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!)

Weeks 83, 84, 85, and 86 (19 months)

 Well hello out there in blog world!
As you can see, I am definitely finding that our busy schedule is making blogging difficult.. and picture taking for that matter.  Right after the last blog post, we enjoyed a splendid family vacation.  We went with my parents, Aunts & Uncles, cousins, friends, and Jer's family.  It was a great time.  Unfortunately, I do not have a lot of pictures from that adventure.  (We were busy swimming not a good place for a phone/camera.)

Anna did really well in the car.  I caught her with her new obsession...Baby Elmo.
Most of our stops revolved around fast food that had play areas (mostly Chick-fil-a).

While we were there my dad and I went to the Titanic Museum.  It was fantastic.  This is
the outside of the museum.  Cool huh?

Every morning, we were up bright and early. Jer and I took turns. This was my morning,
and we were waiting for her medicine (for acid reflux) to go through the waiting period ( 30 min)
before she could eat.  So I let her watch a VeggieTales on the portable DVD player.  She loved it!
She did so well not injuring the player.

We spent the day with Aunt Jill, Uncle Dawson, Nana, Papa, De, Val, & Bryant.
Mommy caught them being silly with the princess!  (Thanks Aunt Jill!!)

One word to describe this picture... TEETHING!  Oy!

We got to meet up with Uncle Justin... and at first (during dinner) she was a little
reluctant.  But as you can tell, she warmed up to him.

He even got some love (they were bonding over his phone, and keys!  The way to a
19 month old's heart!!).

When we got back, we watched the dogs for a few days.
(yeah there's a story that goes with that.)

Anna has gotten really good at playing at the playground.  She
does really well on the slides, and isn't scared!!
She doesn't like getting her hands dirty, though.

One day this week, Aunt Jill & Uncle Dawson brought the kids out the play and have lunch.
This was the only picture I took.
Hi Val!!

We spent a few hours at Penitentiary Glen.  They have a little play area.
It's an action shot!

And, we're back to the metroparks.
What's a trip the metroparks without
harassing the geese?!

                                               For those of you who are "The Big Bang Theory" fans
                                               you will appreciate the video above.  Her Aunt "Noani"
                                               (Joanie) and Aunt Leah put their own twist on things
                                               while we were in Tennessee.  (It will come in handy for
                                               our Thursday visits!)



Well that's a little bit of what we've been up to recently.  Anna-Banana keeps us busy!!  We love her so much!

Here are the current stats as we know them...

Sleep:  Anna seems to have hopefully finally moved past her night wakings.  Although some nights, she will wake up and cry/fuss for a little bit of time.  Recently, she hasn't been waking, although the tradeoff seems to be that she's been going to bed a little later... later than we'd like.  However, she's been sleeping in a little bit later too.  She's been sleeping from 10/10:30- 8:30/9. 

Acid Reflux:  Since we got back from our vacation, on the advice of her pediatrician, we have been weaning her from her Prevacid.  She has been getting it every other day for the last week and a half.  Mid next week we'll go every 3rd day giving her, her medication.  Hopefully she'll tolerate the weaning, and will do ok without the medication.  If not, we'll start back up again, and try the weaning again in a few months.

Food:  Anna is still hit or miss with meals.  Some days she eats a ton, some days not so much.  She still really likes baby food pouches, but isn't eating as much of those.  I can occasionally get her to eat some veggies, but she does like fruit a lot.  Her favorite fruits are bananas, blueberries, strawberries and apples.  She enjoys some grilled cheese, pasta, kielbasa, yogurt, cheese, ham, turkey, chicken, bread, corn, carrots, popped corn, and her favorite: milk!   Anna also loves to munch on Cherrios too!

Words:  Anna does really well talking!  She's good at communicating with us.  Although, I'm starting to think that I just understand her really well too.  She definitely has a boat-load of words.  She amazes me with the words she tries to say.  I find it silly that if she doesn't think she can say it, she'll just give you a little giggle and smile.

Activity:  Anna likes to play with others, but can also play by herself when she needs to.  She likes to play outside any time, any place!!  She likes her push toys, balls, swings, slides, and especially rocks!!  (She loves to collect them, move them or give them to people...ie daddy.)  Sometimes she likes to do somersaults (especially on a bed, or something soft).  Anna definitely likes to dance and shake her bum.  Haha... I try to get a video of it... but she always stops before I can.  She seems to know what I'm trying to do!  Anna loves to run everywhere as well!

Favorite Things:  Anna is definitely still in love with Bob and Larry!  Anything VeggieTales is fine with her!  When we (ie mom & dad) get tired of Bob and Larry, we switch over to Elmo.  At bedtime she loves to have a stuffed animal, her glow worm, and her pillow pet that lights up, and a blanket.  (It sounds like a lot... but it really isn't.  Most of the toys stay at the end of her bed.)

Clothes/size:  Anna usually wears 18 month clothes, although, can still wear 12 month dresses or shorts.  She tends to be too tall for 12 month pants, but sometimes has a hard time holding up her 18 month pants/shorts.  I put an 18 month dress on her this week, and it was only a little bit above her ankle.  So I still prefer (for some dresses) her to wear 12 month.  She hasn't been weighed recently, so I have no idea how much she weighs... or her height for that matter.  She is still in size 3 diapers, and size 4 shoes.

Well our little girl keeps us busy!  We thank the Lord every day for the brilliant, beautiful, healthy little girl that He gave us!

Thank you for checking in on us!!

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!!