it’s hard to believe that we’ve been parents for a year and a half. some days it feels like i still have a newborn. like i haven’t quite adjusted to life as a family of three. i sometimes still wonder when it’s going to get easier, or if it ever does. but most of the time i feel joy. annabelle is becoming a person and she makes us proud everyday. she’s kind and caring. she’s smart. she’s funny {like ken} and she’s dramatic {like me}. she’s our light and i can’t imagine life any other way. here are a few things from the past month.
- her vocabulary is exploding. you can tell she’s really proud of herself for being able to identify objects. she’s points at and identifies things all day long. book, read, mama, cookie, elmo, cooking, juneau, eggs, apple, daddy, daddy, daddy.
- she’s becoming a master manipulator. she knows when to ask mama for something and when to cry to daddy when mama says no. she asks ken to put her to bed every night because she knows he’ll rock her for just a few minutes longer than me.
- she’s obsessed with being outside. the other day ken was eating lunch and i was cleaning up the kitchen. we took our eyes off of her for a moment and she had opened the screen door, walked onto the deck and stealthily closed the screen door behind here. obviously the screen door now remains locked.
- sometimes i’ll overhear her saying “daddy, mama, ah-bell {annabelle}” over and over to herself. it’s the sweetest thing she does, just going over her people.
- she’s still dealing with a bit of separation anxiety at school. she’s starting a new daycare next week because we’re moving {we’re moving! did i tell you that? we haven’t closed yet so i’ve been nervous to make an announcement but more to come!} and we went to visit for a few hours in the morning last week. even though i was right by her side she stayed glued to me for 20 minutes before she relaxed. of course by the time we were ready to leave she cried because she wanted to stay and play.
- she’ll point to her butt if you ask her where the poop comes from {thanks for that trick, daddy}.
- her favorite songs included if you’re happy and you know it {when she says hooray i literally want to die it’s so cute} and i’m a little tea pot. abc’s is a close third. she always applauds at the end, “yay, mama!”
- hates her stroller.
- loves to read more than anything else. she plays with about 3% of her toys and the rest of the time she’s reading. we’ve started giving her a book in her carseat and she will hold it open for a good 20 minutes just staring at it. she looks like an old man reading the sunday paper.
- her favorite book is her children’s bible. she knows it by name and it’s the book she chooses for us to read to her before bedtime. she even requests to bring it in her crib with her.
- she’s still obsessed with cleaning. she’s learned how to say “vacuum” which is also used to describe carpet cleaners, steamers and any other large household appliances. she knows where we keep our vacuum and will honestly repeat the word 100 times before we open the closet to show it to her. if only she knew how to use it!
photo by all we are photography
