Does this kid look like a big preschool girl?

We didn't have a chance to take first-day-of-school pictures -- we were too busy getting Anne out the door to start preschool this morning. (She'll be going M-W-F mornings.) Once we arrived, Anne ran off to play with her friend Taylor and never looked back. But her mom cried all the way home. Here's Anne when she woke today ...

How to beat the heat with Anne (pictures and video)

Anne in St. Louis (video)

Here are a couple of overdue videos from our recent trip to St. Louis. Anne loved meeting her cousins Aiden and Austen! Here she is giving Aiden an anatomy lesson and teaching him moves from her yoga class.

Anne's St. Louis adventure

Anne had a blast during our recent trip to St. Louis. She turns out to be quite the traveler! She loved the plane and her borrowed carseat. She loved the zoo and the children's museum. She loved seeing her cousins Austen and Aiden, her Aunt Sarah and Uncle Brian and her Gram Sheri and Grandpa Dan. And she loved Sonic Drive-In, too!

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Hello, everybody (video)

Anne sings, "Hello, Everybody," a song from music class. And plays with toilet paper.

Our little Esther Williams (video)

The other little girl in this video is Anne's friend Alessandra, whose nanny is good friends with Anne's nanny, Lucia. Anne's bathing beauty ensemble is from Gram Sheri.

Anne's playhouse

Anne's friends like playing house with her. (Unfortunately, Anne's best friend, Cora, who is pictured, just moved away to California. We're all sad, but so far, Skype has kept them connected.)

She screams for ice cream

Anne actually calls it "cold yogurt." Which is so cute, we don't really try to correct her. The sample size is just right for holding onto. While she finishes ours. (click to enlarge)

Good morning! (video)

Butterfly

Anne has just reached the stage where she is starting to do imaginative play, like pretending to be a fairly or pretending to be a butterfly. She likes to wear her fairy wings and tiara and read a book called, "Alice the Fairy" that her friend Alexa gave her for a birthday gift. (Anne says, "I'm a fee-wee!" just like Alice does.) She also likes to pretend to be a butterfly, or at least to insist that we pretend to be butterflies. Anne also likes to pretend to have dinner. When Mom asks what we should eat for dinner, Anne lists her favorites. "Cupcakes hotdogs!" she yells. She usually adds to the list corn, guacamole and mac and cheese.

A good time was had by all

We celebrated Anne's second birthday Saturday with a party at our house. One of Anne's favorite music performers, Mr. Skip, came to play. Anne couldn't believe he was in her house! She had 18 kids and their parents, and a few adult friends, over for the party. Everyone had a good time, and there were no meltdowns. Her nanny, Lucia, and Lucia's friend Elsa made the cake and some other goodies for the party. Anne is shown with Lucia holding her in the picture collage.

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Anne is two! (video and pictures)

Anne celebrated her second birthday on Thursday ... with cupcakes (3!). She knows birthdays involve cake. She was a bit surprised when her parents and grandparents all sang to her. But then she sang "Happy Birthday" to herself all evening.

Her favorite presents were a singing picnic basket full of pretend goodies and a new play house for the backyard. She called it "home."

Anne and the chocolate bunny

The Easter bunny brought Anne a dark chocolate bunny. Daddy told him she likes dark chocolate. This is what happened after Daddy helped Anne get her "sokkit buddy" out of the box. And yes, that is a goodly amount of chocolate in her armpit in the last frame.



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Easter egg hunt

Anne loved the Easter egg hunt after Mass on Sunday. They did the egg hunt on the lawn and had a special egg hunt for kids 3 and under in the little garden at the rectory. Anne ran through the garden saying, "Buddy! Buddy!" which is how she says "bunny." Anne loved her outfit from Gram Sheri. And she liked her lacy socks ... she called them "lazy socks."


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Music class (videos)

The highlight of Anne's week is her Music Together class. Toddler participation looks different than adult participation. They might seem distracted -- but really, they're taking it all in. Anne loves her teacher and spends most of the class on his lap. Her pal Leo is in the second video. The third video is from last month - Valentine's Day. (Videos by Grandpa Tom)

The three preemie-teers

(Click to enlarge) These three kiddos are besties -- Leo, Taylor and Anne. They were preemies -- we're all part of a preemie families' group on Capitol Hill -- and they are good friends and doing so well now. Anne is kissing Taylor, what a sweetheart Photos by Grandpa Tom.

Planting flowers with Daddy and Grandpa

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Daddy took Anne to the garden store over the weekend to pick out flowers to plant in the front. Big surprise, Anne chose purple. We don't know a little girl who doesn't love purple!

Boogie babe

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If you know Anne, you know she loves music. She loves to listen, dance to it, jump to it, clap to it. She loves to try to play and sing. She goes to music classes with Mom every week.

She also goes to music shows on Fridays with her nanny, Lucia. The shows are put on by a local group, Boogie Babes, which has different performers. Here are a few pictures from last week's show taken by Lucia.

Feb. 24: A day which will live in infamy

Anne started saying "no" a couple of weeks ago. That is, she started saying it when she really means it! And she means it often. We think this marks the beginning of the Terrible Twos.

It's not just "no." Anne is really starting to express herself, combining words to make very basic sentences, like, "Mommy, off," and "Be careful, Annie." (The latter sounds like, "Be cah-fo, Aya.")

More communication is good! But it also means that Anne is moving into a new phase of development that is not always easy for her. She's learning how to cope when Mom or Dad say she can't do or have what she wants all the time. And Mom and Dad are learning the best ways to respond!

Elmo slippers (updated)

Anne is a big fan of her new Elmo slippers from Grandma Gloria. This morning she brought them to her dad and said, "Feet?" so he would help her put them on.

But it's getting much harder to take her picture or shoot video. Anne yells whenever she sees the camera that she wants to look at "Aa-ya," which is her way of saying Annie, because she knows she can look at pictures of herself on the back of the camera. That is what she is yelling in this picture.

And below is a picture collage from our friend Malia featuring the Elmo slippers.

Another milestone worth mentioning -- sitting still

Anne is a typical 20-month-old who usually cannot sit still. So it was a big deal when she sat in the pew for the entire Mass this morning. It was an earlier, shorter service, but still an achievement.

Last week, on Tuesday, Anne also sat through an entire song at music class with a pair of drumsticks. The drumsticks are problematic -- her teacher calls them Anne's Kryptonite -- because the kids are supposed to sit down while they play with drumsticks. They even have a little chant: "What does Anne do with sticks? She always, always sits with sticks." But this time she DID sit with sticks.

Chapter umpteen, in which Anne speaks much more clearly

Anne knows so many words now, we can't keep up. But we can tell you about a milestone, of sorts. Anne is starting to pronounce words much more clearly. As of the week before Christmas, she started calling her friend Cora "Coh-wah" instead of "Coh-gah." Which means Dora the Explorer has become "Doh-wah" instead of "Doh-dah." And today, she called her friend Taylor "Tay-wah" instead of "Tay-tay."

I thought it might be fun to list as many words she knows that we can think of. She knows many more than this, including Portuguese words she speaks with her nanny, Lucia. But here is a sampling of words she says.

Things she eats or eats with: Bottle, bowl, plate, cup, saucer, tea, coffee, juice ("doof"), apple, pear, banana, grape, muffin, toast, waffle, pancake, bacon, egg ("eggie"), mango, edamame ("eh-ma-ma-ma"), peas, cheese, pasta, rice, quesadilla, pizza, pretzel, puff, yogurt, agua (Portuguese for water), soup, lid.

Things she does: Up, abre (Portuguese for open), yoga (sometimes "yogi")

People she knows: Mama, Dada, Grandma, Lucia ("Noo-noo") Cora, Sutton, Taylor, Lisa, Leo, Raia, Toren, Gabriella ("Gabby"), Annika, Helena, Angie, Charlotte, Miss Mandy, Mr. Mike. Also her cousin Alexa, whom she has not met -- she says "ah-neh-ha" and kisses her picture. And auntie.

Animals, animal sounds: Kitty cat, meow ("mah!") doggie, ruff ruff, cock-a-doodle-do, moo, sheep, baa baa, ticky ticky (that's the raccoon), oink oink ("onga-onga"), owl, who who, eee-eee (for the monkey), beep-beep (for mouse), ribbit ("yibbie"), hippo ("hippie"), neigh, bumblebee, butterfly. She also does this little thing with her lips and tongue to look like a weasel.

Toys and kids' characters: Elmo, Dora, Mickey, Minnie, baby, doll, Violet (a stuffed talking dog), Mininou (Portuguese for little boy, the name of a doll Lucia gave her), Ernie, Big Bird, Abby Cadabby, Zoe, Grover, Winnie, Eeyore ("oh-yo"), Eebie, Princess Robyn, popper (for popcorn popper), choo choo. She knows who Kermit the frog is but calls him "yibbie" for ribbit.

Body parts: Nose, eye, belly button, ear, mouth, knee, foot, piggies, belly, elbow, fingers ("fingies"), chest. Fingers is relatively new, as are elbow and chest and mouth. She says "oculos" for glasses, which is Portuguese. She also says socks and shoes.

Other things she says: Hi, I love you ("ah-nuh-nuh"), boo, moon, flower, car, book, whoa. Also please, which is very big these days ("pease") and thank you.

Musical instruments: Guitar, flute ("foote"), cello.