Weeks 78,79,80,81,82 & 83

 Hello Blog World!!
Sorry this blog has been silent for over a month.  That is the longest stint in about 2 years.  YIKES!!  (I guess all good things come to an end, no??)  The reason being, we are just really enjoying our sweet Anna girl!  We're having a lot of fun, and her new-found mobility keeps us forever on the move, and extremely busy!  My goal will still be twice a month... but now, I'm wondering if realistically it should be once a month... and more often if I can. 

Thanks to those of you for continuing reading.  There are quite a few pictures, and even a couple videos.    Her stats will be at the end...

She has started to twirl her hair while she is drinking her milk.

Investigating a spray bottle... she even spritzed herself a little bit with some water.

Her cousin Bryant came over and showed her the joys of a bean bag chair...
She LOVES her bean bag chair now!

Milk, pretzels and hair twirling!!

Everything is a "hat".  If it can go on her head... it could possibly be a hat!
One time she even put my cell phone on her head and looked me and said "at"  (hat).
She is cute as can be!  I have now put out some of her winter hats
in her toy bins, and she likes to put them on her head.

Cheese!

A pretty dress for Father's Day!

We met Jer's parents for dinner on Father's Day.
I captured this sweet kiss she gave her Papa!

She fell asleep in the car on the way home from playing with Grandma & Grandpa
Leeper.  I see this face regularly.  It makes me laugh.

In the recent weeks she has taken an extreme liking to this "Ginormous Elmo."
One day she insisted on bringing him along with us on our evening walk.
Yeah, it was probably a good 80-85 degrees outside!
Silly girl!!

                                          She spent the night with her Nana & Papa, and then
                                          slept at Aunt Jill & Uncle Dawson's house.  Here's
                                          a funny video to go along with the previous picture
                                          above.  :-)  Love her!!
                                                                  

One hot Saturday we hit up the sprayground.
All 3 of us went, and we had fun!

Aunt Katie & Uncle Todders came up to see us
for the 4th of July!  Auntie came when Anna was
sleeping.  She snuggled right in when she woke up.
And a big GOLD STAR to Auntie Katie for waiting
so patiently for Anna girl to wake up, before going to get
her.  You made her mommy happy.

We turned our pumpkin's seat around to a forward
facing seat.  Now she enjoys bringing fun toys with her.
Today's, treat was her ducks.

And, here's Ginormous Elmo as her lap riding buddy.

This is baby Elmo.  We like him, because he is smaller
and does not take over everything.  I thought
it was hilarious one morning that she was feeding
Baby Elmo Cheerios.  (She was even using proper
technique, and correct form!)

Giving Elmo a few more.

And here's some for herself.

When a spoon doesn't quite cut it... just
lift up the bowl, and drink your Cheerios!

We also had the wonderful opportunity to go to a baseball game
with Aunt Jill and our cousin's Bryant, Valerie, and Deanna.
Unfortunately our game was rained out... but on our way home
De bought us ice cream at McDonalds!
Aunt Jill spoiled her, and helped her with a little ice cream.
Her first cone!!  (She did really well!)

And loved it!

She kept wanting more!

We also have been frequenting our local parks.
Anna is becoming quite the pro at slides.
Here is a great action shot.

Now, when you see this face... it's the "naughty" face.
It usually means she's up to no good!
Watch out of you see it.  It's totally cute, but completely misleading!

Some days she prefers to have a bunch of animals/toys on her
lap.  She has some of her favorites here... Baby Elmo, her baby doll,
and her puppy.  All topped off with a cup of milk!

Daddy too mommy's car for an oil change.  So Anna and I went to the Y for a bit.
That means we had to take Daddy's new car... it's a convertible.  She liked it!
(For those of you worried about the safety of a convertible, and the lack of roof to take the impact of a crash should the car
roll over... I want you to know that I didn't take her on the freeway, and we didn't go faster than 35 miles and hour.
We don't take her in this car regularly, but it's safe.  So don't worry.)

Today, on our way home from Grandma & Grandpa Leeper's house,
I see this regularly from my review mirror now.
It's sweet.

I took these pictures at the Captain's game.  She sure
does love her Aunt Kimmee!!

Now, for her current stats...

Sleep:  Anna is still on the Prevacid, and as long as she isn't teething, she does really well.  Anna usually sleeps from 9/9:30pm-7/8:30am.  Anna likes her routine.  Currently, we ask her if she's ready to go to bed, and then she responds with "teeth" and heads over to our baby gate.  Then we go upstairs, brush teeth, and wash her hands.  And in the past few days of this blog post, we've added sitting on the potty.  (Information on this below.)

Eating:  Anna continues to do well eating, although her favorites are still those wonderful baby food pouches, and milk.  She eats a variety of foods, but still enjoys a baby food pouch or two during the day.  Some days she eats more or less of them, just depends.  Anna has done really well eating sandwiches too, especially grilled cheese!  She some days will eat anywhere from 1/4- 1/2 grilled cheese.  She also likes to eat a variety of fruits... apples, bananas, grapes (quartered), pineapple, cantaloupe.  Most of the time she gets her veggies in baby food pouches, but I have successfully gotten her to eat peas, corn, broccoli, sweet potatoes, carrots, and green beans. Those are harder to get her to eat on a consistent basis though.  As far as snacks go, her favorites are pretezels, yogurt melts, and cheerios.  Anna likes to eat chicken, turkey, and ham as well.

Clothing/size:  We are mostly wearing 18 month clothes.  She is too tall for 12 month pants, but still fits regularly in a 12 month short sleeve/tank top shirt or sweaatshirt.  Anna is still in size 3 diapers, and size 3.5-4 shoe.  At her 18 month appointment she weighed 22 pounds (even).  (I'll have to add at a later date her height.  I forgot to bring her book, and need to call the doctor's office.)

Potty Training:  We are not officially potty training.  We are just in the "get acquainted with the potty phase."  However, we got our potty on Thursday, I put her on it a few times, and then on Saturday I put her on the potty twice and she peed on it twice.  She has since gone on the potty 5 times, and in 3 days I've put her on it 7 times.  So... we're doing really well.  We still have not taken the plunge to underwear, but I think after our vacation, we'll just see how it works.

Words:  Anna continues to add words daily, I have no idea how many... probably 60-70?.  One of her favorite things to do now is work on letters.  She has a triangular-prism shaped toy that has flip letters, shapes, gears, a mirror and xylophone.  She loves it!  She does really well repeating letters A-F, and words associated with them, and last week we added letters G-L.  We also recite the colors, and shapes on the toy.  Anna continues to LOVE, LOVE, LOVE music.  She always wants to be sung to, or listen to music and dance.  It makes for good variety in our day.

Walking:  Anna has embraced her new-found mobility.  She is no stranger to walking, and has now even taken off with running also.  Anna seldom crawls too.  She is such a big girl.  It's also fun, now because she is in a whole new level of following directions.  Jeremy or I can give her something and ask her to throw it away, and she walks over to the garbage and throws it away.

Well... I think that should do it!  Again, thanks for checking in on us... I will try to do better in the future!  Hope everyone is well!!

Weeks 76 and 77

She's on the move!!

Someone decided to pirate our game!!

Since she's so stinkin' cute, we let her!

My cousin got married on June 1. It was such a beautiful wedding ceremony.
Beautiful bride, handsome groom, delicious food, and great music/dancing!

I decided to bust out this dress for the special occasion.
I got many complements on it. (Thanks Kate!)

Since Anna is the teething monster... she
really LOVES popsicles!

She does really well with them, and makes
very little mess with them.

Watching a Veggie while I put a ponytail in her hair.
It's getting long enough, that I'm trying to do this more often.
It's getting her to sit still long enough that's the hard part.

Trying to eat a stone... while mommy takes a picture.

(I know it's blurry, but I couldn't resist.)  She was being
silly, so she decided to lick her toy.  Umm... yeah.

Notice the cute dress, and the ponytail!
(She refused to stay still long enough for me to get the picture.
So the back of her head will have to do.)

Well, we're 1 week from 18 months!  My how time flies.  We are just having a lot of fun with our dear Anna girl.  We've been enjoying being on the go with our "expert" walker now.  We knew she could do it, and I knew that once she figured it all out, there would be very little crawling.  That's exactly how it is.  She may crawl only if something is nearby and crawling would make sense.  Otherwise, it's all walking!  She is even asking sometimes to get down when I'm carrying her into places so she can walk.  (Today she actually said "walk please" when we were walking into the Y.)  Currently, she is doing really well asking for, or putting her hand up to hold onto one of our hands if we're in the parking lot or walking on the street (since we don't have sidewalks).

We started this weekend trying to let Anna feed herself some newer things with a spoon.  She has done well with a fork for a while and hasn't shown much interest in a spoon... but this weekend, she took an interest and did pretty well.  Her first food?  A frosty!  hahah... she would have done even better with it, had the frosty not melted.  She also did well with the applesauce, and yogurt.  And yes, it does get everywhere, but that's what bibs are for.  It's a learning process.  It's bound to get messy!  But, all in all, I'm pleased with how she is doing with it.

As far  as food goes, she is sort of in a food rut.  She still really likes her pouches, but also likes chicken, turkey, turkey hotdogs,  and milk a whole lot.  She isn't too interested most of the time in trying new foods, but generally if I can get the first bite in her mouth, she'll realize she likes it, and tries it on her own.  It's the first bite that is the hardest.

Talking.  Wow... is she a talker!  The last time I made a list, it was in the low 50's as far as number of words.  Anna still does really well with people's names.  She has a great memory for people.  (She definitely does not get that from her father!)  There's at least 15 names that she consistently uses.  I'm also amazed that she knows our schedule and knows the names in that respect.  For example on Mondays she goes to Grandma and Grandpa Leeper's house.  And when I say "Okay, Anna let's go see Grandma and Grandpa."  On Monday, she will respond with "[Aunt] Launi?"  (Their daughter.)  So she knows Monday is Grandma and Grandpa Leeper's house even if I don't say it... and she knows that Aunt Launi goes with them.  Now, same scenario, if I say on Wednesday "Ok, let's go see Grandma and Grandpa" then she will respond with "Mimmee?" (Kimmee).  It may be something little, but I don't know, I'm amazed by it!  Anna is also doing well with saying "Please" for something if she wants it, but it is hit or miss with "Thank you."  She will however say "Thank you" if we tell her to say it.  It's all a learning process.  I do love that I've had people outside of our home tell us that she says please and thank you.  (People at church have told me this, as well as at the Y.  So it must be fairly consistent!)

I am transitioning Anna into her 18 month clothes.  They're still fairly big, and a few of the shorts/pants don't stay up too well, but the shirts are usually ok.  I also got her size 4 sandals today, and they seem to fit ok.  We're still wearing size 3 diapers.  Anna was weighed on Sunday (not technically in this time frame, but I'll forget in 2 weeks), and she weighed 22 pounds 8 ounces.  Although, some days when I'm carrying her out to the car or whatnot, it seems like she weighs at least 30!

Sleep the last 2 weeks has been a little rough.  It's been manageable, but on and off rough.  For the most part she is sleeping through the night, and sleeps from 9pm-7/8am.  I think her teeth are to blame for the rough patch.  However the last few nights have been okay. So hopefully we're past that.

And now, since you've made it this far... I thought I'd reward you with a super cute video!!  Enjoy!

.

Well... I think that's about it!  Thanks for checking in on us!!

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!!