Conversations with Anna

Between Anna's few words and her many signs, she and I are able to have pretty extensive conversations, at least considering a year and a half ago there was not much two-way communication. It's pretty funny that one simple word can mean so many things for her right now. I suppose we were a bit prepared for that since all of the books mention it, but it's still pretty amazing to realize that her word "sit" can mean "I want to sit on your lap" or "that's a chair" or "I'm hungry and want to sit in my chair" or "can I sit on that?" Or that "dada" can mean "Where's Daddy?" or "That hat (shoes, coat, etc.) belongs to Daddy?" or "I want Daddy here NOW."

Just this past week she's also picked up on a handful of other words such as "hop" to indicate a stuffed bunny (very clearly, too, with the "h" and "p" sounds), "bubble" (for the bubbles in the fish tank), and "happy". She hasn't shown much desire to use words for her signs or to repeat words that we tell her; she'll just randomly stumble across a word that we recognize and then uses it over and over again. Before these words, she was using phrases that she must hear Matt and I say a lot, even if she didn't use all of the words of the phrase distinctly. For example, she says "Where is it?" (which can also mean where is he/she?), "I see it!", and "Let's see."

Anyway, last week we were snowed in a few more times and then Anna had a random fever on Wednesday plus was EXTREMELY crabby on Thursday. We're getting a little sick of staying inside because of snow, cold weather, and sicknesses. It's a bit frustrating for the parents of toddlers here in Wisconsin that we've had only a couple of days above 20 degrees in the past few weeks, plus the 30+ inches of snow so far ... and did you know the prediction is for another 8-12 inches before Christmas!?!? Looks like we're in for another snowy winter.

Needless to say, we're playing inside a lot. In this shot I was trying to get Anna peeking around the banister, but the kiddo doesn't stay still long enough these days for a decent picture.


Last night Anna spent a good half hour bringing Matt all of the outdoor gear that she thought he needed. She was very clear about who was to wear what (Mommy didn't need to be involved in her opinion). By the way, on Anna's ears are Matt's hearing protection for when he clears the driveway.


Anna also thought it'd be fun to take canned goods out of the pantry and stack them on one of our stools. Silly me showed her how to do that last night while I was making dinner (to keep her out from underfoot), and now she wants to do it whenever we're in the kitchen.

Finally, this was supposed to be a smile, but looks a bit more like a roar. Like I said before, Anna doesn't stay still very long for pictures right now. And thought it doesn't look like it, she really doesn know that a lion roars and how an elephant sounds. She's also got sounds for snakes, dogs, cats, and sheep, although to her dogs pant (instead of bark) and cats say "eeeooowww" (instead of a normal, nice meow).