penguino

I just uploaded all my iPhone pictures to the computer...I had trouble trying to hold Xaris, the penguino and the phone to shoot some video--I ended up cutting out half of X's face for part of it, but here's part of the process of learning to say "penguin"

stubborn?

Last post I mentioned how X won't identify the characters in her Buenas Noches Gorila book, even though I've been reading it to her and showing her each animal nightly for months now...well, today we found a book that we hadn't seen or read in a LONG while: La Oruga Muy Hambrienta (the Very Hungry Caterpillar). I was so excited that we found it, I plopped down to read it to her, open to the first page and point out the sun, the moon, the caterpillar (oruga) and what does she say? "O-U-Ga". And proceeds to flip through the rest of the book pointing out the "O-uu-gas" on every page, and then spends about 10 minutes looking out the screen door pointing out "pio-pio's" (birds) and asking for "O-uuu-ga?".

she's asleep...work or blog?

It's been so long--primarily because X thinks the computer is hers and anytime I'm on it she likes to come hit buttons. Her favorite is the power button (not dissimilar to her friend Nory), and the space bar is a close second. Most of my work needs to happen once she's asleep, which means I'm doing work when I'm ready to drop also. However, a quick update since the last post:

She has doubled (or more) her vocabulary...sometimes 5 or 6 new words a day this week, it's crazyfun having a conversation with her. Along with the new words, some of the old ones have gotten pushed out (or out of order). She's started calling Ricardo "mama", along with "papa"...which he doesn't mind at all, but for some reason I kind of do. :) I get to be mama.

Her animals and animal sounds have also gone a little helter-skelter. Puppies now say Meow, and everything is a "pio-pio" (the noise a bird makes). We read "Buenas Noches Gorila" multiple times a day, and while every time I point out all the animals repeatedly, she has yet to point to one and say it's name. Today though, she found the globo (balloon) on each page, even when it was tiny, halfway off the page and squealed "bobo!" every time. We've never hunted down the globos in that book...and she's never said it before today...such a fun learning curve to watch. She's starting to put more together in phrases too. A few nights ago she fell asleep saying "Amomama" (I love mama). The best night ever so far!

She's trying out new words all the time, my favorite for the moment is "penguino" (guess what that means). She says something that begins with "ben" and eventually ends with "no", but there is no consistency or limit to the amount of syllables might occur in between.

benbenbeeeeno

be NEEE no

ben ga na neee no

bebaben nee no

etc.

Not all her new developments are as exciting though. She has a toy teapot that she loves that just recently (a few days?) starts crying when one particular song plays on it. It plays 5 or so songs, and has lots of other sounds and words, and it's only this one song that makes her all sad-faced and she starts wailing. Familiar to anyone else out there? So random.

We went to play for a little bit at the arboretum today...they have their pumpkin houses and pumpkin patch out. Since she learned how to run and climb, it's harder to get her to hold still enough for a picture!

I love this picture--mostly because she was distracted by some "big kids" romping in the hay maze so she sat for more than 5 seconds.

Inside a pumpkin house

There are giant frogs that spit water into a fountain/play area. As soon as she saw they were on, she took off running for them. I caught her long enough to strip off her clothes and put on her sandals. Lest you think I'm a horrible mother, it was 89 degrees here today.

"OOOOOOOOH!" (She kept saying it. Water is so exciting)

Learning about giant toads

And ombligos (belly buttons)

Keeping up with X is of course the majority of life right now :)

She still goes with me to work, although hopefully soon the church I work at will be opening a preschool so I can enroll her for a couple days a week. Those will be my "I-have-to-be-super-efficient" days. Ric's job got all crazy on him, so poor guy has a lot on his plate. We're training for some 5Ks (me) and half marathons (him), but get to do that together (because I can walk 3.1 miles in the time he can run 14 or so...) Turkey Trot, here we come!

And hopefully another post soon(er) rather than later!

X words

I've been wanting to make a list of all Xaris' words...to someday put in her baby book or something (I haven't started her baby book. It's all in a box waiting for me to put it together one day).

Since I haven't made the list yet, I decided that a good place to document the words and phrases she can say is on the blog...and then I at least wrote them down and they will be remembered.

Some of them are pretty cute!! I love conversations with her.

At 16.5 months old, here are her words/phrases/sentences:

1. Mama (mama--me!!)

2. Papa (papa--Ricardo)

3. Apeeee (pie--foot)

4. Mami or mamo (mano--hand)

5. Am-Bee-Go (ombligo--belly button)

6. Wow Wow (guau guau--what a dog says. she calls most animals and some people "wow wow")

7. Mi, or Mi-A (mira--look!)

8. Pio pio (what a bird says)

9. Pa-wo (pajaro--bird)

10. Ga-jah (gracias--thank you)

11. Mah (mas--more)

12. Eh-way (Se fue--it's all gone, or it left)

13. Amo (amo--love)

14. No (wanna take a guess at what this one means?)

15. Na na (nariz--nose)

16. Cah-gu (carro--car)

17. Am-o-ah (vamos a orar--we're going to pray)

18. La la la (one of her favorite books, or what pigs say)

19. Wow (wow)

20. Ah wah (agua--water)

21. Che Che or Tse Tse (leche--milk)

22. Ka Ki (kakita--poop or bum)

23. Bay bee (baby--or any of her stuffed friends)

24. Che chi (changuito--her monkey)

25. A-meen (amen)

26. um nummm num num num (I'm hungry, or the noise she makes sharing her milk with story book characters)

27. Dey (ten--here, or take this)

28. By-byeeeee (bye)

29. Ah yah (hola--hi)

30. No ma (no more, usually with a wave of her outstretched hand in the "stop" position)

31. Meee owww (what a cat says)

32. Dee-oh (Adentro--inside. Usually when I'm asking her to put her clothes in the laundry hamper)

33. Ba bo or ba bee (basura--trash. Similar to Dee-oh, only referring to throwing trash away)

34. Ay-yah (alla--over there)

35. Ah kee (aqui--here)

36. Way-veee (huevito--egg)

priorities

We were trying to get X to say some of her words while we recorded...she was only interested in one thing. :)

And it does appear that we have a nearly-naked baby nearly all the time...keep in mind that it's still in the upper 90's most days here...b.l.u.h.

for real

10 on 10!!

It's about time, I finally accomplished another 10 on 10. It's been so long since I managed it, here's a reminder of the project:

Take one photo every hour for 10 consecutive hours on the 10th day of each month.

I have a new app on my ipodphone (term stolen from Judy) that I wanted to play with, so all the pictures in this ten on ten are taken with it. It worked well, it made my full day of boring and errands appear more interesting and artsy.

Good Morning

late bagel breakfast date with Katie

There just happened to be a convenient stop in between breakfast and my office...

Concentrating on lunch

Saltwater sandals!

Dry cleaning...

One of the dawg's tennis balls. Normally you can't tell they are tennis balls, they are so dirty, brown and chewed up. The torrential rains we had (notice the silt and muck surrounding?) washed and bleached out all these tennis balls that were once hiding in our back yard. Now we see them!

Dancing with Papa

(this one's extra, just because she's cute when she dances)

Dancing turned into climbing.

Which turned into sleepy girl!

X sings

This was during our vacation in Seattle.

Grandma Judy, Kira, Ricardo and I were cleaning up from dinner, and Xaris was wandering around the kitchen, "helping" and singing as she went. Kira and Grandma Judy (and even me) started singing along with her...

we thought it was pretty cute.

Seattle, part 2

Wow...I'm slow.

I've been back for something like 3 weeks now and I'm still trying to get vacation posts up. Sorry!

Wednesday of our Seattle trip started out with a playdate--Abby & Susanna, Janelle & Elanor, Alicia & Hannah, and Carrie & Cora (her niece) met us at the park for some fun!

Us mamas got to have some chatting time too.

There was teeter-tottering...not sure how much they liked it, I don't think we got a smile out of either one of them.

Swinging--much fun had by all!

And as soon as X saw the wading pool, there were no other distractions. Nothing was going to prevent her from getting in that water. So we got her in her suit, and papa rolled up his pant legs to go splash with her.

Hurry up papa!

Brr...it was chilly. She hadn't been in water that cold before--even the unheated pool she takes swim lessons in is uncomfortably warm in Dallas summers.

Cold water still was not going to stop her from playing in it.

C-group girls and their wee ones!