24 month update

This is probably the last of my regular monthly updates, now that Anya has hit the big zero-two.

What's new? Well, since the last update (really, in the last 2 days) she has figured out how to climb over the baby gates in the house. This presents a new set of challenges for Chris and me. Anya cannot be trusted on the stairs. Given the opportunity, she jumps, dances, plays on them, or uses them as a springboard. So we need to figure something out. We might put the door back at the bottom of the stairs, but the cats won't be able to get their food....and if we move their food downstairs, she WILL find a way to reach it and mess with it (usually involves mixing dog and cat food together or drinking their water or dumping food in water), so....I dunno. We'll do something. For now, we've added a handle guard to the basement stairs so there's an extra deterrent to getting over that gate.

Speaking of climbing, she's also figured out how to reach this tiny little shelf we moved up high (about 8 feet) in her room. It stores the diaper ointments and hand sanitizer. I caught her playing with the hand sanitizer on her dresser while she was "napping" a few days ago. So I had her show me how she managed to get to it. The little monkey stood on her tippy toes on the top corner of the dresser, wedged her right arm into the little window sill for balance and stretched her little body until she could just barely pull something off the shelf. Said shelf is no longer in her room. We are slowly moving our way to an empty, padded room, but I fear she'd just find a way to climb that too.

Potty Training. Anya, like her mother, is stubborn. One month ago she was doing great. And just like my friend Shannon predicted, she got over the novelty of it. Since then, she's about 1.5 weeks "on" and 1.5 weeks "off", or refusing to go near a potty (meltdown if I try too hard). But at least she's no longer peeing on the floor/chair/me to get attention. So we've backed off. I still tell her she has to before a bath or something she really wants to do and it works for the most part. But that's about all the coercing that's effective. She's in charge of this one.

Nannyshare is going great. She picks up all sorts of phrases and ideas from the older kids. Some nice, some not, but it's all a part of childhood. She uses the "big kid swing" like a pro and does fun art projects. She never wants to leave when I come to pick her up...usually because she's on the swing or looking for "pirates" or something with the other kids in the backyard. She adores them and Sheri and I think it's such a wonderful place for her to be those few hours each week. It's good for the both of us to get that bit of time away from each other.

To sum up my impression of Anya....she's curious, independent, a problem-solver, empathetic, strong-willed, full of humor, outgoing, loves to learn, fearless, and amiable. And fiercely loved by Chris and me. I look forward (mostly...) to what the next year brings for her.