Walking with the Cooks: July 2018

Two is a fun age and it is a joy to have another two-year-old in the house. Anna has found her funny, discovered some curiosity, and is perfecting her singing voice. We love our Anna Caroline!

Weight: 30.8 lbs (90%)
Height: 34.75 inches (83%)

Diapers: size 5- sits on the potty before bath
Clothing: 2T/3T

Likes: shoes, cookies, dancing, finding her singing voice, reading/carrying a book, chalk, the tricycle, swinging

Dislikes: watching Lydia play with something she wants, eating when she is mad

Schedule:
7am Awake for the day!
12:00-3pm Nap
7pm Down for bed

Sleep: Anna is down to one nap a day. It just so happened that we settled on noon rather than one o'clock with the rest of the herd. I'm not sure why it is different with her, but noon has worked well as she has moved to one nap. Anna continues to go through phases where she wakes at night, which is super hard on everyone.

Physically: We have a walker! She is definitely still in the toddling stage, no running or walking backwards yet. She gets the award for biggest wipe outs and most busted lips! Her eyes have turned somewhat gray blue and she has an excellent head of straight brown hair.

Food: Particular. Anna is quite particular about food. Her mood has a huge affect on how she eats, which makes her incredibly different than any other child we have parented. She likes blueberries, strawberry, and peanut butter (on just about anything...you better believe we have used that to our advantage!). She likes to dip her food, which especially comes out when we're at Chick Fil A with all their sauces. She eats with her eyes and I can see her growing up to be quite the foodie.

Communication: It is very sweet to communicate with Anna. She understands almost everything we say, even if she doesn't always agree with what we are saying. A funny habit she has is repeating the last two words of any phrase we say to her. But it demonstrates her ability to say most words and her actual vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds. She spends a lot of time desperately saying, "have it PLEASE" while frantically signing for more (which she thinks is please...it's very confusing to the outside world) while we spend a lot of time asking, "is that YES please or NO thank you?"

Fun things:
- She is a sweater like her mom and brother. Her face gets super red and she gets little sweat beads on her nose.
- Anna loves to dance along with Lydia. She makes good use of her arms, which gives her a very modern dance aesthetic.
- We change shoes several times a day. Thankfully, she can put them neatly back in her closet and knows to bring two shoes that match!
- She begs to go outside.
- We turned her seat around on her birthday. She didn't seem to care, but Dave and I love it.
- Her fine motor skills are coming along. Anna will sit for 5-10 minutes with a box of crayons and piece of paper just coloring her little heart out. She'll also mark up any book Dave leaves out with a highlighter!
- Anna has mastered her body parts.
- Favorite songs are Wheels On the Bus, Twinkle Twinkle, and Jesus Loves Me. She is a singer with gusto, so even when the words aren't right the tune and heart are very much there.