Anna's Snowman - Day 552

Anna wanted to build a snowman, but we didn't have any boots for her. Eventually, I just put some of Kerry's heavy wool socks over her shoes and went out to build her snowman anyway. After that, whenever we left our house, she would say, "Bye-bye Anna Snowman."

Kerry got Anna a Mother Goose book for Valentine's day, and I got her a Miffy stuffed animal. Instead of chocolates, we got her a box of animal crackers, which she likes very much. Kerry fed her one cracker and when I came in to the room, Kerry asked Anna to tell me what she was eating. Anna -- with a mouth stuffed full of cracker -- forces out a "meow." She had just eaten a cat cracker. She has also really taken to the book and is working hard at memorizing all the stories. Today we went out for a walk and she had to have her book with her. It is quite a big book, but she just walked around clutching it tight. Whenever she got tired of holding it she would say, "Daddy, hold book." Of course, I carried her book for her.

Anna is also trying to count more. Her sequence as of tonight was 1, 2, 3, 4, ...7, 8, 9, 10, 11, ...13, 14. She also knows how to ask her own questions and says things like, "How many ear Nya-Nya have?" (Nya-Nya is her stuffed animal.) So she points to one of its ears and says, "one," points to the other ear and says, "two," then just starts over and points to the first ear again and says, "three," and continues until she wants to stop. Usually, a stuffed animal has at least seven or eight ears.

Me and My Birthday Bear - Day 550

This is a picture from the fall of 2005, and she has her birthday bear in her hand. The batteries have since run out, and I once tried to change them, but Anna got extremely upset that I was taking a screw driver to her toy's bottom side. I can't really blame her; however, it remains unpowered to this day.

I have shared another video of Anna that includes recent clips and her saying "rock on dude" several times. The file is appropriately titled to reflect her new phrase. I posted the video on the 11th of February for Grandpa Greg's birthday, so the video necessarily includes two mentions of Gammy and Gampa.

The quality of the video is a little bit better than the webcam as I have just learned how to download directly from my camcorder. You can go to the "shared videos" link to the right on this webpage to play/download the video. I will note, however, that I only have a certain amount of data that can be download from the site (before I pay for more), so if my allotment has run out and you can no longer download the video, please just let me know.

As for other Anna news, she is really into snowmen because of our recent snowfall. She is seeing snowmen everywhere, though I think she is identifying each big pile of snow as a snowman now. She also sings the words to the 'wheels on the bus' song but instead of saying "round and round," she says "wow-ing around." She also has coined her own verb. She used to say "running" but now she says, "hurry-uping." She loves doing sprints in the house to practice running.

Open and Close - Day 548

This is a picture taken by the grandparents, Greg and Rae last fall. It is one of my favorite photos of Anna.

Anna, of course, continues to learn new words and phrases. Yesterday she learned to say, "Rock on dude," and she has also learned to say "gigglepuss."

Another cute thing that Anna has done for some time now is the knock-knock joke. I used to tell her to say "knock knock," and she would repeat it. Then I would say, "who's there," and Anna would pipe up, "Baby Anna."

Well, now she likes to play all the parts and says in quick succession, "Knock, knock...who's there...baby Anna, Maisy." Apparently, she thinks Maisy the mouse should also be at the door.

I also heard on NPR the other day that when clowns who entertain at children's events have a lull, there is one word that they can repeat and it will always make kids laugh. These are apparently clown tricks of the trade. Well, I thought that I might as well try it out, so I said the magic word, "underwear." Anna immediately started laughing.

Elmos Part Two - Day 545

I know that I have already posted a photo with Anna and her Elmos, but I like this series of photos and the old one is buried in the Archives.

In other news Anna's favorite book right now is Skippyjon Jones. It is a book about a siamese cat who thinks he is a chihuahua.

Her vocabulary that she has picked up from the book is pretty special. She often refers to "Bobble-ito" the bobblehead toy antagonist in the story. Also, she has picked up "Holy, Jalepeno" and loves to repeat "oingy, boingy, bouncy, pouncy" which is also in the story.

Her favorite food now is dip, which is actually ketchup. The other day she was demanding pizza and dip, which of course, I didn't have on hand. I searched the entire fridge for anything that she could dip in ketchup. The only thing I found was -- and I'm a bit reluctant to admit this -- was a waffle. So she had a waffle dipped in ketchup for lunch. Of course, that was not all she ate; it was only the final course of an otherwise healthy meal.

I must say that a squirt of ketchup goes a long way towards getting her to eat things she would normally not eat.

Me and My Stick

This picture is one of my favorites from the Netherlands. It was during Anna's "chunkier" period, and we were playing in the park at the Queen's palace in The Hague. This was shortly before Kerry and Anna left to go to DC.

As for Anna news. Her sentence-making ability continues to improve, and she can use it when appropriate. The other day she threw a strawberry on the floor in our dining room, and I was trying to find it on our dark blue and red carpet. So I was on my hands and knees trying to get eye level and find it, when Anna pipes in, "Where it go?" in a sing-songy voice from her high chair.

I looked for about five seconds longer and she continues, "Nobody knows." Then, right as a find it I say to myself, "Oh, there it is," and Anna truiumphantly blurts out, "There it is."

Thanks for your help and support Anna.

She also knows how to do push-ups. One of her books mentions push-ups and Daddy had to show her how to do it yesterday. Now she frequently requests "push-ups" and wants us to do them with her.

I have also started taking Anna to the local public library, which is only about four blocks away. It is nice to have so many books for her to look through, and she loves the bean bags there too. The other day she went number 2 while at the library and as soon as she was done yells out, "Change diaper, change diaper." Then she yells out, "Tell Daddy, poo-poo coming." I made a quick exit.

I have been trying to introduce the idea of warning me before she fills the diaper that the poo-poo is coming. I will have to work on the sequencing a bit more.

Oh yeah, Anna has also mastered how to say, "See you later, Aligator."