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!

Eat Cake!

Yesterday morning I decided to let Teah eat breakfast while just sitting at the table instead of in her high chair. There were some miscellaneous groceries and stuff on the table, but nothing within her reach. I decided to do the dishes in the kitchen while she ate her apple - don't ask why but she decided she wanted an apple for breakfast that morning. As I'm doing dishes I hear her say "Eat cake. Eat cake". I walk out into the dining room to see that she had found a box of chocolate truffles that I had left sitting on the other side of the table. They had been closed, but I guess she found her way into them and decided she would help herself to some "cake" for breakfast :)

Telling Stories

Teah has started to talk so much that she is telling me stories! Recently she has been watching an episode of the Teletubbies that has a short video of a family walking down to watch the train pass by. There's a little boy who gets really excited to see the train and he jumps up and down. I've been telling Teah that the baby is happy because the choo choo is coming. Randomly she started telling me - "mama, bebe oppy choo choo come jump". Well, this past weekend Jenn was visiting and we dropped her off at the train station on Sunday on her way out. Instead of just dropping her off we all got out of the car to wait for the train to come so that Teah could see the train. I told her the choo choo was going to come and that Jenn was going to get in and say bye bye. This afternoon when she woke up from her nap she said all of the following:

"Mama, bebe jump oppy choo choo come. Daddy choo choo come. Jenn on choo choo go."

She was very excited to tell me all of this :) I think we might be in trouble when she starts to really be able to talk - we will probably never get her to stop!

I am THAT Mom!

Ok, I hate to admit it but lately I've just been walking out of the house without even a glance in a mirror. Not that I've ever been a big vanity person, but I like to catch the occasional flyaway hair. Anyway, today as I was picking up the house and playing with Teah my hair kept falling in my face and annoying me. The only hair thing I could find which didn't require me to go up or down stairs was one of Teah's hair things. Now this wasn't just a plain old rubber band. It was one of the thick fabric-coated rubber bands with a bow tied on. I decided to use it to pull up just the very top front of my hair so it stuck straight up in a little pony-tail - just to keep it out of my face for a few minutes. Hours later when I decided to take Teah out for a walk to the park I just walked out the door and had a great time. Thirty mintues after we'd been home I realized that my hair had been up in Teah's hair thing for the whole walk! :) DOH

Trick or Treat

This year was the first year that Teah actually went Trick or Treating and she had a blast! Her costume was a Pooh bear dressed as a bee costume and she loved it. If she would see if around the house she would say "Pooh bee on" and wear it around for a few minutes. It is basically like a snowsuit, so that was good since it was a bit chilly the night of Halloween. Our trick or treating hours were really early - 3 to 6pm - so Daddy didn't make it home in time for the outing, but Teah and mommy went out for about an hour walking around the neighborhood. Surprisingly, Teah carried her purple pumpkin basket the whole time and although she didn't know what candy was, after the first few houses she was really excited to go get more in her basket. "Mo Ca-ny Baket" she would say. When we would walk up to a house and the person would open the door I would ask Teah to say Trick or treat and she would say "Teat". She didn't want people to put the candy in her basket - she wanted to take it from their hands and put it in her basket herself. One house had taken a few pieces of candy and a sucker and tied them up into one of those plastic Halloween baggies. When the guy tried to hand that to Teah she handed it back! She didn't want it in her basket - lol. I had to take it and put it in my pocket. Once she had her candy I would ask her to say thank you and she would say "ank you". She would always give a good "buy bye" on our way out. It was soooooo super cute. We finished our loop after about an hour and she was definitely done. Daddy got home after dinner and we did go to one more house with him, which was nice.

Someone had given us some individually wrapped sugar cookies in the shape of pumpkins and Teah immediately wanted to eat those when we got home - she may not know what candy was just yet, but she definitely knew cookie. I tried to get her to eat a few other pieces of candy that night - a tootsie roll and a twizzler, but she would just touch them to her tongue and hand them back to me. I don't know what I was thinking that night because I didn't hide her candy basket before I went to bed. When she woke up in the morning she saw the basket on the table and said "candy candy". As any good mother would do, I made her eat breakfast before giving her the basket. Once again she tried out a few candies without eating anything, which was fine by me. Then she wanted the package of mini m&ms and chowed them down. Now once again I must've been going crazy because I STILL didn't hide her candy! So an hour later she noticed it again and said "candy candy". Since she hadn't been big on eating it, I figure I could just give her the bucket and let her play with it - she likes just taking the pieces out and putting them back in. A few minutes after giving her the bucket she had found the one bag of mini m&ms left. She brought them to me and said "eat".

Sentence Explosion

This week out of nowhere it seems that Teah understands the concept of the sentence. Not just putting words together, but subject and verb w/ connectors (I'm sure that's not an appropriate English term :). She has said:

Here I come
I need a hat
Daddy I'm going to throw Elmo
Mommy I have a book

Of course probably only Robert and I could decipher the sentences to actually be the things above, but she definitely is saying them! She says so many new words everyday that I can't even keep track anymore.

One added off subject thought: Teah counted to ten yesterday totally out of the blue. She has repeated a few of the numbers after I've said them before, but never even attempted to count. Usually when I'd ask her to count she'd say "A B" - not really understanding the difference between the alphabet and counting I guess. Well, yesterday at dinnertime she had a bowl of peach pieces. She had dumped them all out and she put one back in the bowl - her usual dump then put them all back before I eat them. Well, she put the second one in and said "two peach". I was shocked. She put another one in and I asked how many she had - she said "thee". She continued to answer me when I'd ask how many she had all the way up to ten! Robert and I were just looking at her in amazement like "where did you learn that and since when can you count?"!

Guess what Teah did?!

She went pee on the potty!

I was upstairs when I heard her wake up from her nap. I decided to go in and get her and I noticed that her diaper wasn't warm, so she probably hadn't peed yet. I sat her on the potty -mind you, I've done this numerous times before with no results - so I wasn't really expecting anything. I told her to go pee and we read a book. Then there was pee in the potty - I couldn't believe it! I read another book and she kept pointing down to the potty and saying "pee". Of course I praised her like it was the best thing she had ever done.

All evening I would ask her what she did in the potty today and she would say, "pee. yea" and clap her hands :) Well, I thought this was a one-time fluke. At bathtime I had to go to the bathroom myself and I had to take her diaper off to put her in the tub, so I figured we'd set on our potties together. She pointed at the potty as if she expected her pee to still be in there. I told her it was all gone and she had to make more pee. Well, she sat down and peed again! Pretty cool.

How did that happen?

So, we still have the exersaucer Teah used as a baby sitting downstairs in our basement play area. Every once in awhile Teah will want to sit in it and play for like 2 minutes. It's funny because she's way too big for it, so she just looks silly. Well, yesterday we were playing in the basement and I went upstairs to take dinner out of the oven to cool. I was upstairs for 3 minutes at the most. When I came back down Teah had tried to climb into her exersaucer all by herself. Well, she put one leg into a hole, but it was the wrong hole, so there wasn't a hole on the other side for her other leg. There she was with one leg in a hole and the other leg sticking up out of the exersaucer. :) Man is she fast!

Teah Translations

OK, so Teah may be "talking", but it takes some translation to understand what she's saying...

Kee Kee = Cookie
Die = Done
I Die = All Done
Pee = Pee or Please (must use context)
Tay = Stay (Referring to dog)
Emo = Elmo
Boo or Aboo = Blue (From Blue's Clues)
Ah coo = A Clue
Moo = Moon
Joomp or Joompy= Jump
Ow = She's been hurt or something has fallen to the ground
Nyum Nyum = Food and Drink both
Choo Choo = Train
Choo = Shoe

She'll refer to animals by sounds instead of names -
Mmmmm = Cow
Roof Roof = Dog
Neigh = Horse
Meow = cat
Baa = Sheep
Ssssss = Snake
peep peep = Baby Chick
Really high-pitched squeal = tweet tweet for a bird :)
Oooo Eeee Aaaa = Monkey
Quack Quack = Duck

Pronounces the following words correctly -
Eye Go No (Usually No No No No No very loudly :)
Sit Knee
Up Head
Eat Poop
Off Drop
On Egg
Bee Baby

Sweet Dreams

Teah has really been into pretending with her stuffed animals and figures lately. The only way I could get her to eat her brocolli the other day was to give some to her princess figure. She also has started going down the slide by herself again because one day we brought Dale to the park and let him go own the slide. Today she was playing with her weebles in their little treehouse, which has a bed for them to sleep. She brought the weeble over to me and wanted me to give him a kiss before she put him in his bed :)

Talkin' Teah

Three days ago Teah decided to say three new words all in one day - hat, head, and cheese. And she didn't just say them once, she said them over and over again. And she actually ate cheese for the first time, although I've tried to give it to her before. Everytime she wanted more she would say "chee", sometimes putting the "s" on the end. All day long she would say "mama head" and point to her head or "Dada head". She's very intrigued lately that we all have the same body parts :)

That same day Teah played with Scrappy for the first time by herself. In the past I would take the ball from Scrappy and give it to Teah. When I told her to throw it for the dog she would just throw it right at his face. The other day she actually would grab the ball from the dog herself, holding on to his collar to keep him there :) Then when we told her to throw it the other way, she actually did. We sat and watched Teah and Scrappy actually play a game of squeaky ball all by themselves.

Teah's so into talking now that she'll repeat commands that I give to Scrappy as well. Whenever I tell him to sit, stay, or drop she'll repeat the words. Especially when I tell him No :)

More Blue

After I put Teah down to bed tonight I hear "Ma Ma. Ma Ma", so I went up after a few minutes when she wasn't falling asleep. She saw me and said "AhBlue" :). I brought up her Blue toy and she went to sleep. Perhaps she's developing her first real security object.

Ah Blue

Teah has become quite obsessed with a stuffed Blue (from Blue's Clues) toy that she has. She walks around saying "AhBlue" whenever she wants it. I don't know if she's trying to say "my blue" or what. Today we went to the park and when we got out of the car she was saying "Ah blue" (she always wants to bring it in the car with us). So, I let her bring Blue with her to the park. She was hilarious. She caught Blue at the bottom of the slide, drug the toy through the tunnels, and pushed her on the swing. Now for months Teah has not wanted to go down a slide by herself - she might if I hold her hand or go down with her, but definitely not by herself. Today she brought Blue up with her, put the toy down the slide and then followed her down without hesitation all by herself :) It was only then that I realized the magic of Blue and pretending. For lunch Blue took a bite of peas before every bite that Teah took and she gobbled them down :)

A Little Experiment

Two days ago I decided to have a little experiment with Teah. Lately she's been obsessed with going to the bathroom - poop and pee are two of her favorite words :) She watches the dog and always has to go in with me. She puts her stuffed animals on her little potty and says "pee. poop". Every time I change her diaper she says the same thing. So, I was wondering if she might be ready to start some potty training, even though she's pretty young. Well, I decided to move the potty chair into the living room and let her run around naked one evening. I planned on watching her like a hawk and sticking her on her potty if she looked like she was going to go on the floor. Well, Robert came home and we were talking and I was not watching her so hawklike. She was standing up next to the TV Stand reading a book and the next thing I know there is poop on the floor!! lmao. I jumped up and put her on the potty, but I don't think she had any clue that had come from her. Lesson learned - we'll keep the diaper on!

Fun and Games

Today Teah discovered stickers. She had gotten six little round Disney princess stickers from the doctor awhile back, but I didn't give them to her because she wouldn't have understood them. Today we were sitting around and I decided she might have fun with them. She thought they were great - she kept taking one and sticking it on her foot, and her tummy, her nose, her leg, etc until it wouldn't stick anymore - then she'd want another one. Well, then she came up with a game. She took the sticker and put it on her little soccer ball. Then she rolled the soccer ball so she didn't know where the sticker was. Then she would pick it up and play Find the Sticker! She was so proud of herself when she would find it on the ball :)

Toddlerhood's happening

Cute things that Teah has done recently -

We walked into the grocery store and Teah immediately said "Elmo Elmo Elmo" - of course she babbles on about Elmo constantly in general, so I didn't think much of it. As I went to get a cart I noticed that a little girl walking into the store with her Mom was holding an Elmo doll. Teah noticed it the minute we stepped through the door :)

Teah's is also recently obsessed with Blue's Clues - she got her first Blue stuffed toy the other day and today she took, after putting her shoe and hairthing on the toy (with mommy's help of course), she laid down on the floor with her and took a little rest.

Every time we leave the house now to go shopping Teah wants to bring a toy with her. It's so cute to see her walk out the door - generally I let her walk out to the sidewalk rather than carry her - holding her little Blue toy by the arm or carrying her magnadoodle using the handle.

Teah's recent accomplishments - being able to do wooden "board" puzzles, saying "please", going down a step without holding on (running even), eating competently with a spoon