Anna at 18 Months

WOW!  How time flies. Our little girl is now one and half, or, as we have been teaching her to say:  "1.5."

Anna's becoming ever more mobile and climbs EVERYTHING.  Chairs, shelves, whatever will stay still long enough.  There's been a whole new round of childproofing at our house trying to keep up with her.  She's even managed to climb into her high chair by herself.  I suppose those gymnastics classes are contributing to this... oops!  One of her favorite activities is climbing onto the bench in our living room and looking out the window. She finds it amusing to pull the curtains back and look to see if Daddy is home from work yet.

Anna's speech develops at lightning speed.  It's amazing how much she picks up!  She has begun repeating almost everything we see (which has, on occasion, included an inappropriate word that has slipped out of our mouths!)  She regularly strings two or three words together to indicate what she wants:  "yogurt down," "bear up," etc.  She has also begun using the pronoun "I" appropriately with adjectives: "I tired" or "I cute."  (This despite Elmo's best efforts to force her to speak in the third person only.)   She loves practicing her singing.  She can sing nearly complete versions of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," the Alphabet Song, and "Row Row Row Your Boat," without any help!  She is able to participate well in "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Old MacDonald."  She can also count to twelve on her own and all the way to twenty with a little help (she gets some of those -teen numbers confused). 

We continue our near daily walks, but many days we allow Anna to walk the last block home.  She loves it!  Nearly every day on our ride home from daycare Anna requests a "wagon walk."  Anna shows a growing ability to recall events from hours or days prior.  A highlight this month was a friend's birthday (David) that she still can't stop talking about.  This morning when I wished her "Happy Half Birthday," she immediately began babbling about David.  Another example:  We had friends over for dinner on Sunday evening.  On Tuesday night, Anna walked over to the chair our friend Nassim sat in and said, "Nassim!" 

Along with all these great developments, we are seeing a few of those tantrums that we hear are pretty normal between 18 and 24 months.  Although they are no fun, Anna's emerging personality and ability to communicate make it all worth it.

Take a look at picture by clicking on the photo below.  Also check out the videos below!

Anna at 18 months