Months 20 & 21

 Well hello out there in the blog-reading world.  Yes, this blog has been quiet, but not for lack of activity.  I'm not going to make excuses for neglecting such a practice... but just tell you (and show you below) all the fun we've been having with our little girl.  I love savoring every moment.  It's going by so fast!! It's hard to believe we are almost two years old!! Yikes!!  God is good, and He has been really good to us!  We love our dear Anna-girl!!

This summer we became an "expert" slider!

Silly girl (yes, those are her shorts on her head)

Playing outside (in her pjs) with her kiss cows

Driving with her cousin "bubby"

The beginning of August we we enjoyed a baseball game with our cousins
& Nana and Papa!

Expanding our palate.... carrots!  yum!

One day mommy and I had a bunch of errands to run together,

We ended up at  Chipotle!

Such a good helper!

We visited with our Great-Grandparents

One day in September it was SOOOO hot (97!)
So we played inside... shaving cream & a highchair are fun fun fun!

Then we needed a bath!

Mommy picked up her dear friend (I call her Mimi) and we spent the day together.
We even did a little shopping! (This is Mommy's favorite picture!)

One of my favorite videos!

The next day I was playing in the yard with my ball.

Mommy taught me how to "water paint".
Something she said Grandma C taught her how to do!

We met our birth class friends at the park one day.
There is about a 2 week age difference between these 3.

Lovin' some corn on the cob.

Of course, I am still such a trouble maker...
Here I scattered some baby goldfish all around while mommy was
getting ready for work.

One hot day, mommy let me play in the water table outside,
that turned into playing outside with only a diaper.

I learned to get a drink like daddy does sometimes.

I had a huge growth spurt! (Look at those knees)

Giving a great big hug to my Aunt!

I love to wear dresses, often waking up asking for them!
I also love to run, run, run!!

Taking a quick call from Aunt "Jeeel"

I so badly want to be a big kid... so I'm trying out the swing!
I do pretty well, but mommy won't let me go too high.

I love to give fish kisses.

 I'm learning new things all the time!
I like to wear mommy's shoes and try to walk around in them.
Sometimes I can, sometimes... not so much!

 I'm also enjoying using my "colors".
Here, mommy let me try out markers...

After she took this video, she put them away and said
"maybe we'll wait til you're a little older."

We went to the Family Fun Fest at Patterson Fruit farm.
I had a lot of fun with my cousins!

We took a picture together!  I love them!

We enjoyed the sunshine one week while mommy was
home most of the week!

While we were house/dog sitting at Grandma & Grandpa C's house
mommy and I were looking for Cheerios... but I found an apple instead.
I started eating it... and I did pretty well, mommy said.

Silly mommy took a picture of my apple when I was done with it.

 And... drum roll please....

I started wearing underwear during the day!!
Mommy says I'm doing really well, even though I still have a few accidents.

This is how I spend a lot of my day. 
Reading books, learning my letters, playing
with my flashcards.
(I'm really not in pain as my look suggests,
I just gave mommy a silly smile when she said
"cheese"!)

showing off my "big kid 'wears!"

So since I've pacified you with many, many pictures, I suppose I should tell you what we've been up to lately.

In August and September Anna and I would frequent area parks.  The princess has become an expert at going down slides, and loves to swing on swings!  She also likes to look at the ducks & geese that typically roam area parks.  We also spent a lot of time with our buddies (the Ellis family) who have a daughter 3 months older than Anna.  It's always a fun time of playing and encouragement!

In September we started back up with swim lessons after taking the summer off.  I'm proud to say that she can now almost touch the bottom of the shallow end in the instructional pool.  As well as she can now blow bubbles, "choo-choo" on her own, and loves to do the motions to the "Wheels on the Bus" while sitting on the steps of the pool.  She still isn't a fan of going under the water, though.

Anna loves to go on bike rides with her Grandpa C.  Now she knows, and will put it on (on her own) her helmet.  It's sweet to hear of the stories from Wednesdays.  Grandpa C will take her on bike rides, and some times go to the park with her where she's a "dare devil" on the swings!

Anna seems like she has grown like a weed in the past 2 months.  Anna is definitely in 18 month clothes.  I like the pants with the adjustable waist band.  She doesn't usually have a prayer to keep the ones without the adjustable band up... and is definitely waaay too tall for the 12 month pants.  She wears either 4 or 5 shoes, and is in a size 4 night diaper (at night, or regular diapers at nap time).

As mentioned above, the day before her 22nd month birthday, we decided to take the plunge into big girl underwear.  She was going regularly on the potty, and keeping her diaper dry most of the time... so daddy and I decided to just do it.  It seemed like we were holding her back by allowing her to stay in her diapers because it was easy.  While it hasn't been easy, and it's been no fun, and definitely dirty, wet and stinky, it seems like now only 7 days later we are making GREAT progress.  We're not expecting her to be nighttime trained for a while though... but it will come!  (I just didn't want to have to wake her up in the middle of the night to have her go to the potty... We just started sleeping through the night!!)

Bringing me to the next point... Sleep.  Anna is doing a lot better...  A LOT better sleeping.  The last post had us trying to wean her from her acid reflux medication.  Long story short but it was a disaster.  So she went back on the medication for at least another 3 months.  Once her cough (from the reflux) went away she started sleeping like a gem!  And, even the past week or two has only needed a little bit of cuddling/back patting/rubbing before we lay her down in her bed, and then she'd chat herself to sleep.  It's been nice!!  AND we have even been able to get her bed time away from the nearly 10pm, down to a earlier 9pm.  So that's great!!  Anna will usually sleep from 9/10 til 7/8.  It's wonderful!  Sometimes she even sleeps a little bit later than that too!!

Food:  Anna is doing a great job eating!  She will usually try whatever we're eating, but definitely some "old standbys".  She really likes chicken!  Anything chicken!  Grilled chicken is her favorite, chicken nuggets, chicken stir fry, chicken and pasta... chicken.  She likes chicken!  She recently has started trying, eating all of it, and asking for more VEGGIES!!  Finally!  I don't know that she loves them like I love them, but we're doing well now.  I think.  It has also forced her daddy to eat them, and look like he likes them.  So, I'm figuring out different ways to fix them, and Jeremy is discovering that some aren't as bad as he thought.

Words.  Oh my goodness can she talk!  I can't even put a number on how many words she has!  100?  150?  Maybe more?  It seems like she is adding at least a dozen words a day.  It's amazing.  I also love hearing her start to sing.  We listen to the Veggie Tales'  "25 travel time songs" daily.  She is now getting to know the songs enough where she will say certain words, hold out certain notes, and sing certain words.  I love it!  It's so much fun to have conversations with Anna.  I love to be able to talk to her... when we drive, when we walk, when we play. 

Another thing I love is how much she teaches me.  I'm learning a lot about God and His love through our sweet girl!  One thing I have enjoyed is praying with her.  For one, if you ever eat with us you will quickly learn that Anna is the "prayer police."  Everyone must fold their hands and pray, before we can pray... or she will call you out.  :-)  The other thing I love is her simple prayer.  It is simple, and yet it challenges me personally.  What does the Bible say?   It is "out of the mouth of babes"... Every night we pray something along the lines of  this with her repeating after us.... "Dear God, Thank you.... for today.... help me.... sleep.... love you... Amen."  Well.. that was our prayer.  Then, she started her own thing... it goes like this.  "Dear God (Dear God)  Thank you (Thank you) for today (today).  Help me (Help me) Sleep.  (Love you.)  Sleep.  (Love you.)  Amen.  So even though her daddy and I would pray "Help me to sleep"  She would say "Help me to love you."  (She actually won't say the phrase "Help me sleep" hahaha)   At first we chuckled... but then I realized it is a simple prayer, that I too need to pray daily.  Yes, Lord. Help me to love you!  I learn so much from her.  I'm starting to realize... get a little glimpse of the term childlike faith.  I love the innocence of our little girl.  I love how she doesn't see color, or differences.  I love how she loves all the way Christ loves them.  She gives me much food for thought... and I want to continue to cultivate this within her as she grows.  I want her to love like Jesus!

Well, I think that's a decent update.  I hope to try to update a little more often, but at this rate, I have no idea!  I still take a ton of pictures regularly ( maybe not every day.. it's hard to get her to hold still), so even if I"m not posting, I will catch up.

Thanks for checking in on us!!  (if there is anyone still out there!)