Life with Ana Kate: Ana Kate at 18 months...

Can you believe Ana Kate is already 18 months old? She is growing so fast and learning so much it's often hard to keep up with her. And....even though it still doesn't look like she has much hair it has grown quite a bit since she's been home. Just look back at some of our posts from Vietnam in June.....amazing. Of course I'm still waiting for it to get to the point where she can wear all her pretty hairbows. Maybe soon.

Anyway....here are some of the things Ana Kate is doing now:

Repeating just about everything we say. Her vocabulary is growing and growing and she comprehends pretty much everything. Right now she says 'No, no no' a lot (which isn't always cute) and my favorite thing is when I ask her where something is she'll say 'Don't know' and put her hands up and shrug.
She calls me 'Mommy' almost all of the time now and she will now scream 'Mommy' when I come into the room and run to give me a hug. I just love it....it melts my heart. She does occasionally call me 'Mom' when Whitney does...which is sometimes funny. She also recognizes everyone...she will scream 'Daddy' or 'Whitney' when either one of them comes home.
She has 16 teeth now....quite a mouthful....as you can see in some of the pictures below.
She still doesn't sleep through the night...I'm hoping one day soon that will change. She doesn't really wake up through the night, but she does move around and cry anywhere from 1 - 5 times...so it definitely is disruptive.
She is finally eating more...yeah!! She still doesn't eat very much, but 5-10 bites per meal is much better 1 or 2, so we're definitely making progress. Her favorite foods are cheese, noodles, rice, fruit, and of course anything with sugar. The only foods she really asks for is cheese and candy, but she will at least try everything I put on her plate. If it's meat she mostly spits it out, so I may have a little vegetarian, but that's ok....I'm not much of a meat eater either. She did eat some shrimp the other day and really seemed to like it though. I do have to portion her food out or she will still stuff her mouth full then spit it out when she realizes she can't swallow it. So we only do 2 to 3 bites at a time.
She currently thinks that Backyardigans should be on the TV 24/7 around here. When I turn it off she will start screaming and saying 'back ar gans', but she usually gets over it pretty quickly and moves on to something else.
Her favorite toys are her magna doodle, piano, Elmo, and any kind of box that she can push around and use to climb on things. I have noticed that she's starting to play with her baby dolls a lot more and I see her feeding them and trying to put diapers on them. She also loves books, but she's a bit pushy about what you read and when...so we often have to read a certain page several times.
In the last month or two she started climbing up on the barstools, so I've had quite a time getting her to stay off of them. She's quick too...you turn your back for 1 second and she's up.
Little miss is also apparently too big for her high chair now and insists on sitting in a booster chair so she can sit at the table like a 'big girl'.
She loves to give and hugs and will say 'ugg' and then pat your back while she hugs you...it is SO precious.
Often seems to develop her own little 'fan club' wherever we go. When we were in Vietnam one of our travel mates called Ana Kate 'Little Miss Personality' and I have to say the title still fits her....she makes friends with everyone she meets.

I guess I could go on and on and on....but I won't...I'll just say she is simply amazing and precious and we love her SO much!! Enjoy the pictures from this week...

Several pictures from yesterday: