Excited to see her friends...

Note: This video was taken right before small group. Our small group meets on Sunday afternoons because of all the babies and the need to have shared sitters. It is a blessing that all our children get to play while we are meeting. Anna is in her PJs because we took off her Sunday dress for her nap. She has just gotten up from her nap and is eating a quick snack before changing and heading out the door to meet the other families for small group. Since this video was taken another baby has joined our group. Anna already has a name for sweet baby Eli, "I." Notice before I can even get the word, "baby" out of my mouth Anna is saying, "shhh" as she associates being quiet with babies.

Tattoo

The other day Kevin called me and said, "Anna has a surprise waiting for you," as he was the one to pick her up from preschool. The surprise is the marking you see on her left arm. As you will notice our little girl still sucks those two fingers but only when she is in her crib. You will also notice if you look closely how her fitted sheet is not so fitted. This is because Anna immediately pulls up the sheet when she is placed in her crib and holds it between the fingers of her right hand as she places her left fingers in her mouth. If a new sheet has been placed on her crib she will grunt and pull on the sheet until it is loose enough for her to place it between her fingers. Anna has never taken to a "woobie" or "lovey" like many of her friends but the sheet between her fingers is a must for falling asleep.

Back to the surprise...Here is a close-up of Anna's pumpkin tattoo. Throughout the day Anna would look down just to make sure it was still there.

A new kind of ride...

Often the three of us take a stroll around our neighborhood after dinner and on the weekends we take many walks with Anna in the stroller or the backpack. Since daddy's foot has been hurt we have not been able to walk as a family. Kevin did suggest a double stroller but we couldn't find one big enough. This weekend we decided on another mode of transportation for both Kevin and Anna that did not hurt Kevin's foot. We all had a blast as Anna ventured on the back of Kevin's bike for the first time.

Getting ready. Safety a must.

A little unsure at first. We were afraid the bike seat would be too much like a swing and that Anna would not enjoy the ride.

But it did not take long for her to be all smiles.

See you around the block!

Waaerin..

Now before getting the mail each day Anna will pick up the spray nozzle of the hose and go around and water each of our plants. One day the nozzle was just sitting on our porch and our little girl marched up, picked it up and went prancing into the flower beds to "waaer."

Spoiled...

Mommy just isn't sure who this is a treat for more, Daddy or Anna? This is a rare, rare site in our house these days but is the peaceful picture I came home to on Sunday afternoon after being gone all day. I think daddy just wanted a chance to nap too and prop up his hurt toe, which by the way is a word Anna says over and over again as daddy bandages up his toe and puts it in his boot. When Kevin returned home after getting hurt, Anna pointed to Kevin's toe and said, "toe." We didn't even know this word was in her vocabulary! Other words this week..."gurt" (yogurt), "bus, " "pants, " "punes" (prunes), "go," "daaace" (dance), and "bag" (specifically for the bag we take to preschool. Anna will point to it and say "bag, bye-bye"). A few words she has been saying for awhile that I forgot to add on the last post are "wall" (waffle), "sear" (ears), "bu" (sand buckets), "gla" (sunglasses) and "saha" (it's hot) with her hand waving to cool it off and her lips puckered to blow on the piece of food that is placed before her.

What doesn't belong?

if you guessed ten little toes that belong to this little girl, you're right!

Saturday Fun!

Here Anna is at her first fall festival and first encounter with pumpkins. It was a beautiful day to spend outside at Bur Mil park's festival.

Got Mail?

One of our favorite daily activities is getting the mail. When asked if she wants to get the mail Anna will ask for her shoes and socks if they are not already on and then she heads for the door. She quickly makes her way down the driveway reaching for my hand when we get to a step. Some days we even get to see the mailman himself. This thrills Anna as we read about the mailman in one of her books. She will say over and over again, "mail." Most days Anna receives more mail (all our junk mail and envelopes) than both Kevin and me. We make our way up the driveway and then she asks for her mail. Anna is very protective of her mail and does not like others to handle. She spends often up to a half hour sorting her mail, reading it and then when we make our way inside she sorts a little more and bit by bit the mail makes its way into the trash. Anna in the past week or so discovered the true function of our kitchen trashcan. She will throw away almost any piece of paper into the trash, nothing else, just paper. She crumbles it up and tosses it. It first began when I took some paper off some straws I had given to her to play with and I threw the paper into our kitchen trashcan. A few minutes later she was making her way to the kitchen trashcan and as I looked in it to see what she had tossed I saw some of the paper I had missed on the straws. When she heads to the trash, often she will say one of her favorite phrases, "got it." Another one of her favorite phrases is when she drops something she will point to it and say, "get it." Often this happens when she drops food when she is eating. She will repeat it over and over again until we, "get it."

One more...

Well, maybe two. Not sure how I could have forgotten the word that gets repeated over and over again throughout the day, which is...
"Pay"-play! When Anna is done with her lunch she will say "pay?" as if a question. When we get out of the car she says, "pay?" When I take her into her room for a diaper change and she thinks it might be time for night-night she repeats over and over again "pay, pay." Speaking of diaper changes, Anna loves to say "shew" when she has a stinky. I am sure I will think of many more words that this little girl says, but I will have to store them up for another post. Now that it is time for my bedtime I will leave you with the last word that comes to mind that Anna has down..."bed" (for mommy and daddy's bed). Night-Night all!

All smiles and lots of words....

Eating a "crackr" at the lake.

Squeezing into a "box" after a "baa"

"peek-a-boo"

If you know our girl, you know this is a major accomplishment as Anna refuses to swing. She still will not swing in a baby swing but she will slide down any slide. We went to the park 4 times this weekend and by the end of the weekend she was waking up from her nap saying, "slide."

Everyday is an adventure with our sweet girl and each day brings more and more words that our little one says. Just tonight we were eating chicken pot pie. As we served up dinner we shared with her we were eating pot pie. When her plate was cleaned she said ,"peese pot pie."

Here are some of the words we hear her say often...

"more"
"seye"-eyes She often puts the "s" at the front of the word but occasionally she will say, "eyes."

"uh-o"
"mou"-mouth
"buh"-book
"peese"-please
"baa"-bath
"showr"-shower Yes, our little one knows the difference between a bath (her bathroom has a tub) and the shower in our bathroom. Often Anna begs to take a "showr" but she still loves bath time with her daddy.
"cado"-avocado
"sauce"-applesauce
"grapes"
"fish, "gol-gols", "OOs" For when she wants a snack.
"crackr" Anna's new favorite treat, thanks to her grandmommy...a Graham Cracker
"uhh"-up
"down"
"deuce" Anna will stick out our hand, fist balled up and give us a deuce pound all while saying "deuce."
"phone" These days almost anything can be used as a phone if she can't find her cell phone to put up to her ear.
"biii"-bib For so long we battled keeping a bib on our sweet girl. Now she often points and ask for it, if is not on when she starts to eat.
"shoe"
"socks"
"beep-beep"
"tweet-tweet" The sound birdies make
"kiyy ka"-kitty cat
"hat"
"door"
"blow" This is a new trick. Anna constantly wants to blow her nose. Anytime she sees a tissue she asks to "blow" and will stand there and wipe her nose. Her favorite thing is to watch herself in the mirror "blow" her nose.
"nose"
"no"
"moma"
"dada"
"granday"-grandaddy
"gray-gray" For her friend Grayson
"maie " For her friend Madison. She doesn't pronounce the "d's."
"mac" For her friend Mac.
"got it"
"get it"
"car"
"truc"-truck
"sit"
"mail"
"step"
"girl"
"man"
"buba" Our neighbors dog at the lake. Anytime we hear a dog bark she will say, "buba"

"cli"-cute clips for cute girls by millie (all of Anna's clippies)
"cup"
"waer" -water
"ball"
"baby"
"boat"
"wee"
"slide" The slide at the park.
"side" outside
"night-night"
"done"
"down"
"gone"
"box"
"blocks"
"pane"-plane
"shhhh" with her finger on her mouth.
"squirl"-squirrel
and of course, "hey," "hi" and "bye"

Whew. As you can tell Anna is really able to communicate with us. It is rare that we don't understand what she wants or is trying to convey to us. What amazes me just as much as her extensive vocabulary is her ability to grasp the meaning of a word. For example, Anna will see our neighbor watering his yard and she yells out, "waer." She can then be at the lake and see the body of water before her and say, "waer." Yet she also knows that the only other thing she drinks other than milk is water and will ask for "waer" at mealtime. It amazes me that she can differentiate between the three yet know they are all the same.
Another example is with a car. Anna has known for a long time that the big object that passes by our house is a "car." But just recently she was flipping through a magazine and said, "car" as she pointed to a car. Even just this morning as Anna was waking a school bus was passing by our house. Through the monitor we could hear her repeating "truc, truc" but then she stopped and said "pane, pane." She knew both the plane and truck made a loud noise. It was almost as if she was trying to figure out which one it was. Isn't the mind an amazing thing?! Whew, that was a long overdue update on our almost one and a half year old.