A Wonderful Afternoon -- Minus the Shots

Yesterday Annalise had her 18 month check up (actually she is 19 months).  She was great.  It was the first time I actually let her walk around the little room when we were waiting for the doctor to come in and she didn't touch anything that I asked her not to.  When it was time for the shots she didn't even cry at all!  She whimpered a little, her lip quivered and her face turned a little red at first but she was completely fine when I scooped her up and praised her.  I think the shots bothered me more than her.  She is still really tall and the doctor said at this point it is likely safe to assume that she is going to be quite tall.  She was 35.5 inches, again the 99th %ile and 26 lbs 7 ounces which was the 70 something %ile (I was distracted at that moment).  After the trip to the doctor we had a little picnic lunch at Columbia Park and then played on the playground for a while.  She played for more than an hour and was really great when I told her it was time to go.  She even followed another little girl around and held hands with her for a little bit.  I love watching her begin to interact with other kids.  At one point a little boy ran up to her and his parents started yelling, "Be Nice! Be Nice!".  I was a little concerned as to what exactly they were fearful that he might do to her.  His parents eventually nervously came over and got him and he had a FIT!  I can't imagine the feeling of being worried about what your kid might do to another kid.  I mean don't get me wrong, Anna has moments when she gets upset about not getting or doing something (which are now pretty short lived which I REALLY hope stay that way), but she never initiates poor behavior with another child.  Anyway, with the beautiful weather it made for a wonderful afternoon with my #1 girl!

Enjoying her lunch.  The table was a little high for her but she managed.

Watching the other kids on the playground

Cheese! I LOVE this picture!

Popping in a blueberry.  I can't keep up with the fruit this girl eats.  We currently spend a ridiculous amount each week on produce.

Mouth full of fruit.

A little annoyed with the camara and saying a very forced "cheese".

Climbing up the stairs

Very seriously venturing on the wobbly bridge.

A little smile as it wobbles.

"Hey, this bridge is fun!"

Going down the littlest slide herself.

She loved this tube.  I am sure I looked ridiculous crawling back and forth through it with her but there are only big kid things on the other side.

Still in the tube.

She thought it was funny when she would get to the end and turn around and I was right behind her!

Pile On!

The other night when we were getting ready for her bath, Annalise climbed into the rocking chair and asked me to get some of her stuffed animals.  She is really starting to love her animals and play with them a lot.  She likes to "read" to them, rock them, hug and kiss them, "feed" them with a spoon and take them for walks in her "baby cart" or for a spin in her car outside.  Anyway, on this night she wanted some of them in the chair with her.  It started with two and then it became a game.  This was the end result of the game.....

She kept asking for more and more.  She finally exclaimed "All done!" at this point!

Anna's New Ride

This is Annalise's new car that I picked up at a yard sale for $4.  She loves it although I don't know how much time she actually spends riding in it.  She usually is getting in and out, in and out, in and out or is loading the "trunk" with rocks and clumps of mulch.  She also enjoys beeping the horn!

Climbing in

Going for a spin!

Loading up the trunk

I haven't had a whole lot of yard sale success lately but this was one other good find.  I bought this Little Tykes easel for $2!  It is practically brand new!  It is just in the garage right now because I have to clean out the tray.  It is a little dirty because the people said they had it in storage.  Other than that, it is in perfect condition!

My Flowers

This year I got my hanging baskets really early and they were really puny because it was so early.  I remember being concerned about what color pots they were in because you could see so much of the pot at the time.  Anyway, no one else may care at all about my flowers so I will wrap this up quickly =).  I took a few pictures of just my hangers the other day because I am amazed at how much the baskets have grown.  I absolutely love flowers and would love to have a huge flower garder someday (but probably not until I am retired...LOL).

"Moooooooooomyyyyyyyyy" and "Mommy-Lise"

Lately, I have been greeted with "Mooooooooomyyyyyyyyyyyy" coming over the monitor in the morning.  Up until this past week she just used to sit in her crib and talk to her stuffed animals or sing songs until I would go over and get her.  This week she has decided she does not have time for that anymore =).  Instead she just sits there saying a long drawn out "Mommy" until I go over.  I do have to admit that it is the best way to wake up in the morning (also because she still sleeps until 8 =)).
Another thing she has started doing this past week is putting the word "Mommy" in front of things or substituting it altogether for something else.  For example, tonight I was eating popcorn and she asked what it was.  I told her it was popcorn and she said "Oh, it Mommy-Corn" and now she actually calls it Mommy-Corn.  She has done this a bunch of times this week with things but the one other time that stands out to me was the other night.  We were looking in the mirror on the back of the dining room hutch.  She was kind of peeking around stuff and I said "Where's Annalise?".  She said back to me with a smile on her face "I don't know, where Mommy-lise?" =).

Reading

One of Anna's favorite things to do is look at books.  Lately she has been pulling her little chair right next to her books in the living room and has been sitting quite sometime looking at them.  When she pulls her chair over and sits down, she usually goes "Hmmmmmmmmm" when she is making her selection!  In these pictures she was just kind of being silly because I had the camara so you won't see much perusing going on here.

18 (Actually 19 Month) Photo Shoot

Last weekend I took Annalise for her 18 month pictures.  Once again, the Picture People did a great job!  I love that place!  They always deal with Anna's shyness really well and allow her to warm up to being there before they try to get pictures of her.  Here are some of the photos from that session.  They are really small because I can't figure out how to "borrow" them in the larger size.

You Can See My Brain!

Tonight when Anna and I got out of the pool she and I were lounging in the Air Chair that we have under the deck.  She was facing me and we asking each other what different things were.  I started asking her about the parts of the face and I asked her where my ear was. She pointed to it and I then asked her what was in my ear.  I was referring to my earring which is usually something she points out immediately to me and asks me to take off so she can look at them.  Anyway, when I asked her what was in my ear she answered "Brain".  I said, "You can see my  brain in my ear?".  She said very seriously, "Yes." 
I laughed and started to try to figure out where she got that from.  Later it hit me.  We read a book where a little bear goes to the doctor and it goes through the whole exam.  At one point the doctor looks in the bear's ear and I always jokingly tell her he is looking at his brain. 
Oh well, at least she didn't tell me she could see straight through to my other ear!

Kid's Day

Last Saturday there was a fund raiser at the Town Park to raise money to build a toddler playground.  It was advertised as having activities for children ages five and younger so I took Anna down for a few hours.  For a donation of five dollars the kids could participate in all they had set up there or you could buy tickets for 25 cents a piece and each station was worth a ticket.  At 18 months many of the crafts and things were still a bit to old for her to do but she LOVED three of the stations that they had.  The faceless kid in the pink hat is Anna in all the pictures.  She was much too enthralled to look for the camara!

This was one of the stations that she really liked.  They had a roped off area with a bunch of Hippity Hop Balls.  I couldn't get a picture of her on one because I had to help her do it and I had her by myself.  She really enjoyed them though!  This little girl in the picture was really cute too.  She kept coming over and handing Anna the balls.

This seemed to be her most favorite station.  They had baby swimming pool and a water table filled with feed corn.  Anna loved scooping it into buckets and dumping them out.  I really think she played here for a good 1/2 hour and would have stayed longer if I didn't coax her away.

She tried to dive in!

They also had pony rides but Annalise was content on just watching the other kids ride.  She kept going over and looking and I kept asking her if she wanted to ride.  Each time she gave a drawn out  "Nooooooooooo".

At another station they had a baby pool filled with damp sand.  It was perfect because you didn't have to worry about the sand blowing in anyone's eyes!

We had a great time and Anna was exhausted from playing and the heat when we left. 

Baby Cart

Annalise loves to push around her "baby cart".  She usually piles her stuffed animals and babies in it and scoots it around the house.  At times she tips it over and her babies fall out. It is amusing to watch her pick up her babies by the leg or arm, slam them back in the cart with a firm "Baby, get in!" and take off. 

Taking her babies for a stroll

Checking on them

Continuing her walk

If you look in the top left corner of her stoller, those two circles are the bottoms of the feet of one of her babies!  Let's hope her nuturing skills improve over the years =)!