17 Months - Addendum

Photo Credit: Nathan Grahek Photography

Sometimes when I'm writing my monthly letters to Annie, I'll go back and edit them quickly if I realize I've forgotten something I deem major (in that I want to remember it later) - however, this month, I apparently was having a brain lapse because I feel like I forgot a TON about what she's doing lately!

So here's some more of the scoop on Annie at 17 months, almost a year and a half!

When she's in the mood, Annie will follow directions pretty well - she can bring things to the trash, go get a specific thing, and bring it to a specific person. She will lay down on the ground and hand us a diaper for a diaper change (but on the changing pad is still a hot mess). However, if she isn't in the mood? We might as well just not bother because no matter how many times we ask, she completely ignores us. This does not bode well for the future, people.

As I posted about before, Annie really started to enjoy coloring this month, with both chalk and crayons. We hadn't given it much effort before this, so perhaps she would have done this sooner. She still seems to like putting the chalk and crayons in and out of their containers just as much as the actual act of coloring, however.

She is BIG into mimicking now - she tries to snap her fingers when I do, and will throw her arms up in the air to dance if she sees me doing that. She loves sitting in OUR chairs (versus hers) on the porch, and if either of us is gone from the porch for even a second, she's up in our chair. Basically she loves doing anything that we do. Especially if it's something she isn't supposed to be doing. She even finds my flat iron in the bathroom and holds it up to her head, although I really can't remember her even seeing me do that more than a few times. She's really just absorbing so much now! She's also starting to imitate our words more too, which is problematic given both of our extreme potty mouths. How soon can we teach her that it's only okay to swear at home??? (I'M KIDDING, Grandparents!) She says "Sit down!" in a stern tone, which I'm sure she hears at daycare, and say "Maggie, sit!" at the cabin too. (which sounded like "weewee, it!") She also says "wee!" and "beep beep" at a steering wheel, which must also come from daycare. Oh yeah, and she also waves at a flushing toilet and says "bye-bye" - 2 girls are potty training at daycare and maybe they do that there, because I sure as heck don't say bye bye when I use the toilet :)

Annie has been HATING the car lately. We don't really do much in terms of trying to entertain her in there, and it's especially bad if the sun is in her eyes (so pretty much anytime we leave a place at 7pm, which is frequent) and she just SCREAMS. She'll sleep for maybe an hour max, and is okay with a toy but we don't like giving them to her much because it doesn't seem too safe in case of a crash. I think we'll have to relent and at least give her a book or something though because it's getting unbearable. She's still rearfacing and we really want to keep her that way until at least 2. I thought she'd learn to suck it up and deal with it by now, but not so much. Short rides are still usually okay, thankfully, but lately it's been awful, probably not made much better because our AC isn't working!

As I mentioned, Annie has been getting really good at saying please when she wants something, however she often makes this weird jibberish noise and shakes her hands when she wants to get in something (her stroller, her crib, her floatie) - kind of like "ebbity ah?? It's kind of odd but very cute sounding. Whenever she gets to a chair she'd like to get up to, she lifts up one leg and says "up?" (still sounds more like pup).

Whenever we are on a walk and Annie sees a playground, she FREAKS - yelling and screaming with excitement, and then lunges from her stroller and says "down? down??" Thankfully if we let her stay and have her fill, she doesn't typically get upset about leaving the park, which is good.

A milestone this month - the first time we've EVER been called by daycare because Annie was sick. We've actually never even had to keep her home because she was sick, period. On the Thursday before we left for the cabin, Sue called me at work and said Annie was feverish and acting very strange - being really clingy and crying during diaper changes (because she NEVER does that at daycare....... only at home....... thanks Annie) - she said her temp was around 102, so I went and got her - she was acting really sad and feverish - I took her temp at home and it was 103.6! Yikes. Called the doc, and made an appointment but after a nap it was already down to 101, and then 99, so I decided not to go in and wrote it off as a fluke occurrence, which has happened once before. Sue called that night and asked how Annie was, probably thought I was nuts for not bringing her in, but I was in no mood to spend 2 hours at the doctor's office for them to tell me she maybe had a virus! There were no other symptoms of anything and she did end up being fine, so whatever. I did feel 2 top molars FINALLY poking through that day, though! They are hard to get a look at, but I barely see some white dots so they still have a ways to go. This puts Annie at only 10 teeth, so she has lots more to get still. Fun.

Body parts are getting better at being identified too - Annie loves to honk honk our noses, and point out my eyes - she'll say nose and eyes too. So far, I can tell that she knows where her belly, head, feet, hands, teeth, eyes, nose and mouth are.

While Annie has been throwing things for a bit, she now will throw things much more intentionally, look at them, and say "UH OH!!!!!!!!! UH OHHH!" very deliberately. I TRY to explain to her that uh oh does not apply if it's intentional, but she doesn't seem to get it yet.

Sleep. Oh sleep. We're still pretty much having the issues I wrote about before, but she really has only been waking up usually once or maybe twice usually for less than a minute. We had a few nights with a lot of coughing, but I can't fault her for that. She's been going to bed a little later, and waking up anytime from 6:30 to as late as 9 once. Usually around 7:30 is normal. Annie likes to fall asleep sucking her thumb with one hand and playing with her belly button with the other. Yes, very odd. She gets kind of pissed now when we put her in PJs that don't expose her belly button. Naps typically totally suck. She'll sleep for an hour, maybe an hour and a half, sometimes cry for a second and go back to sleep, but usually not. Once in a blue moon we'll get a 2+ hour nap out of her, but they are by far the exception. She usually doesn't seem to affected by a good or bad nap, and still has no trouble staying awake until 7:30 or 8, so whatever. Naptime is still at 1, but sometimes she'll go down earlier or later.

Whew! Geez, this was longer than the monthly letter itself, good thing I did an addendum :)