- Annikah is now 18 months! We had to cancel her appointment for this week as she cannot have shots while still recovering from the nasty virus monster. I will update her stats as soon as we go next week. So, what has changed about Miss AJ in the past few months? Anni has many words (most of which only Jason and I can fully understand but words nonetheless). I actually listed them recently after hearing that at her 18 month appointment the doctor would ask how many words she says. I was impressed after Jason and I actually thought about all the words she says. Here is the list:
- Yeah or Yep (which is adorable)
- No (very popular in the toddler lingo)
- Anni (Pronounced Ann Eee, see video)
- Sit (as in sit here Mama, Anni likes always bossing us around)
- Baby (she is still enamoured of her baby who now has been dropped in the mud more times than I can count- poor baby)
- boob (I know, weird…she says it when we take a bath together or even go swimming, she sees a peak of cleavage and she is all over it making sure to loudly declare that she knows what those are)
- Hi (she still loves to flirt with this crowd pleaser made irresistible by the added hand wave)
- Bye Bye
- Cat (she can’t really say Meow but she points to Bonita a lot)
- Car (favorite word to point out the window of our car)
- More (more is heard a ton as Anni loves to eat)
- Up (she thinks up means up, down, move, get me, etc)
- Hat (pronounced “haaa” and she loves to sport one)
- Target (yes, she still says this one every time we go which is about twice a week:)
- Shoes (she learned this from an Elmo video and now loves to state the obvious whenever we put her shoes on…”shuuuues”)
- Mama (Finally I am no longer Ba!!)
- Papa (her latest thing is saying “papa?” during the day when he is at work and then when I tell her he is at work and will be home later she wails)
- Snow (definitely not recognizable to the outsider but she clearly points to the piles of black snow and ice and says “soooo”)
- Boo (as in peek-a)
- Eye (as in I will poke you in the…)
- Pooh (as in Winnie on her little toy car and book)
- Ball (a classic and fav)
- Hot (she thinks EVERYTHING is too hot – food, water, etc after Jason accidentally offered food that had not been tested and was a bit too hot, this pronunciation is similar to hat, “haaaa” but is distinguishable by context)
- Cold (she thinks it is funny to ask for cold water to wash her hands)
-She and her 18 month old self are very into animal noises as seems to be all the rage in toddler circles. She likes to do her own versions and some of the non existent ones Mama made up to amuse herself ( Jason is very against this as he thinks she will be scarred once she reaches school age but I, on the other hand think that it is pretty fun to think about what sounds the animal would make if it was to “talk”).
-Anni loves her friends and gets so excited when Jonah or Zella come over to play. Although she still occasionally beats up on them she mostly hugs and loves seeing them!
-She will do almost anything for a sticker and really loves praise. I got these free sheets of stickers from the doctors office (in a drug sample packet) and Annikah loves them. She will let me cut her nails without fussing or help Mama by picking up toys for a precious sticker. She is responding so much to praise and wants to please.
-She really is showing so much more understanding and connecting emotionally to things and people. For example, she cried when my mom left after being her buddy all day. She also sobbed uncontrollably after I read her a library book entitled 5 Little Ducks. I did not know this book would have this affect on her but there is one page where all the baby ducks go off and leave the mother and it shows a mother duck all alone and sad. Anni was so upset by it that even after I turned the page to reveal all the baby ducks came back she was too upset to even notice.
-She is doing much better with being left in childcare (at the gym or church) or with other people for short periods of time and usually hugs me goodbye (instead of vice gripping my leg and screaming which was her old standard).
– Annikah is really into looking at pictures: of herself, of her friends, of family, of Jason and I, of her cousins. Sh also gasps and smiles in excitement when she sees a picture of herself doing something fun (like on the Dumbo ride at Disney World).
-Our favorite new thing she does Jason aptly names the triple melt as it melts your heart. She comes over to you and first hugs you tight wrapping her little arms around your neck, followed by a kiss on the lips, and she finishes it off with waving and saying “hi.” It is pretty darn adorable. She is a smart little sucker too because sometimes she will break the triple melt out after doing something “time out” worthy to see if she can sway us with her cuteness.
Overall, we think 18 months looks pretty good on Annikah.