“Down, down, down.” (And when she went the other way, it was “up, up, up!”)

"Down, down, down." (And when she went the other way, it was "up, up, up!"), originally uploaded by walker_fam.
— Sent from my Palm Pre
— Sent from my Palm Pre
— Sent from my Palm Pre
— Sent from my Palm Pre
— Sent from my Palm Pre
— Sent from my Palm Pre
— Sent from my Palm Pre
— Sent from my Palm Pre
— Sent from my Palm Pre
— Sent from my Palm Pre
— Sent from my Palm Pre
Annie at 21 months:
* Is starting to sleep stretches of several hours at night. Phew!
* Current favorite food: pho. A plus if it comes with a side of peas and carrots.
* Has gotten much more adventuresome–slides on the slide, swings on the swings, and is often ready to jump right into an activity!
* LOVES water, whether at the splash park, the swimming pool, or a random public fountain.
* LOVES LOVES to swim. She’s pretty good at "kick kick kick!" and is realizing that there might be a future in using her arms as well. Will tentatively dip her face in the water if I don’t ask her to. LOVES to jump off the side of the pool into my arms, and occasionally does this when I’m not holding onto her hands. If she’s not too tired, she’ll allow herself to go underwater during this process as well, and is finally figuring out that keeping one’s mouth closed while doing this is a good thing.
* Talks incessantly… unless we’re around people she doesn’t know well, at which point she clams up. She’s experimenting with articles and pronouns now, her most common usage being something like "I NEEEED the berries!"
* Still talks in her sleep. The other night she randomly started giggling around 5am. Must have been a good dream!
* Loves to sing, and can carry a tune on a couple of the songs we sing a lot.
* Really enjoys live music… if we’re anywhere near someone playing an instrument, we MUST stop to listen.
* Knows pretty much all of the alphabet on sight (no, we’re not THOSE PARENTS trying to make the kid an instant genius, it’s just something she’s been interested in for awhile) and figured out on her own that an “M” upside down is a “W.”
* Knows the numbers through 10 in order. She has no concept of number value, though (although I *think* she can count to two accurately sometimes.)
* Knows several colors consistently.
* Loves her books and is finally starting to be willing to read things that we haven’t read before.
* Knows and asserts her own will very clearly. We’ve definitely been seeing an increase in frustrations based on knowing that she wants to be in charge, but not quite knowing why or how.
* On the flip side, she’s started saying "yeah" when she agrees with something. This is a nice change from the "no" we’ve been hearing consistently since she turned one.
* Is in 12-18 month clothes and a size M diaper cover
* As of 7/14, is 31.75" tall (26th percentile), 21lbs12oz (7th percentile), with a head circumference of 47.5cm (65th percentile)
* Goes down for the night between 8 and 9pm and prefers Daddy to put her to bed.
* Loves the kitties and knows them both by name.
* Puts on her own shoes and occasionally her shirt. She tries the pants every once in awhile… usually on her head.
* Takes one nap a day that’s anywhere from 30 minutes (on a bad day) to two hours (on a really good day)
* Is the joy of our lives!
— Sent from my Palm Pre
— Sent from my Palm Pre