All Things Supercinski

Since Annalise was a few months old and wanting to be upright at all times, I have always held her that way. However, she still lets Thomas hold her like a baby. He says, “Can you be my baby, Annalise?” and then cradles her and walks around talking to her about her day. It is so precious. She babbles to him and answers his questions with rapt attention and sweet little grunts and words. They do this almost every night. I finally got a few pictures of it. And this was just some snuggling and reading time the other night.

Can you tell? Did the cookie residue around her mouth give it away? Or was it the balloons?

I can’t believe how big our little lady has gotten lately. She is talking up a storm these days–I can’t keep up with all of her new words.

She loves to play with her brother. They spend their time at home chasing each other around the house, reading books together, “cooking” in the little kitchen, playing cars and trucks, having tea parties, and chasing each other some more. No one can make Annalise laugh like Josiah can, and she has proven herself strong to handle his rough play.

Annalise loves to play with her baby dolls, whom she refers to as “Baby La” (Baby Love). She carries them with her everywhere she goes, pats them, rocks them, dances with them and showers them with kisses. During our Advent season, she carried around baby Jesus and Mary from our Little People nativity set everywhere. Poor baby Jesus was left at the library, but we found him.

Our little girl is very determined. Once she sets her mind to something, she wants to do it or have it now and is difficult to distract from it. She is able to climb onto the kitchen chairs, couches, and the living room chair. I have even found her jumping on Josiah’s bed.

She is a lot of fun, loves anyone who shows her attention and brings our family a lot of happiness. We love you, Annalise!

Annalise is turning into quite the toddler these days. She is a daredevil, full of energy and enthusiasm, with a happy, out-going personality. She is quick to make friends with anyone who pays her attention, loves to sit in little chairs of all types and sizes, dances and sings often, and answers “no” to any question that is asked. She also loves dressing up, accessorizing, and bows. She picked out this lovely ensemble, and the one above:

She and Josiah have had some breakthroughs in their relationship and now seem eager to share with each other much of the time and entertain each other with rousing games of chase around the house. I love watching them play so well together.

Annalise is starting to talk a lot more these days, though I’m not sure how understandable she is to those outside our family. She is not nearly as talkative as her brother was at this age, but she is very observant and amazes us with the things she remembers and tries to tell us about. She is cutting her canine teeth right now, I’m finally seeing a light at the end of the teething tunnel. And she can finally sport pigtails!

It happened–I missed a month updating on Annalise. I know, so many of you were looking for the post… (bear with me, this makes scrapbooking so much easier on me, and it keeps the grandparents informed.)

Annalise is full of energy and always busy these days–running everywhere she goes. Her favorite things are pushing push toys all around the house, riding the riding toys around the house, baby dolls, trucks/trains that go by themselves and pushing trucks and cars around. She has finally taken an interest in the multitudes of trucks, cars, and trains in Josiah’s room. She also loves books and will sit and look at pictures on her own or in your lap for a long time.

She is officially only taking one nap and has not had two naps in almost a month. She takes a two hour nap in the midday/early afternoon and sleeps about 12-13 hours at night (not straight, we still have about one night waking each night). Almost all of her first molars have come through and she is now working on her canine teeth.

Annalise loves being outside and digging in the dirt, rocks or sand. She tries to climb up the ladder on the playground by herself and can make it about halfway up. She really enjoys swinging and likes to slide some days more than others.

Very much a girl, she loves shoes, hats, bags, and accessories. She can make so many things into necklaces and wears play doughnuts and ring stacks on her wrists a lot.

She has started talking more this month, but is not as verbal as her brother. Any question that you ask Annalise is answered with a shake of her head and “no,” even if she means yes. For instance, I asked her if she wanted a banana, and she shook her head and said no, while running to the kitchen and signing “banana” and pointing at them. Hmmm. She calls Josiah “Ya-Ya” or “Bwaaa Bwaa” (brother).

I think they like it!

The pumpkin patch near our house arrived Monday (via a big rig truck), and Josiah just had to go as soon as he knew it was there. So the kids and I walked to pick out a few pumpkins to paint yesterday afternoon–it was 90 degrees out and extremely humid, note their red, sweaty faces. We’ll have to go back sometime when it is cooler and more fall-like.

This was my favorite pumpkin:

Josiah came home and immediately painted one of the pumpkins. He also painted the paper I put underneath the pumpkin. On the right you will see the three little pumpkins we bought. The green is some grass, and on the left are three little people. They are orange and yellow–Josiah, me, and Annalise.

The artist, posing with his picture.

Our sweet girl is officially a toddler this month. She started walking more than just 5-6 steps at a time shortly after her last update, and crawling is a thing of the past. She is now attempting to walk or run at all times. Who needs to be held when they can walk?

She is still transitioning from two naps to one. Most days she needs two, or at least a tiny one in the morning, but some days she doesn’t. It is all rather unpredictable and forcing me to be more flexible.

Annalise is into everything, busy as a bee, and very social. Her favorite things are her phones (all five of my mom’s old cell phones and play phones), any sort of accessory from hats to jewelry to scarves, being outside (where she must carry one rock in each hand at all times), babies, and books about babies or animals. She loves having new faces around to read her books and warms up quickly to visitors.

She is signing up a storm and learning new signs regularly, but not talking very much besides “MOMMA!”, “all done” and “dog”, her favorite words. She is getting better (and more hilarious) at making animal sounds. You can see that in the video. You will also see that Annalise is an artist, and her preferred medium is food and her canvas is her head.

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In the spirit of some of our favorite books by Laura Numeroff–If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, If You Give a Pig a Pancake, etc.

If You give a toddler a popsicle…

She is going to need a bath.

After her bath, she will want to be nakey and have accidents all over the floor, but you will make her get dressed instead.

When she is all dressed, she will want to go outside to play.

All that playing will make her hot and want to play inside.

She will play kitchen for awhile.

All that pretend food will remind her that she’s hungry.

And chances are, if you give her some food, she is going to need another bath.

Our girl is keeping us on our toes and in smiles these days. Her communication and walking skills have developed so much this month. While I would not say that Annalise is walking, she is very close, and not for lack of determination. If sheer determination made this girl walk, she would be. Walking is her first mode of travel (most of the time). She will stand up in the middle of the room, take a few steps and fall, then crawl the rest of the way or try again. She is able to walk farther and farther–from one piece of furniture to another or to a wall for balance.

Annalise started signing a lot this month, too. She signs shoes, hat, all done, more, ball, fish, dog, and bird. I checked out one of the Baby Signing Time dvds from the library. It only keeps her engaged for about 4 minutes, so I know she has only learned “hat” from that dvd, though Josiah has had a great refresher. Her favorite thing to say, and she says it a hundred times a day, is, “all done, Momma!” which sounds like “aaaa duuuu Ma!”

This girl loves to eat and will eat most things that she is given, if she is hungry. She loves to eat with a spoon and if you poke her food with a fork, she will eat twice as much.

We are in the middle of transitioning from two naps a day to one nap a day, one of my least favorite phases. I am praying for flexibility since our routine is changing and not the same from day-to-day. Hopefully the transition will be a quick one.