15 months (Orrrrr...16.5 months)

Oops. This has been sitting in draft form for about a month.

AK was standing in the living room in her pjs and she just looked like such a little girl to me this morning. That may have had something to do with the fact that her pjs might be a little on the small side (if the leg openings pretty close to her knees count as a "little" small), but it also has a lot to do with her growing up! We had her 15 month check-up last Friday and she's hanging steady in the height department at 75th percentile, but her weight is a bit below the chart. Doc's not worried, and we're not worried. It'll all even out at some point. She eats well (if she's not being a picky monkey that day), I sneak spinach smoothies into her :), but she just burns it all off. We were waiting on the doc and she was chowing on a granola bar while simultaneously running circles around Reece. She is still while sleeping (sometimes) and while strapped in her car seat or stroller. That's about it :).

This is such a fun age. AK is learning so much and starting to have so much fun interacting with us and other kiddos. Older kiddos just may be one of her favorite things on this earth. We just ended a fun music class at church where the teacher brought her older son (maybe 9?) with her to class. AK would sprint over to watch him and say "hiiii" throughout the class. Speaking of our music class, AK loved it, but not at all for the reason it was intended. She mostly ran around being a crazy baby and smiling at all the other moms, hanging out by the window, or being dragged away from the buttons on the audio system. Most of the other kiddos happily sat in their mama's lap throughout at least the first half of class :). The funniest part to me was that AK started realizing that bubbles were at the end of the class. So, about 15-20 minutes before time was up, she would start saying "bubbles" and lifting her hands in the air. She is also starting to "request" twinkle twinkle by saying "up a bu (above)" and raising her hands in the air for twinkling stars. We've been playing a lot of "hide-and-seek-chase" recently. I hide on one side of the counter, she runs to find me, and then waits for me to chase her, all the while cracking up. She'll also stand right behind me when I'm sitting on the ground with her and wait for me to turn my head to "find" her and then commence the cracking up.

We have had a bit of a rough couple of weeks while it seems all of her teeth are coming in at the same time. There have been mannnny whiny days and, at my wits end, I decided to implement a new rule. I bent down to my whiny, desperately pulling on my pants baby, and told her she would no longer be picked up when she whines at me. She needs to say "up" and give me the sign for please and I will pick her up. To my utter astonishment, it worked!! Thank. you. Lord. The only downside is now she thinks this automatically means she gets picked up even if I have raw chicken hands as I'm making dinner. Oh well, one step at a time :).

The following is definitely just for record-keeping sake. I'm no good at baby books and I will forget these!

Some things Anna Kate is consistently saying:
hi
bye bye
hi kitty
mama
dada
nana (banana)
bapple (apple)
bubbles
bobble (puzzle)
ball
bow (boat)
up

She is working on blowing kisses and just this week has started giving us real kisses. She thinks it's pretty funny. She also walks around pointing to everything saying "et" and waiting for us to tell her what it is. We're also working on naming body parts and animals, and she is getting pretty consistent about head, eyes, nose, ears, feet, belly button for body parts, and cow and cat for animals.