Deep conversations

this morning...


Anya: Anya MAD

me: You're mad? Why are you mad?

Anya: because I happy



I'm pretty sure it was a thoughtful critique on what's wrong with Western culture.

23 months

Anya is 23 months old today.

The big change from last month is the whole potty training thing. Since my last post on the subject, she has had 0-2 "accidents" per day. So it's going quite well. One of my friends gave some advice on the subject and said that when the novelty of it wears off in a week or 2, she'll probably start having more accidents -- because she doesn't want to interrupt what she's doing to do the chore of going to the potty-- and then it'll slowly taper off again. Interesting. Either way, it sure is nice not really having to change diapers anymore. Nightime is a whole other story and I expect it will be many months before we attempt anything besides a night or pull-up diaper.

Anya's speech always improves. Many sentences are complete and gramatically-correct. Not all of them of course. She uses articles, pronouns, and plurals more often. We're working on manners and asking for things "nicely," because whining is pretty common and pretty annoying.

Physically, she's starting to get her 2-year molars in. Hands are constantly in her mouth and some days it seems pretty painful for her. Fortunately it's not a contant pain as these molars sure are taking their sweet time breaking through the gums. Her hair is finally long enough for little ponytails, which I've been waiting for. I also think she went through a big growth spurt recently. She seems as tall as some of her bigger friends and clothes that seemed like they'd never fit all-of-a-sudden do.

Anya enjoys puzzles, playing cd's on her cd player - especially "reading" along to books with accompanying cds, dancing, legos, and she is crazy about all animals -- loves the zoo, learning about new and interesting animals, and looking at pictures of them. We've also recently started playing very simple games of matching and memory (the card game). She doesn't quite get the concept of memory yet, but it's not far off.

All-in-all, she's as active as always, empathetic, stubborn, independent, and kind. And loved :)

Potty Training

I guess we started officially potty training Anya a few days ago. It wasn't quite my intention to start now, but something in her little brain clicked the other week and she gets it. I'd love to take credit for it, with all the talking about it and putting her on the potty for the past 6 months. But I really think it was hanging out with the nanny share kids those few hours each week that made it really sink in. The others there are all potty trained (and 3+), so she gets to see all the big kids doing it.

She was giving lots of signs of readiness and going to the potty on her own a fair amount at home. So Monday I just decided to see what would happen if I put her in underwear at home and pull-ups when out in public (and naps). She initially had lots of accidents, but also requested the bathroom when we were out at stores or a playground. And each day there was a little improvement.

I'm proud to say that today (day 5 I guess) she only had one mild accident, and quickly corrected herself by heading straight to the potty. So I'm going to continue with the underwear and pull-ups route and officially call it potty training. I'm pretty proud of my little girl right now :-)

Mom and Bruce visit

My mom (otherwise known as "Grandma B" or "Grandma Ellen") and step-father Bruce ("Grandpa B" "Grandpa Bruce" or "Grandpa Goo") came for a nice visit and just went back to North Carolina a few days ago. It was a mellow visit, and there was much in the way of bonding with the kidlet for them (and uninterrupted showers and errand-running for me, woohoo!!). It was great seeing them both and we all miss them already. Once a year is just darn infrequent. :-( Love you, mom!

early morning reading with Grandma Ellen

Grandpa Bruce and Anya in the rowboat at the zoo

"driving" a tractor

checking out the bunny rabbits

Cycles and Cereal

I think this pretty much captures the day-to-day life of the stinker.
Good driving skills. Clear understanding of her desires and how to achieve them.

Anyarchist

Not-So-Still-Life with Anya

Shots from Olalla Cabin Trip

This weekend we took off to a cabin that Grandma and Grandpa Lodwig rented.

Here are a couple of shots of our trip.

Grandma and Grandpa walking the "kangaroo rat" up the trail from Kopachuck state park.


Looking at the muck at Kopachuck.

Anya has a great fondness for teasing poor Laika with the chuck-it

That's my kid, hanging for long periods of time on the playground equipment.

Anya on the back porch in her favorite dog boots.

Anya practicing driving me crazy, or worse: cruisin'

Running amok on the ferry home.

A couple moments of cuteness

We're up at the cabin with Grandma and Grandpa. There were a couple quotes from Anya that bore repeating.

She's started using the word "actually" as in:
Grandma: "Is that a fish?"
Anya: "That's a whale, actually."

Grandpa: "Is that a plane?"
Anya: "That's a helicopter, actually."

And my favorite quote of the day--Anya trying to get out of the fenced in yard to go look at the lawn decorations.
"Anya go look at Seagulls, I'll be back."