Good Puppy!

So a story before photos... Sometimes the only way to get Anna to play independently is for Mommy to be "busy". I was in the main area of our house cleaning up some, and Anna wandered off to her room (we keep the other doors closed most of the time to keep the dogs out and to corral the babe). When I peeked back to check on her, she and Emma were having the best time together. I should rephrase that, Anna was having the best time ever. Emma was just being the best dog ever and taking the beating petting.

My sneaky view. Anna was petting, cuddling, and covering Emma with her lovey.

Caught! My sweet girls.

"Hey, Mom! Here is my Emma, my lovey, and my tongue. These are a few of my faaaavorite things!"

Next up for Anna's affection... Bailey. Anna found the cheerios, so Bailey was immediately interested. Bailey keeps a safer distance... which is best for everyone involved.

"Bailey! Get closer! I want to pet you!"

"You want some of these Cheerio's?!"

"Okay! I'll provide a smorgasbord on the floor for you!" (I literally had just vacuumed...)

Potty Training?

Potty training? Haha, just kidding. Well, sort of. We bought Anna a potty to keep in the house so we can get ready for her interest, or lack thereof, for potty training. Part of the purchase also had to do with her recent obsession with Elmo. We figure this obsession started with some flap books we bought her for Christmas, as she had never seen Elmo or Sesame Street up until a month or so ago. (By the way, those books stay in hiding, or I'm pretty sure I would have to read them 24/7) But now, she is an Elmo pro. Some examples...

-We have a small basket of DVDs, including some on loan from Gigi that cousin Avery was never interested in, including Elmo's World. Anna will dig through the DVDs, casually tossing them to the floor until she finds Elmo's World which she will then bring to you and lean against the couch facing the TV, as if to say "Here Mom, you put this DVD in the Xbox and I will sit and watch it." Did we mention she can get on the couch now? And turn on the Xbox? We are in trouble...

-Walmart seems to be covered in Elmo. You never noticed, but now you will. Walking through, she will start saying, "El! El!" and sure enough, you'll find Elmo somewhere, sometimes obscure, around you. The best was the Elmo head balloon. I thought she was going to burst from excitement, "El! Ba! El! Ba!". She also loves balloons.

-Somehow we ended up with Elmo toothpaste. Really, it is only "Elmo" toothpaste because of the picture of him on it, but she will carry around her Elmo toothpaste like it is a prized possession. This is why there was no need to buy the Elmo balloon in Walmart... toothpaste will do at this age.

Okay, enough stories. Here is my cutie sitting on her potty. She loved the box it came in even more than the potty, but she has yet to see the joy in the mock flusher. I'll choose to be thankful for that now, because Elmo screaming in the bathroom seems like it may get old in the future..

Ignore the cloth diapers all over the ottoman. They are now folded and where they should go...

So big! She is also obsessed with her new book, Snuggle Puppy. She carries it all around, although she won't really let you read it to her...

Throwback Thursday

I couldn't resist a good throwback to when our little peanut was so so little...

One year ago!

Appalachian Cow?

If you follow me on Instagram you saw that our little family went to "Cow Appreciation Day" at Chickfila. The rule is, if you dress like a cow you get a free meal. Mark was thrilled, as you might imagine, but we ended up having a lot of fun and I'm sure as Anna gets a little older she will love it too. She ended up not being much of a fan of the real Chickfila cow (no tears, just very very nervous). Since Anna doesn't have too much black and white in her closet, we ended up making her a cow out of her adorable App onesie and I had to have photos of it as well.. So, enjoy these kinda old Appalachian-Cow photos!

Is this not the cutest?! Look at the tutu!

Just rockin' in her Appalachian gear!

Baby cow!

Daddy cow and baby cow!

Mommy cow, baby cow, Chickfila cow!

Cow family! This photo may or may not be on the Statesville Chickfila page...

Best Friend

Sorry, no photo of sweet Anna today. Just a photo of her big sister Bailey cuddling with lovey. I'm pretty sure this was accidental, but we are going to just go with it and say Bailey was sad Anna had gone to bed (we have lots of loveys... shhh).

Bubbles! Bubbles! Bubbles!

I mentioned in Anna's monthly update that she loooooves bubbles. We have had bubbles around the house for a while, but when she wasn't terribly impressed months ago we never got them out. Well, during our two week stint of illnesses, Mommy got out lots of things for entertainment. One of the many items was our $1 tube of bubbles. Anna thought it was awesome. I made bubbles and bubbles and bubbles until my arm was tired of swinging (it was one of the larger wands) and she ran around the yard trying to pop them. A few times I was sure she was just going to walk into the empty lot next to us, despite the fact the weeds are taller than she is.

Fast forward a few days and a new diagnosis (we were into the roseola) and Mommy hit up Walmart for a bubble machine. I'm pretty sure it was as good as Disneyworld. The girl went crazy for the bubble machine. She has since requested it every single time we go out the garage. She has also since face-planted on the driveway when Emma bumped into her and she was too distracted by the ridiculous amount of bubbles to pay attention to her walking. There were lots of tears that time, and then a few minutes later she insisted the bubble machine be turned back on.

So many bubbles!

Pure joy!

Running back and forth to catch the bubbles.

"I love bubbles!!!"

Bubble Zombie! <-- I think I have the name of a winning cartoon, don't ya think?

16 Months!

Per usual, I am behind on my monthly post... although I am sure none of you mind. We spent Anna's big (ha) sixteen month birthday at the doctor's office. I'll get to the rest of that, but it did allow me to see how much she weighed (21.6 lb, 46th percentile). What's funny is if you look back at 15 Months I said she was 22 pounds. I highly doubt she has lost weight, the way she eats, but rather that my methods for weighing her at home aren't quite accurate.

Following what I wrote about last month, at sixteen month's Anna can now:
-Climb onto many objects, including the couch, chairs, tables, stairs, really anything at or below her height.
-Say many words, though most are hard to understand. This month she has added: fish, up, down, Elmo, car, airplane, no, shoes, outside/inside ('side) and more I can't think of right now.
-Identify more body parts proudly including head, belly, tongue, nose, ears.
-Insist someone in a room put on shoes that she finds.
-Sit in child size chairs on her own.

Her favorite activities include:
-Water time in a pool, lake, or on the back deck.
-Chasing bubbles.
-Playing with her doggies.
-Walking through empty hallways and grocery aisles.
-Eating and reading, per usual.
-Climbing.
-Getting sick. Kidding. Kind of.

So far, I would say Anna has been fairly healthy. We haven't had nagging illnesses, and really she spent most of winter and spring with a clean bill of health. Apparently she wanted to get some one-year illnesses under her belt and between fifteen and sixteen months she managed to get croup, hand foot and mouth, and roseola. She has a cough right now that we are just going to will away because she seriously cannot be sick again! I'm sure it's about time for a molar to pop through though... yay.

"Anna, Smile!" // "I AM SMILING MOM"

If only I could get her to look at the camera and smile!

Runny nose, don't care.

Baby Mountain Goat

Apparently after visiting the farm and seeing the baby goats, Anna decided she would like to become a baby mountain goat. She is very into climbing on furniture and chairs, into baskets, and apparently onto her play toys. I'll give you one guess who took these photos before getting the toddler off of the toy...

"Don't act like you guys don't think I'm cute!"

One...

Two...

Three!

This looks like about the moment that she was told to get down... followed by tears.

I Like to Eat

I know I have kept this a big secret... but, Anna likes to eat. It is pretty much her best party trick. Yes, she can touch her nose, ears, belly, etc on command. She can say words like dog and duck. But put the girl near a table of food and she will do tricks eat... and everyone will be amazed. For some reason this week I decided that these moments were worth capturing- Anna's daily oatmeal breakfast and her attacking a popsicle. So... enjoy?

Anna has been sharing my oatmeal with me for quite some time. I usually get her her own spoon and pass her bites for her to feed herself. After getting hand foot and mouth (me.. from Anna) I started making her her own bowl. Once it is cool enough, she tackles it with her spoon (and sometimes her hands). It's adorable, and messy.

Sometimes it helps if you guide her a little bit along the way. Check out that face!

 Focusing hard on getting her spoonful... Success!

Hands work too, I guess.

Such a guilty face for finishing breakfast!

Next is Anna vs. Popsicle. We (I) have been enjoying some watermelon with fresh lime juice around here. When I had too much extra, I blended it and popped it in my Zoku popsicle maker and they turned out awesome! Mark even liked them, and he isn't a watermelon fan. Anna, also not a fan of the watermelon, loved them! I thought she looked like such a big girl holding her own popsicle..

Post-nap-face.

YUM!

My sweetness.

Popsicles make me HAPPY!

Water Baby

Sorry, no cute 4th of July photos to be found here on the blog this year. We had a very low key fourth of July including hand foot and mouth disease, a migrane, and oddly enough Mark baking bread. We did manage to get out of the house over the weekend, and here are some photos of Anna having some water-loving fun over the course of the past week or so..

First up, our redneck pool adventure! This has since happened again, because it was so awesome. We put our sun shade to good use on the back deck, tucked the pool under it and added a water table. It is pretty much as good as Emerald Pointe.

As you can see, it was a pretty fun set up. Even if Anna refused to admit she enjoyed it.

She is very generous with her water in a shovel... Want some?

"Wait, I can stand in the pool AND play in my water table?!"

"Running" in the water. I know there are no smiles... but she liked it!

Next up, the lake! We headed out to Lake Norman on Saturday for some boating and water fun. Anna did very well most of the time. I would say the rest of the time she wasn't doing well she was hungry. Girl likes to eat.

Who needs baby floats? Daddy's float works just fine! (She was enjoying herself until I walked up with the camera, at which point Mommy had to get in the water and no more photos were taken).

Last, we hit up a real pool. Like, it wasn't blown up on someone's deck. Anna only enjoyed this pool moderately. She had a fever within 24 hours, so I'm gonna go ahead and say she didn't feel so well. That, coupled with the pool party happening during nap time meant she would rather be held and fed snacks.

Anna did make a crowd-pleasing decision by wearing her Appalachian swimsuit to a party full of App grads...

A Girl And Her Dogs

I would say that lately Anna has become obsessed with her doggies. But, let's be real, she has always loved her furry siblings. So instead, let's put it this way- Lately, Anna has become obsessed with harassing her furry siblings. If I counted, I bet I get close to saying, "gentle, Anna" about fifty times per day, followed quickly by, "Good Bailey/Emma". Fortunately, Bailey has put away her grumpy attitude about the toddler in her house... because Anna certainly isn't going anywhere. And she doesn't know how to leave the pups alone. If she finds a collar or leash, she will bring it to them repetitively until you take it away from her. And by find, I mean she digs through the basket where the dog items are to see if she can find one...

I snapped some cute photos of Anna chasing, loving, and decorating her pups over the past couple days..

First victim up... Bailey!

It starts out all cute. Anna finds a pool noodle I am trying to make into a craft.

"Here, Bailey! I found you a necklace!

"Bailey! Where are you going!!"

Next up, Emma! Emma has a much higher tolerance for constant harassment. She is the master of it herself, after all.

How cute are these two?!

"Here Emma, let's play a game!"

"Peek-a-boo!" (Best dog ever.)

And a video! Seriously, this girl could not get enough of putting her lovey on her puppy. So cute. Sorry Emma.