22 Months!

With my recent post about the terrible two's in mind, you might think Annie's twenty-second month has been a little challenging and chaotic.  But you know, in reality, all the lying down on the sidewalk protests and crying jags for no apparent reason have been pretty spread out over the course of the month, so I haven't really been overwhelmed by them since the day I wrote my last post.  That's not to say they haven't happened - just this weekend we had to scoop Annie out of the street, where she sat in protest for being forced to walk to the car instead of stand in our friends' driveway playing with balloons.  They are just spaced out enough to seem more manageable to me.  And there have been lots of smiley moments in between, like this one...

This month, I have found myself abandoning using her monthly age as a way of telling people how old she is.  Something about saying "21 months" just seemed overly complicated to me, so I just started saying "almost 2" or "she turns 2 in June" instead.  A distinction without a difference, I'm sure, but it somehow had the unintended effect of making her seem even older to me in my head.  Which, of course, leaves me at the end of another month wondering where in the world the time has gone.

In her 22nd month, here are some of Annie's favorite things...

She loves to sing these days.  Since she was just days old, I have sung to her.  David and I both have had a habit since she was a newborn of making up songs for her.  I think it started out as a way for us to communicate with her without feeling ridiculous for talking to a tiny baby who obviously couldn't talk back.  And now that she can talk, it is fun to listen to her join right in with us and make requests for certain songs.  I have made up a "PJ Song" for when we get her ready for bed at night, and it is so sweet to hear her sing "pjs, pjs" with us.  Just this morning, I made up a song on the way to school to distract her from trying to climb into the car seat by herself (because it is always so much easier and faster for me to deposit her in the seat myself), and she loved it - requesting that I sing the verse over and over with a different name of one of her friends at school.  She can actually carry a tune pretty well, especially for a toddler.  So I think she may have inherited some of her Gaga's vocal ability, along with some musical genes from both sides of the family.

Our baby girl is turning into quite the outdoorsy girl.  She has always loved being outside.  From the days when we rocked her to sleep at night on our porch swing, she has been somehow calmed by the great outdoors.  And now, she is developing a little explorer's mentality, looking for every opportunity to wander and search for new and exciting things in the grass and dirt.  When we take walks in the evening now, she demands that we pick flowers for her and hand them to her in her stroller.  The more flowers the better, as far as she is concerned.  And any time she can find a rock or a pinecone or a mound of dirt, she is all over it.  Her fingernails look like those of a car mechanic, they are constantly dirty.  But she has so much fun, I figure the necessity for a bath later on is worth it.

Annie is very active and loves to run and jump and play on the nearby playground at her daycare.  She tends to be more daring when I'm not around, it seems.  But even with Mommy there, she is always game for sliding down the slide or climbing over, around, and under almost anything.  Since she was tiny, people have told us she was busy, and that isn't slowing down any as she grows stronger and faster and more capable.  She also continues to talk more and more and it seems like there isn't much she can't eventually communicate to us if she and David and I are patient enough to figure it out.  This week she went into the kitchen, grabbed David's hand, and requested, "Daddy, come outside."  Then later, at bedtime, she wanted a family hug, at which time she told both Daddy and Mommy that she loved us (after hearing us say the same to her).  Yeah, there may have been a misty eye in that little bedroom at that moment.

In her 22nd month, Annie saw her first group of farm animals, when we went to have Breakfast with the Babies (Animals) at nearby Shaker Village.  She also rode her first carousel, which kept getting a resounding request for "More!" after each ride.

Telling us she was "all done" after getting a work out at Shaker Village.

 

Riding the carousel with Daddy.

I can't believe her second birthday is just two short months away.  I honestly have no idea how the months keep going by so fast.  And I know I say that every single post I do like this.  But seriously, where is the time going, people?  We look forward to much more fun in May with our ever growing, always changing, forever chatting little girl.