18 Month Well Visit

Another successful well visit was had at your 18 month check-up! Dr. Straughn and I covered several areas such as

• When/how to get rid of the pacie
• Picky eating
• Behavior (sharing, fits, hitting, etc...)

All of which Dr. Straughn said these things were very normal and age appropriate. This was good to hear! You weighed in at 22 pounds and are still a little below normal in size, but that's ok. You're just pretty and petite. I guess the days of having your picture taken with Dr. Straughn are on a bit of a hiatus. So, we had a picture with our favorite MA at the office.

Cousin Chana, of course!!

18 Months Old

Annabelle,

Happy 18 months old to my big girl! I can't believe it's time for another tri-monthly post! It seems like just yesterday you were fifteen months old! I'm sure these posts are starting to sound a little redundant in that I keep saying how "time flies" and "it seems like yesterday..." blah, blah, blah...BUT IT'S TRUE!!

I love this months' post because this was our first (tri) monthly picture ever taken with you in your pajamas! Yes, this was a laid back picture session! 

Do you see just how happy and precious you are?? I will treasure these pictures! I feel like this is the first month where you really embraced taking your picture with your pink teddy bear. It's crazy how you are holding that bear in your lap, when it used to be bigger than you! You are so sweet and so much fun! I love your sweet personality that has developed.

 You are very happy! That is one thing that people say about you, and they notice right off the bat, "She's such a happy girl!" I would have to agree! You laugh a lot and love to make people laugh!

Something else you've really embraced over the last few months is your "cheese face". You have it down, girlfriend! When mommy tells you to say, "Cheese!" you do it so well! You smile so big that your eyes close! What a wonderful trait to have... an eye-closing smile! I love it! Something else I love is your teeth! It seems like it took them forever to grow in and to see them, but they did and I love them. I used to say I would miss that wonderful gummy smile you had. Well, I do, but I sure am loving your teethy smile now!

You talk a lot. Most of the time, it's gibberish, or Annabelle speak, as I like to call it. Even though Mommy and Daddy may not know what you are saying, you do. I think my favorite is the "conversations" you have. You speak with such expression through your eyes, eyebrows and hand gestures. You just talk and talk and go on about whatever is on your mind at the time. We can understand a few words here and there, but I seriously could listen to this gibber jabber all day long!

You are very affectionate and love to give hugs and kisses. Especially to your cousins! You light up every time you see Joey, Noah or Stetson. You are surrounded by boys in this family, but you don't seem to mind very much!

I have to apologize for this non picture-heavy post for these last few months. I lost my camera battery charger back in December. So the pictures I have are from my phone and a digital camera I borrowed from Papa. It's very unlike me, but I didn't necessarily document every single occasion over the last few months, AB. I'm sorry for that, but I promise it won't happen again. I don't want to miss a thing!

I love you sweet girl, and am so grateful for these precious times! Thank you for being so incredibly wonderful! Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you and love you so much!!

Love,

Mommy

Happy Valentine's Day 2011

This year for Valentine's, I wanted to really get into making cards/gifts, etc. I had a crafting itch, and so I went for it. AB and I (mostly me, obviously) made cards for all of her friends instead of buying them. I couldn't wait to get started.

Then, we made heart shaped brownies, and personalized them by adding Annabelle faces on sticks in the middle of the brownies. They turned out cute, but made me laugh looking at all the smiling AB faces.

We packaged them up and delivered them to our local friends. Our other friends who lived farther (Audrey, Harper, Cole, Aunt Jill and Uncle Jonas) we mailed their cards. On Valentine's Day after school, AB and I made our rounds and delivered them.

We made a special stop at Birmingham to give Aunt Julie her Valentines. AB was very proud.

What Happens When Aunt Jill Comes Over...

AB gets to play "dress up" with Aunt Jill's lip gloss. Oh, the fun of surrogate Aunts. How we love her! In all honesty, we were bored because the boys were watching the Superbowl. It's much more fun to do girly things. Love you, Aunt Jill!

The Snowy Day(s) 2011 Edition

Well, it happened again. Last school year we missed a day or two of school for inclement weather, and the same thing with this year. It was a lot of fun...the first day. Then, after 24 straight hours of not being able to leave the house. You start to get a bit stir crazy.

Example.

How about when Austin pulled me and AB around the house in the wagon due to sheer boredom. Yes. Really. We did this. AB thought it was a blast! Austin - not so much. He was the one doing the pulling.

We did make a couple of trips outside to play in the snow. However, you have to be bundled up pretty tight to brave that freezing weather. AB can attest to this.

We did do some fun things to keep ourselves occupied. I actually created another blog! A learning blog. I went two days without teaching (in February). This was an unexpected break from teaching, and my mind was still in teaching mode. So, AB and I did some fun activities, and I blogged about it.

After a day, we finally got out of our pj's (this helped the stir craziness). We did some lying around and watching t.v. A lot of t.v. However, AB made the most of it by loving on Scout, and turning her into her activity table all at the same time. She made a good desk for letter learning.

It was fun being home, but the "trapped" feeling, I can do without.

Nostalgia

As I was uploading pictures (new and old) to my laptop from my phone, I came across this video. Here, Annabelle is a day shy of four months old. I remember this age the most. This was my favorite of all. She was just old enough to hold up her head, but yet was still so tiny and petite that I felt like I had a real-life baby doll. At this age, her personality really started to show through - very happy and very smiley. And yes, that annoying high-pitched voice singing the Beach Boys',  "Kokomo" is me. Before I shot this video, I was singing it and she started laughing. The second run through didn't get as much of a response, but that sweet little laugh/squeal she has at the end, she still has. I hope she always will. I love watching her facial expressions in this one. Oh, how I'm a sentimental fool. I could watch old videos and look through old pictures all day.



Picture Posting Hiatus

Well, here we are nearly two months later, and I still can't find my camera charger. I've searched high and low. It's nowhere. Something I've learned about myself since I've become a mom, especially, I put things places...and I can't remember for the life of me where. This could have something to do with the fact I'm a terrible clutter bug. I stuff things in drawers and cabinets,and in the most peculiar places. I'm sure my charger is around here somewhere, but I may have to buy a new one before it shows up. Until then, I feel there is no reason to stop blogging completely! Miss AB is growing and doing so many things! I must document! However, she will be 18 months old in 23 days. At that point, it will be time for another tri-monthly post! Not to mention all the Christmas pictures left to post! *sigh* Which brings me to another point - my Picasa web albums! Argh! I'm starting to despise those words. I'm thinking I'm going to just bite the bullet and purchase some storage. So, as soon as those two problems have been solved, I'll be back on the picture-posting, blogging front once again!

As for Annabelle, could she be any more fun? We are having our typical pre-two year old tantrums, but nothing unbearable. This girl knows what she wants when she wants it, and she's strong-willed!! I love that about her, though. She has such a sense of independence. Someone gave her a talking (Fisher Price) tea set for her birthday. I hadn't opened it yet because I thought she was a little too young. A couple of weeks ago I set up a small table and two chairs in her room that a friend had given me. I felt this table was incomplete without a tea set! So, I opened up the tea set. I placed the two cups, talking pitcher, and a plate with three desserts on the table. That girl sat down at that table and played with that tea set for nearly three hours! Yes, three hours! I was in her room doing some major cleaning out and putting away old clothes. I sat in there with her the whole time. I got some work done and we had a lovely tea party together. So much fun. Ever since then, she walks around the house (if she's not sitting at her table) with her pitcher and tea cups. She's busy pouring Austin or myself some tea or using her cups as little containers to find small blocks or shapes to collect and put in her cups. I'm really starting to see her imaginative play come out and it's very neat.

Her vocabulary has really taken off in the last few weeks. Last weekend we had her sit on the potty - which by the way, she went poo-poo for the first time. It wasn't a true success, but it was something and we praised and praised her! As she was sitting on the potty, she was holding very tightly to her Daddy's neck (she's a little afraid of the potty), Austin was saying something funny to her, to where she looked over at me and said, "Dada se-yee!" Which translates to, "Daddy's silly!" We died laughing! This was only the second or third time she's put two words together. The other times have been, "Where's Scout?" or "It's Dada!" She's starting to understand more, to where she is saying more. I love it. She's showing a lot of affection and her two newest words are "kees!" (kiss) and "hu!" (hug). She's her momma's girl! She loves to give out hugs and kisses.

My favorite saying so far, that's she's asked me twice now...the first time she was really tired when we got home and when I tried to pick her up, she thrashed her arms back and gave me attitude to where I wouldn't pick her up. Instead of getting upset or angry, I dramatically knelt down and pretended to cry. She tapped me on the arm, and said, "Momma! Momma! You k?" Did that make my heart smile, or what? The next time was when I was working out yesterday. I was really struggling and doing a tough exercise. She comes over and bends down next to me, "Momma, you k?" She has a sweet and loving heart.

I guess I'll save some of these milestones for her 18 month posts. After going through a friend's blog today, who is fabulous about documenting everything her three boys do, it made me sad it's been nearly a month since I've done the same. I know I had a set back, but I'm doing much better. My sad days are very, very few and far between. I still think about our sweet baby. I miss him/her very much. As AB gets older, it makes me treasure everything a little more. We want another one. She's been so much fun! Why not do it again? And again? Oh, and maybe again? :0) We'll see. If there's one thing I've learned, it's all in the good Lord's timing. No matter how much planning you may do, He shows us it's all about our trust in Him.