So here is the update: Anna is now 2 years old! Having a 2 year old is an adventure in and of itself. Some of the fun parts of having a 2 year old - she is such a cuddle bug, jokester, and brilliant child. When you ask her, 'What does papa say?' She replies, 'grumpy, grumpy.' The other day she was grumpy herself and aunt Cassie said, 'Anna, you are grumpy today!' She retorted in an angry tone, 'I'm not grumpy, Cassie, papa's grumpy!' She can name all of her basic colors and count to 2. She is brilliant with fitting and matching shapes together and can name those shapes. She is fascinated with the moon and in a bit I will write about her experience with an eclipse. She will randomly come up to me and hug me as she says, 'awww, I wuv you, ma.' That's right, 'ma' - she has started to call me 'ma', which I don't appreciate because I feel like I'm in the middle of a scene from Little House on the Prarie. I have been trying to potty train her and it's been a battle. My hopes are that she will have no accidents by the time I have to go back to work. Being a mom is still exhausting and rewarding at the same time and I wouldn't trade it for the world!
Anna's birthday wasn't a big hoopla like her first year birthday, but it was still fun. When we sang Happy Birthday to her, she danced just like her namesake would do when we sang Happy Birthday to her. Then just before she blew out the candle she called out, 'Blow a wish!'. And that girl has a set of lungs! She blew out the candle with one puff. After that she kept saying, 'blow a wish again?', and now whenever she see's a match lit she runs to it and yells, 'blow a wish!'
During mother's day I didn't think or expect any presents because Anna is too little to understand, but my sweet dad surprised me. We were at my parents visiting and Anna and I were in the living room while my dad was in the family room, and called for Anna to come see him. She ran in there and then minutes later she ran back to me yelling, 'Happy mudders day!' In her arms was a pot of white cala lilies.
I was near to tears with the love I felt for both Anna and my dad. We immediately went out to grandma's flower garden and planted the lilies. I'm not sure which gift was the best - Anna giving me the actual flowers, or the experience itself. Whichever, I will always remember that moment as being one of the best memories in my life.
Later in the month of May, we had a full eclipse. Aunt Megan gave grandpa and grandma a couple of specialty glasses for us to look at the eclipse. Since Anna has such a fascination with the moon, I was excited to let her see the eclipse. I gave Anna one pair and I put on the other pair to show her how to wear the glasses and then told her to look at the moon. She turned and looked, then excitedly said, 'Oh wow!' Everyone kept trying to share the glasses, but Anna kept taking them because she was so amazed by the eclipse.
We are now in the middle of June and we are very close to aunt Cassie's due date. Anna doesn't really understand that she will soon have a new cousin. We are all concerned that we will have to deal with her being jealous, but I hope not - we'll see.
Now we are all caught up and I will try to post again after Indipendence Day.
