18 Months!

I forgot to mention that we celebrated Squirt's 18 month birthday already! How time does fly. She had a very special day, even though the weather didn't cooperate super nicely. We went to the bebow and played for quite some time, and the ducks even put on a special show for her! It was so cute; they all started diving under the water and flying back up all at once! It was quite spectacular, and she was a great audience - laughing, delighted, asking for more. They obliged, so she got to see it twice before they were done. She got to have all sorts of treats and special treatment (although she always gets special treatment), and I think the day was pretty nice for her. Probably her favorite thing is that we turned her car seat around. I wanted to wait until she was 2, since backward facing is the safest and all, but she's getting so interactive and curious that it seemed better for her overall well-being to face forward. Sure enough, she absolutely adores facing forward, so much so that she actually asks for car rides and wants more once we get to our destination. I think it must make her feel like a hotshot, and I have to agree that she is one.

My Little Monkey

All this time I thought I had a child, but no, she's a monkey. ALL she does all day is climb on everything. She has figured out how to get on the couch, the recliner, the rocker, the ottoman, up the stairs, and on all the kitchen chairs. It's a bit unnerving to see her so nimble and clever. She's quite a problem solver, and she can usually figure out how to get herself where she wants to go. At the park I'm amazed at all the things she can do now. So many places she can climb and maneuver, when just a short time ago she wasn't able to do hardly any of it on her own. My little monkey is growing up FAST.

She can pretty much go down any slide on her own, she can climb some of the crazy steps/walls/ladders that practically give me a heart attack, she loves the bouncy cars and dinos and whatnot, she loves playing in the sand and using her sand tools, and of course she loves the swings. We've had quite a great and busy summer of our "tour de bebow."

A Dream Come True

Before Anna was born, I remember sitting in the rocker (which happens to be Rabbie's) in her future nursery and imagining what it would be like after she was born. I imagined snuggling with her in the rocker and reading a book together. Sunday evening, Anna and I were sitting in the rocker and looking at a book together, and it occurred to me that it was exactly the way I had dreamed it would be those years ago. When she was younger and I'd read to her there, it wasn't the same because I knew that she didn't understand what I was saying or what we were doing. She's able to follow the books now and look at the pictures and interact while I read to her. It was such a peaceful and happy moment. We don't get a ton of those these days, since Anna has the attention span of a toddler. It's really difficult to sit down and read books together, because she can't sit still for that long. Having her able to relax for a bit with me and snuggle was definitely magical.

Getting Our Money's Worth!

We've been getting some decent use out of our zoo membership this year. We've already been 3 times! We love being members, because we can go for short amounts of time without having to worry. Anna has been enjoying it thoroughly. We went on Sunday with Daddy and saw the bears, wild dogs, and spent some time in the Hamill Family Play Zoo, then we went again today with Auntie Carrie! We saw the bears again, and the fish/penguins, the wolves (who were very active), and the Children's Zoo. She loved the goats and the chickens. Actually it was really funny, because she kept saying "yum!" when we were in the chicken coop! Ha ha. Although it was a really hot day today, it sure was fun seeing all the animals - and getting to hang out with Auntie Carrie!!

Evenrod's Howling

Anna has been doing something quite strange the last couple evenings. On our walks she has been fascinated with the moon. She stares and points at it, and if we turn away or it gets hidden by clouds or trees, she gets agitated until she can see it again. I have no idea what brought this on, but the moon doesn't even look like a ball right now; if it did, I might be able to understand why Anna would get so excited. As it were, just looking maybe like a C, I'm not sure why she is reacting this way!

Miss Independence

Every day it seems like Anna wants to do something new by herself. First she started with brushing her teeth (although she just sucks on the toothbrush), then she wanted to wash her hands on her own, sometimes she refuses to eat unless we let her feed herself, and now she wants to push the stroller and pull the wagon, rather than riding in them! She's also getting better at going down the stairs; she takes them very cautiously and can generally do okay; this is something that I'm very, very glad she's working on! This weekend I got some great stuff for her, including her own table and chairs. She got to try them out in Utah and loved them, and now she hates to sit in her high chair. Anytime that I say it's time to eat, she runs to her "big girl" chair and sits in it. Too cute.

She also got her very own Tigger doll, having already gotten Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore. She LOVES him, maybe because he sits up really well on his own. She has been posing him all over the house... having him sit in her chair, on her step stool, on the ottoman. She gets a kick out of it! We also got this fun wall light that is shaped like a flower (or wahwee, if you're Squirty), but I haven't decided the best place to put it yet. I also found this neato collapsible tunnel at IKEA that I thought looked fun, and Anna has been playing with it delightfully for the past couple days!

Have I mentioned her belly-button obsession? I don't remember. She plays with it almost every time she sucks her thumb (mainly when she's tired), but she also looks for it occasionally - and checks for other people's too! If I dress her in an outfit that keeps her from easy access, she's pretty unhappy about it. Such a nutcase!

Silly Little Kid

Anna just started doing something really funny - she squats down and goes, "Dah!" I need to get a video of it, because for some reason I think it is one of the cutest things ever. I told Tim I think it's because it seems more like a kid thing to do, instead of a baby thing. He said that could be because it's so deliberate. Whatever the reason, I think it's super cute, and usually when I ask her to do it she will (with a big smile on her face!) Also in this video you'll see part of her emerging wit and MAJOR silliness!

Sleepover

Anna had her first Non-Mommy sleepover on Friday! Tim and I went to the Carole King/James Taylor concert, so Grammie and Grampy took care of her for the evening. She did WAY better than expected! When I left her in the afternoon, she was sharing a glass of sweet tea with Grampy and didn't cry at all. Then Grammie got home and they had pizza (she had 2 1/2 squares! sheesh!), and they went for a walk and to the bebow, and then had some ice cream later. She loved her "auxiliary" car seat that they have, because she got to be a forward-facing hotshot. When she got tired later in the evening, she basically told Grammie that she wanted to go to her cribbie (which they had set up in their bedroom). Went to bed with no incident, slept all night... and in the morning woke up and said, "Hi!" Never once did the little girlie cry or ask for me, and she had a wonderful time! I can't believe how big she's gotten, being able to have sleepovers without me! It definitely makes me happy that it was so successful, and we're planning on doing it again sometime soon!

Music Lover

It's no surprise to me that my daughter loves music, considering both her parents are musicians (not to mention that I'm a music teacher). It is pretty funny how opinionated she is about the songs she wants to hear, and how she wants to hear it ALL the time. She'll say, "Da?" and start to shake her hips - it's hilarious! If I put on a song that she doesn't want to hear, she will shake her head no until I find the right one. She even has her own playlist in iTunes, because one day I played a bunch of random songs to see which ones she liked best (I was getting just a tad tired of hearing "I Saw Her Standing There" 10,000 times a day). Turns out that, in addition to loving that song, she also really likes "Where You Lead" (duh), "Yellow Submarine," and "We Can Work It Out." That last one is the most recent favorite, and I'm very excited because that's one of my favorites too! Sesame Street is still her favorite CD, and now she knows how to turn it on when she's in her room. I will be VERY excited when she figures out how to sing along with these songs!

4th of July

This year's July has been warm and sunny... until we got to the actual holiday. It rained off and on, but still, it was fun. We went up to Tim's Uncle Mike/Aunt Terry's house again, since they have a big party every year. It was hot enough to swim, but Anna was slow to warm up to the water. I think she's completely forgotten about her swim lessons from last year. Eventually though, she didn't mind being in the water, and eventually she would even let us splash her. We got to borrow an innertube for her to sit in, and she loved that too. She also loved their little "bebow," which had a slide and a swing, so much fun to be had. Anna definitely wasn't a fan of the bouncy house though... I think part of it was that the first time she was in there a bigger boy got in there too and was a bit too rowdy for her liking. There was also a 10 yr old there named Kennedy, who was very good at acting like a Mommy. She took Anna under her wing and played with her, pushed her in the swing, and helped her climb the climbing wall. I've never seen anyone so good at playing mom before! It was a nice relief too to have someone play with Anna who isn't me!

I'm posting 2 pictures of my Squirt - one from this year, and one from last year. How time flies!!