We went this week for Anna's 15 month checkup. She's actually 16 1/2 months old; somehow we got off track. But we're scheduled now to go back in 6 weeks for her 18 month checkup so we'll be accurate then. Overall, she is doing great. He weight is just under 22 lbs, which puts her in the 20-25%. Her height is 33 inches, which puts her in the 90%. Our tall skinny girl! I have a feeling that one day she will be much taller than her mommy. She must have inherited those tall Hatten genes. (Jay's grandfather was about 6'6".)
The only strange measurement is her head circumference. In her last visits it has increased from the 40% then to 65% and now to 85-90%. We don't know if she is just genetically supposed to have a big head or if there is something else going on. She isn't showing any signs of anything that would be concerning with her head size--no developmental delays, seizures, vomiting, eye problems, etc. So we're going to measure her head again in 6 weeks and see if anything has changed.
She continues to be so much fun for our family. Catherine and Will are her favorite friends. She has lots of fun with them every day. As much as they love her, I think at times they get annoyed by her. She constantly wants something of theirs--Will's shoes, Catherine's baby, etc--and she pulls their hair, ears, and nose while we ride in the car. But they tolerate her antics well and take turns playing with her when she is being difficult (which really is usually when we're in the car).
She also pays attention really well and imitates whatever they're doing. One day Jay was practicing shaking hands with Catherine and Will before we went to Milwaukee. He practiced with each of them a couple of times. Then he started to walk away, but Anna went over to him and held out her hand just like they had. Another time, they were standing up next to me to see how tall they were. When they stepped away, she came right over and did the exact same thing.
She discovered Catherine's old bike helmet in the garage and thinks she's a really big kid now. She wears it around frequently. It may not be a bad idea for her to wear it since she has also figured out how to climb on kitchen chairs, the couch, and anything else that looks interesting.
She is so sweet. I love this stage--still sometimes babyish but also learning so many new things. She's learning about one new word a week right now. Her current vocabulary includes "brother", "baby"--which she says as Bay-BEE, "up", "more", and we're working on "please." She also understands communication very well. I can ask her to go upstairs and get her shoes and she'll go get them and bring them down. Or if I say I'm going to take Eli out to potty, she goes to get his leash.
She also is pretty strong willed. We've had a couple of "i'm not giving in or going to obey" confrontations. Thankfully Jay and I didn't give in either and after many tears on her part she eventually cooperated. All over minor things--like handing us the camera case she put on the floor or returning diapers to the diaper bag she got out. I predict more of those confrontations to come. We better prepare ourselves.
It's a blurry picture--but this captures how she's always moving around and always has her green blanket with her (and how I'd like a new camera that focuses better :)
We love you Anna! I can't believe you're growing up so fast!
She discovered Catherine's old bike helmet in the garage and thinks she's a really big kid now. She wears it around frequently. It may not be a bad idea for her to wear it since she has also figured out how to climb on kitchen chairs, the couch, and anything else that looks interesting.
She is so sweet. I love this stage--still sometimes babyish but also learning so many new things. She's learning about one new word a week right now. Her current vocabulary includes "brother", "baby"--which she says as Bay-BEE, "up", "more", and we're working on "please." She also understands communication very well. I can ask her to go upstairs and get her shoes and she'll go get them and bring them down. Or if I say I'm going to take Eli out to potty, she goes to get his leash. 
She also is pretty strong willed. We've had a couple of "i'm not giving in or going to obey" confrontations. Thankfully Jay and I didn't give in either and after many tears on her part she eventually cooperated. All over minor things--like handing us the camera case she put on the floor or returning diapers to the diaper bag she got out. I predict more of those confrontations to come. We better prepare ourselves.
We love you Anna! I can't believe you're growing up so fast!
One of the annual highlights is the race on Sunday morning. Will was looking pretty handsome in his race gear. Definitely the cutest racer I've ever seen.
Catherine and Will did the one mile walk with PopPop, Mimi and Anna did the 5k, and I ran the 10k. (Jay had to head to a meeting and couldn't race this year.) Catherine was very excited that she didn't fall down and get a boo-boo this year.
On Sunday night, Northwestern rents out the entire Milwaukee zoo and has a big Garden Party. This year our kids especially loved the carousel. Will pretended like he was a cowboy on his horse and named it Rob and kept petting it and talking to it.
This was Anna's first carousel ride and she loved it. When we got down at the end, she climbed back up and wanted to go again.
On Monday and Tuesday mornings we went to a couple of museums. The kids always have so much fun. One funny story: we do a lot of walking in Milwaukee. Pretty much everything is within 1/2 mile to a mile so we definitely get our exercise. After we walked to the museum on Monday morning, Will started complaining about how much his foot hurt. I took off his shoe and realized he had a huge blister on the back of his foot. I had been thinking that he probably needed bigger shoes soon but had put it off. So he walked around the entire museum with one shoe on and I carried him piggy-back down the street when we left. We walked to the nearby mall to buy him some bigger shoes. The shoes he had on were a size 7. They measured his feet and said he needed an 8.5! No wonder his feet hurt!
We enjoy having Mimi and PopPop with us in Milwaukee too. Jay's dad also works for Northwestern so it's a lot of fun that we get to go to the meetings and dinners and events together. They were both very, very gracious to us and watched the kids a lot this year so that I could go with Jay to some meetings and dinners.
We love our annual trip to Milwaukee. Sounds crazy, I know. But Northwestern is fabulous. We love the work God has given Jay to do and the company he works for is the best there is. I'm glad our whole family gets to be a part of it!
