Coming out of her shell

Anna woke up one morning about a week or so ago and decided that she was going to come out of her shell a bit more.  She has started waving and saying hi to everyone, doesn't even matter if you are in a car.  Sometimes it doesn't even matter if anyone is around she just wants to make sure that people feel acknowledge where ever they are.   The other day she had a one baby parade in our neighborhood.  She was on her bike riding down the road and doing a Miss America wave to everyone!

As an extension of that she also feels that is what is yours (regardless of who you are) is hers and of course what is hers is well, hers.  This is most especially true of food.  However, she won't just take food from people.  She works hard to try and get them to give it to her.  Sometimes this is done charmingly.  Such as smiling and asking with a gesture.  Other times it is down right begging.  Her social skills are pretty interesting.  Ever since she was very young she would laugh to get people's attention, very cute.

Anna is very affectionate and cuddly, well toward me.  She doesn't really cuddle with Drew unless she is super tired or sick or upset or scared.  However, she used her social skills the other evening as he was putting her to sleep.  We usually stay in her room until she is close to being asleep or has fallen asleep.  When I put her to bed she cuddles with me and falls asleep.  When Drew puts her to bed he is not allowed in her bed most of the time or really to even  touch her much.  So sometimes he ends up surfing the internet on his phone while she is falling asleep.  The other night he was pleasantly surprised when she came and cuddled up with him.  She lay her head on his chest and then with a coy little grin peaked over at his phone to see what was going.    Drew caught on right away and put her right back down, but you have to admire a girl for trying.

Along with all this has come a fierce independence and a load of opinions.  Anna needed a new pair of shoes last week.  So, we set out shopping.   When I realized that places charge 25-30 pounds for a pair of baby shoes!!!!  Well, I was hardly going to pay more for her shoes than I would for my own.  But, I learned something as we went shopping.  Anna has strong opinions.  There were some shoes she refused to try on.  If I insisted she would resist and refuse to step down on the ground.  Then there were other shoes that she LOVED, laughed when she saw them.  Once they were on she watched herself in the mirror and jumped and danced around.  Drew brought her a few pairs home from the thrift shop, those were promptly thrown and forgotten.  I ended up find a pair at a local grocery store (the big ones sell clothes too) for only 6 pounds.  She didn't love them, screamed when I put them on her, but, once she saw them in the mirror she was happy with them.  I didn't expect a 14 month old to have some many opinions!

Finally, Anna has  fiercely independent and I would add determined.  If she sees something she wants don't try to take it from her or you will suffer a complete melt down.  For example, we were doing some ironing and she got a hold of one of her hangers.    I didn't like her having it, but we watched her closely with it.   She even insisted on sleeping with it, we got it back in the middle of the night as she was still clutching it in her hands after she had fallen asleep, sheesh!  Another example is food, some people say never wake a sleeping baby.  I might add, never try to take food from a 1 year old.  On Saturday we were at an activity where they had ice cream on sticks.  I got one that I was so kindly going to share with Anna or in her eyes (see her feelings on possessions above)  she had ice cream that she was not going to share with me.  I was able to get about 3 bites with screaming, she ate the rest, after eating pizza!