Anya's blanket

I started to crochet Anya a blanket in the spring that I was pregnant. I finally finished it. The turquoise color was created when I was full of anticipation. I wondered if she would be a girl or a boy. I couldn't wait to meet our child. Each stitch was filled with hope, excitement, and curiosity of the new life that was ahead. I stopped working on it after she was born. I had much more important things to do such as kiss her little toes and stroke her soft hair. The pink border was just added. I added this because Anya is showing her girly side. She loves her baby dolls and kissing her stuffed animals. Each stitch of the border was filled with love, pride and joy for the little girl she is becoming.

Sand Table

Today was a beautiful day to turn Anya's water table into a sand table.
She cracks me up when she sits down. She says the word, sit, and positions herself carefully before sitting. She will not sit there long at all and quickly stands back up.

She now crouches down to play with some toys..

Peeking through the deck rails..

Word List Update

Word List Updated

Wow
Oh wow (first 2 words together)

Cat

Mama

Dada

Mum

Uh oh

Ba-bye and bye

Yay

Duck

Ta tu (thank you)

Yeah

Ook (book)

Baby

Hi

A tee (auntie)

Bubbles

Elmo

Na na (Nana)
Up

Daddy

Mommy

No

Apple

Nana (banana)

Et (Eat)

Bur (bird)

Meow (meow)

Hi Mama, Hi Dada, Hi Kitty, Hi Nana

Hermaa/Hermy (Herman)
Hat

Go

Chee (cheese)

Joo (juice)

Ny Ny (night night)

Ucky (ducky)

Shoe
A ya (Anya)

P-Boo (peek-a-boo)

More

Cacker (cracker)

Acle (uncle)

A tee G (Auntie Jill)

Badu (Uncle Marty)

Oggie (doggie)

Kitty

You

Boo

I do do (I love you)

Two

No (nose)

Mow (mouth)

Eye

Ow-sye (outside)

Cow

Moo

Owl

Hoo hoo (sound of an owl)

Money (monkey)

Ooh ooh ooh (sound of a monkey)

Hello

High Fye (high five)

Scuse me (excuse me)

Choo (pretending to sneeze)

Saw (sock)

Peas (please)

I have seen her sign baby, more, hat, hi/bye, milk, cracker, eat, sleep, please

Happy Friday

high 5

Anya loves the childrens band, They Might Be Giants. I recommend it if you are a parent. They have an album on numbers, an album on letters, and more. One of her favorite songs is called, High 5. Here she is singing along:

Twirling

16 months

Today Anya is 16 months. Can you believe it?I am in love with this age. I love spending my days with her. Lately we have gone on a lot of walks in the brisk fall air.

We also have spent time picking up acorns and putting them in a bucket. Who knew this could be so much fun? If you had asked me this years ago I'm not sure if I would have agreed. It's my love for this girl that makes anything with her fun.

Anya is starting to show her girly side by loving on her baby doll. She brings her for walks and kisses her on the head. It's so wonderful to see her grow and change into her own person.

She still loves music and when she hears a song she automatically starts dancing. She also sings along to a couple songs that she knows. Sometimes I hear her singing in the back seat of the car.

I am impressed with all of the words she can say. She can copy a lot of words that we say to her. Lately she is fond of the word, no. ;) However, she is not fond of being told no.

She loves other children and will yell out, hi!, to almost any child she sees.

Her favorite foods are mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, broccoli, zucchini, noodles with butter, banana, summer squash, grapes, french fries, cucumber, and any type of cheese imaginable.

If she sees Elmo on any packaging or book she will say, Elmo!

She gives us kisses goodnight and says nye nye when we put her to bed.

Her new favorite word is ow sye (outside). She loves to be outdoors. How could you now with this beautiful fall weather?

Dancing at a fair

Anya started dancing at a fair over the weekend. After I filmed this she started to get a crowd watching her hehe..

Our pumpkin

.. this last one makes me laugh..

Busted, again.

Happy Friday!

my little mommy

Anya took her doll for a walk yesterday. I was impressed at how far she walked with me (almost a half mile). It was the highlight of my day to watch her push that little stroller. She is really starting to enjoy dolls. She will kiss her doll on the top of the head, it's adorable. I can see such a kind heart in her.

Speaking of kissing, Anya kissed her first boy yesterday. We were at the park and she kissed her friend Camden. It was adorable. We thought they were going in for a hug, but Anya surprised us with a kiss.

One more thing: If I say one... Anya will now say two!.. I am not sure where she picked this up but I think it's pretty impressive as her mom. ;) While I'm bragging I might as well add that she now can point to her nose, mouth and eye and tell me the correct word for each. Go Anya!

Anya's whale

My sister is a wonderful artist. She made this whale 2 piece artwork for Anya's room. We love it! She stitched the whale pieces onto a painted canvas.
I went in to Anya's room to get her after her nap the other day. Anya said, Herman Herman! (she does say his name well now, usually it sounds like Hermaa or Hermy) when I came in the room. I looked to where she was pointing to see our cat sleeping under the glider. Herman was hiding in her room while she took a 2 hour nap. I think he missed her while we were gone on our beach weekend. :) It's so neat that she can communicate things to me now. This is her pointing to where the cat was hiding..

Drumlin Farm

My mom used to bring my sister and I to Drumlin farm. We would look at the animals and take classes on things like making ice cream by rolling a can of cream down a hill. I remember the bird cages, my sister milking a cow, baby chicks, hay rides, and tee pees set up to demonstrate how the Native Americans lived. It is a place with fond memories for all of us. Today my mom took Anya and I there. We had such a fun time re-living the memories together. Anya even got to go on the hayride!

What a fun day at the farm. We even lucked out with some beautiful fall weather :-)

Beach weekend

We spent the weekend at the beach with friends. We do this every year in September and it is a great time. Anya especially loved seeing her friend Ella and her uncle Eddie.
Anya and Ella played together so nicely. They ran around doing cute little squeals of excitement. They even got to jump on Ski's bed. Ella is one of Anya's new best buds.
They loved playing with sand toys and bubbles.

We kept Anya up until the sun went down. She must have wondered why it got dark outside. It has been light when she goes to bed for the past few months.

In the morning she would wake up, look out over her pack and play, and say "daddy!"
More beach time..

Dwight with the two girls..

The beach was beautiful. It's a bit quieter in September and the night air is cool. It is our own way of saying goodbye to summer. Goodbye summer.. you were a great one.. maybe the best one yet. See you next year.

Nana's Birthday

Today we headed down to bring my mom her birthday gift and say Happy Birthday. This morning I told Anya we were going to see nana and say happy birthday. She said nana nana nana all morning. I think she even tried to say happy birthday.
While I was getting our things in the car I caught this picture of Anya at the door..

Look at how long her hair is getting... loving it..

Nana has a new carseat for Anya in her car!..

Anya is obsessed with this groundhog at grampys office..

We had a wonderful day. Anya's favorite part was running around grampys office and outside of the building. We had to hide the groundhog before we left. I really didn't want to take him home lol. He will be waiting for her on our next visit. :)

Apple picking - 2nd time

We live in New England which means apple picking is huge in the fall. We love it and yesterday we went picking for our second time. We went with Erin, Billy and Julianna. The kids had a blast and were treated to an ice cream snack before heading home.

I made an apple pie last night for my parents. Today we are heading down to wish my mom a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Love of this age

This age is filled with morning smiles from the crib.

Giggles and laughs.

Curiosity.

Love, love, more love.

Silly songs and copy cat games.

Playing with moms hair.

Learning to climb.

Dancing.

Sitting on the bottom step.

Jumping on dad.

Beginning of dolls and stuffed animal love.

Couch walking.

Calling for the kitty.

Leg hugs.

And our heart stretches once again.

For this girl.

Who we love more each month.

Day.

Hour.

Minute.

Each second only gets better.

.. and there she goes..

Our little monkey