We went to check out the paint job on our new house yesterday, and Teagan had loads of fun playing on the front lawn. Here's a photo of her and Magnus playing around:


We also met some neighbours and they seem REALLY nice. They even invited us in to peek at the renos they did on their place (hardwood floor, openning up the kitchen) since they have basically the same floorplan as our place. They have 2 kids, and pets, and let us know about some other kids on the street, including another kid Teagan's age! I'm really excited about moving there, and I love that we're getting to know neighbours already!

(*note* we did NOT choose the colour they painted the house, the sellers painted it before we put our offer in, we would not have chosen that colour!)
- posted by Wendy @ 9:43:00 a.m.

 
Today's new word: Tree

Teagan did something amusing at daycare. Her primary caregiver was feeding the young baby at the centre, in the rocker, from a bottle. Teagan came over to her and signed "milk", and she replied "Yes, I'm giving David some milk". I guess Teagan thought she was nursing David, because when she was being held in the rocker to be calmed for her nap she signed "milk" and tried to open up the caregiver's shirt!
- posted by Wendy @ 4:11:00 p.m.

 
I thought of some more of Teagan's words this morning, and thought I would jot them down here for record's sake.
"Boop" or "book" with the k sound dropped for her books
"boo!"
"sah" for cat
"wassah" for what's that?
"wawa" for water (only a couple times, usually she says "ahhhh!" to mean water)
"shoos/soos" for shoes
"ba" for bath
"bu-bye"
"yeah"
"no-no-no"
"boohbah" (one of her favorite tv shows)
"tuck" for stuck
"hmmmm" said with a finger to her mouth in her 'thinking pose'

She does several animal sounds now too: dog, cow, rooster, owl, elephant.

Wow, now that I type it all out, I'm impressed! YAY Teagan!
- posted by Wendy @ 11:07:00 a.m.

 
I am blown away every day by how our baby is becoming a little person. She is becoming more indipendant, creative, determined and clever each day. Her vocabulary is growing quickly, she surprises me with words seemingly out of the blue. We walked into the living room the other morning and she says: "dark"! Each morning I comment that it's dark, then flip on the lights, but still I was surprised to hear it come out of her mouth. she's also refining words, her former "Saaaw" has become a clear "Sock". She's adopted "Bup" to mean up (since we usually say "up-up-up" or something I can see where that came from) and "siide" to mean outside, "appasappa" for applesauce, and "da-keh" for daycare. She is getting much easier to communicate with, we ask her questions and she nods or shakes her head to answer.

She's very clever, the other day Magnus was changing her diaper and she was getting frustrated with the process and wanted free. She started the hand motions for 'itsy-bitsy spider' and said 'tika-tika-tika" (which is what she says for that song *shrug*) so Magnus started doing it for her. The second his hands left her, she rolled away! She knew he'd do the hand signals and then she could get free - WOW!

I'm happy she still likes to cuddle, and comes to us for hugs and comfort, or I'd be a lot more sad about watching her grow up so fast.
- posted by Wendy @ 9:27:00 p.m.

 
Teagan's feeling a bit better, she's less stuffy and sleeping better. She's still quite testy, not sure if that is due to sickness or personality. She's a very determined little girl, which is a good thing in many ways, but brings challenges also. She's getting frustrated when she doesn't get her way, she isn't liking us limiting or correcting her at all. Screaming fits, arched back, hitting and scratching have been the reactions I've gotten, depending on the situation. Breakfast is being especially difficult. She insists on feeding herself, but isn't good at it so she gets frustrated. Food ends up everywhere except in her mouth, she plays and throws food, we get mad and take it away, so she gets angry. It's hard to know what to do, we want her to eat, we want to encourage her indipendance especially when she's asking for it, but she needs to eat and we are on a time limit in the mornings. Sometimes we end up giving her a waffle or soemthing in the carseat on the way to daycare, but that could be reinforcing the behavior.....act out at breakfast = get something better to eat later! We might test this out by giving her the waffle right away in her high chair, see how her actions are with that.
- posted by Wendy @ 10:37:00 a.m.