Boppa!

Anne looked at the computer today and said, "Boppa!" (Grampa).  This is what was on the screen:

18-Month Mark

On September 27th we took Anne to the doctor's for her 18-month checkup and immunization shots.  She took the shots like a champ, and now doesn't have to get any more immunizations until she is four years old.  She weighs 27 lbs (between 75th and 90th percentile), is 34.5 inches long (above 95th percentile), and has a head circumference of 49.5 cm (above 95th percentile).  She's a pretty big girl.

Anne really seems to be liking her new home.  We have finally gotten settled to the point where there are no more boxes (as long as you don't look in the basement).  Anne seems to like all of the space, and she really likes playing outside in the yard.  It is really nice to be so close to Gramma and Grampa G as well as Aunt Greta, Uncle Gus, Cousin Max, and Cousin Darwyn.  Anne now calls Darwyn "ahe ahe, baby" in imitation of a crying baby.  This is kind of funny since Darwyn seems to barely ever cry.  Anne seems to be obsessed with crying babies.

Anne-isms:

• When Anne has a sip of chocolate milk she cackles afterward as if she just tricked you into giving it to her. She does this every time.
• Anne can say all sorts of words now.  The trouble is, they sound a lot alike.  So when we're in the car and Anne says, "Ba!" we say "Bus?  Book?  Bike?  Ball?" until she says, "Yeah!"  Anne is particularly fond of pointing out buses.  
• Anne can now use two words together.  For example, "Help, please." or "Boppa, stuck" or "ahe ahe, baby".  
• Anne "jumps" by leaning forward on her tippy toes until she loses her balance and steps forward a step or two.
• Anne started her second round of swimming lessons a few weeks ago.  She just LOVES being in the water.  She has learned to jump (actually, just to fall forward) off of the edge of the pool into the water, which she loves.  She talks about "wawa" (water), "baby" (babies), "ba" (ball), and "duh" (duck) the whole drive home.

Photos at the pumpkin farm with Gramma B:

Anne and Gramma chase sea gulls.

Anne walks on hay bales.

Anne goes on a hay ride.... with no hay.

Photos from today of Anne, Max, and friends Fiona and Elliot playing in the leaves

Anne sees the camera and wants to see photos of babies.

Anne hides behind a leaf.

Aunt Greta hides behind a leaf.

Throwing leaves in the air.

Anne throws leaves.

Max throws leaves.

Max in the leaves.

Miscellaneous

There doesn't seem to be a unifying theme to this blog post.  Here is everything new in the world of Anne:

• Anne cannot yet say two words in a row.  Example conversation:
  "Anne, can you say, 'Hi?'"
  "Hi!"
  "Anne, can you say, 'Daddy?'"
  "Daddy!"
  "Anne, can you say, 'Hi Daddy?'"
  "Hi!"
• A month ago I took a screwdriver and unscrewed a battery door on one of Anne's toys in order to replace the batteries.  Afterward, Anne played with the screwdriver for a couple of minutes and then watched me put it away in the drawer.  Fast forward one month to today.  Anne has not seen the screwdriver in a month.  She is playing with the toy.  She sees the screws.  She walks over to the drawer, takes out the screwdriver, walks back over to the toy and tries to unscrew the screws with the screwdriver.  Cool eh?
• Anne's favourite things:
• Cherry tomatoes
• Orange juice
• Ducks
• Kitties
• Water of all kinds (baths, pools, splash pads, sinks, puddles, cups, etc)
• Babies
• Although Anne has not yet learned any new syllables, she has become amazingly communicative in just the past week or so.  Examples:
• Anne finally requests a new song by saying "ra" (as close as she can get to "song") rather than pointing at the ceiling and whining.
• We finally have Anne saying "halp" (help) when she is having trouble with something
• Anne says "rara" for the word "soother".  She also uses "rara" for "Laura".  She got pretty excited talking to Aunt Laura on speaker phone yesterday.
• Anne often requests to go see her cousin Max, whom she calls "Ma".
• milk = "Meh"
• dog = "woof woof"
• Anne can now open doors, but only lever-style handles and only if the door opens toward her
• Anne can pick up and move her stool between the bed and sink.  Thankfully she has not figured out how to apply the stool in general to things like the dresser or closet or night stands.
• Anne loves to play in her learning tower that Grandpa B built her.
• Anne all of a sudden likes to walk most of the time, rather than being carried.
• A couple days ago it rained really hard and the gutters were flowing very quickly.  Anne and I went outside in our raincoats and floated boats down the gutters.  It was lots of fun.
• A couple weeks ago we went with Grandma and Grandpa B to the zoo and saw all kinds of cool animals.  Anne got to feed a giraffe and a baby lemur.  It was a pretty cool day.  

A water park and a flowery bathing suit:
who could ask for anything more?

Yogurtee goatee

Puddles are another beloved form of water

Cute

Taking a break

The forest nudist

A big hug from cousin Max

The camera adds ten pounds

These zoo ducks appeared thirsty

It's ok for the baby lemur to take trips out of its cage

... and steal banana directly from Anne's hand

This doesn't happen on a real safari

... so it's even better than a safari!

That is one ginormous tongue

Anne did a face plant on the porch last week

Hi hi hi!

Anne is now 16 months old, but I forgot to mention in the previous post the results of Anne's 15-month doctor visit.  She had her 15-month immunization shots and was weighed and measured.  At 15-months she weighed 25 lbs 5 oz (85th percentile), had a length of 79 cm (75th percentile) and a head circumference of 48.5 cm (100th percentile).  NASA is currently deliberating over whether her noggin qualifies as a planet or just a planetoid.

Anne's vocabulary is slowly improving.  She seems to only have a limited number of syllables at her disposal (ba, ma, da, pa, ya, na, and hi), which limits her vocabulary significantly.  Her understanding, however, is skyrocketing.  For example, if I say, "Anne, should we go pick up Daddy from work?", Anne will say, "Ya!  Daddy!" and then run to the front door, get her shoes, sit on the step, and try to stick her foot into a shoe (rather unsuccessfully).  Anne has mastered "yes" (or "ya" as she says it), but not the word "no" (which she pronounces "na" when prompted).  Instead of answering no, Anne will just kind of look at you or whine.  Anne's new favourite word is "hi".  She likes to say it multiple times  to anyone who will answer back.  She hasn't figured out "bye" yet, but she will wave to someone who is leaving.  Unfortunately by the time she gets around to waving the person has usually already left.

Other random details:

• Anne's favourite things to eat are clementines
• Anne LOVES swimming in water, playing in water, standing in water, touching water, drinking water, water water water water
• Anne sleeps 10.5 hours solid at night, and about 2.5 hours during her one nap at about noon
• Anne is still breastfeeding three times a day.  Why?  I don't know.  I haven't found a reason to stop.
• Anne just grew out of her first pair of shoes.  
• Anne scraped her knee the other day and will now happily pull her pants up and point it out to you if you ask her where she hurt herself.
• If you call Anne a nudie loonie, she will proudly pat her naked tummy with both hands.
• If anybody anywhere mentions the word "blackberry", Anne instantly goes to Daddy and demands he show her some photos on his BlackBerry.
• Anne is starting to get picky about which songs are played during car rides.  We are pretty  much limited to Raffi, the Whoever Shall Have Some Good Peanuts album by Sam Hinton, and any version of The Wheels on the Bus.

Anne swimming with Grandma B.  Anne LOVES the water.  I think she'll grow up to be a fish.

Anne playing on the computer.  Anne LOVES the computer (read: "Anne loves to watch the Gummy Bear Song on the computer").  I think she'll grow up to be a computer scientist.

Anne and Max eating lunch at the land.  Anne LOVES lunch.  I think she'll grow up to be a glutton.  (Just kidding.)

Anne sitting on Grandpa G's tractor.  Anne LOVES the tractor.  I think she'll grow up to be a farmer.  If only we can convince Daddy to let her actually ride on the tractor.

A cute video of Anne sitting on the tractor

Anne's hair got really long and was always in her face, so I finally caved on the haircut.  We took her this evening for her first professional haircut.  See the photo novel representation of the event below.  I didn't want to do bangs, but it turns out there aren't many options for keeping her hair out of her face.  We decided on some bangs, but thankfully stopped short of a mullet.

Anne having fun on the car ride to the haircut.

Pre-haircut hair.

Hey cool, I get to drive a car!

Uhhh, what are those for?

Ohhh, look at this shiny distraction!

Something's going on here and I don't like it, despite the fact that I get to play with this cool Yoshi.

It's the end of the world!

Is it over?  Did we survive?

Oh no, not the hair elastic!

All is well, I am back in my house.

Anne with bangs.  Sigh.  

A Whole New World

As you may know, it has been a busy month for our family.  Jeff got a new job in a new city, and we had four weeks to sell our house, pack, move in with my parents, and start a new job.  Our house sold only a day or two after going on the market, so that was a relief.  Now we just need to find a new house!

Jeff seems to be liking his new job.  Among other perks, there are free drinks and Jeff is sitting next to a window.

Anne seems to like living with Grandma and Grandpa.  Every time we turn the car into their condo complex Anne says, "Baapa" over and over (her version of Grandpa).  Anne says a lot of words now, and will attempt to repeat any word you ask her to say, although they mostly turn out sounding like "ba".  She can definitely say "mama", "daddy", "baapa" (Grandpa), "maama" (Grandma), "naan" (Anne), "ma" (Max), "baaaby", and "yeah".  She has even said "yeah" in response to some questions lately and without prompting.  She also says a few other odd things, for example she calls her farmer, "E-I-E-I-O" (like the song).  

Anne seems to understand pretty much everything we say to her although she doesn't always choose to listen.  She enjoys testing our limits.  The last couple of days she has decided to throw her head back as far as it will go whenever we pick her up against her will.  She is also trying out the tantrum thing when she doesn't get her way.

Anne loves loves loves the water.  Last weekend we were at the land and we took her swimming in the river.  She just loves it and she doesn't seem to mind the cold at all.  She also doesn't seem to mind when we dunk her, though she sputters a bit afterward.  She hasn't gotten the hang of holding her breath yet.

Other fun things:

• Anne says "mmmm" just like we do when giving a kiss or making dolls kiss each other
• Anne likes to find peoples' belly buttons
• As soon as we put Anne in her car seat, she points at the ceiling demanding music
• Whenever I have the phone out, Anne points at it saying "daddy" or "maama" (gramma) since these are the two people we most often call on speaker phone.
• Anne is a big fan of sitting on chairs.
• Anne is getting quite good at using a spoon and a fork.

Anne playing at the splash pad near our old house.

Anne sucking down apple juice at East Side Mario's.  This is the first time she has successfully used a straw.

Anne wearing a Canada Day hat at the Ontario Early Years Centre.

Anne with Grandpa and Darwyn at the land.

This is what usually happens when I try to take a photo of Anne.  This is her cute new dress from Grandma B.

Anne very excited to be sitting in the tractor seat.

First attempt at the traditional baby-and-grandpa-playing-cards photo. 

Anne wearing her new Canada Day t-shirt from Aunty Mel.

Anne lined up her grapes at breakfast the other morning.

Anne saying her name a few weeks ago.