How can Annie be this close to one year? It's amazing- this is the last 16th of a month before she is one. She is my little angel.
She learned to clap this week, but she does it vertically instead of horizontally, clapping first the bottom of one hand to the top of the other and then switching. To this she adds the same note and inflection that I do when I say "Yaaaaaaay" when I'm clapping for her. It's adorable and endearing. She loves to play peek-a-boo still, and now will hold up the blanket in front of her face, wait a moment and then pull it down over and over with an enormous smile while we squeal "peek-a-boo!" with delight as many times as she is interested. The first time she took my brush from me while I was brushing my hair and started brushing her own and then mine was when we were in California. I almost died with the charm of it. Now every time I try to brush her hair after she gets out of a bath, she takes the brush and does it herself. And then she eats the brush. Also, if we are around her little friends when she sees a brush, she tries to brush their hair. She tried to brush her pal Max's once, but he grunted with displeasure and pushed her arm away. Little grown-ups in the making!
Annalise crawls like a regular baby 95% of the time, but occasionally still reverts to the army crawl. She continues to stand without assistance for decent stretches but makes no moves to walk on her own yet. Her two little teeth on top are changing the way her face looks when she smiles- such a big girl now! She likes to point at everything she sees with her pointer finger and if she ever sees a picture with people in it, or a dolly, or a stuffed animal, she points to their eyes. To make her look smart, I instruct her before she begins, "Point to the EYES," which she then always does, and people are like, WHAAAT? SHE'S A GENIUS!
Said Genius also has a newfound appreciation for the toilet. And a sixth sense about when we forget to put the lid down. Twice now I have caught her with one arm plunged in, splashing wildly and laughing merrily. This, you might understand, is a less-than-pleasant milestone.
She has some big thick sturdy flashcards with photographs and words on them, and her favorite is the hamster card. The first time I showed it to her I squealed, extra-excitedly, "Loooooook! So cuuuuute! Haaaamster!" in a super-high-pitched voice and I saw her really pay attention because of how I did it. Since then every time she sees the card she lights up, gets a huge smile on her face, points at the hamster's eyes with delight and shows me the card 20 times, stares at him rapturously, sometimes gives him a kiss, and then refuses to return the card, but carries it around the house with her and sometimes out to the car. She loves her hamster card.
She loves Mardi Gras beads. She spent every Sunday at church attempting to steal another little boy's who mother brought them as a toy, and now has her own which she also likes to bring around with her.
She has had a terrible week with sleeping, even worse than usual, and she is biting her hands a lot and screaming, so I think she is teething still. Her sleeping is so bad in general though that several people have suggested to me that maybe she is allergic to dairy or gluten, so yesterday I started her on a gluten-free/dairy-free diet. Since she is still nursing and I haven't taken myself off of those things, it won't be entirely effective, but I am imagining it will have to make some difference if she is indeed allergic, since she generally eats a lot of both. If I see any change in her sleeping patterns in the next few weeks, I will go on the diet myself as well.
She is a happy, friendly, social little girl who could not be more loved. Even when she is angry, I can mimic her grumpy face back at her and she can't hold back her laugh. She tries really hard because she wants to stay mad, and has to bury her face in my neck when she can't hold back the grin.
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