Just Waiting for Mommy

The other day when I went to get Anna from a nap, this is what I found.  Because I didn't hear her, I figured she was still sleeping and I was going to have to get her up.  However, when I opened the door I found her with a fist full of her beloved binkies, sitting back and chilling with her stuffed animals and her legs casually crossed! She was just sitting there waiting for me to come get her!

Duckies and Fishies and 18 MONTHS OLD!!!!

My little baby somehow turned 18 months old this past Saturday!!  I just can't believe it! At 18 months she has been up to a whole lot!  She is still a talker (just not too much out in public) and now says quite a few sentences as well.  She can count to ten if you prompt her.  If she counts on her own she generally skips 4,5 and 6.  While she knows many letters, her favorites are W and X by far.  Whenever she has a crayon or a piece of chalk she will ask for a W or an X to be written.  Her favorite things to do currently are to look at books, do her puzzles, play with beads, clothes and jewelry, color and walk the yard exclaiming at every little thing she comes across.  She loves to look for rabbits but whenever she sees one she says she wants to kick it!?!?!?  This is the only time she says she wants to kick something other than balls.  I am not quite sure about where that comes from becuase she is very gentle with everything/one (except for sometimes to our cat).  I could go on but to sum it up the stuff she says really keeps us laughing!
On Annalise's 18 month birthday, Emily and I took Anna to feed the ducks and fish at, well, I don't remember what the place is called. It is a golf course/fish hatchery located just outside of Benton.....yeah......I still don't remember. Anyway, Annalise had a blast feeding the fish and feeding/chasing/quacking at the ducks. On the way home we stopped for frozen yogurt which she also enjoyed!

 

Getting some food for the fish.

Getting more food.

Throwing the food into the water.  She would only take one pellet at a time!

Walking across the bridge to find the ducks.

She found them!

Getting food for the ducks.

More duck feeding.

And more duck feeding...

And more duck feeding!

Enough of the feeding!  She was chasing after them!

"The" Bassinet

After reading a recent blog post by my friend, Kristin, (check out the link to a Rumble in the Jungle on the left), I felt the need to post a picture of Annalise as a newborn sleeping in this legendary bassinet =).  Yes, I realize you cannot see the bassinet in this picture, but rest assured that is where she is sleeping becuase that is the only place she slept (other than being held) for the first month.  She was never a fan of the swing or the bouncy seat until she was a couple of months older.

More Habbins (Headbands)!!! More!!! More!!!

The title of this post is a statement that we hear all the time anymore along with "More beads!" and "More clothes!" "On!On!" and "More baycits (braclets)!".  She often says these things with much urgency.  Tonight, she very urgently needed to have all of these headbands on her head at the same time (there are 5 if you look closely). If you ask me, it looks pretty uncomfortable but she insists on keeping them on for quite sometime.  Notice how her ears are folded over and her cheeks are pink because her head was sweating from them.

My Daughter's Fashion Sense

Annalise's interest clothes and accessorizing continues. In fact, the one thing that will keep her busy for quite some time is going through her drawers of clothes and trying on as many items as I will allow her to.  Once the clothes are on, she either exclaims "Ooooooooo PITTY (pretty)!" or "IT FITS!".  Anyway, on a recent morning, Anna went through all of the dresser drawers that she could reach and came up with the outfit that she has on in these pictures.  Yes folks, you are seeing correctly, she has on monkey pajamas, a jean skirt and red socks pulled up on the outside of the pajamas.  She later added a nice collection of Mardi Gras beads to accent the ensemble.  For now I completely indulge her with the whole clothes thing to wear whatever she wants around the house.  I am cringing though at the day that she wants to wear such get-ups out the door and it becomes a battle......

Shouting "Cheese!" and coloring with Tadoodles.  This was before she went for the beaded look.

Ensemb with beads

Coloring with Daddy in her beautiful outfit.  Her Daddy loves it when she wants to put crazy outfits on because it knows it drives me crazy =).

Nobody is safe from the accessorizing in this house! It is funny when she puts the beads on him because he will usually take off running around wildly and all of the beads fly off!

Accessorizing

It all started with Anna suddenly liking her hat.  Now, she is starting to like to accesorize even more.  Since Saturday, she has taken a liking to her headbands, only she likes to put them in herself which makes her hair completely crazy.  There are times she get all of them out and puts them in her hair all at the same time which makes her hair exceptionally crazy.  Today before we went for a walk she was asking for her "habbans" which are headbands and her "Bees" which are beads.  Once she had them, she was ready to go.  She wore them for the entire walk and even for awhile after.  If she likes to accessorize this much as a 17 month old, she should be interesting when she is a teenager!

All dolled up and ready to go!

Spring Fling

Yesterday was such a beautiful day so Anna and I barely spent anytime inside.  I believe the only time we spent indoors yesterday was to eat.  In the morning Anna, Emily (or Emmy as Anna says it) and I went to the Spring Fling.  In the afternoon we headed over to Weaver's Plant Farm outside of Lewisburg for thier annual plant sale (if you are looking for any plants I highly recommended them, sale or not).  I actually got all 6 of my hanging baskets for this year already although I will have to go back to get some flowers for my planters.  Anyway, after the plant farm Anna and I headed to Columbia Park (pictures below).
At the Spring Fling there was a little petting zoo (it had some goats, sheep and bunnies) that I thought Anna would love since she loves all dogs and cats no matter the size and loves all kinds of animals in books.  Well, I was wrong.  She was OK at first but them all of the goats came running over to her and she got freaked out.  She was fine if I was holding her but she didn't like standing by herself at their level.  Once out of the pen, she did enjoy Baaaing at the sheep for a little while.  Seriously, I was floored though because she has always been completely fine with any dog, no matter the size that she has been around.  Here are a few pictures of her animal experience.

Taking it in when we first got in the pen.

Petting and Baaaing at the sheep.

This is the first goat that came over, followed by a few more.

I know my hair is in the way, but here she is freaking out over the goats.

The lady came over and picked up a bunny for ther to pet.

Not letting her eyes off those goats.......

Once again a happy girl (away from the goats) and Baaaing at the sheep.

Hair Bows

Ever since Anna was born I have been dying to put hair things in her hair.  Unfortunately for me, she has never had, and STILL does not have enough hair to put anything in it.  So, needless to say I was THRILLED when Emily and I found a stand at the Spring Fling that had headbands with bows and things you could attach to them.  Now I just have to get her used to having something on her head.  So far, she is not too much of a fan.  She now loves wearing a hat though and at first she didn't like that either so I am hopeful I can get her used to them. I shot this picture quick and wanted to post it even though it isn't the best ( the thing isn't even on her correctly) because I am just soooooooooo excited at the possibility of having hair stuff in her hair (well, on her head).

Columbia Park

After a short rest at home, Annalise and I headed to Columbia Park to play.  Like I said, it was wayyyyy too nice outside to say indoors.  Columbia Park is a lot smaller and quieter than the Town Park which is much better for Anna (and me).  She really had a good time exploring and was covered in sweat and dirt by the time we left, both signs of a great time for a 17 month old.

When we got out of the car she spied the jungle gym and  a few kids.

She then promptly took off to join in....

...and didn't look back.

I caught up and took her down the big slide.  There is a picture of our feet going down the same slide last year. 

On the smaller slide by herself.  It was hard to get many good shots by myself.

Climbing up the jungle gym stairs. 

Still climbing with nice sweaty hair.

This was so funny.  Anna did not know what to think of this thing.  She just kept walking a perimeter around it saying "No, No!".  I remember last summer she drooled all over it!

Still checking it out.

She then found a parking block to sit on and sat awhile pulling out dandelions.

Annalise later found this swings. I can't get over how much bigger she looks in them this year!

This picnic table was also a hit.  She liked beating on the top of it and picking up every little stick, leaf and piece of whatever off of the top of it.