Sixteen Months!

Annika turned 16 months last week, and since this will likely be her last month as an only child, I want to remember what she's like now. I had a four-day weekend for Rosh Hashanah and it was great to be able to spend so much time with her. For most of the weekend I was sick and ended up lying in her room while she played, but I loved watching her and seeing how much she has grown and changed.

She's a big kid -- at her last checkup she was above the 95th percentile for height and weight. She will eat almost anything, although bananas are definitely her favorite food. She is done with bottles. She now can play for hours on end. She's really active and loves moving around, running, and dancing. She's always busy, doing something like stacking and unstacking blocks, moving items from one container to another, etc. She likes to look at books, but usually doesn't want to sit still long enough to hear one read to her. Annika also loves climbing. She will pull off the cushion from a chair in her room and use it as a step to help her reach the chair so she can stand on it.

Annika hasn't added many new words in the past month, but she continues to babble and talk all the time. She clearly has ideas she is trying to express, and I often wish I could understand what she's saying. She has started saying "gracias" and "dame" (give it to me) and is making connections between English and Spanish. At a restaurant she overheard someone ask for water, and she immediately said, "agua!" She'll also say "bye" if you say adios. She asks questions a lot ("What that?" "Where daddy?") and is obsessed with telling the dog "no." Her comprehension has grown so much -- she answers questions about what she wants accurately and can follow simple and indirect commands. A lot of this she has learned from daycare, which she loves. I've been working 10-11 hour days, and although she's always happy to see me when I pick her up, she is still reluctant to leave nearly every day. Her babysitter is a fabulous person; a local newspaper wrote a profile of her here.

My favorite development over the past month has been seeing Annika's imagination develop. She has pretended to talk on the phone for the past few months, but last week she took the phone, babbled into it, and then held it up to Lucky's ear and pretended that Lucky was talking on the phone. She also loves to pretend that her animals are eating or drinking and often burps them when she's done. Here she is giving her monkey agua:

She has a toy car that she can sit on. When I wasn't feeling well, I asked her if she wanted to ride on her car. She said, "no, doggy" and then put her stuffed dog on the car and pulled it around her room saying, "whee, whee!"

I was able to take her to the Brooklyn Children's Museum last weekend and was pleasantly surprised by how much she enjoyed it. She played for three hours and still didn't want to leave -- she actually climbed back up the stairs and ran back inside through the automatic doors when I tried to take her home.

 She was pretty proud of the block towers she built.

She loved playing with the water in a stream exhibit and watching the turtles and fish.

 At first she was scared of the sand and wouldn't touch it, but after awhile she loved it and refused to leave. 

Scott is looking forward to our new arrival, and I'm definitely looking forward to not being pregnant anymore (although trying to lose weight and get back in shape is not that appealing, either). I don't think Annika has much of a sense of what's coming, although she does tap my stomach and say "baby," and will give it a kiss sometimes. It's hard to believe she won't be the baby soon!

Predictions

Scott: RJSF (boy): 8 lbs 3 ounces, October 12

Jenn: RJSF (boy), 8 lbs 7 ounces, October 7

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Lunch Time

Some things Annika loves: "agua," eating (or trying to eat) with utensils, talking, and telling her dog "no."

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At the Playground

We're so glad the weather is finally getting nice! After work yesterday Scott and I met up for an early dinner and then took Annika to the playground. This was the first time she really seemed to enjoy it. I'm sure we'll be back many times over the coming months...

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

 

 

Utah

Last weekend Annika and I went to Utah to see some of my family while Scott went to London and Brussels on a business trip. It was fun to reintroduce Annika now that she can do so many things and has a much more developed personality than when we visited in August.

I was thrilled that she was able to spend time with both of her great grandmas.

Own Grandma's pill bottle was the perfect toy.

She loved hanging out at both grandmas' houses, crawling around and taking baths.

 I was excited for her to see her grandparents, too. Unfortunately, she decided to be afraid of people for the first time in her life and cried any time I wasn't holding her or at least in eyesight. Luckily, she warmed up to everyone after the first day.

 

 

She got to see lots of other relatives, too. Here she is with her cousin Emma, who was great at making her laugh. I even paid Emma to babysit while I took a shower -- she's like the baby whisperer.

Second-cousin Harrison and cousin Alex

My cousins Sean and Allison.

Second-cousin Caitlyn, who is four months younger

Despite the size difference, she warmed up to her great-uncle Adam right away.

Annika loved the bowling alley -- she sat and watched contently for an hour or so.

We also went a restaurant I'd been to as a kid called the Idle Isle in a small town not far from where my grandma grew up. She went there for dinner after her high school graduation. Annika loved it there, too.

Behind Annika you can see the old-fashioned soda fountain.

Annika has started making funny faces. If she looks chubby in this picture, it's because she is! In the past few months she's gained six pounds and went from being in the 3rd to the 50th percentile for weight.

I was nervous about flying alone with her, but she did great on the two flights to Utah. On the way there, she got the hiccups really loudly and two rows of people began cracking up.

As for the red-eye flight home... let's just say the woman next to us who woke Annika up mid-flight got what she asked for; however, Annika was all smiles by the time we returned to JFK.