Dear Sweet Annabeth,

I am so glad your well-child visit went well on Wednesday. You were 23lbs (28th percentile) and 32 inches tall (55th percentile). Your head is still in the 90th percentile (19 inches). You cooperated well at the appointment until you were placed on The Dreaded Table. Then you lost your cool. You have too many unpleasant memories associated with aforementioned table, so I understand.

You crack us up these days. You have learned how to jump. You don't achieve much height, but you do get both feet off the ground. You are so pleased with yourself. You identify animals by the sounds they make. You call a cow Moo. You bark at dogs. The sounds are remarkably accurate sounding too. You still enjoy a good meal. You still love pandas and pacifiers. You still love to cuddle with Mama.

You are experiencing separation anxiety anxiety. You get very worked up at the prospect of being left. Once we leave, you cope well. For some reason there is lots of drama leading up to the handoff to a sitter. You also get upset if you think I am going to leave. I don't have to actually be leaving for you to fuss about being separated.

Overall you are a joy. You are talking more and more. You communicate well. You are happy 90% of the time. You love drama. You love to play with your dogs and your sister. Thank you for being our sweet Annabeth. You are uniquely you and I would never change a single thing about you.

Love, Mama

PS: If you want to party from 9:30 PM until 1 AM again tonight, can you please let us know first? It has made for quite a morning, especially for your daddy. For some reason his boss is not concerned about your party hours.

Where to begin...

Well, we have been one busy little family. There has been quilt sewing, elephant visiting, and pumpkin patching going on. There has been lots of messy eating.

I have picked up a new hobby, sewing. I can't say I am good at it. However, I am learning. I have made a quilt for Savannah and a rag quilt for Annabeth. My next project is a couple of receiving blankets and burp cloths for friends who are expecting their first baby in three weeks. Here are the quilts:

Annabeth has been learning to self-feed, the messy way. She has been in love with yogurt and we have been encouraging her to feed herself. It is a very messy proposition, but she and her clothes are machine washable.

We also went to an elephant open house at the Houston Zoo. It was awesome. The girls got to play with the elephant's toys (remarkably similar to their toys). We got to help give one elephant her bath. They even performed tricks for us. Needless to say, we had a great time.

We have also hit up a couple of pumpkin patches last weekend and today. I'll just say the animals will recover from the torture rained down on them by an 18 month old animal lover who has yet to fully grasp the concept of gentle.

As I said up top, we have been busy. Next week we take Annabeth for her 18 month appointment. I will update her stats then. We also recently had Savannah's first parent-teacher conference. I will update with more on that later too.

Have a great weekend!