes... although some are still WAY.TOO.BIG on her, there are a enough outfits that are starting to fit.... the pants/shorts/skirts are little large around the waist, and a little long in the legs... but they work.  She does really well with 18 month shirts for the most part.... some are a little bit big and not very proportionate to our child.  We have committed to another case of size 3 diapers, but I'm not sure how long she'll be in them after this case.  We may be close to upping to size 4s.  (Although poundage, I think we still have 5or 6 pounds to go.)  She still wears a size 3.5 shoe... and I think there is room to grow.

Sleep is pretty good these days!  Wow!  I can't believe I can actually type that with a smile on my face.  Anna, now, is consistently sleeping from 9-7/7:30+.  We don't usually hear too much from her after she does sleep.  Although, if we do hear from her, it's not usually too big of a deal, and she will put her back to sleep in just a little bit of time... not usually more than a minute or two, really.

Anna is continuing to add words to her vocabulary.  It's amazing that she is soo great with names of people, things and characters.  This week, the top of her list is: Larry ("Warry"), hat ("at:), apple ("appool"), and jeopardy ("jeopa-jeopa-jeopadee").  However, she is really good at mimicking a lot of things I say.  I love to see how her brain works, and how much she is learning each day!!

Anyway, that's about it for now!

Weeks 72 &73

We spend a lot of time outside.
(She should be wearing her hat!)

And she knows it... so she's trying to put it back on.

After I did the walk of shame with a screaming baby,
and I made it up a hill, Anna stopped screaming...
I looked, and this is what I found.  A sleeping baby.

The first day I got her water & sand table out.
(I'm pretty sure, due to the high quantity of  water this year, it will likely be
a "water & water" table.)

I finally figured out where some of Anna's food was going.

Her stash!

We went to physical therapy (see video below).
She got a little highlighter on her face.
I thought she looked hilarious.
The PT kept apologizing. 

We knew she could do it!!
Yay!

She loves to be outside, and loves playing in the water!

She always pours it on the driveway, unless she is pouring it on herself.

We went to the Chagrin River Reservation today.
We saw the mounted ranger/police.  He was
very nice, and Anna (and I... EWWW!) pet the
horse too.
She was fine, but she was getting tired as you can tell.

She's silly during her bath time.

Well, I've come to realize I will not apologize for combining weeks on this blog.  After all, it's mostly for me (and Anna, and our small readership), and I prefer to spend my time investing in my beautiful daughter, than sitting on my computer ignoring her and blogging.  So, I'm going to say, that it is very likely that until we're once again stuck inside for days or weeks on end because of the weather, it is highly likely that we will be out enjoying our time together playing, basking in the sun, and splashing in the water!  So... I will try to only combine 2 weeks, but... we'll see.

The biggest news for this blog is that as of May 2, 2013 we have a walker!!  Woohoo!  I knew she could do it, she just needed to do it!  Stinker!  We were at our PT appointment for probably about 15/20 minutes before she was walking...the length of the building.  Our second appointment we spent working on getting her to stand up from the floor.  I'm happy to say that she is doing well with that also.  I knew she could do it!  I knew it, knew it, knew it!  Stinker pie!!  But, I am thanking the Lord for his renewed mercies.  It's such a relief to know, even though I knew it in my heart of hearts, that there is nothing wrong with her other than her stubbornness.  We have 1 more appointment this coming Tuesday, then I doubt we'll have any more.  She's doing well, and is embracing her new-found mobility.

While she may have taken a while to walk... she is certainly a smarty pants!  I counted today all the words that she says, I came up with 37... and then later that day I realized  a few more that she says that I didn't write down.  So, I'd say that she easily has 40 words.. and I didn't even count the words that are iffy.. that I know what she's saying, but others might.

Anna is doing well eating.  She still LOVES baby food pouches, but it seems like she isn't eating those as much either.  Now that she is on a new acid reflux medicine, food doesn't seem to be such a big deal.  We used to try to make sure she had enough food so that she could sleep through the night and not wake up in the middle of the night because she is hungry.  Now, we still give her a snack, BUT, she isn't waking up in the middle of the night.  While morning is a little early for my taste, she consistently sleeps from 9-7am.  So, that answers the sleep and food situation.

Last week I had Anna in an 18 month outfit.  It was a little bit long, but it still worked well.  She is still pretty comfortable in 12 month clothes, but I can see 18 month clothes on the horizon.  She's still in size 3 diapers (almost a year now), but, we may try her in some size 4 soon.  (Although we still have a lot of room as far as weight goes in the size 3s.)  And she is still enjoying her size 3.5 shoes (that we bought with room to grow.)

Anyway that's about it!  Thanks for checking in on us!!