2 More Months until Annabel is TWO!

Annabel will be so excited to finally be TWO in two months because "TWO" (said exactly that enthusiastically every single time, which is about every ten seconds!) is her favorite word! We think it's hilarious that she will hold up just one finger when she says "TWO."

Oh- and yes this monthly post is a few days late, sorry! We went on vacation (!!!!) last week and came home on Annabel's "Minnie" day, Valentine's Day, and after a long day of traveling, taking her Minnie picture and posting this was the last thing on my mind. We are slowly catching up! More on our vacation later!

Annabel is very busy learning a TON of new words and new sounds as well, her newest and most confusing sound being a "t" for the "k" sound. Anyway, I'm not even sure I can keep up with all the words anymore, but here goes (I try to list them as they come throughout the month, this didn't just all come to me now, I'll tell you that much!): "mella" for Amelia (Brian's girlfriend, Bella and Kaleb's mom), "tella" for aforementioned Kaleb, "boot" for book with the correct /oo/ sound, "tahllah" for towel, "shh" for Asher, "ts" for Patricia, "paht" for part/apart (taking apart blocks, breaking her toast up in two pieces, breaking up playdoh, etc), "paht" is also press as in press buttons, "butt" is button, "baht" is back, "bott" is box, "watt" is for walk, "pahlah" is play, "pull-uh" is playdoh (very hard to differentiate from play, except that she's more insistent for this word, maybe because I am so confused with this word!), "luhluh" is eleven which is said often enough only because Daniel will sometimes tell us to count to 11 when playing hide and seek (he picks random numbers for us to count to)- Annabel thinks it's pretty cool that she can say this word, "wiy" is her word for drink (no idea where she got that, Ben still hasn't caught on to this one because it's such a weird word for drink, but it's her word, she knows what it means and we eventually figure it out- that's what matters!), "shiy" for shower and hide, "daht" is for dark and she points to her squinty eyes for this word- cute, "puh" is pink or purple, "waht" is white, "baht" is black, "rah" is red, and she's just now got "b-luuue" (she works so hard at this one, it's adorable! the tongue action for the "l" kills us!), "Papa" is Grandpa- she gets SO excited and will say "papa" over and over and over when she knows they're coming!, "dada" is Daniel or Daddy or Donald or Daisy, Daddy is sometimes "da-EE!" mostly when she's crying, "minih" is Minnie, "Puht" or "ruff" is Pluto, of course she's got "MIne" down pat, more has become "monah" for some reason- backslide there since she was doing fine with this word before, "tahh" is for tablet- she loves Daddy's tablet just like Daniel does, "domp" is a new word (like as of today) for stomp because we were marching and stomping our feet to Jim Gill's song The Tempo Marches On (click to listen), "doo-doo-doo" in her screechy voice is cock-a-doodle-doo which is said a lot around here when we're pretending to sleep, and she can "baa" for sheep which is also super cute. We watched a show Daddy has on DVD called Shaun the Sheep (silly clay-animation show with basically no words, just all silly animal antics) and Annabel spent the whole time saying "baa" every two seconds because of course there are sheep in the entire show! So, we know she's got the sheep sound down! And last week on our vacation, more on that soon!, Annabel learned a ton more new words that of course had to do with our trip, which was so exciting and tons of fun- "Roh" was for Aunt Rose, "Batt" was for Uncle Brad, "rIII!" is for ride, "pIE" was for pirate, and she can "argghhh" with the best of pirates...and well, I think you get the idea. Her vocabulary is just huge right now and she will try saying just about any word you say now. She was even trying to count to twelve with me today when playing hide and seek- it was so cute to listen to her trying to say each and every number- loved it! Whew...she's one busy girl!

Annabel is almost exclusively in her "junior chair"/big girl chair now, actually has been for months, but I'm not sure I've mentioned it much before. She can even finally get on it by herself, which she was super proud to learn a few weeks ago. It was pretty funny- I turned around one day and there she was, up high on her chair! She can't get down though, so she's stuck once on it, which honestly is mostly fine by me otherwise she'd totally run away with completely messy hands! I never use her highchair anymore and I'm trying to convince Ben to get rid of it, but he still likes to be able to put her in it from time to time, if she wants to be close to the action in the kitchen and he needs his hands free (because she's totally a Daddy's girl and always wants him to carry her, which he does!), during meal preparation and such. I kind of agree that it is nice to have somewhere relatively safe to plunk her down, so the highchair stays for now. The junior chair is just so nice to have so she can be up at the table with us, she and Daniel love to sit next to each other from time to time, it's just nice to be a family all together at the table at meals. I just look at my two kids at the table with me and sometimes it astonishes me that we have this great little family- I'm so lucky!

Speaking of meals, Annabel has learned the art of washing food down. Yes, at the tender age of not-even-two! She will eat some food, grab her cup and wash her food down. I was shocked the first few times I saw her do this and wasn't even entirely sure what she was doing, but she's totally not even chewing or tasting, she really was literally washing the food down with her milk or juice. We've managed to curb that a little by reminding her to chew and holding her cup away from her as another reminder, which she hates, so she's getting better. But seriously, already? She's a pretty decent eater most of the time really, unless Daniel is in a hurry or not eating and thus moving onto things faster which makes her decide she's done faster than she might be otherwise. And after her weight check back at 21 months, we learned that she'd grown an inch and a half in three months (wow!), but she'd only gained a few ounces weighing in at 18 lbs 3 ounces...SO, we're really trying to beef up her foods every chance we get, or at least when she'll let us. She's been a pretty good sport about this, but we'll see what it amounts to in a couple months. I just have tiny, skinny kids! Good thing they're so cute!

Annabel at 31 inches tall was waaaay past due for a new car seat (she was still in her infant seat up until recently- she still mostly fit, she was happy, it was convenient, it worked, but yes, she was just a tiny bit past the limit, which we knew, we've just been busy). It had been on our list for ages and we finally bit the bullet and found a new seat for her. She seems to like it for the most part. She can see out the window now and I think she loves that part. She falls asleep in it just fine, if we happen to be out after lunch time and closer to her nap time. I think she will be much happier when she can forward-face, but since she's still just 18 pounds, she's nowhere near the weight requirement for forward-facing just yet. We'll probably just turn her around when she's 2 regardless, just like we did with Daniel.

Annabel's canine teeth are finally all cut through! The top two are in more than the bottom ones. The bottom ones must have just cut through in the last week or so, because they were not there last I checked- and I'm always checking. Anyway, glad to finally have those cut in at least. Her finger is in her mouth all the time, poor thing, and she sleeps terribly (which isn't really that unusual, just that I feel like we went from sleeping a tad bit better to sleeping horribly again). Hopefully the fact that they're finally cut through will translate to some better nights for us all! Those teeth sure took forever!

Annabel loves to read, loves to pretend to write people's names (just like Mommy does) on her Magna-Doodle- her favorite name being "Papa," loves play-doh, loves painting, loves to pretend to cook in her play kitchen, loves puzzles, loves blocks. She's getting faster at walking down the stairs while holding our hand, and she's good about holding onto the railing if she goes down herself. She loves to close doors behind her, so chances are if you can't find her, you'll find her in the bathroom or in the pantry with the door closed, often in the dark. Annabel can identify just about any body part you ask her about. She knows most of her colors and tries to say their words, which I mentioned above in her list of words; green orange and yellow are the few she hasn't tried to say yet. Annabel can identify tons of pictures in her books. She recognizes all Mickey characters and says most of their names, Goofy being the last in the pack since she hasn't said that one yet. Daisy, Donald, and Minnie are her favorite characters.

And now for the drumroll please...Annabel actually used the potty for the first time- TWICE- this month!! She was super excited and a little shocked I think. So now she says "pa-ee" several times a day and likes to try and sit on the potty. She loves to "dump" it regardless of whether there's anything in there or not- this is just her favorite part, next to flushing. Anyway, we're not officially training her at all, but it's awesome that she's taking an interest in trying! I will be SO glad to be done with diapers...but no rush just yet.

So that's a busy month in the life of Annabel! Just as soon as I'm caught up on this blog (is that even possible? I'm not sure!) I've got to get started planning Annabel's 2nd Birthday Party- not even 8 weeks away!! Time flies!

Here are some Minnie picture outtakes! Annabel posed very nicely and quite eagerly this month, she practically ran up the stairs to her room where we take the pictures- and then she actually sat in her chair and said "chee" (her cheese) and then she was all over Minnie with hugs and kisses during which I got the super adorable humongous toothy smile you see (now waaay) above! These other pictures were too cute to pass up on sharing!

Annabel tried to stand Minnie up...

 

Then Annabel "ro" (rolled) Minnie over and over.

 

Daniel decided it was his Mickey day, too, so he came to pose as well!

Annabel decided it would be fun to lay down with Mickey and Minnie- I love how she practically blends in with them! Yes, she's in there!

Oh, and you probably will totally not remember this, but it's a silly tidbit for you, and besides, I sure remember- this was the shirt Annabel wore last Valentine's Day- her 10 month Minnie day, you know, her first Valentine's that wasn't such a Valentiny day because of my appendectomy. She totally had a cute new Valentine shirt this year, but she wore it on Valentine's Day on the airplane all festive and super cute and of course we were too tired to remember to take Minnie pictures that night when we got home, so I have no proof. I'll catch it later. Anyway, this sweater still fits her great of course, since she's so tiny, so what the heck, she wore it for another Minnie picture! Deal with it! (I managed to deal with it...well, kinda...!)

Okay, off to get those posts about our vacation ready for your viewing pleasure!