Easy as 1, 2, 3!

Here is Anna's newest talent. Jeff and I were talking during dinner last night and both stopped at the same time. "Did you hear that?" "Did she just say what I think she said?" Yes! She was counting her spaghetti.
In case you were wondering...
Why does Anna always say "baby" when I am filming her? That is what she says after I take pictures and videos. She wants to see the baby on the digital camera.

That's easy for you to say!

Today Anna is eighteen months old. What a big girl! As you can see from the video, Anna can talk. She is getting to the point where she can repeat a lot of what we say. We are working on putting more than one word together. "More, please" and "Hi Daddy" are getting pretty good. When she was really little I used to sometimes have to remind myself that she didn't talk. I always felt like we were communicating all day, but now we actually are! Sometimes I am surprised about how Jeff and I can decipher what she is saying. Of course, not everything is crystal clear, but parents just know, don't they? Here are a few noteworthy things she is doing these days...
She has a special name for all of her books that we read to her at night. For example when she says, "bath," she wants us to read The Going to Bed Book (there is a page where all of the animals are taking a bath together). "Baby" is Anna and the Bagpiper (because there is a little girl in it). "Anna" is Anna Banana and Me and "Hoo hoo" is Owl Babies.
Then there is A Kitten Tale and Ten Apples Up On Top. In both of these books the characters drink milk at some point. Anna doesn't want to read the whole book, she just says "milk," and wants us to turn right to the page with the milk and then she says, "Anna," and she drinks her milk, too. It's pretty funny. She also likes to let the characters in her books have her paci. She holds it up to the pages for them.
This week she rode in the grocery cart that has the car in front for the first time at Kroger. To say that was exciting would be an understatement. I think she thought she was in a parade because she waved and honked at everyone we passed.
We just started our second session of music class and we are taking it with lots of friends so it is going to be very fun. One of her favorite songs is about jumping and running so we sing that one a lot. She loves it when we run and jump with her. When she runs, she says, "FAST!" because she can run so fast!
We've been spending a lot of time at the pool lately and Anna really enjoys the water. I keep trying to show her how to blow bubbles, but I don't think she is ready for her face to get wet yet. When I tell her it's her turn, she leans over, gets a few inches from the water, and makes a loud noise that kind of sounds like blowing bubbles.

Bathing Beauty