18 Months and Counting

It's hard to believe she's already hit that milestone. The next thing I will be telling people is that she's two, and that is just crazy. How did she grow up so fast?

Annalee amazes me every day with how smart she is.
She can now:
--Name/identify practically every major body part including her knees, elbows, hair and teeth.
--Make almost every (common) animal sound, and name many of the animals.
--Go to nursery without Mommy by her side (I think it was way harder on me than on her).
--Kneel and fold her arms for family prayer (she even bows her head and starts talking sometimes as if she is saying the prayer)
--Easily reach the top drawer in the bathroom and the desk in the office so that getting into things is much easier.
--Identify what "Trash" is and knows how to throw it away i.e. diapers, food wrappers and banana peals.
--Take off her own shoes and socks. (In fact, she likes to do it whenever we get in the car, so that when we actually get somewhere, we have to put them back on her before getting out of the car.)
--Name/identify her articles of clothing such as shoes, socks, jacket, pants, etc. She loves to wear her jackets.
--Brush her own teeth, with a little help. (She loves to do this and sometimes it is the only thing that will distract her so I can do her hair.)
--Ask for headbands, hats and hairbows. (she says "hat" and "bow" really cute!)
--Feed herself with a spoon or fork, although sometimes she still holds it in one hand while just grabbing the food with her other hand.
--Stand in the big part of the shopping cart rather than sitting up front in the seat.
--Say and sign More, Please, Thank You, All Done, and Book. (she has been able to sign them for a long time but prefers now to just say them instead without the sign.)
--Build a tower of Legos all by herself (the medium sized ones, not the small tiny ones.)
--Say "Up" when she wants me to hold her instead of just screaming at me and pulling on my legs while I am cooking or doing dishes.
--Walk up and down shallow stairs instead of crawling. She loves stairs.

Other joyful things about Annalee:
--She loves to say HI to everyone we pass in the grocery store. She's a real charmer.
S--he loves to sing the primary Hello Song. Sometimes it is just Hello Hello Hello Hello over and over again. The cool part is that it's not monotone though--she even gets the note change pattern of the song.
--She loves Ring around the Rosies and can sing much of the song on her own starting with "Ashes Ashes." She loves it so much that she gets just as excited watching a video of herself and her cousins doing it. Especially the "All Fall Down" part.
--If you ask her what her name is she will tell you and she can tell you how old she is. (if she's in a good mood)
--She once wrote on the wall in my bathroom and I left it there instead of washing it off so that now everytime she sees it, she points at the wall where the marks are and says "No No No." It's been a good learning tool.
--She does the same thing when she sees writing in any of her books (we got some at garage sales that were written on by other kids) She will point to it and say "No No No."
--She also points at things in the house she is not supposed to touch and while shaking her finger says "No No No No No" It's really adorable.
--She loves peekaboo and can cover her own eyes now, which is pretty funny.
--She KNOWS she is cute. I get the funniest smirks from her. She also fake laughs sometimes, which is hilarious. It's like a curtesy laugh you would get from an adult.
--She has recently discovered that she likes swinging from bars. She likes doing the monkey bars at the park--with lots of assistance from Mommy--and tries to do the same thing at home on the bars of the ping pong table. I don't know where she got that idea, but it's real entertainment.
--She doesn't like to mix food in her mouth, so if you offer her something she wants more than what she's already eating, she will spit out the food in her mouth to eat the new thing.
--She loves carrots and tomatoes--especially with ranch dip. We often have to remind her to bite the food, not just lick off the ranch and dip it again. She does the same thing with chips and salsa. It's one of her favorite things.
--She gives really good squeeze hugs and likes to pat me on the back sometimes when I am holding her. She will also pat my cheeks and give me kisses.
--She says Oopsies and Uh-Oh really well. When something falls on the floor she says "Uh-oh" or "oopsies" when she falls down instead of crying.
--She loves to imitate me. Putting on lotion and chapstick are some of her favorite activities.

I guess a mother never ceases to be enamored with her own child.