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 :)