Big Girl

There are numerous things in our daily lives that remind us that Annie is growing by leaps and bounds right now.

For instance, most of the time she joins in with books and songs--even quite elaborate ones. She also spends a far amount of time making up her own melodies and lyrics, entertaining us to no end. She can now (through increased verbal skills) let us know how incredible her memory is, she will recite books days after they've been read ("no more monkeys jumping on the bed") and recounts for us adventures that occurred months ago. Her facial expressions are also a riot, especially her almost-too-teenager-like "You obviously don't know what you're talking about mom/dad/whomever" (this is most often given when we're trying to guess what she's saying and are clearly hearing the wrong thing).

She's taken to often preferring to walk (and hold our hands) when being out-and-about, only when very tired will she want to be carried (this is especially nice for me these days!). And, after several months of yoga class, has taken to "teaching" anyone who'll let her our various activities. She continues to like her world quite organized, and (usually) does a great job of clean-up time with Mommy. She'd play with markers for hours if she had her way, and is quite fond of playdough as well. She clearly delights in making us laugh, and will repeat antics that she knows will illicit her desired response.

We're rather emotional about the latest indicator: right now she is sound asleep in a big girl bed. We brought it home yesterday, set it up today after church, but really didn't plan to start really transitioning to it for a couple of weeks (we're all about getting Annie done with these bigger transitions way ahead of Baby Strom's arrival!). She was quite excited about it during set-up, and then when nap time came, was insistent that she sleep there. Tonight, she wanted to try it out again! We'll see how the evening goes...

Here she is "helping" Eric put together the bed...

And, waking up from naptime...

Next to her bed...