Two

March 21, 2005 (six days old)

March 14, 2006

March 14, 2007

It's so amazing to look back at the little girl we knew a year (and two years) ago and compare her to the one we're living with now! So many changes and yet she's still the same sweet girl we fell in love with two years ago. I'd say that, in general, we have been blessed with a pretty mild-mannered kid and that last two years have been relatively easy for us (minus the reflux in the beginning—that was decidedly not easy). I know I'm asking for it for writing that, but she deserves to have it said! Anna really is a good listener and generally does what is asked of her without a fuss (she is getting absorbed in her activities more and more lately where she doesn't "hear" me when I'm telling her that it's time to do something else (usually less desirable)). She generally can be reasoned with for the most part as long as you tell her in advance what to expect.

In the last two years: I have never had to change a poopy diaper in the middle of the night (minus the first couple of months, of course), have only had one episode of vomiting, have had very few "tantrums" and the ones we've had have been pretty tame compared to others I've seen.

Some of Anna's accomplishments from 12 months to 24 months:

Cognitive: This past year was a language explosion! I really credit the sign language classes we took last year as a big help in her communication (I guess Baby girl will help test my theory in the next year). She was signing and saying a few words at 11 months and then putting several words together by 18 months. Her speech is pretty clear now (strangers can understand her if she's talking about something relevant) and she can obviously recite whole books (not that she knows everything she is saying) and comes up with some interesting ideas on her own. She knows all of the alphabet; she can recognize numbers and recite the numbers from 1-10 but can't truly "count" higher than 3. She has known shapes and colors, and left & right since 18 months. She enjoys working on puzzles and is moving on to more advanced arrangements. She is also wanting to listen to longer stories.

Physical: Anna started walking on our trip to Paris last spring (at 13 months) and is now able to walk up and down the stairs on her own (with supervision, of course!). She's not jumping but she can climb into her Kinderzeat, up a ladder to get to the top of a slide, and onto her rocking moose. She's really never been into climbing in general so although those things sound minor they're good for her (and me, I can't stand to watch her get into her kid-sized chairs or do anything where I start envisioning missing teeth or a cracked skull because of the tile floors). She started finally "driving" herself around in her ride-on toys at around 20 months.

Emotional: I'd say she's been consistently slow to warm up to new situations. It took 3 visits to the kids gym before she had fun; it took a few playgroups before she was comfortable going off on her own; it has taken a few music classes before she would laugh, dance, and do the actions for songs. She has started to interact with strangers a bit more when we're out and about so some of her stranger anxiety is easing up. She does like to have a "friend" with her when we're out; it started with Piggy but lately has been Orange Big Daddy Cat. I'm interested to see if starting nursery school in the fall will help boost her self-confidence at all (I anticipate it taking a few weeks before she is comfortable on her own there so we will take it slow).

I'm excited to see what changes occur over the next twelve months. She has already transitioned so well from the crib to the bed and getting rid of her pacifier, I am hopeful that the transition from Only Child to Big Sister will be equally smooth. She has potty training ahead of her (peed on the potty for the first time on Monday & did it again on Tuesday; has been waking up dry since around 18 months), probably starting 2-3 half-days at nursery school in the fall, and just general growing and learning to do.