20 Months and Living Her Best Life! (4.23.2019/AGC)

Annabelle Grace’s 19th month of life, leading up to 20 months old has been a big one for her.  With everything (good and crazy) going on, I wanted to take a minute to let the light shine on our sweet, sweet, and sometimes stubborn toddler.

Obviously, the biggest thing to happen to her this month was becoming a big sister four days after turning 19 months old! So, our sweeties are just a hair over a year and a half apart!  So far, Annabelle seems to truly love her little Eloise and seems to already be a great big sister.  I can only hope they have a close relationship as the years move on!

I’ll touch more on her being a big sister in just a little bit, but first- let’s look at what else Annabelle Grace has been up to!  For starters- she bounces somewhere between 23-24 pounds!  The last time we measured her, maybe a month ago, she was 33 inches long, and I’m sure she’s now taller than that! This girl’s height continues to surprise us!

She is continuously becoming more and more active, and we try not to let a day go by that we don’t get outside to play!  She absolutely LOVES to go outside.  A lot of the time she’s ready to throw on rain boots, even when it’s not raining.  Boots seem to be one of her favorite types of shoes!

 

She even hung out with MommyAnn outside and played in the yard, and of course rocked on our porch swing!

For Easter, Annabelle got down to a diaper and her boots and got to finger paint some wooden eggs outside!  She seemed to have a lot of fun doing it!  Not long after, we all took a walk into the corn field behind the house where Daddy taught us what he looks for in a field after lots of heavy rain!  Annabelle Grace always seems to really soak in whatever he is talking about!

 

 

Of course we’re starting to try to work some time back in to go to the park!  Thankfully this weekend, Daddy was around to hang out too!  We’ve learned, as Annabelle Grace is getting older, that her personality seems to be pretty mild, shy, and a little reserved around other kids, and even adults- it takes her a good 20-30 minutes to “figure someone out,” and that’s when she finally opens up and may give a smile away! We don’t push much in this area, but we do encourage interaction.  With kids, she isn’t a fan of very “rambunctious” or I guess more “animated, big movement” kids.  She actually backs away and acts a little scared!  she does fine, and just remains her shy self with less animated kids.  This is funny because with adults, she prefers someone to be more animated and playful- people like that tend to get the smiles out of her a lot more quickly!

 

As for both her and Eloise- I was released last week to do a little more walking and can pick Annabelle Grace up a little throughout the day, so we’ve also been trying to get outside each day for about a one mile walk in the double stroller!  It has done all of us so much good, just getting to do that!

This month was also Daddy’s 31st birthday, so Annabelle Grace got to help me make a cake for his birthday!  She actually did help pour ingredients, mix, and decorate (which is why it looks a little interesting!) and of course she ate probably her weight in buttercream icing while we made the cake!

 

We also had dinner out to the Patio and Annabelle Grace was sure to help Daddy to “cheers” as well as wear his sombrero!!

 

A few days before Eloise was born, Annabelle was 19 months and 1 day old, and I was 40+5 weeks pregnant, the three of us took one last family trip to the zoo as the three of us!  It was a perfect last family of three day, and we pretty much celebrated Annabelle Grace becoming a big sister all day!  She got to eat beside monkeys, ride a camel, and feed the giraffes!

 

 

 

We’ve tried to make sure we’ve had plenty of one-on-one time with Annabelle Grace both before and after Eloise’s birth.  We knew/know this was going to be a big adjustment, but so far she is doing a great job dealing with it.

 

 

Ohh- and we also saw the Easter Bunny, twice this year, and Annabelle Grace got to participate in her first Easter Egg hunt!  Will and I both forgot to bring an Easter basket for her to put her found eggs in… oops.

She’s hung out with MommyAnn (Will’s grandmother, her great grandmother) a lot!

With Eloise being born and my postpartum complications, this has also made things new and interesting for Annabelle Grace this month.  Annabelle Grace has always spent time with other people without us around, but had never stayed overnight, much less, overnight for multiple nights without us!

Will’s parents were so helpful and fantastic with everything from birth to postpartum complications!

Will’s dad, Ted jumped to the occasion to let us leave her with him during Eloise’s birth, and they were both GREAT together!  He took her everywhere, and kept to her schedule and they had a blast!  It made me so happy to see the two of them having so much fun together!  He even got her to the hospital multiple times in a day to visit with us and Eloise!

Will’s mom, Ann, made it back to town by Thursday evening and was also around for the remainder of the week to hang out with our sweet girl!  I don’t have a picture of it on my phone, but long story short- they ended up with the fireman and a firetruck outside of their house one morning, so Annabelle Grace got to sit in the truck and meet the firemen!  So cute, and such a special and funny memory they will have!

They kept Annabelle Grace through the weekend to give me and Will a couple of days at home to get Eloise situated, and I’m pretty sure Annabelle Grace loved it!  They have bunkbeds upstairs, and Annabelle sleeps on the bottom bunk with a rail.  It has a little built in book shelf and a light switch for a night light- she was pretty much in her version of the best bed ever while staying there!  They also took her out to eat and to church that weekend!

Unfortunately I have had a few postpartum complications, but thankfully Will’s mom was still in town, and his dad was still pretty flexible and able to help us out.  With all of the craziness, Annabelle Grace got some bonus nights at their house, and still did so well!  Eloise’s third week of life, we once again ended up back in Memphis for a few nights, and once again, Will’s dad was ready and willing to help us again!  The three of them have definitely bonded so much over the last few weeks!  It was becoming a joke that we would just be back every Wednesday!

In between all of this, we have had a few (mostly) normal days at home, and have all started trying to bond together.  Annabelle seems to really love Eloise and really enjoys looking at her, kissing her, and saying her name as best as she can-and it’s precious!

Oh- and Annabelle Grace is really starting to find her own style both with clothing and hair!

Oh, and potty training is on the horizon!  It’s actually BEEN on the horizon, but between a trip to Columbia, remodeling (so less bathrooms to use) and a new baby and complications, it hasn’t been an option quite yet!  So wish us luck!

Here’s to a great last month for our sweet girl, and looking forward to this next one!