20 Months

Welp, Ana's almost two. I remember not so long ago being single and thinking how weird it would be to be married, not being able to picture it actually happening. And then to have kids, I never imagined ...

And now I have a blond-haired, blue-eyed little girl running around, learning her abc's, pronouncing "sit" with an "sh" at the beginning, telling me when she goes poo-poo, and requesting "cheese" and "moke" avery 5 seconds. Ka-ray-zee.

Ana is very smart. She picks things up so quickly that sometimes I have to stop and just smile at her cleverness.

-she can recite the whole alphabet, with a little help
-she can identify all of the letters in the alphabet, with a little help
-when we drive downtown she knows we're getting near the Greenbelt so she says, "ducks, ducks" over and over
-she knows which streets lead to the park, and when we pass them, she repeats, "pay, pay" over and over
-after sacrament meeting she practically takes herself to nursery. Not even a look back for moral support

Likes
-she still loves reading books. Her favorite one now is Snow White. She calls it "White." When she's upset about something, anything, all I have to say is, "do you want to read Snow White?" and she stops crying, sniffles, smiles, and timidly says, "White? White!" End of tantrum
-loves playing with letters in the bathtub, and drinking the water
-milk, cheese, pasta, cheese, juice, cheese
-Doll, Pete, banken (blanket), reading books and singing "Tu-ra-lu-ra" and the "Tempen" (Temple) song at naptime and bedtime
-building towers out of blocks, playing with Mom and Dad and riding on our backs

Quirks
-sometimes she's overly cautious about inclines, much like her cousin Brenton. She'll turn around and scoot backward down the slightest incline, or down the smallest step, and sometimes she overestimates how close she is to a step and she'll turn around a good 4 or 5 feet before a dropoff.
-She still "b-bops" a lot. She moves her shoulders up and down while swinging her arms in an out while she walks or just stands still.
-She's getting more coordinated in running and walking up steps
-when she's tired she either gets cranky or loopy. The latter is really funny. She'll start closing her eyes while she's walking and it makes her laugh because she doesn't know where she's going, and she'll start walking sideways
-there is nothing this girl loves more than to play outside. She LOVES being outside and cries when she has to come in. I would love to give her a backyard to play in all day long and she would never have to come inside except to eat and sleep
-she pronounces words that end in "er" as "en" Ex. waten, flowen, towen, etc.
-Ana is a total mommy's girl. It makes me and Thad a little sad, because sometimes she doesn't even want him to pick her up if I'm around. And she definitely hates when Thad tries to put her to bed. She got over that in Palmdale, and then reversed back when we moved here for some reason.

She jabbers a lot, but the only real sentences she has said have been short, two-word sentences

Ana is such a happy girl! Even when she's sick, she's still happy for the most part. And she's an excellent sleeper. Even when she's sick, she sleeps for a good 12-14 hours. I should count my blessings. Hopefully our other kids are this great of sleepers. And she sleeps in until 8 or 8:30 every morning. Again, count my blessings. Some days I actually wish she's wake up early so it would get me up and going earlier, but I know the day I have a child waking up at 6:30 I'm going to be wishing for these good old days to be back again. The thing I love most about this girl is that she loves me. She loves me to hold her, hug her, snuggle with her, and just give her attention. When I get impatient with her I remind myself of this, and immediately I am filled with love for her and I just want to pick her up and hold her and give her the one thing she really wants, my love.