I’m so lucky to have spent another month with this beautiful little lady. I can’t believe I get to help her and support her as she grows, and watch her become the person she was meant to be. What a fantastic job to have!!!
Anneliese has grown to be pretty flexible in her schedule. I try to balance “out” days with “home” days so she can have recovery time and not get burnt out (so far, she does seem to need that… maybe she got the “introvert” gene from her daddy and me). But in general, if we are at home, she’ll have a nap or two during the day, and be in a great mood (teething aside) when she’s awake. If we’re out, she might nap once either in the car, if I walk around babywearing her on my back in the Boba for a long time (often napping for about an hour back there), or when we return home.
She’s cheerful and always aware of her surroundings, and loves interacting with the people around her.
This month, we went to our first “class” at the resource center. This one was all ages, and the kids listened to a story about Penguins, then did a craft. It was simple, not too long, and Anneliese loved it. It was so surreal to see her sitting in a “big girl chair” at the table with the other kids, and guiding her through the little craft but letting her do the whole thing on her own. She watched the other kids and happily participated. I’ve signed her up for lots more workshops/classes this month, and I’m excited to see her reactions and her impressions of the things around her.
Now, she often tries to copy simple tasks and actions that she’s seen me do a million times. She puts her dirty laundry in the hamper, puts toys back on the shelves and books back in their baskets, and gives the dog our “sign language” (not real ASL, but just hand signals I trained Zora with) commands like “sit” and “wait.”
Here, she is playing with a cloth wipe and our wipe solution, trying to figure out how to spray the wipe with the squirt bottle.
Here, she’s trying to put on her shoes. She tries to put on and take off her clothing now, and likes to help pick out what she is going to wear for the day.
Since she ate roughly 100,000 clementines in the past month, I decided to see if she could peel them. She does pretty well with it! If I start a little hole in the peel, she picks off a good amount of it, until she can chow down on the fruit, ripping it from the rest of the peel with her teeth. It’s not the most civilized-looking method, but it works!
Potty success comes and goes with teething and focus, but we’re in an “on” period right now. Anneliese often signs “potty” to me, even if she is too busy to sit on it for very long. Other times, she’ll bring me a potty to put her on. Still, she is a BUSY toddler and even if she knows how to hold her pee, she sometimes gets too excited about playing to worry about it. We’ve had some puddles on the floor this month (and lots in diapers) but have had a lot in the potty too. I still don’t think it’s a great idea to focus on “potty training” until she’s finished teething for a while, and since her canines are cutting now, we probably have at least another month until then… hopefully she’ll get a break before the 2-year molars! I think she will. I hope
Sometimes we have “diaper-free” time, either in underwear (little bloomers that come with most girls’ dresses – a size down from her current size because of no diaper, they work pretty great) or bare-bottomed. And sometimes she pees in her clothes. But she’s happy to help with the laundry when that happens!
She still loves to accessorize, and since she can reach the bottom three hair clips on her ribbons, she often brings me hair clips and pats her head to signal that I should put them in her hair. Sometimes she leaves them in for hours. Other times, she takes them out and asks me to put them back in her hair about 100 times in a row.
One day, she asked me for a hat by patting her head. I picked out this pink hat to match her outfit. She took it off of her head, because obviously I hadn’t gotten the message quite right. She opened the drawer herself, pulled out this plaid hat, and put it on her head. “There. Much better! See mom? THIS is the hat I wanted!” She knows what she wants.
She keeps growing… this picture is from a little bit ago. I weighed her today and she was 22 pounds. Close to the 50th %ile for her age on the WHO weight/age chart. That is huge! For so long she was off-the-charts tiny… either literally off the chart, or around the 3rd %ile. I guess all that good food she’s eating has caught up to her!
The coming month is going to be so busy. Like I mentioned earlier, we have a lot of classes or workshops to go to – plus the regular La Leche League meeting and the Natural Parenting for Non-Hippies meeting. LOTS of opportunities for her to be around other kids – her own age as well as older and younger.
I’m so looking forward to seeing her interactions with the other kids and how she communicates with them. (In this picture, Anneliese is laughing hysterically at Zora, who is outside the glass door, while Ella looks at her like “What’s so funny, you crazy baby??”)
Anneliese is super-cheerful most of the time when she’s heading to bed. She knows she’s tired, and she knows sleep will “cure” her. Often if she is playing, she’ll lie down on the floor for a quick rest, or climb onto the dog’s pillow in the living room, or onto her bed in her own room. If she does that a few times, I know it’s time to wrap things up for a nap or bedtime.
And she talks…and it is so precious…
Sometimes she says “I love you” back to me when I tuck her in for bed, or when I buckle her into her car seat.
The other day I put her to bed and she said “Happy.”
I said, “I’m so happy you’re happy! I love you. Goodnight.”
She smiled and said “nighnigh.”
Almost every night in the past month, she’s slept all night and woken up cheerfully in the morning. It took a LONG time to get to the “waking cheerfully” stage, and I’m so glad it seems to be here. It’s wonderful to hear her talking to herself in happy squeaks and squeals in the morning, instead of frantic crying and panic.
In case I didn’t mention it before, I love this girl so much. And I’m so lucky to have her in my life and to get to be in hers.
Hi! I'm Emily. I'm a Navy wife and stay at home mom of two beautiful children. I cook simple, delicious, grain-free recipes, do crafts, decorate my home on a budget, and keep a happy household. I tandem breastfeed, babywear, cloth diaper, practice elimination communication, homebirth, and co-sleep, but I'm not a hippie.
I am SO EXCITED to be at the mimicking stage. Sebastian does a lot of the same things as Anneliese. Today we had the same “wrong hat” thing happen. He tries to put on his own shoes (and mine. and Daddy’s. and Daddy’s on top of his shoes.) and is so good at cleaning that he can actually clean up his own spills without me having to go over them most of the time. The other day I found him transferring wipes from their container into a ziplock bag he found… Exactly what we do before we go out!
I am still blown away by A at that class. Amaze.
Anneliese looks like she’s so much for fun than Ella.
Bas is the same way. He is such a sour puss and takes forever to warm up to people most of the time. Very serious, until we’re alone and he is the funniest, openly happiest
babykid ever.Wow she is SO cute!Love the hats. I wish my son would want to wear hats. He hates them.
I can’t believe how fast kids grow up.
I saved all of Clara’s little bloomers for that exact same reason! Since it’s hard to find actual underwear for tiny butts I figured might as well save the free ones that come with dresses
A looks like such a big girl at the table with all those boys, how crazy that she’s getting to that stage of independence and understanding already (meaning doing crafts, not flirting with boys)!
Sweet post! I think A has finally passed Lily in weight. Go A! She’s such a good talker and she seems like such a funny baby. I bet she and Lily would have fun together.
That Natural Parenting for Non- Hippies seems ideal! How fun!