Anna's 15th Month

This month really flew by, as the end of the summer tends to do.

We've been trying to make the most of our beautiful summery weather by playing outside as much as we can.

This is complicated by the bounteous wasp population in our backyard, drawn by the ripening apples (as is a sweet little toddler I am trying really hard to keep from getting stung).

Handing me dirt and rocks; a great pastime 

Anna really wants to be able to throw and catch a ball (ball-ball) the way we do, so she often holds it up behind her head while she toddles across the house and then sets it down with a satisfied Hetch! as if she had thrown it all that way and was now catching it.

She likes when we place fetch with Monkey, too...Monkey chases his toy, brings it halfway back, then she picks it up and hands it to us to throw again.  It's a pretty good system.

This month Anna has been captivated by all things baby...

...pictures of babies, her best baby doll (as well as most other stuffed animals which are also now baby), and...her legs?  I dunno, whenever she's on the changing table and her legs are waving around above her head, she points at her own knees and feet and says Baby!

She's gotten pretty good at putting twist caps on bottles and baby food pouches and giving them a good twist.

(We haven't figured this one out) She has this phrase she says: O! Dee-dee!

It's sometimes used like woops or sometimes like oh hey, look at that and she uses it when she drops something or realizes something about the thing in her hand or notices something she hadn't noticed before.

Or when she's on the changing table.
The dee-dee is said to the tune of uh-oh. Cute but kind of baffling.

She has added the recognizable words cup, bottle (baa), hug, car, and flower (sounds like fie-ee) to her vocabulary this month.  She's begun signing drink, too, though it's a two-handed, walrus-tusk-looking motion instead of the normal cup drinking motion.  She also signs potty since a few of her books have pictures of baby potties.  She can do a kitty's meow, a puppy's bark, and a lion's roar, but she doesn't do any other animals yet.

That's the learning tower in all its unfinished glory

She keeps trying to use the voice commands on the Echo to get it to play music because she loves to dance and sing.

The fourth tooth on the bottom front has erupted, but it's stagnated as a little bitty stump.

I'm not sure how she eats all the things she does, but nothing really slows her down, despite lack of equipment.  You know, except obstinance.

All dried fruit are favorites now, including prunes, raisins, figs, and apricots, but blackberries remain the all-time best favorite.

There is so much I am forgetting here.  But the end of this month hit me kind of hard for some reason...maybe it was the transition (finally) down to one nap and the new daily marathon of let's just get to lunch time.

Maybe it's all the time we've been spending outside and trying to keep Anna from eating all the dirt, getting stung, stepping on chestnut spike-balls, rolling in poison ivy, or running into the street.

Maybe it was the repeat of the blood lead level test I've been psyching up for for the last three months (results not yet in).

I dunno, but I've been feeling zapped lately.

Please don't tell me it doesn't get better.  I mean, I know it doesn't, but hearing it certainly doesn't help. Encouragement welcome.

Anna gets more beautiful and personality-y every single day.

I love her so dearly, and Dave adores her.  We are blessed and lucky to have such a great kid.