Next, on American Idol

You'll have to turn up the volume a bit to hear her at the beginning of the video:

Superstar material, I tell ya. She's obviously inherited my incredible singing skills. American Idol winner of 2026, totally in the bag.

Baby Quirks

We spend most of our time on this blog talking about our girl in probably annoyingly glowing terms. But she does have her quirks, and while these don't particularly bug us, I'm interested to see how they develop over the years so I think they should be captured for reference.

Anya when you were 19 months old we were already noticing:

1. Your inexplicable fear of flies, bees, ants, and other insects. (and apparently caterpillars and squirrels)
2. Your inability to or disinterest in distinguishing colors -- curious in one so gifted in all other forms of language.
3. Your tendency to get frustrated (this is probably just normal baby stuff but I don't want to pass up the opportunity to say you got this from your mother :-))
4. You are a climber. Oh boy are you a climber. You really have no fear (aside from the afore mentioned bugs).

19 months

Anya is 19 months old today. She's spending the day at grandma and grandpa Lodwig's since we're currently getting windows installed. I've been in the basement all morning priming the walls of our soon(ish)-to-be-completed den in the basement. I'm beat. So this month's update will be kind of short.

Locomotion

I can't think of much here. Oh. The Little Gym is going well. I think a few days after I wrote that Anya hated the balance beam, she quickly took to it just to prove me a liar. It's one of her favorites now. Unfortunately, she gets a little too cocky on it and she'll get a big surprise one of these days that she runs up to it without an adult quickly noticing in time to spot her.

Speech

Just continuing with more sentences. Now she's starting to say non-sensical things and also gets descriptive about stuff. The other day she said "Go see dada at work. (pause) Dada at work with a refrigerator" I'm not sure what that was about. I've also noticed that the more she speaks in sentences, the harder it is to understand her. She sort of jumbles words together sometimes or forgets to annunciate. Did I mention this already on here? I can't remember if I did or if I just talked ot Chris about it. Anyway...

She can more or less sing the alphabet song now. I say more or less because she starts adding groups of letters sometimes where they're not supposed to go, and then continues on with the song. It's cute. And then the "now I know my ABCs, next time won't you sing with me" part, she butchers and I have no idea what she's saying. Again, cute.

Other development

Anya has taken interest in the potty again. Ever since her friend Eva came over the other week and Anya saw her (barged in on her) using the potty, she has been all about it. I just have been letting her use the potty only when she requests it and she’s had a handful successful and semi-successful goes at it since she saw Eva. It’s like magic. Honestly, I don’t think she’s quite ready yet for the real potty training push, but I feel it’s around the corner. Is it creepy to ask your friends if your kid can watch their kid use the bathroom?

She is afraid of bees. And flies. And ants. And apparently squirrels. We're not sure why. We're trying to help her get over it, but I think it'll take some time.

A few pictures from today

helping me pick flowers from the front yard

about 5 seconds later, she freaked out because she saw a bee

wearing dad's hat and mom's shoes.

Cute: this morning, she put on Chris' hat, walked to the kitchen, and announced "I go get coffee" (Chris does this after he puts on his hat to go to the dog park in the mornings)

Little Slugger

A post not (entirely) about Anya!

This is a video of Anya's next door neighbor, BFF, and future husband, Flynn. Check out the arm and aim on this kid and he's only 17 months old. I say Shannon and Josh nudge him into baseball soon and get an early start on his professional career.

the embedded video stopped working for some reason, so click here to see it

As his future mother-in-law, I find being a professional baseball player an acceptable career to support my daughter and the lifestyle she so richly deserves ;). So get a move on, Shannon & Josh!

Preschool

Yesterday was the last day of infant co-op preschool. It was kind of a bittersweet day for me. I mean, she just made it through her very first year of "school". It went by so quickly. I can only imagine what kind of blubbering idiot I'll be when it's time for her to start Kindergarten . Anyway, here are a few pictures from yesterday's end of school potluck.

talking on the "phone"

all the kiddos at snacktime. Anya is just out of camera range.

Being a scarf hog during circle time

Underneath the parachute (her favorite preschool activity)

Anya and her gorgeous mom

Dancing with Eva

Our friends Todd & Tracey and their daughter Eva (who is 3) came over on Sunday. Eva has started taking ballet lessons recently and loves to dance. So Chris brought out the guitar and played some tunes while Eva danced gracefully around the room. Anya tried to keep up with Eva and mimick her moves.

Trot Trot to Boston

At preschool, the moms bounce the toddlers on our knees while singing (this is only part of the song):

Trot trot to Boston
Trot trot to town
watch out, baby.
Don't fall down!

And this is what I caught Anya doing this morning:

In dad's boots

We've been video camera-happy lately. Here's one from this afternoon...

Counting, sort of

We've tried to capture Anya counting to 10 on film a handful of times over the last month. This has proved very difficult. She can be sitting, counting on her own, and the second we take out the video camera to catch her in the act she becomes distracted and focuses on that or something else. Same went for this morning, but this is the best we've been able to capture to date.

A Stepping Stone to Badness

Anya has discovered that she is being deprived of a world of fun just beyond her grasp. A world of mom and dad's dinner, of Sharpie (TM) markers, of cats and bed clothes, of computer keyboards and remote controls.

Discontented with her low-lying terrestrial existence she--as have countless generations from the ancient Babylonians to our own fine civilization--has sought a solution to her vertical dilemma.

Observe...



Aside from the light and easily dragged-about laundry basket, she has also learned to move the dining room chairs, slide the ottoman, and (my personal favorite) pull out all the drawers on her dresser which she uses stepladder-like to mount her changing table while issuing forth the gleeful cry of "Balmex!"

preschool pics

Just a few pictures of Anya I snapped at infant co-op preschool the other day. The kids were all playing outside for a little while before class started.

Notice that Anya is wearing a sweater and a jacket, as are other kids. It's May. I'd like to officially complain about the weather, thanks.

Mama's Little Helper

Today was a gross, disgusting, rainy, windy day, as the weatherman predicted it would be. Our friend Jennifer made some bread the other day and gifted us with a few still-warm slices. They were heavenly and I've been craving it since then. So since the weather was so icky, today was a perfect day to make some with the help of my daughter.

mixing the dough

Kneading

Punch-down and shaping after first rise

Watching the bread loaves bake in the oven.

The tasty reward for all her hard work

And if anyone cares, I used the Homemade Whole Grain Bread recipe from the book Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair. It's a very wholesome bread with a soft texture - Anya (and I) went crazy for it. But it does take 24 hours or so to make since you need to do a starter first.

* probably obvious, but Amy wrote this entry, not Chris (he was logged on)

Dancing Queen

awww, she dances just like Chris!

Little Helper

We got quite a bit accomplished this weekend. After talking to my mom on the phone Saturday morning, I decided it was a good day to finally build our raised beds and have a garden this year after all. We had been working on other house projects this winter and early spring, so I more or less gave up on the idea of a garden until next year. Our growing season is about 5 weeks late this year, so we still had time. So we (meaning, mostly Chris) built a raised bed Saturday as well as a temporary (until we build the deck) fence so Anya can play in the backyard without falling into the driveway.

We furiously worked the weekend away, and in the midst of it, our old gate to the alley broke. The wood had rotted, so it was something else to do last night, lest the dog run free and terrorize the neighborhood.

I grabbed the camera as Anya "helped" Chris make a new gate.

Anya fixing a box.

Here, she kept saying "I fix it, " and "where's the hammer?" as she smacked the 2x4.

going for the drill

This week, after the big storm we're supposed to get tonight/tomorrow, Anya and I will plant seeds and some starts that our friends so generously gave us. I think this will be fun for her, as she had a grand time yesterday playing in dirt in the raised bed.