Anniston- 18 months

I just realized I had this post written and ready to go.....and then I forgot all about it!  Oh well, better late than never!


My little Annie has the sweetest personality- she will give hugs and kisses freely and loves to stroke your hair when she gets tired or sleepy.  Sometimes, she will come barreling at me, full force, to throw her arms around me with the biggest hug.  Gotta love it.

That being said, she can get pretty fiesty and stubborn, too.  She will occasionally pitch little fits here and there when I tell her "no" or she doesn't get her way.  They never last more than a minute or so.  Once she realizes I'm not going to give her what she wants she will stop and move on.  There have been a couple of times she will get mad because I say "no" and she will stomp her feet really quickly and scrunch her face up.  Brandon and I try to keep a straight face but sometimes it's hard:)

She is becoming so much of a girly girl.  I have a small drawer that I keep some of my old and cheap costume jewelry and I let her have free access to it while I'm getting ready in the mornings.  She will stack 5 or 6 bracelets on and walk around with her arm held up because she knows they will fall off if she puts her arm down.  She can even say "bracelet" but it sounds more like "bace it."  Too cute.  She loves to put on necklaces, too, and will get upset sometimes if I try to take them off before she is ready.  What can I say?  This girl loves her jewelry!

We all know she loves to dance.  This girl seriously has a new move every week.  I don't want to wish her life away but I cannot wait until she can start dance classes.  She will have so much fun!  Brandon also plays soccer with her.  Well, really he just kicks the ball around with her.  But she can kick it right back to him!  And then she claps for herself:)  She definitely doesn't have any self confidence issues so far:)

She loves to read.  More specifically, she loves to point to every picture on a page and have me tell her what it is.  One night, I was half doing that and half watching TV.  Apparently I didn't respond fast enough once she pointed at something on the page.  She started fussing and tapping me on the chest until I turned my attention back to the book.  Note to self:  when she points, you must respond in a timely manner:)  Quickly.

As far as eating is concerned, she is all over the place.  One day she is hungry as can be and nothing will fill her up, and the next day it's hard to get her to eat much of anything!  For the most part she does good though.

Her favorites:
Milk- 2%
Strawberries
Yogurt
Turkey
Cereal bars
Oatmeal
Animal crackers
Mac n Cheese
Rice Krispie Treats (specially made for Anniston by her Kay Kay:)  We even sent her this picture one day asking if she would make more for Annie.

Stats:  Weight- 29.7 lbs  Height- 31 1/2"
I am also happy to report that her sleeping is FANTASTIC right now.  The best it's ever been. (Knock on wood!)  I have no idea what happened, but one week she just started sleeping past her 5 am wake up time and pretty much has been ever since.  She was doing great throughout the night, but would just wake up at the crack of dawn and be ready to start her day.  Brandon and I had gotten used to it pretty well, but it sure is nice to sleep later.  She goes down between 7:30 and 8 pm and will generally sleep until 6-7 am.  Some mornings she has even slept until 7:30 or 8 am!  I love not seeing 5 am anymore!!!

Anniston has really taken off with her vocabulary.  She can say (or attempt to say) almost any word I say. The most common words she says on her own are:

Mommy
Da Da
Ruby (and sometimes she will point to other dogs in books or on TV and call them Ruby too!)
Cracker
Paci
ABC
Bye Bye
Hey
No
Elmo
Abby (the character from Sesame Street)
Ball
Kay Kay
Poppy
Allie
Mimi
Shoes
Ice

I put A's hair in pigtails and a ponytail for the first time a couple of weeks ago.  She looked so stinking cute I could hardly contain myself.  She loves for me to fix her hair so she sits still really well.  Her hair has the cutest curls in it and I love it!

And she loves to show you her belly button:

I want Anniston to stay this way forever sometimes.  We have so much fun and she is at such a cute age.  I want to document as much as I can right now so I have it to look back on and remember just how much fun we had!