Happy Birthday to our sweet Anna Catherine! I can’t believe it’s been two years since she entered the world. We did a low-key celebration this year since we were just back from our trip to the cabin. Anna was thrilled to have a yummy dinner, cupcakes, and presents! She is starting to understand what this birthday thing is all about and it was so cute to watch her enjoy the celebration.
Official two year stats:
Weight: 28 pounds, 4 ounces (71st percentile)
Height: 34.5 inches (69th percentile)
Head circumference: 50.8 cm/20 inches (100th+ percentile)
Her pediatrician said she is doing great! The only milestone she’s a bit behind on is expressive speech. We had her evaluated at about 18 months and she was delayed, but not enough to qualify for speech therapy. Her doctor said to go ahead and have her evaluated again to see if she qualifies now, but that there’s not a correlation between expressive delay and long-term issues, so she wasn’t too concerned. Thankfully Anna’s receptive speech is great so we know she understands what’s going on! We also did a hearing test to rule out that as a contributor to the speech delay, and she passed with flying colors.
At two years old, Anna loves to play with her baby dolls and stuffed animals–she puts diapers on them, “sings” to them and tucks them in bed, gives them rides in the doll stroller, and brings one along any time we go somewhere in the car. She loves shoes, jewelry, and has opinions about her clothes–the teenage years will certainly be interesting! Despite not saying a ton of words, she has no problem getting her point across and letting her opinions be known. She can say “blue” and “red” and seems to recognize other colors as well. Any time she sees something with writing or letters she says “E, O, E, O.” She says the numbers 8, 9, and 10. Anna loves to eat and enjoys a wide range of foods. Particular favorites are most any fruit, homemade meatloaf, and avocado. She naps maybe once or twice a week, otherwise spends her “rest” time walking/jumping in her crib, talking, and playing. She sleeps 11-12 hours at night. She’s learning the art of the stalling technique, asking for a drink or signing “diaper change” when it’s time for lights out. She doesn’t take kindly to harassment from her brother, she will screech loudly or shove him away if she doesn’t like what he’s doing. And she’s figured out how to push his buttons. He’ll say, “Hi Anna” and she’ll grin and say “Bye!” He gets increasingly upset, saying “Say hi! Make her say hi!” as she keeps repeating “Bye.” But she adores him no matter what and wants to try whatever he is doing. It’s so cute watching them talk to each other, and Max is quick to help when she needs assistance.
Here are some pictures from Thursday. Happy Birthday, sweet Anna Boo!
Enjoying meatloaf for dinner. We also had pizza since that’s Max’s favorite thing to have for a birthday. 
Cupcake time! She managed to blow out both candles by herself. The frosting was her favorite part.
The other birthday guests:
Opening presents. Max helped. She wanted to try everything right away–the necklace, bracelet, and tutu/wings went on, doll was opened, and toys played with, without delay.
She kept trying to look behind her to see the wings, so cute:
Happy girl!
