Eighteen Months for Anna Kate

It's been awhile since I've blogged any about baby Anna Kate. She just turned 19 months old so I thought I'd better write down a few things about this stage before I forget! Most of these photos were taken on Mother's Day and she turned 18 months 12 days later. I elected not to do professional 18 month shots. I did with Emily. For Caleb, we took his one year old photos closer to 13 months and the next month did family photos for our Christmas card. I really didn't need more photos four months later of him at 18 months so we waited until he was two. With Anna, I have still not printed out many of her 12 month photos! It is hard to keep up with all the photos and stages and yet they are so fleeting. She reminds me of Emily a lot, but she has her own unique personality.

Addendum as of 6/7/16
Height: 31 inches Weight: 25 lbs. 14 oz

Temperament:

Anna Kate plays well on her own and with her siblings. She prefers to be around others, but she can get lost in a pile of books or with a toy for minutes at a time. I try to stay out of eyeshot if she's engrossed in something. ;) She's a little more high maintenance about her sleep, but I'm discovering that she will now put herself to bed and nap with less than five minutes of fussing usually. I'm trying to do this more. It has gotten really old to play "her song" on loop for 20 minutes until she passes out asleep. It used to get her to sleep within a few minutes and now it doesn't. When I ask her if she wants to go to bed she shakes her head vigorously "no" and has a high pitched "uh,uh" sound. She usually doesn't say "no." If you ask her if she wants something and she's in agreement she says "yeah." He "yeah" sounds almost  like a cat's meow.

Anna is very affectionate. She smiles a lot and is generous with her hugs and kisses. We love it when she laughs out loud at something she finds silly or amusing. When she is shy or cautious around someone or some situation, she turns her head, looks down and hikes her shoulder up. It's pretty cute. Anna has had some separation anxiety since about ten months. It is some better now in familiar situations. I can leave her at the church nursery for example, but I'm anticipating that the move to her toddler classroom may bring it out again.

She's very independent and will no longer let anyone spoon feed her anything. Her yogurt and oatmeal are the messiest. She starts with a spoon and then starts eating it by the handful. It's so much fun to clean up! haha! Luckily, she has fed herself finger foods for a really long time. We only spoon fed these couple of items so it's not a real big change. However, I do look forward to the day when the kitchen floor isn't a disaster after nearly every meal.

Sweet moment with grandparents during their March spring break trip.

Gross Motor:

She climbs upstairs by crawling or holding a rail. She normally goes down our stairs by bum scooting. She can also hold a rail and go down stairs at the park. She has been doing the park play structure for months now (baby girl started walking at nine months.) She loves going up/down stairs and slides. Recently, she has liked swinging more. She will even swing on the "big girl" swings and let me push her gently. One afternoon, I sat on the ground and pushed her back and forth for about 20 minutes and she was as happy as could be. She's a fast little runner. She will "hike" with me for about a half mile or more if we're following a pathway of interest. She throws and kicks balls. She can't jump with two feet yet, but it is so funny to watch her try. She can climb up on the couch, chairs, etc. with ease. She likes to climb up on our hearth to give us performances. Girl's got some dance moves and loves the attention we give her when she's on stage.

Fine Motor:

She picks up small pieces easily. She can stack four-five small blocks on top of one another. She uses a fork or spoon with either hand (rather messily at times, of course.) Recently, she made a large tower of Magnaforms. (They go together easily because of the attraction.) She plays with small cars and trains and figures.

Mother's Day pics. We dressed them up a little more than usual for Sunday church

How crazy that I have two girls with blue eyes?

Creative Play:

She loves her baby doll. She pushes her around the house in her stroller. Oh my goodness, she loves her stroller (and everyone else's, too. Watch out because she will steal yours if we're at the park and she sees it!) She likes to sit and pretend to read books to herself. She likes to perform using her light up microphone. She sings "Tinkle Tinkle" on pitch for "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," but doesn't know any of the other words. She also sings "E-I-E-I-O" for Old Macdonald's Farm. I look forward to her learning more songs this year!

Language Development:

She says the following words regularly: hi/bye, mommy, mama, dada, daddy, baby, go, yeah, no, hot, uh oh, uh uh (no), nana (banana), Pop, Nan, NeNe (Dinkney), head, eyes, lights, cars, and that (while pointing). She can repeat many other words when we ask her to say them.

Her receptive language is getting larger all the time and difficult to try to write down everything. She knows the names of several body parts and will touch them. She knows where we keep food. She'll run to the cupboard or fridge if I ask if she's hungry or thirsty. She understands when we say we're going to go outside (she runs to back door) or we're going to go change her diaper (she runs away.) She knows words about the park and rooms in the house. She knows the names of her siblings and will point to them, but she doesn't say their names. Caleb's name is a hard one to say, but I'm surprised she still doesn't say "Emmy." She can follow one step commands such as "go get your baby" or "go throw that in the trash." She points to various animals (e.g. duck, bird, frog, dog, cat, cow, squirrel, lion, tiger, etc) and attempts to say their names or make their sounds. Right now she makes a pretty funny "mm" sound for "moo," roars when she sees a lion or tiger, and attempts to say "arf" for dogs and "quack quack" for ducks. Her "quack" sounds like a possessed, evil duck and it's hilarious. I think her first official sentence was "I want that."

That pose!

This was all I really wanted for Mother's Day--a sweet photo of my three children together. 

Favorites:

She loves the "Spot the Dog" books and Karen Katz lift the flap books. She tends to reach for those daily. She loves her baby dolls. I keep trying to get her attached to a pink lovey, but she usually throws it out of the crib most nights. ha! She likes stuffed animals, especially when we make them "talk." She loves Caleb's big trucks and little Thomas trains. She loves Emily's old doll stroller. Baby girl has the best of both worlds with a huge array of "boy" and "girl" toys to pick from. We've bought very few toys for her. (Have we bought any? Most of the new ones she has are from birthday/Christmas presents from grandparents or aunts/uncles.) While I wish I could say she didn't watch TV, it's pretty much impossible to keep her away from it with having two older siblings. These days Curious George, Mickey Mouse Club House, and PJ Masks hold her attention for a short time.

Food:

I weaned her at around 18 months when I attended the Hume Lake Women's Retreat. I was gone from her almost three full days. I had weaned her down to about 2-3 feedings a day and she had cow's milk in a sippy cup or water the rest of the time. The weaning process went pretty well overall. I only had to pump twice while I was gone from her. Jeremy managed to get her to sleep and nap pretty well in my absence. I think one night she woke up some and he had to hold her a lot and one night slept through the night, but he managed her OK. She pretty much eats like the other kids. All my kids eat everything for awhile and then start to get picky right before they turn two. Now she throws things off the plate that aren't her favorite things. Like the other kids, she eats a wide variety of fruits, dairy, breads, and a handful of veggies. She doesn't eat meats that well, but she will eat meat sauce, eggs, fish sticks, and chicken nuggets.

Game day for Emily, Nan and Pop got to go to one of her soccer games while they were visiting. 

One of the first times we got a photo of Anna with the Golden Gate Bridge. We made a trip to the Bay Area Discovery Museum and then drove Mom and Dad down this road for them to check out the amazing views.

Mother's Day 2016 with my kiddos