Elijah and Anne seem to grow closer every day. When we first brought Anne home from the hospital, I had to bribe him to be in a photo with her. As you can see, they are now quite the pals. Elijah is a pretty reserved kid but I've noticed that he gets more silly and relaxed when interacting with more spirited children. Anne is quite the spirited little girl and she definitely brings out a fun part of Elijah.
Anne turns 18 months old this week; she is bursting with smiles and personality. She loves dogs and "woof woof" was one of her first words. She tends to be a wild one but is very gentle when petting the neighborhood pooches. Anne is quite active and will climb pretty much whatever she can. She ventures to the top of our park's "big slide" and zooms down without hesitation. She nearly walks down stairs on her own though (usually) agrees to wait for someone to hold her hand. A few weeks ago, she managed to climb and jump out of a baby swing, thankfully there were no injuries. One of her favorite places to play is on our wide window sills. She is generally independent but definitely enjoys being with her brother. Anne loves to eat, cheese (another first word) and fruit are particular favorites. When she is tired of eating something, she either flings it to the ground or rubs it into her hair. We have been working on this with only very modest success. The worst is when she rubs fish into her hair and then smells like the ocean (not in a good way). Thankfully she loves baths, though getting out of the tub is a different story. At this point, Anne is super outgoing. She loves greeting people with a "hi" and big smile. When out and about, strangers most frequently comment on her beautiful smile, blue eyes and curls. She is repeating words a lot more frequently and clearly these days. Her spoken vocabulary is limited but it is clear that she understands most everything in both English and Hebrew. I sometimes suspect that she can say what she wants but chooses instead to scream. This evening, Amiel brought her to the park. She unsuccessfully tried to swipe another child's ball and later found the same ball unattended. Apparently she picked it up and announced "my ball!" To my knowledge, this is first time she independently put two words together. Speaking of words, Anne loves her Daddy and says "Abba!" all the time. When we try to prompt her to say "Ima" or "Mommy," she yells "Abba" even louder. She finds this game immensely entertaining, often repeating "Abba" using the same volume and intonation as I am using to say "Ima." Other favorite things include nursery rhymes, snuggling with her well-loved pink blanket animals and playing with her wooden baby stroller. She particularly likes to climb inside of it and have Elijah push her around the house.
More about Elijah to come!!
