August 2014

-Anna enjoys reading a lot of books.  So far, there hasn't been one she has consistently pointed to the cartoon people as being "mama" and "daddy", until now.  In the book "ABCers, there is a couple together-- the lady (that she points to as "mama") is probably middle-aged and brown-haired.   But what's funny, is the guy who she points to as "daddy" is African American and is wearing sunglasses.
-Anna likes using complete sentence when possible.  One of her most common sentences is variations of "That's Anna's shirt, etc over there".
-Anna is really good at remembering and using people's names.
-One of her most-used words is "again"-- she'll usually employ it after you have read her a book or sang a song.  She would like to have you repeat it probably five times or so if you would.
-Ryan is having Anna "help" him take out the trash.-- She is in charge of carrying the clean, empty trash sacks for him, to replace the ones he takes out.
-Anna requests for Ryan to read her multiple Bible stories out of the "Jesus Storybook Bible" at night-- he normally just reads her one.  Ryan thinks it is just a stall-tactic though.
-Hot-dogs have been added to the top of her list of favorite foods-- way up there with mac & cheese and oranges.
-Anna has now started saying "I waaaant it".
-When we were visiting Eldon, Anna's Uncle John was showing her photos on the wall.  Every time he would point to one of me (Crystal) when I was little, and ask who it was, she would say "Anna".  When he would point to one of her Aunt Katie as a little girl, she would know it was Aunt Katie.  I guess her and I do look somewhat alike (especially as little girls).

July 2014-- Anna at 2 Years

Things Anna is doing:
-Singing the "ABC song" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" all the way through, fairly accurately.
-Also attempting to sing "Ring Around the Rosie", "Old McDonald's Farm", and "Jesus Loves Me".
-She will play Ring Around the Rosie with other kids, and really get to giggling.
-When I asked Anna what she would like to eat for her birthday dinner, she suggested Macaroni and Cheese, and cupcake... so we made sure she got both. :)
-Anna is really into dollhouses and all of the furniture and dolls that go with them-- this was a new finding, after visiting family in MN.
-She is showing more of her sense of humor-- in a play voice she will ask me for things that she know she isn't supposed to have.  For example, in the morning she'll look at me with a certain little grin, and say "some veggie cheese?" (knowing that I don't let her have veggie cheese for breakfast).
-Anna can talk in complete sentences... sometimes 6-7 words at a time (not completely grammatically correct, but more than you expect).
-Hitting herself in the head when she is frustrated, saying "bump head"... we're not quite sure what to do about this.
-Waiting for Ryan to walk in the door after work, requesting to "see chickens" and "go swing hi".
-If you ask her when her birthday is, she'll say July 7 (or something that sounds like it).
-Every time someone would sing "happy birthday" to her, she would request "again!".
-She can say her full name "Anna Grace Reddick".
-She often will refer to herself as "Anna Grace"... not just "Anna".
-Anna is getting better at constructing longer sentences... For example we were out-side, and un-prompted she observes, "Neighbor John is pushin' a lawn mower".
-When we are at the grocery store, and I start putting things on the conveyer belt (to pay), and consistently starts saying "Share!  Share!  Share!" (She always thinks I am giving away her food, instead of buying it).
-Anna is starting to play pretend more...  She'll create a little story or conversation with or between the toys she is playing with.

April 2014

A few things Anna is doing:
-Saying "no, no-yes"...  a little bit of a contradiction.
-When she is upset, "Saying no-no-no", and clapping her hand with each "no" for emphasis.
-Able to say quite a few 3 word sentences... "watch tales please"(Veggie Tales).
-Requesting to take her naps and go to bed.
-Each morning when I go to get her she is saying "noise, noise". (She wants me to turn her sound machine off).
-Repeating things that she's heard.  A few things I noticed her saying (that I know came from my mom) are "oh boy" and "pee-yew".
-Ryan has taught her to say "boom" (with emphasis and moving her arm as if she's hitting something), and also to say pound (and give a fist-bump, aka pound).
-She really loves playing the piano, and usually will play some a couple of times per day.  She did notice when we sold our piano.  (We are getting a newer piano, pending delivery).
-She enjoys playing with other kids, and will request to go see them by saying "Friends?".
-Every day when Ryan gets home from work, Anna will ask him, "Chickens?".  She wants him to go take her to look at the neighbor's chickens, which he does about every day.
-She remembers peoples' names, and calls her different friends by name.
-After only listening to a new children's music CD about 5 times, she could identify and say what song it was going to be, before the words even started.  I think she gets that from her dad.

March 2014

Things Anna is doing/saying:
-Saying "running!" as she is running, and "jumping!" as she is attempting to jump.
-Trying to count to ten.. "one, two, free, four, "ive", "ix", "chicken", nine, ten".
-At some point in the morning, Anna will usually start walking to the garage door and start saying, "bye-bye?  bye-bye?  bye-bye?", meaning she wants to leave the house... and we usually do :)
-She will now attempt to repeat most words, if you ask her to.
-Her first four-word sentence was "More olmo (oatmeal) peese (please), yeah."  I think I must say "yeah" to her a lot :)
-When going for a walk in the woods recently, Anna kept saying "snake, ssssssss, snake, ssssssssss" unprompted.  Gotta say, it did make me a little nervous.

Anna attended her friend Rhys' 1st Year Birthday Party

Also, she attended her friend Lucas' 4th birthday party.

Anna at 19 Months

This girl is a lot of fun!
-Saying 2 and 3 word sentences.  My favorite is "hop peese" (help please).  Her most common 3 word sentence is "more noo-nos peese" (more noodles please).
-Anna has also discovered that shaking her head passionately "yes", after making a request, for example"noo-nos peese", helps her get what she wants.
-Anna is saying hi and bye to inanimate objects... "Hi cup;  bye cracker;  hi door, etc...
-Her love of watching Elmo was just surpassed by her new favorite-- she now is asking to "watch Anna", after Ryan introduced her to watching home videos of herself.
-She can repeat and say more words on command.
-When you ask her what her middle name is, she says "Grace".
-She can point to on command and say several more capital letters... A, B, C, E, I, K, M, O, P, S, U, Y
-She can sight read the word "horse".
-She likes to dance to music, and gets into it more all the time.
-Anna has started doing something funny-- she will gently pick at the top of somebody's head, and then pretend to eat whatever it was she picked out... this is really hilarious to me, and I figure that she must have seen monkeys doing that, in one of the wildlife animal shows Ryan and her recently watched.

Pretending to pick something from Matthew's hair, right before she pretended to eat whatever she just picked.

I let Anna play in the snow for the first time.  She liked it for about 3 minutes, until she got snow on her face.  Then she was done with it.

Celebrating Uncle John's birthday

Valentine's Day photos

It's challenging to get a 19-month old to sit down or stand still for pictures.

Elmo CD player-- currently one of Anna's favorite toys.

Anna at 18 Months

Anna's Stats at 18 Months
Height=  31 3/4 inches;  48th percentile
Weight= 24.8 lbs;  77th percentile
Head Circumference 47 3/4;  86th percentile

Other Information
-Anna, when prompted, can count to three.
         You ask her "Anna, how old are you?"  One!!
         "What comes after one?"  Teou!!
         "What comes after two?"  Free!!
-She has also started counting things, unprompted (but only up to 2).  She'll be eating orange slices, pointing to one slice saying "One!", and then another saying "Teou!"
-Anna can say a few letters, when she sees them.  She can recognize and say "M", "I", "A", "S" and "Z".
-Anna knows a few colors.  She consistently can pick out blue, but also can point to red and say yellow "lello".
-She is finishing more of her one-syllable words... now saying "snack", instead of "nack", and "milk" instead of "mil".
-My two favorite words she currently says= turtle (tur-tal, with emphasis on each syllable), and Bible.
-One notable thing Anna did at the Sell Family Christmas, was when she saw Ryan get out an old antique family KJV Bible to read the Christmas story, she came from across the room, pointed to it, and clearly said "Bible".
-Anna will also sometimes say "Amen" after dinner-time prayers.
-Anna practices saying different people's names.  From her high chair, she can see some photos on our fridge, and she'll be sitting there practicing saying names.  Her favorite ones to practice are "Katie, Matt (Matthew), Don (Uncle John) and she tries to say her cousin Clara's name, but can't quite get there.

Anna enjoyed wrestling around with her Uncle John.

We went on a Caribbean cruise while Anna stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Burkle.

This is from when we were seeing Anna for the first time after 8 days.

Anna at 17 Months

-Anna is attempting to say more words than I can keep track of to write down.  She's also attempting more double-syllable words all the time (ie noodle= "no-no").
-A lot of Anna's words she'll say the beginning portion, but not the end... for example "tie" for tiger, "die" for diaper, "mil" for milk, "buh" for book.
-Anna can say a few people's names.  She'll attempt Grandma and Grandpa, but the first actual name she has been saying is "Don" (Uncle John).  Her second name she's been able to say (not including her own, or titles like mama and dada) is Amy (my friend who we've been seeing about every week).
-When we say "bath", she knows exactly what that entails-- say "baa", wait to be undressed, walk to the bathtub and wait to be helped in.  She enjoys bathtime.

Wearing an outfit from when her mom was little.

Having fun "hiding" together.

Anna enjoyed playing in the leaves.

Celebrating their Grandma's birthday.

Multi-tasking-- helping mom test lighting, while brushing her teeth.