This past week my little Baby Anna turned 14 months old.  I call her Baby Anna now a lot more than before we had so many play dates with Anna’s little friend Andrew.  He is 5 months older and loves to call Anna “Baby Anna”.  His mother apologizes for him but I love the name.  On a play date we had a few weeks ago, I think maybe the only thing Andrew said to Anna was: “No Baby Anna”, I have a hard time not saying that often myself.

This month I’ve been able to spend a lot more time with my little dear.  I think we’ve been to more museums than we can count!  I love taking her to play dates, especially ones involving bathing suits in this hot summer weather.  It is the trifecta of awesome sauce: Anna gets new experiences with new toys and sometimes she even plays with friends, but mostly not at the moment, I get to chat with other moms which has been a great relief during this transition period that could have been lonely, and Jacob gets time to focus solely on his work, yay!  I love how kind she can be with babies, she loves to gently pat their heads.  But she can also be pretty possessive over me at play dates.

Anna loves sitting in her chair that is just her size.  Jacob bought her one that matched our brown loveseat.  Anna loves it because it rocks.  In fact, I think it taught her how to nod.  Before the chair she would only shake her head (for yes and no) but the motion required to get the chair rocking got her nodding too!

She still loves to dance and conduct to music, as ever.  Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes is a hit song-dance combo in our house right now.  We also have a little book to go along with it and she likes having all three at the same time.   She is a master at “head” and even has tried to say the word.  She doesn’t have a clue what a shoulder is but usually at least bends over and maybe touches her knee when I say “knees and toes”.  Anna has started pointing to her face parts, and always touches her ear and say “eye!”

This month Anna had her first destination play date with a kid her age.  The Granges came up to Ender’s forest with us and it was a blast.  Anna and Andrew aren’t always excited to play together but are more than happy to be around each other and so are me and Audra.  Now we make play dates a regular thing, including the local story time.

The major change we saw this month was Anna developing an insatiable desire to mimic us.  From folding her arms to bless the food before dinner starts, to wearing our shoes and even socks, Anna must do it just as we are.  She usually won’t eat food if she doesn’t see us eating it.  She wants to use forks and drinking glasses.  And she will read a book, talk on a phone, or play with an iPod or iPad for a long time, and will doubly enjoy it if she is sitting in her chair.  She’ll also wash her hands by rubbing them together, when we went to the splash pad earlier this week she was excited to wash her hands in every fountain from the ground she could find, it cracked me up.

Anna is using those actions she learns from us and connecting them with words, requests from us aren’t always heeded but we’ve seen them be understood and it is fun when she does respond.  She will retrieve a book to read with us, she will hug and kiss (I love her little back rubs she gives me and new back hugs!), she’ll hide something behind her back and then pop it back out to surprise us.  I have been enjoying her walking on her own and understanding at the same time, a diaper change is easier on your back when your baby walks herself across the house to the changing table.

Somehow, overnight our baby girl turned into a full-fledged toddler. Uh, nix that, she is on the cusp of toddlerdom, or so my denial tells me. (7/27/12)