Happy Birthday America!
To celebrate, Anna figured out how to somersault!
Pots & Pans
I have some serious catching up to do, but every time I sit down to write a post, I can’t seem to find the energy to sum up all the crazy things Anna is up to lately. We’ll be home in two weeks anyway, so just sit tight and you can see her in action soon enough. For now, here’s a lovely video of her playing her version of “Rock Band.” Enjoy 
Wallaby-Dog
Anna and I went to the zoo a few days ago. It’s about a three minute drive from our house, which is awesome. Surprisingly, we’ve only been there twice so far but I’m guessing that’s mostly due to the crappy weather we’ve had up until recently. She’s totally animal-crazy so of course she loved it. Her favorites by far are doggies and birds. Whenever she comes across birds in her books, she runs to the window to look for them outside. And doggies make her go berserk. She hops up and down and pats her leg as hard as she can (patting your leg is the sign for dog).
The zoo is pretty small, but they’ve got some interesting animals. And it’s great that it’s small because you can get really close to them and feed some of them (not the tigers or cougars though, darn!)
This alpaca was definitely eyeing up Anna’s rice cakes. You’re not supposed to feed the animals rice cakes:
Then this guy had to check it out too:
They were pretty cool.
But the funniest part of the day was when we strolled over to see the wallaby(s) (I remember there being several last time, but there was only one out that day.) Anna started bouncing up and down in her stroller and yelling and made the sign for doggie with toddleresque desperation. I tried explaining that while he did look very much like a doggie, he was actually a wallaby, but decided to just settle on wallaby-doggie and let her have her fun. Sadly, I was too busy laughing to whip out the video camera. You’ll have to just take my word for it.
15 Month Stats
Anna’s 15 month check up was today.
Height: 30″ (35%)
Weight: 18 lbs. 8.5 oz (um, <3%)
Head Circumference: 17.25″ (5%)
So she apparently had a growth spurt! I don’t think she’s ever been as high as 35% for anything. And she has now fallen off the chart for weight. No one here is concerned, so you shouldn’t be either. The doc said if it’s fallen more by 18 months, we can start supplementing her diet. The good news is that her iron is still in the normal range. (I think I forgot to blog about that, but she had some low iron issues for a while, but we have successfully solved that problem. Yay!)
We officially need a big-girl car seat now. She is still well below the weight limit but has reached the max height, so it’s time.
In my last post, I mentioned that Anna got two teeth at once. I was wrong. She got three teeth at once! Poor girl… no wonder she ate nothing for a week and the little that she did came right back out in a very strange form. She’s halfway there though - 10 outta 20.
Back in the groove.
Well. We’re back. Things have not necessarily been super busy around here, just a little… I don’t know what. Lent is always busy and sweeps us away into a time warp of sorts. All of us caught the UberVirus several times each. I don’t think I’ve ever had cold symptoms that have hung on for so long. Seriously gross. My mom came out to visit for a few days. And now Anna has some sort of tummy issue that is causing weird explosive diapers… I’m guessing it’s the two huge teeth that just broke through her gums that’s causing that. (Either that or the UberVirus has now come back in tummy-form.) Oh and the raaaaaain. It rained for at least 3 months straight, maybe 4.
So, all that to say we’re finally back into the swing of things. And it feels so nice.
Anna is so much fun these days. I wish I’d had the video camera handy earlier this evening to capture her “reading” one of her books out loud. She knows exactly what pages to get excited about and does all the right inflections with her babbling. She is picking up sign language really well. She can do the signs for: more, milk, doggy, please, and she is starting to do “daddy.” It’s so much fun to watch her learn. She is finally saying Mama and Dada. This morning, she was trying to get my attention and was saying, “Mamamamamamamama.” Then when I didn’t respond right away, she said, “Dada,” and then looked at me and cracked up.
It’s been so long, I’m not sure what else to write! I’ll try to post a bit more often so I don’t have a big summary to post every time I do.
I’ll leave you with a video of Anna being very helpful:
Dancing Queen
Okay, I figured while I was on a blogging roll, I would go ahead and post a video. This wasn’t the original video I was going to post, but then we took this one and it was just too ridiculously cute to not override the other one (which was of her eating a raw red onion. She liked it. I’m guessing she gets that from the Stchur side of the family.)
She’s really into dancing lately. And rocking her baby doll and stuffed animals.
Enjoy!
Oh, hi!
Well yes, it’s been awhile. We’ve been very busy around here lately. I can’t even tell you what we’ve been doing though. A few playdates here, a few new bruises there. Seriously, we haven’t been doing a whole lot more than normal, but this toddler thing: it’s a whole new level of crazy. Just being in the same room with Anna is exhausting. I think she must have some sort of power that zaps all the energy from any adult in the room and then multiplies it by 50. All she does is run. She runs laps in the kitchen, she runs outside as soon as the door opens, she runs frantically from room to room upstairs, she makes a break for the altar at least 200 times every time we’re at church… all the while grabbing things along the way and discarding them just as quickly when she finds another treasure.
If you come over to our house anytime soon, please ignore the entire contents of my underwear drawer dispersed throughout every room. I’d clean them up, but she’d just get them out and do it all over again. (Okay, I really do clean them up at least once a day.)
I have a new video to post. And some updates on the exciting world of Anna’s new developments. Maybe I’ll get around to posting those in another month.
12 Month Stats
Anna had her 12 month check up last week, and as usual, is doing wonderfully.
Height: 28.25″ (8th percentile)
Weight: 17 lbs, 1.25 oz (3rd percentile)
Head Circumference: 17″ (5th percentile)
Yep, still teeny tiny. After a year of hearing those percentiles, I’ve finally stopped asking the doctor, “Is that okay? Why is she so small? I feed her at least 50 times a day!”
Aside from walking all over the place and getting faster and less wobbly, there’s not a whole lot new going on around here. Well, I guess that’s not totally accurate: after much grief, she is the proud owner of two new teeth (6 total), and there are a lot of new bumps, bruises and scrapes everyday. As far as I can tell, she’s not saying any official words that are the same every time she looks a given object. I think she’s kinda saying Mama when she wants me, but it’s more like, “Mamamamamamamamamamamamama.”
I’ll leave you with one of my favorite shots from her 1 year photo shoot this weekend. (I couldn’t upload this to our album since Anna is apparently showing too much skin.) She missed her afternoon nap and was not at all happy by picture time, but thankfully my photographer friend is amazing and still managed to get some wonderful photos.
So tired!
Happy Almost Birthday, Anna!
Well, I’m feeling a little misty on this last day of Anna’s baby-hood. Tomorrow she will officially be a toddler and her first year will be packed neatly away in the baby book. This parenting thing … a little bitter sweet most of the time. Luckily, she keeps us busy enough that the dwelling can’t really get started until bedtime.
Anyway, before I start rambling here’s yet another video. Check out what she’s doing on her last day as a baby. (Although, I think all traces of Baby Anna are way gone and have been replaced by a crazy toddler… what do you think?)
Weeble wobble
Anna has been working on walking more and more everyday, although she still prefers crawling when she’s on a serious mission and needs to get somewhere fast.
Here’s a little snippet of her wobbling along!
