Happy 15 Months Annie!

Even though you still look little, every day you are showing us that there really is a 15 month old in that little body of yours.

 

You are a very engaging talkative girl. You don't have a ton of words that we recognize, but you chat all day long, and are very serious about some of the things you say. One day when I went to get you out of your crib, you babbled something very specific at me, and then immediately repeated it. I have no idea what you were saying, but you certainly knew!

Speaking of getting you out of your crib, you are so fun to get up! As long as you aren't crying, your happiness bubbles forth when we come to get you. You grin and wave your arms around, and sometimes clap. You love to throw your puppy and giraffe out of your bed while you wait for us.

You have a great laugh (and always have!). You laugh is infectious and precious at the same time. You laugh easily, and I love how genuine your laugh is. You think so many different things are funny, and it is fun to see what you will laugh at next.

 

For the most part during the day you are a happy baby, and you are generally content to play by yourself. However, as soon as I start trying to cook dinner you become whiney and fussy and usually come crying to me while I'm at the stove. I have no idea what it is about me cooking that you don't like, but you really, really don't like it when I cook dinner. It is both funny and annoying at the same time.

You have become such a quick walker. I look up and you've darted across the room (or into the playroom if someone forgot to shut the baby gate!). You have a little "prance" in the way you walk, and it is pretty cute. I think the prance is really a product of your little stature combined with good walking skills, but it is funny nonetheless.

I was able to teach your cradle roll class for a few weeks as a fill-in and the first week you taught, you reminded me so much of Luke! Luke has an amazing ability (thank you Trent!) to keep a straight face even if he is perfectly fine. (Ella, Troy, and myself do not have this ability, ha!). You kept a straight face the entire class period the first week I taught, no matter what I did. And, speaking of Bible class, you now "grow" when we sing "Read Your Bible and Pray Everyday." You also do a pretty good job putting your hands together (consistently) when we pray at meals. Other times of prayer aren't quite as consistent.

You still hang onto your bottle, but are doing a great job drinking regular milk. And, although you love your bottle, the reason we've really held onto it this long has more to do with us and less to do with you (lots of things on the schedule that kept us from completely breaking free of it!). You are a fairly picky eater, but you love chicken (and meat in general) which is so funny to me! Your brothers and sisters were not good meat eaters at this age.

Signs you do: more, finished

Words you say: hi, bye, "uck" (yuck), eh-ah (Ella, although you haven't said it lately), mama, daddy, ba-a (bottle), "ished" (finished), something that sounds like "Maddux" (one of our dogs)

Animal noises you make: duck

Favorite foods: chicken, cheese, peanut butter crackers

Favorite activities: walking everywhere exploring, trying to escape to the playroom, playing with the dogs, putting things in things, looking at books, singing songs

Happy 1st Birthday Annie!

I'm ashamed to say that I am just now writing this post . . . almost a month and a half after you turned one. I could blame it on a lot of things, but ultimately, it just got lost in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. I'm sorry that its late. Because it is so late, I likely won't remember the details the way that I would like. My speculation about that you'll be walking soon won't hold much water, because the reality is that I know you started walking at 12 1/2 months old. But, I will write now and not delay any longer.

The difference a year can make! We are so blessed to have you as part of our lives and family. We are thankful that you've entered our lives and cannot wait to continue to love you and grow with you.


You are still tiny, although I'm unsure how much you weigh. In your cradle roll class, there are a few babies who are younger than you (some by several months) and you are even tiny compare to them. And, as you can see in the pictures, you still haven't seemed to figure out how to grow hair. ;) You will keep a bow or headband on your head though, so that helps out strangers who might mistake you for a boy because of your bald head.



People constantly comment that you are such a happy baby, and how you always seems to have a smile on your face. You are generally a happy baby, but I think sometimes people's perception of your happiness is false. You are usually happy if someone is holding you or giving you attention. However, if you aren't getting the attention you think you need, you can become quite sad. For the most part though, you are easy to calm down as long as someone gives you attention.



You still use the crazy one-legged, half-sitting up crawl. You are soooo fast using that method of crawling, and you crack us up when we watch you fly across the floor. You also like to crawl with the bottle in your mouth, which is equally entertaining. Your cruising skills have continued to improve, and you'll also cruise with the bottle i your mouth. You seem to be very steady, and we kept thinking that if you actually tried to walk you probably could. You never really attempted it though before you were one year old; you'd rather drop to the floor and scoot away.

You continue to be very attached to the bottle which is very ironic to me since getting you to take the bottle in the first place was such a battle the first six months of your life. You've been eating some table food, but you never seem to eat that much as once. You are pretty open to tying new foods, but if it goes in your mouth and you don't like you, you have no problem pulling it back out. You are also quite the sorter when it comes to food. If you don't like/want something that's on your tray you start dropping all of it on the floor. If it isn't something you want, it will not stay on your tray or spot! Sometimes if you don't want us to give you a bite you purse your lips together and close them tight. It is pretty funny! You weren't too sure about your cake on your birthday. You ended up eating some, and I think you liked it, but at the same time I don't think you were overly excited about it either. I've posted the video, but overall it is pretty uneventful. :)


You continue to be an extremely vocal baby. You make all sorts of funny noises, and yell at us in lots of different ways. Overall you don't seem very interested in signing, although you have signed more and finished. You'd rather yell at us than sign to us. You also find yourself quite funny at times, and we love to hear you laugh. In the video below I was telling you "no" and you thought it was hilarious that I told you no. I'm not sure what that means for the future! ;)


Signs you do: more, finished - you much prefer to yell at us though to communicate
Words you say: Mama, Daddy, Ella, Maddux (something that sounded like Maddux anyway), bye-bye, hi/hey, "uck" (for yuck)
Favorite foods: cheese, nutrigrain bars
Favorite activities: chasing the dogs around, chasing your siblings around, putting things in things

Happy 11 Months Annie!

I admit that 11 months snuck up on me. I feel like when people have asked how old you are I barely had time to tell them that you were 10 months old. But it doesn't matter if I feel like a month has passed or not, it has, and you are now only one month away from being a year old.

 

Although you are still tiny in stature, you show off all the time how big you really are. Just days after turning 10 months old (and not long at all after you'd started pulling up), you starting cruising around our furniture with ease. We've created a barricade in our living room for you and you can easily make it around the room without any issue whether you are crawling or cruising. You continue to crawl crookedly with one leg underneath you in almost a sitting up position, but despite your non-traditional crawling form, you are a fast crawler! I admit that when you started crawling I thought your crooked crawl was just a stepping stone to crawling in a regular manner, but now that you are SO fast crawling crooked, I doubt you'll ever crawl regularly. I will NOT predict when I think you will walk because I have been burned by all your siblings with my predictions. However, there have been a few times where you act like you might take a step . . . but once again, I don't know! You have no problem standing up only using one hand to hold onto something and you can even pull up against a wall. One day you started acting like you were going to climb onto our ottoman bench!

This month you learned how to high five! You can give a high five with each of your hands, and you love to play giving high-fives. You've been waving for a couple of months now, but I think you have progressed to doing it more unprompted by us and at the appropriate time. Just a few days ago we were walking around Target, and Troy yelled "bye-bye Annie" as he went with Trent to a different part of the store. You promptly waved and said "bye-bye" back. I loved it! It was the first time I'd heard you say "bye-bye."

You are definitely a vocal baby, not only saying a few words (mama, daddy, eh-a (Ella), bye-bye, and maybe a couple more), but also by the noises you make. Although you've signed "more" a few times, you much prefer to grunt or yell at us to tell us that you are ready for more. For many months now I've been able to hear you yelling happily in your Bible class when I'm in a different area of the church building. You also had us all laughing one night with not only the noise you were making in the video below, but also because you were so straight-faced the whole time!



I admit that I'm writing this post really late (like two months late. .  .) and it is possible that I will get some details wrong, BUT I think when you turned 11 months old your four front teeth on top had come in for a total of six teeth. Your two bottom teeth continue to be just SO cute though! I don't know exactly what it is about them, but your toothy grin is great! You also continue to do funny things with your tongue! I'm amazed at how you are able to twist it all over the place.



You were an elephant for your first Halloween, and you tolerated your costume well even though we had warm weather. I think you enjoyed the pumpkin patch as well.

Annie @ 10 months

Luke @ 11 months

Troy @ 11 months

(I didn’t start writing these monthly posts for Ella until she was 17 months old)