Barry the Snake

Teah has named her first stuffed animal! I've been trying to get her to name things for awhile now, but she never has come up with anything when I asked. Well, yesterday she found a beanie baby snake in the basement that I've had for awhile. She came up to me and said, "Mama, this is Barry the snake. He's my best friend". :) How she came up with Barry I have no idea!

Does this make my butt look big?

The mascot for Kalamazoo College is a hornet and I was wearing a K shirt the other day with a hornet on it. Teah pointed at it and said that it was a bee. I explained to her it was a hornet and trying to figure out a way for her to know the difference, I told her that the hornet has a big butt (well, the one in this picture did). In hindsight, that may have been a bad idea. I told her that one time and now everytime I wear this shirt she points at it and says, "Mommy, the hornet has a big butt". Well today I wasn't even wearing the shirt and she commented that hornets have big butts. Then she said, "I have a little butt". Just for fun I asked her, "What does mommy have?". Of course she said, "a big butt" :) Now I'm just waiting for the day that she tells someone that they have a big butt in the grocery store! :O

Teah's Obsession

Teah is totally obsessed with Dora the Explorer. Yesterday at bedtime she climbed up onto her bed at the foot of her bed onto her ladybug sheets. She looked at me and said, "Mama, help me to jump over the ladybugs. Say Salte, say salte!". (Salte is Spanish for jump, although perhaps I'm not spelling it correctly). When I said "Salte" she hopped up onto her pillow. Then she said, "Great jumping!". I think she thinks that she IS Dora :)

Independence

Lately Teah is really acting like a 3 year old. There's a park that we walk to quite often and the play structure has one small slide and a set of three bigger slides. I have tried to get Teah to slide down the big slide for as long as we've been going to this park. I've tried telling her that I'd slide down next to her. I tried going down first to show her it was OK. I tried putting her stuffed animals down first hoping that she followed. I tried talking her into it by telling her what a big girl she was. I tried standing at the bottom and telling her that I'd catch her. Nothing ever worked. She would tell me that those slides were for big kids and that the little slide was just her slide. I had given up trying to get her to go down, but when we'd go to the park I would comment something like, "You're such a big girl now Teah I bet you could go down the big slide". Still it was only the little slide for her.

Well, the other day we were at the park and she was playing by the splash pad - a little distance from the slides. She went back over to the playground and I was fussing with Carter a bit before following her. I could still see her, but she was a little ways away. I was about to head over in that direction and when I looked over there Teah was going down the big slide! She really has to do things her own way and in her own time. She's definitely a big kid now!

Watch Teah go down the big slide:

Grown-up Questions

Well, Lindsey (a close friend) had her second baby a few days ago. Her son (Austin) and Teah play together a lot. Today I told Teah that Lindsey had a baby and Austin was a big brother. Teah responded with, "Mama, is it a boy baby or a girl baby?". I was taken aback by what a relevant question that was. I told her it was a girl baby. Then she said, "Did they give the baby a name?". Again the relevance astounds me! Her name is Addison. I think Teah asked more relevant questions when I told her the news than Robert did! :)

Baby Weight

Today Teah was sitting on my lap facing me and we were just chilling and watching some TV. She likes to poke my tummy for some reason and usually she comments that there isn't a baby in there anymore. Today, she poked my tummy and said, "mommy, you feel bouncy"! LOL I guess it's time to lose that baby weight :)

A Clean Potato

Teah got a new Detroit Tigers potato head from her Nana and she was loving playing with it. Yesterday afternoon it disappeared. She kept asking me for her potato head and I looked around a little but couldn't find it. I just figured it had gotten kicked under something or put somewhere that I hadn't looked yet. Well, this morning while emptying the dishwasher I found her potato head - nice and clean on the top rack. I guess she decided to put him in there at some point yesterday. I just never know what to expect!

She's an artist

Yesterday Teah was napping and it was time to feed Carter. I took the gate off of her room in case she were to wake up she'd be able to come and find us in Carter's room. Of course, I forgot to close the door to my bedroom, which isn't exactly Teah-proofed. So, she woke up and found us and then of course decided to play in my room. I could hear her and knew what she was playing with for awhile, but then she got quiet - too quiet. Carter was nursing well, which is rare lately, so I hated to make him stop to go check on her. I tried talking to her and getting her to come into Carter's room. She answered me, but I still didn't know what she was up to. Then she said, "Mommy, mommy, wipe me off". UH OH So, I went into my room and there she was on our bed covered from elbow to hand in hand lotion. She had decided to pump it out of the bottle that was sitting on our dresser and spread it all over our wall.

What a masterpiece!

Hamstery

Well, Teah has really gotten into watching Dora the Explorer. We have a lot of episodes saved on our DVR and when she wants to watch one I sometimes go through the episodes to see which one she wants to watch. Lately she has been coming up with some great reasons for not wanting to watch them! She comes up with her own names for the episodes, so I'll go through and ask her, for example, "Teah, do you want to watch Big Noise Dora?" and she'll say, "No, that one is too noisy". Ok, that made sense. Then I say, "How about Truck Dora?" and she says, "No, that one is too trucky". OK, that's a new adjective. But my favorite was - "Teah, do you want to watch Hamster Dora". "No Mom, that one is too hamstery". LOL

Not Good For Us

Well, life with two kids is very hectic and cleaning is at the bottom of the list. So, when it was time for lunch Teah wanted to sit in her high chair, but I of course had not cleaned it off since breakfast, so it was dirty. Not a big deal - that had happened before. I told Teah to wait a minute because her tray was dirty and we had to clean it. She said, "Mommy, I just want to eat with a dirty tray". I responded and told her that eating with a dirty tray wasn't good for us so we needed to clean it. She said, "Yes Mommy, eating with a dirty tray is good for us". She thinks she knows everything already at 2 1/2!

Daddy's Eyes

Well, the other day I was talking about how Carter had his Daddy's ears. Not to leave out Teah, I turned to her and told her that she had Daddy's eyes. She looked at me and said, "No, Mommy, I have my eyes". She's a smart one.

The Terrible Twos

Well, the terrible twos are in full force for Teah. The other day she was mad about going into her room for her nap. I tried to get her to calm down and finally just decided to leave for a few minutes. I always give her a kiss and say I love her when I walk out. So, I gave her a kiss and said "I love you" through her protests of nap time. I was about to walk out and Teah looked at me and said "I DON'T love you". Oh - the terrible twos. I figure if I get more I love you's than the I don't love yous I'm ahead of the game :)

The Letters and Numbers Game

Teah has this great new game that she loves to play on the computer and she calls it the "letters and numbers game". To you and I it's known as Microsoft Word! :) She loves to watch the letters appear and disappear (after learning the backspace key). Who needs to buy fancy games for your two year old?

Milestones

Well, for the record today was the first day that I dropped Teah off at a child care center. I am taking a pre-natal water aerobics class 3 days a week and have so far been able to leave her with Robert or my mother. Well, today was the first day that no one was available to watch her. The fitness center has a childcare center, so for $5 I paid for her to play for two hours. I had a lot of nervous energy in my class and kept waiting for them to call me over the PA system, but I made it through my hour of class. When I picked her up she had her blanket and pacifier, so she must've gotten upset at some point, but she was doing a great job. On the way home in the car she said, "Mommy, I had a good time playing with the other kids." I'm so proud of my big girl :) *tear*

Getting Bigger...

Of course everyday Teah gets bigger and says things that make me realize it. Just this morning she woke me up and I went to let her out of her room. I was cold, so I put my robe on. Teah saw this and said, "Mommy has her robe on". "Yep", I said, "I am a little cold". Teah turns to me and says, "I'm a little cold too. I need my robe" (dragging out the word my). So she put on her little blue robe too :)

2 year olds will believe anything

A few weeks ago Teah and I were visiting with her cousins, Sarah and Emily, who are 2 and 4 years old. I am looking really pregnant by this point, so I told Sarah, the two year old, that there was a baby in my tummy. She listened for a few seconds and then went about playing. An hour later when I asked her what was in my tummy, she said, "a baby". What you tell her becomes reality. Then I told Emily, the 4 year old, that there was a baby in my tummy. She looked at me for 10 seconds or so and then said, "No". I repeated, "Yep, there's a baby in there". A longer pause this time and then she said "No, I don't think there's a baby in there." She just wasn't going to believe me! At this point I realized the upside of a two year old - they'll believe most anything you tell them!

Discoveries

Having a two year old is getting to be a lot of fun. It's amazing the discoveries they make along the way. Yesterday I went to get Teah out of the van. When I opened the door, she holds her finger up and says, "Mommy, what's that?". She had a booger sitting on her finger! lol I told her that was a booger and she said, "I got it from my nose". :) Today's valuable lesson learned - boogers go in Kleenexes.

Baby Names

Teah, Robert, and I were sitting at the table. Teah was eating a snack and I was looking through the baby names books and suggesting things to Robert. I saw the name "Kermit" in the book and said to Teah, "Should your baby brother's name be Kermit". She said, "No mommy. Kermit is a frog". :) I kept suggesting and she was having fun saying No. Then she said, "How about Henry", in a much more mumbled 2 year old way of course. She kept saying it until I said, "what about Henry". She said, "No, Henry's in the Thomas book". Too funny.

Hide and Seek

Last week after Robert got home from work we decided to play a game of hide and seek with Teah, which she'd never done before. So, we taught her to stand in the corner and hide her face while she counted to ten (mommy had to supervise to stop her from peeking :). While she counted Daddy would hide on only our main level. She thought this was the funnest game ever. At first Robert would just hide behind a wall. Then he started getting more creative. It's really hilarious where you can hide with a two year old. Robert decided one time to get behind our couch cushions, pushing them out to the middle of the couch so he could fit behind them. I immediately knew where he was when I turned around and saw the couch and started laughing. Teah couldn't find him for the life of her. I had to tell her that maybe Daddy was on the couch. She got this look on her face like, oh, that's an idea. Then she found him. Then he decided to just take a blanket and crouch down in the dining room with the blanket over him - in plain view. Teah walked by him like 3 times without even noticing this random blanket! Robert started giggling and she decided to look under the blanket. It was really fun times!

A Conversation

Teah and Mommy looking at pictures:
Mommy says: "Teah, look at this picture. Who's that?"
Teah says: "Mommy and Teah"
Mommy says: "What's Teah doing?"
Teah says: "Holding mommy's tummy"
Mommy says: "What's in mommy's tummy?"
Teah says: "A baby!"
Mommy says: "That's right. Teah's baby brother"
Teah says, while patting mommy's tummy:

"Get big baby. Get big"

Preparing for Baby.

Well, we've been preparing more and more for the new baby and Teah says some pretty hilarious things.

Lately I've been trying to help Teah to understand nursing, since she has numerous books that talk about bottles of milk and her baby dolls drink from their bottles of milk. So, I told her that mommies make milk and they don't need bottles to feed babies. That day when I got the milk out of the fridge, Teah said, "Mommy make milk". I told her that mommy didn't make that milk and that milk came from a cow. Teah said, "like Blue farmer". She was referring to an episode of Blue's Room where they milk a cow. She was right - it was exactly like that! Amazing the things they understand.

Teah has a great book called "I'm a Big Sister" that she loves to read. After we read it, I told her that Teah was going to be a big sister when the baby comes. Teah said, "Want baby to come". I told her that we had to wait for the baby to get bigger in mommy's tummy. So, she said, "Baby get big, baby get big, baby get big", as if she was willing the baby to get bigger :)

Little Miss Independent

Boy is Teah getting big! Yesterday we had a great time going out to dinner and then to the bookstore as a family. We try to give Teah a lot of advance notice before leaving and something exciting to try to get to, but sometimes she's not so good when leaving a fun place. Anyway, we were able to get her to walk out of the bookstore last night, but when she got just outside the door she decided to stop and didn't want to go. Well, it was freezing cold and we were getting in people's way, so Robert scooped her up and started walking her to the car. She started screaming "No! Walk! No! Teah wants to walk!". Of course, this screaming continued for the 5 minute car ride home - "Get out of car. Walk Outside! Get out of car! ". We could get her to calm down for two seconds by telling her that she could walk when we got home, but it wouldn't last long. Well, when we got home and we told her she could walk she stopped crying, but was still doing the sniffle thing that kids do after they've cried for awhile. We got out of the car and she said "Mommy, go inside". So, I went inside and left her with Robert. Then she said, "Daddy, go inside". Of course we're not going to leave her alone, but Robert walked inside the gate to our backyard and shut the door, still being able to watch her through the door as she stood on the sidewalk. She just stood there for 2 or 3 minutes, sniffling and looking around, then she decided she was ready to come in. I guess she needed to assert her independence! :)

Our Little Chatterbox

As I'm writing this Teah is playing with her Little People House. She put the people into the bed and said "Goodnight Everybody. I love you." She's the cutest. I was blogging today to jot down a few other funny things she's said this week.

A few days ago I gave Teah a spoon for her applesauce. Just an ordinary plastic kids spoon that she eats with all the time. She held onto it with both hands, looked at it closely, and said "Oh, that's a nice spoon". :)

Lately, I've been saying to Teah, "Guess What. Mommy loves you". The other day Teah came up to me and said "Guess What". She waited for me to say what and then she said, "Mommy Loves Teah!" lol

Kids say the Darndest things!

Well, I've fallen out of blogging and Teah has gotten so big! She talks up a storm now and everyday she says something hilarious - most of which I forget. So, I think it's time to start up once again and remember all of the funny things that come out of her mouth. Today Teah brought me a book to read - it's called something like "My First Baby Words Book". It has a bunch of pictures and labels and the first few pages have pictures of a baby in a diaper labeling hands, feet, eyes, mouth, etc. Teah brought the book to me and said "Mommy, read naked baby book". :) Kids says the darndest things!