Family,
And a good Monday evening to you from the Queen City, where the Bull and Striker are seated at opposite ends of the house working on cataloguing the life and times of Team Taylor. Another great week is in the books, so let's get amongst it, shall we?
As always (for the next 3 posts, at least), let's start with the ever-expanding vocabulary. New additions this week:
1. Roll (as in the motion)
2. Wait (as in Wait, Mama!): This comes from K's desire to always shut the gate before walking up the stairs. She always tries to close it too quickly, and Jenny has to say "Wait for mommy." K then instantly repeats "Wait, mama!" Cute.
3. Mango
4. Vase (learned from the block alphabet puzzle)
5. Walrus (yes, that's right - WALRUS. Granted, it comes out more like "Wawa," but hey - let's not focus on the enunciation component, shall we?
6. Sleepy (when referring to her toys - NEVER to herself. When it's herself, she says "night, night."
7. Paper
8. Shower (seriously - where did THIS one come from? We always tell her when mommy and daddy are in the shower, and one of the Dr. Seuss books references it, but still - this one caught me by surprise)
9. koala (LOVE THIS ONE - kowawa)
10. Raccoon (that's right, baby - she knows the state animal of Tennessee!)
11. Mouse (and she does a HILARIOUS squeeeeeeeeeeeeak now)
12. Jacket
13. Shopping (because she knows when mommy is shopping and knows that, when there are bags, that's what we've been doing)
14. Aldi (as in the store) - she's actually said "Mama Aldi shopping" a time or two, more proof that she's making connections and starting to string sentences together.
15. Sunny - she'll say this about the outdoors when she notices it's bright, but she's also referenced it in pictures in books.
16. Queen (also learned from the block alphabet puzzle) - it should be noted that K is getting MUCH better at placing the letters into their appropriate spots. She still tends to put them in upside down in quite a few cases, so I'm working on teaching her when she needs to "flip" something vs. needed to "rotate" something (and yes, I've also said turn :-)). I always make a point to show her in the hope that she'll start to a) understand the commands and b) recognize the difference between a flip and a rotation. I know, I know - just give me this.17. Nest (also taken from the puzzle)
18. Top - related to the puzzle, as once it's finished she always wants to put the clear plastic cover on top of it. She's calling out top for multiple things now, but this is where I first heard it.
19. Seal (learned from a library book)
20. Gorilla (YES, GORILLA - also taken from that library book)
21. Ray (as in sting ray) - taken from the "Elmo words" book
22. Rainbow - also taken from the Elmo book (another GREAT pick-up at the library by JT)
23. cookie - learned by staring at Cookie Monster in (you guessed it) the Elmo word book
24. Bert (as in the Muppet - you can probably guess the source)
25. Ernie (see #24)
26. Cleaning - this one was really funny, as K knows when we are tidying the house. The most notable incident was Sunday when Jenny was vacuuming the bonus room. K was THRILLED to see the vacuum going, and when it stopped she went over and patted it saying, "Cleaning, mama. Cleaning!" She wanted more of it! To that end, Pooh bought the Munchkin her very own broom, and she has played with it some. That being said, she did try to hand it to me today so that I could entertain her by sweeping.
27. Dust pan - she has her own and knows what it is. However, she thinks dust pans are "ew" and won't actually touch them or do any of the work to sweep the dirt into the pan.
28. Nipple (um, yes, that's right - I said NIPPLE) - So here's the deal. A few weeks ago I had a long sleeve shirt on and didn't want to get it wet during bath time. I took my shirt off, and K was FASCINATED by my chest hair. She then proceeded to push on my left nipple, and I told her "nipple." Well, she took to that word like a duck to water, and she was always able to point it out whenever my shirt was off. But now that she's become a word bank, she actually named it last week when I had my shirt off - classic! Father of the year, I tell ya!
Another big milestone was that K said "I love you" this week. She'll only say it so far when I ask her to repeat it, but she is getting better at pronouncing it. Right now the cutest is when she picks up her fake phone, says "Hello," and when asked who's on the other line says "Nana." I then say "Tell her I love you," which she repeats in the sweetest voice imaginable and completely melts your heart. LOVE THIS KID!
Also, another first which started this week was the inclusion of adjectives in front of words. The first one I heard was "blue wawa," but there have been an OCEAN of them since then - red ball, orange plate, etc - she is rattling them off constantly. She's definitely using more combinations of words, with some of the cutest being associates between her and other people (like "Nana Tete" or "Mama Tete"). She's also starting to use her words more, and while we can always understand her, she's usually pretty good to stick with it under we piece it together. Now I will say that more than once she's gotten quite frustrated, and her temper tantrums are definitely spiking. Some of it is the age, I'm sure, but JT did notice that her 2 lower canines are FINALLY coming in (we saw the buds yesterday), so I'm sure that's part of it (as those puppies are going to be monsters). She's cried out some in her sleep this week, and we think it's a combination of runny nose, lots of stimulation, and the teeth. Watch this space - especially given that K almost climbed out of the crib this week!
On the reading front, K was ALL ABOUT MOMMY this week, relegating daddy to hiding behind the door at the changing table while mommy does all the work - diaper, cortisone, baby powder, lotion, drying, and dressing. I usually get to assist with the teeth cleaning, but right now nothing is a given. I will say that I was allowed to read to her tonight, which was such a good feeling. There really is nothing like picking her up, having her give you a hug, and then standing by her crib with her head on your shoulder. Man, life is good right now. :-)
Reading in general has changed quite a bit in recent weeks and is now much less a process of working through books vs. trying to keep her challenged and learning new words. She knows so many new words now and wants to point them out through the stories, basically rendering telling the actual tale rather impossible. Also, a lot of the books are now words, colors, pictures, letters, and numbers, so the stories that we read just weeks ago are currently not of interest. What has been fascinating is watching her read all the books from my childhood - Richard Scarry, Golden Books, Sesame Street - you name it. Mom has been great to bring them over, and I have LOVED flipping through them, seeing the dedications, and then passing them on to the next member of the Taylor family tree.
As for the week itself, the biggest highlight was K's first true snow. Jenny and I were really excited about taking her out in it, but let's be REAL clear, dear family - K was NOT impressed. In fact, she wouldn't walk on the snow unless she was holding Jenny's hand, and when Jenny went to take photos of her, K just stood there frozen on the spot. JT did make a really cute little snowman, but K wanted no part of the great outdoors this go-around. Does this mean she's going to be a beach girl vs. a mountain girl? Say it ain't so!
The weekend itself was GREAT, as Nana and Pooh came for the first of 3 Kaitlyn birthday celebration weekends. The rolled into town about 2:30 on Saturday, and what followed after that was 23 hours of presents, good food, and Elmo cupcakes from Food City (so guuuuuuuuuud). We actually gave K one with dinner on Saturday night, and she KILLED IT. Seriously - that child buried her face in that icing and consumed pure sugar like it was the last cupcake on earth (did I mention she called it Elmo cake? Yeah - too cute. Go ahead - you can say it). They brought her an Elmo that plays a lullaby you can sleep with (which she has done EVERY NIGHT since receiving it), loads of clothes, the broom I mentioned earlier, bibs, socks, and all the love and attention a girl could ask for. K was in HEAVEN and was really pretty good (I mean, who wouldn't be when 4 adults are devoted to your attention and let you do whatever you want), but the last day she had a MEGA MELTDOWN. It was incredible - on the scale of Atlanta but maybe worse. Granted, it ended with her curling up on dada and letting dada read to her/put her down for her nap, so I can't really complain. That being said, I must get better at figuring out how to calm her when overtired AND overstimulated - craziness!
Okay, that's all the news that's fit to print for this edition. Chat soon!
Love,
Sam and Jenny
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