16 months old!

16 months…and a few days!

I can’t believe how quickly each month goes by. I wish sometimes I could just freeze time, or at least make it go by more slowly.

Our Annie Louise is growing and growing by the minute.

I can’t believe how much she changes physically and developmentally each month.

When she returned to Wee School after their Christmas break, her sweet teachers wrote on her paper:

"Annie Louise grew the most out of everyone over the break. She’s no longer our baby."

And this, of course, made me want to lie down and cry a million tears.

But it’s true. She woke up one morning, and she was no longer a baby.

She was a full-blown toddler.

Too busy for snuggles. Too busy to sit still for me to rock her. Too busy to sit in my lap and let me read her book. Now, she wants to hold it and “read” it to me.

And speaking of reading, her vocabulary is almost growing as quickly as she is! New words this month include:

Ball

Nurner – this is AL’s word for our dog, Turner

Pwease – or please – she used to sign please all the time, now we are trying to get her to say it

Fish – for our favorite snack, goldfish

Nack – she says this when she wants a snack

Cookie – which is more like coooooookie, so cute!

Eat – are you seeing a theme here? All our words revolve around food!

No and more commonly, no-no (wonder where she hears that from?)

Hello/hi/hey

Bye Bye

Baby – this is my favorite, because it’s more like babeeeeeee

Night night

Shoes

Boots – the child loves her some boots!

Bath

We have also started seeing more of her personality this month. And honey, we have a pistol on our hands. She’s strong-willed and has a temper like none other. When she wants something, she wants it now. We are currently working on trying to teach her patience and also trying to divert her attention when something gets taken away.

Yes, we do have a temper, but really, what toddler doesn’t at this age? It’s pretty hard for AL to tell me exactly what she wants (we are working on getting her to show us what she wants) – so, when I am not moving fast enough, she lets me know in the only real form of communication that she knows…the meltdown.

She’s also learning so much. We are working on counting to three – anytime we say one, she’ll most always following with the cutest twooooooo you’ve ever heard. Then, we’ll finish with three!

She’s also starting to sing her ABCs. Ever since she has had teeth, I have brushed them. And to keep her attention while brushing her teeth, I would almost always sing a song, and most times, I would sing the ABCs. Now, she’ll go get her toothbrush and toothpaste out of her bathroom drawer and bring it to me and says “A,B,C” – y’all, this just melts my heart. For 2 reasons, 1 – because it’s so cute. 2 – because I love the fact that she LOVES to brush her teeth.

We are also getting more and more interested in play. She got a new play kitchen from SheShe and PopPop for Christmas, and it has a little cordless phone with it. We get a lot of entertainment out of watching her with this phone. She has mastered the whole shoulder-to-ear-to-hold-the-phone-in-place move. And she just babbles and babbles. Usually, it’s a lot of “hello” – that’s the majority of the conversation. She loves to hand us the phone and for us to pretend to talk to someone. She gets the biggest grin on her face when we do this.

I will pretend like I’m on a purple play phone for hours just to see that little smile!

So, as you can see, we have had a busy month at our house keeping up with our little doodlebug!

We love you so much, Annie Louise! Every day is a new and exciting adventure with you!

Love you,

mama and daddy