16 Months Old

We are getting to the point where we feel kind of dorky when people ask how old Anna is and we still answer in months.  It feels like we're at an awkward age to say.  16 months.  That's not tiny baby, but it's not big girl yet either.  And perhaps it's just that people look at us funny when we answer 16 months because they were expecting something more like 2 1/2.  Anyway, we're 16 months old officially this past week and it's a great age to be!

It's been a while since I've done an update on Anna's new "tricks" so I'll try to elaborate on some of her new fun habits and skills tonight.  I don't have many pictures to update with, but will share the few that we have from the past few days.  

Anna has completely mastered walking and is now on to running.  She's getting kind of fast.  She loves to run.  She loves to squeal as she runs.  She loves to be chased and to chase others.  I think she just loves moving around like the big kids she plays with.  Since we've progressed so well on our motor skills it's the talking that we've really been working on lately.  We've noticed more in the past week of Anna really copying the words that we say.  She used to copy us, but it didn't sound anything like what we were actually saying and this past week we have been shocked by some of the clarity in her words, old and new.  She's even put together a couple two word sentences recently.  "Bye-bye Dada" was a hit on Friday when he was dropping her off at Sandra's.  "Sandra" is getting to be more clear as well.  The other day she asked for a "french fry", and we weren't sure if we should be proud she could say it or embarrassed that she knew it.  We decided proud because she really did the "f" sound in front which we weren't sure she had yet since fish = "ish."   

She also recognizes and says very clearly "Elmo."  She loves Elmo.  We have probably only seen Elmo on TV three times in the past four months at home, but after nap at daycare, during quiet time sometimes Elmo is on, so we're guessing that's where she picked it up.  We were out shopping the other day and we saw an Elmo Halloween costume and she instantly starting pointing and saying "Elmo!"  We're considering letting her be Elmo for Halloween.  We haven't decided yet...we have some cute costumes in mind, but we may end up with a big red furry Elmo.  It's kind of fun that she's starting to show interest in different things and have a preference for certain things. 

Anna loves to play mommy to her baby dolls and any other stuffed animals.  She even tries to wrap her dolly up in a blanket, pushes her in the swing, and "changes her diaper."  The changing of the diaper consists of Anna laying one of her own diapers (clean) on the baby while she's in the swing.  She knows where it goes and looks very proud when she's taking care of her baby.  She's a good little mommy. 

Last week on Thursday we went over to Watertown to the ECFE Truck Night--or something like that.  The school had firetrucks, ambulances, street cleaners, the milk truck, tractors, go-karts, lots of different big things for little kids to sit in, climb on and see up close.  We met Anna's friend Oliver there and Oliver loved the big trucks, Anna loved just running around the parking lot playing with the rocks.  :)  Here are some pictures of Anna and Oliver. 

Running!

I think in this picture you can see that they are pretty much the same size.  Ollie is 6 months older than Anna.  This might explain why she is often mistaken for a 2 year old. 

Upside down!

Today we did some cleaning and rearranging in the family room downstairs.  We still have Anna's saucer sitting in the corner because really there is no way to store those things.  Well, Anna decided today that she wanted to start playing with it again.  She asked to get "on" so I put her in it and she read her book very happily.  We probably took her in and out of it about 15 times while we were down there. 

She's a little big, but she liked it. 

Anna has been getting a lot better about using her words rather than her crying.  When we are working in the kitchen she used to come in and pull on your legs and whine until you pick her up, but now she's comes in and if she's crying, she'll stop herself and say very clearly "up!" and we have tried very hard to only pick her up when she asks like this, not when she's fussing about it.  Today on our walk she was fussing about being in the stroller.  We weren't responding a whole lot, so she stopped herself and then asked "out?"  It's really nice to have her telling us more and more what she wants.  Although I'm sure there will be a point where we'll wish she couldn't tell us everything she wants! 

I know there are probably more great stories I have from the past few weeks, but they aren't coming to me at this moment.  Or there are too many to write down.  Anna is our entertainment.  She does a great job making us laugh every day.  She thinks she is a comedian and definitely loves getting a laugh out of us!  Tonight at supper she had messy hands as usual and she reached up to touch her hair...I kind of laughed and said, "Don't touch your hair with messy fingers."  Then it became a game and before the game was over we had two messy hands running through her hair and and very messy Anna. 

When I say she's 16 months old, I don't think that sounds very old...it really seems like she has to be older than that.  It's hard to remember not having her around and she has learned so much and changed so much in such a short amount of time, it's really hard to believe. 

Next month we'll be one month closer to saying we have a 1 1/2 year old.  Perhaps then we'll drop the month age.