Happy 15 Months, Annabel!!
Here's my beautiful, sweet Annabel with that adorable smile!
Aaaand she's done...This is one ticked off baby girl now!!
Happier, kinda, with Daniel nearby!
Daniel was more than happy to pose with Minnie...his idea actually!
So so so many updates for our little 15 month old baby girl! Annabel is one busy girl these days! And growing up fast!
Annabel does not like being sat down with Minnie...not one bit. That top picture was the best I got. I also got a lot of crying pictures, too! And then some sweet ones with Daniel.
Anyway...where do I start???!
I'll start with a few new words. Annabel now says "dat" to indicate things she wants. It's very clear- "dat" with a point of her finger, you just have to guess what "dat" is sometimes. Annabel also says "na" for no and she says it a lot, of course, we just knew she would. I remember that Daniel didn't learn the word "no" or shake his head much for the loooongest time- I had friends who were jealous of this. No such luck this time. But it's not really that bad yet, it's still kind of cute to hear the "na" complete with a shake of her head. I also think she's close to saying down and even Daniel, because she's got the "n" on the end with a "d" beginning; it comes out kind of like "dahn" and seems appropriate to whatever is going on. Annabel has also picked up a few other letter sounds, like her l's and can even do sounds effects like "vvvvv" for flying and driving. It's cute to listen to her talk. I love it.
Annabel does a lot more pretending and playing now, too. She hides toys behind her back with one hand and will hold out the other hand in a "where?" gesture and then when you wonder where it is, too, she will hold it out for you with a big grin on her face. So cute! Love this game!
Annabel also flies toy planes around, complete with a "vvvv" for sound effects. I love how quickly she picked up the pretend flying with the toys. It's cute to watch her.
The other pretending she does is feeding us. She LOVES to pretend to feed us. Annabel will get a bowl or cup and fork or spoon, stir it up, and then walk up to us with spoon extended out for us to eat. She thinks this is too funny!
Annabel's collecting interests have expanded. She's always loved collecting things into her hands, but now she's getting to the point where she can do it one-handed, not necessarily needing the second hand to put things into the first, if this makes sense. So she can essentially collect with both hands now, not just one. This, to her, is pretty exciting. She's also learned she can scoop things up to clean up faster. I remember noticing this with Daniel for the first time when he was little and now I've noticed it with Annabel, too...it's the little things for me...love it.
Another of Annabel's pastimes is opening drawers. She LOVES to open drawers and take things out all the time now. When we play upstairs, you can count on Annabel to have taken half her clothes out of her dresser in a matter of minutes. I never went through this with Daniel...he was never that interested in opening drawers and we certainly didn't play upstairs nearly as much with him as we do with Annabel. So she has lots of practice. She's good about cleaning up for the most part and will usually close the drawers when asked to do so, too.
Annabel is also really into reading books these days, too. It's so cute to watch her read. She will just sit herself down with a book anywhere and turn the pages back and forth and look intently at the pictures. If it's a book where we're looking for something (like Where's Spot? or Where's Baby's Beach Ball?), she will open the flaps, shake her head and say "na" for no. It's so cute to see her practically really reading books this way, she remembers that we're looking for something in the book- I love it.
We're also having a lot of fun with Ring-around-the-rosie with Annabel and Daniel. And once you get her started, she won't let you stop. She just loves to hold Daniel's hand especially, and she loves the part where we all fall down. She thinks this is so funny! Annabel will literally follow Daniel around with her arms extended because she wants to hold his hand or play this game.
One super cute thing Annabel has learned is where her belly is. She will show off her belly quite proudly, all you have to do is ask her where her belly is!! She also knows where shoes go and tries to put them on, same with shirts and pants although these go on her head mostly! Annabel loves to comb her hair. She loves to play dress up. She knows that when it's time to change into clothes or pajamas in the morning or at night, that we have to take her clothes off so she will sit down and tug at whatever she is wearing to get them off. She will do this as soon as we say the word change clothes or as soon as she sees that Daniel is changing.
Annabel wants to do everything that her brother is doing these days! Painting, playing, changing clothes, eating,
everything... We're trying to help Daniel figure this out, because of this means Annabel tries to take his toys away. Of course Daniel tends to take her things just as much... And so the sibling struggles begin!
Annabel indicates things she wants with that hand motion she does, like you'd do for give me. She does this especially if something is out of reach that she can see. It's still pretty cute.
I like that not much goes in Annabel's mouth these days, unless it's food. We're finally starting to see a decline in toys going in her mouth. It still happens occasionally, but not nearly as much as before. Thank goodness. Although it is just a sign that my baby is growing up!
Speaking of things going in her mouth, Annabel loves to feed herself these days. She loves to try using the fork and sometimes the spoon, although she's less successful with the spoon still and needs more practice. I also love that I can give Annabel a bowl full of food and she won't dump it, at least not right away. I can give her lots of pieces of food on her tray and she will eat them carefully mostly one at a time, rather than all at once or dropping them right off her tray, too. So mealtimes have gotten a little easier, although she's a rather finicky eater, I think mostly because of the distraction of Daniel, who eats about three bites and calls it a meal with a "full belly." What to do with these kids with small appetites?!! Still, Annabel eats pretty well for the most part and will try lots of things, loves to eat off of our plates, and such. You can tell she's proud of herself and all she can do and eat now! She's mostly a neat eater, too, which I like. Although tonight's pizza adventure would make me a liar...she went
straight into the bath tonight because that pizza sauce was everywhere!!!
Those two teeth that were just cutting their way through last time are really visible now. I don't believe there are more on the way just yet, but then, she doesn't exactly let me in her mouth to check! I kind of miss her top-two-toothed-smile already. It was so cute the way her two top teeth would match her bottom teeth and show up as this cute little square of whiteness when she smiled. I liked that. More teeth means less baby! When did I say she could grow up?!
And while I'm nostalgic for babyhood, let me tell you now some more news that really has me both sad but SO SO SO proud...Annabel is finally, finally I tell you, sleeping MUCH better!! Ben was right, of course, to enjoy the previous months where we'd hold Annabel to sleep, sometimes all night, sometimes for a little while, snuggle her up in our arms, on our shoulders, cuddle her up, love her up...I did enjoy those moments, most of the time, and I kinda miss it already. I'm already left wondering if I enjoyed it enough though, if Annabel could tell enough how much I loved her, even if I did want her to just sleep sometimes, mommy guilt has kicked in majorly. But, alas, we're here, we're where we wanted to be...eventually, and eventually is now I guess. Annabel had started to indicate when she was ready for naps and bedtimes by finding pink bear, clutching pink bear tightly into her arms and the crook of her neck, grabbing us, and pointing up the stairs, and all the way to her room. She did this a few times and we started to get real excited, because this was huge. She was telling us she was ready for bed. That was a great step for her!
Then, Annabel started sleeping longer chunks, all of a sudden- she started only waking up one or two times a night, instead of every two hours for a grand total of at least 5 night wakings a night. It was one of those things that I held my breath for...is she really doing this? Will this last? Or will she go back to more frequent wakings, having teased us like she's done before? We didn't want to say anything for fear of jinxing it! But, it seems our baby girl is figuring this out, growing up...and so we've moved into just couple night wakings, when I will nurse her as always. She is still nursing like a champ and indicates when she wants to be nursed by saying "dat" and pointing- she's very clear about this! And then...this week...another milestone...
Annabel is finally starting to fall asleep on her own!! Three times now...she will nurse for a while, get all her cuddles and love, and then she will point to her bed, I'll put her down in it and say good night I love you sweet dreams my baby girl, sometimes with tear in my eye, disbelief hidden somewhere in me, and then we don't hear a peep out of her. Really. She falls asleep, on her own, in bed...not sweetly curled up in my arms. Do you feel my sadness? Do you feel my joy, too, though? My pride? Because I really am SO proud of my baby girl! But I'm also really not sure which one to feel right now, I'm in this huge tug-of-war. And since this is still so so new, I'm still in a real state of disbelief, shock even...that we're finally here. And of course I miss my baby. So, in this state of disbelief, I'm actually still sort of very excited when she wakes up at 2 AM, because I get to see the baby I've missed seeing for the last 6 or so hours, I get to nurse her some more, she falls asleep in my arms then, and I hold her for a just a bit longer, or maybe it's just a bit tighter, and I put her back in bed, with her sweet sleeping face still there when I close my eyes. And so that's our biggest news, our biggest development...our biggest oh my gosh YAY. Because I am excited for this new stage in Annabel's development. It just means she growing up so fast...I miss babyhood already.
Happy 15 Months, Annabel! We're so proud of all the growing up you're doing!
