Thank You and Days of the Week

I heard the sweetest sound today (besides Linda saying "I love you.") We just got home and I was taking Linda out of the car seat. She said, as normal, out please. I took her out and put her down and she looked up at me and said thank you. I was so excited. This is the first time she has said it w/o prompting. It was so sweet.

I have been trying to come up w/new things to teach Linda while she finishes up learning to recognize letters (she knows over 1/2) and numbers (she only knows 1 and 8, we need to work on that). So I started telling her the days of the week. I had been telling her on our walk in the morning. A few days ago, I asked her to tell me what the days of the week are. Before I would just tell her. I had been telling her for about a week. After I asked her she said "monday tuesday." I helped her w/the rest. Then Tom and I were having breakfast w/Linda. Tom asked when our friends were getting home from their trip. I said I think they get back on Monday. W/o skipping a beat, Linda said "tuesday". It is amazing that they are listening to everything you say.

She has started counting objects. It started w/her fingers. And now she will count other things too. I've been encouraging this obviously. It is so cute when she counts her fingers. She also will bust out w/her ABCs for no apparant reason. I just can't believe how smart she is, and how fast she understands. She seems to understand everything I tell her. If I tell her to do something, she will do it. She really is amazing.

It's been a while!

I can't believe it's been about a month since I posted. Linda has been very busy in the last month. We took a visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house. We spent time w/Aunt Debbie, Aunt Kelly, Uncle Tim, Morgan and Collin. Linda loved Collin and Morgan. They all played so good together. We got home and she was asking for Collin for days!

Linda likes to "ride cock horse." The is putting her at the end of your leg and bouncing her up and down to a tune. The other day she went up to Copper (the dog) and said, "ride cock horse." She then attempted to climb on him. It was too funny.

She is really enjoying the pool now. She asks to go in it all the time now. I'm glad b/c she was so timid about it in the beginning of the season. The water has been so warm, so I think that helps too.

Linda seems to have had another language explosion. She is using quite a few two and three word sentences now. Before she would use a sentence once in a while, but now it is frequent. Today she brought a book to me and said "read the book please." She finally called a pineapple the right name. Before it was always just apple.

It is amazing how her mind works. The fact that she talks so good is amazing, but her understanding of concepts is even more amazing. She was in the car today and I hear her saying, "up, down, up, down." I look back and she is pushing her self up and then letting her self down. She understands both words, and knows they are related to each other. Pretty amazing for a 16 month old. She also knows off/on, in/out, hot/cold, open/closed.

I'm going to try to post every day or so again. It's hard to get back in the habit.

Alphabet

Today was a pretty uneventful day. We actually didn't go anywhere until dinner time. We were supposed to go to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens, but the temps were in the 90s today. Since I try not to put sunscreen on Linda, I def didn't want to be out at 11am in that heat. I got some stuff done around the house and we went swimming after nap. She did really good in the pool today. Her new thing is to go up and down the pool stairs. She likes doing that and splashing.

Missy called and so we went to dinner at Friendly's. On the way home from Friendly's we were practicing our alphabet. I said "A" she said "A, B" I said "B" she said "C", etc all the way to L! After she said L she said P. So I took her back to M. She correctly to U, skipped V and said W. So I corrected her and she went to Z correctly. So she said the entire alphabet by herself except for 2 letters! I couldn't believe it! I thought that was so good for 15 months.

She is ready for bed so off I go!

Camping

This picture is not from camping, but it is a recent pic.

Well this weekend we went camping. Things started out kind of rough. Linda missed her nap and then had a diaper rash. She was crying in pain, for what I thought was no apparent reason. It was very strange. When I finally figured out the problem, she calmed right down. It was like she relaxed b/c she knew I knew what the problem was. I'm not sure what she ate to make her poop so acidic. She doesn't sit in her diaper.

Her memory is so amazing. Lynn came w/us and Cody, her dog, hopped out. Linda immediately said "Cody." It had been about a month since she had seen Cody, and she doesn't see him all that much, but she remembered. She is also amazing the way she thinks abstractly. We went down to the beach and played down there. When we came back I changed her diaper and said "oh you have sand in your pants." She looked at me and said "beach." I can't believe she remembers all these words we tell her only once or twice and remembers there is sand and it is at the beach. She was real good w/the fire. I was worried she would try to touch it. We told her hot and not to go near it, and she did not try to go near it one time. She is so good w/her hot and cold now too. When we got home she was walking barefoot on the driveway. The sun was beating down on it and she said "hot." She touches stuff that is cold and says cold too. Unbelievable. We were leaving the campground and going up over the bay bridge tunnel. She looked out her window and saw the ocean. She said "lake." I was so impressed w/this. The first time she saw a lake she just said "water." She remembered the lake she saw was big, and she was looking at a big body of water, so it must be a lake. Even though she was wrong, her thinking process is amazing. While we were camping I asked her if she wanted to use her crayons. She said crayons, and then started naming colors. Again, she knows exactly what you are saying much of the time, and can think so well. Amazing. She counted to six today all by herself. Tom said one, she said one, two. So Tom said two. She said three, Tom said three, etc all the way to six. Then she got distracted. I have heard her say eight after I have said seven. She probably does know her numbers all the way to ten. I usually count to 20 w/her. When we were taking walks at the campground we would come across various street signs. Linda loved looking at the letters and saying the ones she knew. She finally called a W correctly. Before if you showed her W, she would say M. She does that sometimes w/V and Y too. She knows a bunch of her letters now. Well that is about all from here. I know I'm missing a bunch of incredible stuff she did this weekend. Her amazing speech has really opened up everything else for her. She talks to me, so I know she is understanding, and I can move on to other stuff once she gets it. She is something people!

Could She Be Any Cuter?

I just got off the phone w/Aunt Deb. She politely reminded me it has been a few days since I blogged. My apologies to all who religiously follow Linda's Life (although I'm not convinced there are many of you out there!)

We started our day w/a nice walk. I have been trying to go in the mornings now w/the dogs. Since summer is here, that is about the only time I can go and not roast the dogs. We were walking and Linda saw a jogger go by. She said "run." Of course I was amazed at her. I had showed her the difference between walking and running and obviously she caught on. It is cute when she gets up now in the morning b/c sometimes she will say "walk." She likes to go on the walks and tell me all the things she is seeing.

After our walk we headed off to playgroup. We were making Father's Day crafts at the park. Linda had her first chance at painting. Let's just say we went right from playgroup directly to the bathtub. I didn't mind her getting all messy though. She had a great time. I know Tom reads this blog, so I can't reveal what the finished product is. She sat at the table and I would ask her what color she wanted to use. She would tell me what color she wanted. It was so cute. Sometimes she gets excited about colors and shouts them out. That is cute too.

Yesterday we went to Norfolk Botanical Gardens w/my dad. We had another great time there. I really do love that place. The weather was perfect. Linda ventured into the water a little further this time. We left the children's garden a little early and walked around the gardens. We parked the stroller in a grove of trees. Linda saw a goose and said "goose honk honk" I didn't even see the goose until she mentioned it. It is quite impressive that she names animals by name instead of their animal sound. When she first started talking everything was the animal sound. But she soon abandoned that and began saying the animal name.

We got an awesome gift in the mail today. Anyone who has been following this blog knows we wanted the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics. Aunt Deb came thru big for us! It came while Linda was napping. I set it up. She came into the kitchen and saw it and said "ABC" She went up to it and started putting letters in there. She is able to maneuver the letters correctly. She was dancing to the little songs it plays. I knew she would like it! Thank you Aunt Deb!

Today she was in her car seat and we were coming home. I heard her say "happy" and she was smiling away. I thought that was so cute. I told her I was so glad she was happy, and that I was happy she was in my life. I'm not sure what I did to receive so many blessings from God.

The Weekend

The weekend has been pretty uneventful. Saturday we got the entire garage cleaned out, and now my truck fits in there! Of course to do this, we needed a little help from our friends. Meaning, we needed someone to come take Linda. Aunt Lynn was up for the assignment. She came and walked Linda down to the park. Then they walked back and Aunt Lynn gave Linda lunch. Then they read books until I came in to put Linda down for her nap. I was very grateful to Aunt Lynn.

After nap we went swimming for a few min. This swim experience did not go as good. She was just kind of whiny and didn't want to be in the pool. The temp was 88, so it was not cold at all. At one point the water was warmer than the air. After swimming we went to Aunt Shannon's house. Linda loves going there b/c she gets to see Shannon's kids. Garette had a little birthday party, and Linda got to pull the first string on the pinata.

Today we went to church. It was a special stake conference and it was two hours. Linda did so good. I brought plenty of books and snacks and water. When we got home I told Linda how proud I was of her and that she did so good in church. She looked at me and said "Jesus" (that one is still hard for her to say). I teared up almost immediately. It was so sweet that she associates church w/Jesus. I'm telling you this kid is so smart. She just turned 15 months yesterday. How many 15 month old kids can make associations like that?

Shannon's kids are here today for the afternoon. When Linda gets up I'm sure she will have a ball!

Hot Hot Hot Day

It was stinking hot today. We took our walk in the morning. After that we got ready to go to playgroup. Linda said poop so I put her on the potty. She went pee on the potty. Then we went to an indoor play place called Birdies. She loves that place. Then she took her nap. When she woke up I was messing around in her room trying to get it clean. So I put some toys in her crib and vaccumed. I had some baby einstein flash cards w/animals on them. There are 32 cards in the pack. I showed all of them to Linda. She correctly named by name 28 of the 32 cards. I previously guessed her vocab to be 75-100. Maybe that is underestimated. I know she knows more animals by name than that alone. Not to mention all the other words. We were at subway today for lunch. She put her hand on the cold bottle of water and said "cold". When stuff like that pops out of her mouth it is just unbelievable to me. She has such an understanding of things already. I can tell her to open or close a door and she knows. Tom was in the bathroom and he opened the cupboard. She looked at him and said closed. I say to her to keep the cupboard closed. She was telling Tom to keep it closed. Too funny. Her attitude is getting better I think. We are having less issues each day. I tell her she needs to have a good attitude, b/c I don't want that word to have a negative meaning for her. So she looks at me and says "attitude." She has also gotten pretty good at saying "helicopter." She is reasoning so good. She knows what empty means. She took an empty box of crackers and looked in and said "crackers empty" She says "crackers" so good to. She really like crackers, but doesn't get them as much as she wants them. We did get some swimming in this afternoon. She did really good in the pool. We had Judy, Laurie, Rachel, and Liz over w/their children. It was fun. Well she is almost ready for bed, so I'll close. Thanks for reading!

Home and Poop

This will be a short blog as Linda is almost ready for bed. It was so cute today when we pulled in from going to storytime at the library. When we pulled into the driveway Linda said "home." It was so nice.

Linda pooped on her potty today for the first time. She walked up to me and said poop. I had bought her a potty a while back and just had it in the bathroom. She peed on it a couple times, but then started to cry when she peed in it. So we stopped doing that. When she said poop to me today I took her diaper off and sat her on the potty. Then I heard plop plop. Two little terds were in her potty. So I made a big deal about that. I'm not pushing her at all to be trained. It is very difficult, b/c she already is trained. She is trained to go in her pants. Sometimes I wish I had kept up w/the elimination communication stuff. She was doing real good w/that. We were just on the go so much. I couldn't watch her while in the car to see if she needed to go. So we'll see what happens. I would love for her to be potty trained by two. Who knows, this may be the one area she gives me problems with. I can't imagine it, but you never know. My Aunt Rita said I gave my mom lots of problems potty training and I wasn't trained until after 3.

Something Different

So far it has been a great day, as usual. Linda learned two new body parts. Butt and hips. She loves to say butt. It is cute. I was in the bathroom today and she was hugging on a towel that was hanging near the shower. She kept saying towel towel. I said to Linda, where is the yellow towel? She immediately left the white towel and walked over to the yellow ones hangin on the rack. I can't believe how smart she is.



We went to playgroup at a park today. There were only two other moms there. It was nice to get to know them a little bit better. Linda and the other kids got playing in a puddle. It was too cute to see them splashing around. We all sat down for lunch at about 11:30. The moms were amazed that Linda (14 months for another few days) was saying strawberry clearly, that she was identifying by name cars, trucks, and buses as they passed, that she was identifying by name some of her colors. They also said how happy she was. You could see they could tell there was something different about Linda, but they couldn't quite put their finger on it. I wanted to scream she doesn't have any poisons her body is trying to eliminate so she has a clear head! It is interesting to see people around Linda. She really is something special.

Clouds

We stopped at a thrift store today for the first time in months people. I came out w/$5 less dollars in my pocket, but w/the Leap Frog Learning Phonics Bus for $1.50! (This is not the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics we are dying to have.) I also got her a cute doll. She saw the doll and was saying doll! doll! It was cute. After the thrift store we went to Mt. Trashmore park. We pulled up and she as usual said park. It is so sweet when she says it. She gets so excited.

After that we went to Silver Diner w/one of our playgroups for lunch. Miss Mary came also. Linda says Mary every time she sees her. Sometimes she says Tiny (pronounce like T knee). That is one of Mary's nicknames from her family. Lunch was good and we came home and took a nap.

After nap, Liz and Ethan came over to swim. Aunt Lynn came over too. It was fun to have them over. Linda gets excited when she sees Liz and Ethan, and Aunt Lynn too. While we were waiting for Liz and Ethan, we decided to go outside to play. We went out the door, down the step, and Linda looked up in the sky and said clouds! She was so excited to see them. I didn't know she knew what clouds were. I have shown her pictures of clouds, but nothing to the effect of other stuff. It was so cute to see her excited. We walked around and she named some of the stuff she was seeing. That is cute when she does that too. She bent down and touched the grass and said grass. She said tree and flower, and chalk (she LOVES her sidewalk chalk) and slide and a bunch of other stuff. After Liz and Ethan left we went outside and played the rest of the day until dinner.

She did really good w/her attitude today. If she shows any little sign of it, I tell her it is unacceptable. She didn't give me much attitude today. She was real good at meal time too. She still enjoys eating and eats almost everything. But she will get choosy if there is more than one thing on her plate. I have been telling her that she can't fill up on one item. I tell her for example she needs to eat a bite of strawberry and then a bite of banana. She can't fill up on banana. At first she protested, and I said ok then you can sit there and not eat anything. She caught on. The last two days she has been very good about eating what I give her at a given time.

Tom is reading her books right now. She just said leopard when Tom pointed to a leopard and asked what it was. She also says penguin, koala, whale, crab, seal, snake, rhino, hippo, meercat, butterfly when he points and asked about them. Those are just a VERY SMALL number of animals this child knows by name. I knew she knew what a penguin was, but I hadn't heard her say it. I didn't know she knew what a leopard was. Amazing isn't she??

Tom has to go back out for a closing tonight, so I better go and put Linda to bed.

Ovals

We headed out early this morning to drop off a climber at Liz's house. Linda and Ethan (20 months) played for about an hour. Then we headed off to playgroup. Linda had a great time as usual. She loves being around other kids.

After her nap we headed to the Friend's school used book sale. We hit the jackpot there. I bought a box of books for $8.25. I just told them to keep the extra $1.75. I got books for .25 cents a book. I was wishing I would have remembered about it earlier and hit it this morning. On the way to the book sale Linda was in her car seat. We practice our alphabet and numbers a lot in the car. It is a nice way to keep talking to her and keep her busy. I started saying the alphabet. I said A, she said B. So I said B. She said C, I said C. She said D, I said D. Then I had to take over again until J. When I said J she said K. She then said P, so I had to reel her back to L. After P, I said RST for her. She then said U,V, W (she calls it double, and doesn't say the U part of double U. It is so cute), X,Y,Z. I thought she did pretty darn good for 14 months old (15 months on the 9th).

Tonight we were doing some puzzles. We had finished and I was doing something in the kitchen. She brought out the puzzle. I asked her to put it back. In the process of her putting it back, of course, she spilled it all over the floor. I told her it was time to clean up the puzzle. It was a shape puzzle. I peeked at her and she put the star in the correct place. She then came out into the kitchen holding the oval and said oval. I couldn't believe it. She also said the word puzzle very well tonight. Before she would just do the zzzz sound of the word. But tonight she said the whole word correctly.

She is in dream land now, which is where I'm headed!

She Learns Too Fast

I'm beginning to think I can't even keep up w/her! Tonight we were sitting at the table eating some dinner. It started to rain. She turned around looked out the window (it was down) and said "rain." I couldn't believe it. I guess it shouldn't surprise me now. She learns so fast. I have talked to her about rain before. Today it was raining a lot.

After dinner I was showing her some alphabet flash cards. Previously I would show her one and ask her what letter it was. She was able to identify A,B,C. The other letters I would ask her what letter it was and she would say A,B, or C. I would say no that's not correct and tell her the correct letter. Tonight after I asked her what letter X was, she said A. I said that's not correct. Instead of telling her what letter it was, I asked her again. This time she said X. Then I went to the letter Y. Same thing. She said A the first time and then I asked her again and she said Y. We went up for her bath after that so I couldn't do anymore letters. I'm curious as to what letters she knows. I wonder why she says A the first time. We were in Wal-mart and I saw one of those LeapFrog Fridge Phonics w/the letters and numbers. I pushed a button and it started singing the ABC song, she sang some of the letters with it. I have been looking for one used for a while, but I can't seem to find one. Maybe Grandma can buy us one??? wink wink. She is learning to spell her name. I say to her, "Linda, how do you spell your name?" I've only been doing it for a few days. Today she said some letters, but they weren't in the proper order. That will be so cute when she learns that. The cool thing about her learning is I don't sit her down and say ok it's learning time. You must look at books and flash cards and learn colors and all that. We are out and about learning this stuff. You can tell she likes to learn. As long as she is doing that I'm going to follow her lead. I think a good start now will help her enjoy learning as she gets older. She loves to say her colors. It's funny how she can get a color wrong, but the word she says is still a color. She knows pink, purple, green, yellow, blue, and red. I've never really heard her say red very well. I don't know why she may have a problem saying that.

I also found out that she can count pretty good. We went to Garrette's baseball game Sat morning. Sierra was there talking to Linda. Linda was eating raisins. Sierra said you can only have one raisin. Linda said "two three." I count to her quite a bit too. She has said "ten" after the number nine for about 3 months now at least. But now she recognizes other numbers.

She learned some new animals tonight too. Tom was reading her a book. There was a toucan, seal, fox, and wolf (among many other animals, but she knows most of the other ones). She pointed to each of the animals and said their names. When she said wolf, she tilted her head back and howled. Tom said it was so funny. I taught her when she does coyote or wolf sound to tilt her head back. Too cute. When we read books now we point to the object and ask her what it is. When she was 11 months old she was pointing correctly at all the animals in her books. We would say Linda where is the elephant or whatever animal and she would point to it. She would do the sign for it too if she knew it. (She is still signing, but not as much since she has a huge vocab. I really should keep up w/it. She would p/u new signs so fast.) We since have gotten more books for her, w/harder animals. The "standard" animals just weren't challenging her anymore. She knows all her animal sounds.

She still LOVES music. She loves to sit at the piano and pound on the keys. I hope she continues to enjoy it. I really want her to take piano. She will dance at any time any where. It is so funny. She even tries to dance when she hears music while nursing. For mother's day Tom bought me portable speakers for my iPod. That is the best gift. I have loads of children's music on there. When we are outside I can use it. I even take it to the park when we go (almost everyday). She stands at the park dancing. People think it is so cute.

I hope everyone had a good weekend. I know we sure did.

A Day in the Sun

We went to playgroup at Jamie's house today. Their yard is very nice. They have an inground pool. Their grassy area is somewhat shaded, which is very nice in the heat. Linda got in the pool a little bit. The water was quite chilly. I think we are making progress.

After her nap, we went to Redwing park. Mary was supposed to meet us there, but wasn't able to. Linda likes this park. I like the trees around to provide shade, especially since I try to avoid sunscreen.

The attitude we checked at 8-9 months has returned full force. When she gets upset, her arms flail all over the place. Today she had a full blown tantrum. She was in the swing and wanted to get down. Another mom had asked me to watch her son real quick. I didn't want Linda down so it would be easier to watch them both. Linda said down please. When I told her to wait she freeked. Her arms and legs went all over, and she was screaming. I turned my back on her and waited until she stopped. There was no way in hell she was getting down while doing that. I told Tom Linda has the wrong mommy if she thinks I'll give in to a tantrum. It's not happening. After she was done (45 seconds or so), I went back over to her and had her say "mama, I'm sorry I had a tantrum. Please forgive me. Please let me down." I don't think she understood all of that, but she will eventually learn that she needs to apologize and mean it when her behavior is unacceptable. She started w/a tantrum tonight when I was reading her books also. We were reading an alphabet book. We were on Q. She was done w/the book. I'm a big "once you start something you finish it" person. So I told her we needed to finish the book, but I would hurry. Apparently that was not acceptable to her. She threw herself and her arms and started whining. I picked her up, firmly put her on the floor, said no ma'am and walked out. You would have thought her world ended. She is still in the phase of wanting mommy around all the time. So if I leave her like that she hates it. It is very effective. She got the message. When she stopped crying I went back to her and we started up w/the book again. Wouldn't you know it, she sat very nice for the rest of book time. I'm hoping these are learning experiences. I know she is learning, and testing, and seeing what she can get away with. I'm just worn out by all the attitude. I will stay strong though.

Time for bed. You know you are a parent when it's a Fri night 9:30 and it's time for bed. Ha.

Shapes and the Beach

This morning I was checking my email. Linda was on the futon w/a book. She will open a book, and start reading to herself. Too cute. Anyway, I turned to watch her. The book she was reading was about shapes. I saw her point to a circle and say circle. Well of course I made the biggest deal in the world. She got so excited. Then I pointed to a triangle and I said what is that? Of course she said circle, and got all excited again. I calmed her down and said it was a triangle. She repeated me. I pointed to a star and asked her what that was and she said star. I knew she knew circle for a while, but she had never just looked at one, pointed to it and said circle before.

After her nap we went and picked up Miss Mary. Then we drove down to the beach. Linda doesn't like the sand and ocean, but she really enjoys the boardwalk. We talked about all the different things we were seeing (ocean, sand, railing, bicycles, strollers, dogs, hotels, etc). She was particularly taken by the HUGE (34ft I think) of King Neptune. On that statue there are also fish, dolphins, turtles, octopus, starfish, lobster. So we talked about that too. She like to put her fingers in the lobster's pinchers.

After the beach we headed over to Fazoli's. We met Missy and Mike there for dinner. Linda enjoyed that, mainly b/c it involved food.

She is sound asleep now, so I'm going to head off to bed.

Linda a Prodigy?

Today was a good day. Linda woke up at about 7:30. We made scrambled eggs and salmon sausage for breakfast. She also had some strawberries. It is so funny to hear a 14 month old say strawberry. Most of the time now she says it right.

We went to Mount Trashmore's Kid Cove. Linda had not been there since she first started walking. It is a pretty neat place. It is a huge wooden playground. There are a lot of little tunnels and things to explore. Linda took right off like she owned the place. She went up and down the stairs and all over. She enjoyed it a lot.

After her nap we went to Red Wing park. This is a nice park also, and closer to our house. They have a nice wooded area w/some playground equipment. This will be very nice in the heat of the summer. Linda walked over to the swing and said swing please. She is talking so good that many times I'll have her repeat a sentence after me. So I said Linda let's use your big girl words. She repeated "Mama, may I get up in the swing please." The lady swinging her little boy asked how old she was. She said wow she is talking really good. I said yeah, she is a girl, and girls like to talk. A few min later Linda was off the swing and walked up to the lady and hugged her legs. Linda was looking down at the lady's shoes. I asked Linda what color the shoes were. She said pink. The shoes were actually blue. Even though Linda got it wrong this lady was so impressed. Linda then correctly gave the color of her dress (it was yellow). I had her repeat some of her other colors. The lady said, what is she some kind of prodigy or something? I think she was serious. I didn't even have her repeat her 18 (she added tweet for a bird) animal sounds, or her 17 body parts, or her alphabet! Linda was swinging and looked up and saw some birds. She said "bird. Tweet" and then did the sign for bird. She will actually name the correct name of some of her animals, instead of seeing them and making the animal sound. I think that is amazing.

Linda was taking a bath. She takes her bath in her little bathtub in our bathroom. There is a window near by. Tom was outside working on the pool (which is fixed!!! it just needed to be backwashed). I called out to him. Next thing I know Linda is saying "Tooooooom" it was so cute.

I guess that is all for today. Tomorrow is a new day of learning for Linda. I'm so glad she likes to learn. I can't get over how smart she is.

First Blood

Well, our Memorial Day weekend was pretty nice. Tom tried to open the pool and found out it was messed up, again. So that stunk. We went to a BBQ at our neighbor Judy, Paul and Emmas house. Emma took her first steps while we were there. Very exciting. Then Aunt Lynn came over and visited for a few minutes. Then came the injury. It was time to clean up the yard and go inside. I took Linda by the hand and led her to a toy I wanted her to clean up. She took a step when I let go, didn't have her hands under her, and fell. She smacked her face on the concrete. It sounded really bad. I knew it hurt really bad too, just from the way it sounded. Normally I don't pick her up when she gets injured. I just wait and see if she needs me. Well I grabbed her fast this time. I knew she was hurting bad. I put her on my shoulder and asked Tom to look and see if there was any blood. He said "oh yeah, it's bleeding a lot." It was coming from her mouth. I had Tom grab a towel, and we put it up to her mouth. The amazing thing is this child stopped crying after about 45 seconds. I can't believe how tough she is. I asked Tom if her teeth were chipped/missing. He said he thought a tooth was chipped. Turns out it was just the blood in her mouth covering up the tooth. It was funny to see her taste her blood. She made a face. Finally we have found something she doesn't like to eat?? So it was all over pretty quick. She has a small mark on her chin. Her lip looks fine. It's amazing how fast they heal. One of my other friends has a small child too. When her kid falls, she has her say "I'm tough." I started doing that w/Linda. I think that is a cute idea. Most of the time I just ignore her or clap for her when she gets hurt. Her legs are all sorts of scratched up and boo boos all over. She never cries about them. Maybe she knows I'd ignore her anyway.

Memorial Day Weekend

Linda visited the Strawberry Festival for the 2nd time. We went to see the parade. She was quite interested in most of the parade. The weather was beautiful. Grandpa came w/us, so Linda was very happy about that.

We went to dinner on Sat night at Subway. On the way to dinner I sat in the back seat. Linda had a full day and was acting sleepy. We didn't want her to fall asleep, so I sat back there. We were working on family member's names. She says Collin, but doesn't say it w/the Ls very well. Same thing w/Kelly. She says Tim pretty good. Then I said to Tom I don't think we have had her say Deb. So I told her to say Deb. The Ds and Bs are easier sounds to make. She said Deb perfectly. Then I said I bet she can say Debbie too. She said Debbie so cute. So we called Aunt Deb and Linda said Debbie over and over, which of course thrilled Aunt Deb.

This morning I was changing Linda's diaper and she reached up and grabbed her feet. She then moved to her toes and said toes. It was too cute. Another cute thing she is doing is reading to herself. I don't remember if I put that in a previous blog or not. She grabs a book, sits down and starts mumble jumble real fast. Then if she sees something she knows in the middle of her mumble jumble she'll say that word. This morning there is a book that says "do ladybugs have square spots? NO, ladybugs have round spots. Do cats have round ears? NO cats have triangle shaped ears. Do cars have star shaped wheels? NO, cars always have round wheels." She sat down opened the book and said "NOOOO" It was so cute.

Tom just took her to go downstairs and have breakfast. He is going to feed her some strawberries. He just asked her if she wanted strawberries. She said strawberry. It is so cute to hear her. Sometimes when she says strawberry it is only two syllables.

Looks like we are going to have to ease her into the pool. A few weeks ago we went to Norfolk Botanical Gardens. They have a children's garden w/a water area there. She was playing in the water, and it came up and nailed her in the face. Ever since then, she won't go near water. We went to a BBQ last night and they had a pool. I sat down w/her and let her feet dangle. She didn't start screaming, but she was trying to keep her feet out of the pool. So we have our work cut out for us.

I hope everyone's Holly-day weekend was a good one.

A Day at the Park

Linda got up around 7:30 this morning. We called our friend Liz to meet us at the park. Before we leave the house now she always wants to say bye to Toby and Copper and give them both hugs and kisses. She can really say Toby and Copper well now. I'm glad we got "CoCo" on tape. As we were pulling up to the park, Linda looked out the window and could see the playground. She said "park, park, weeeeeeee, slide, swing, park" very excitedly. It was so cute. She is getting so much better at climbing the playground equip. She says she wants to slide, but once it comes time to slide, she doesn't seem to want to all the time. I brought my iPod, a ball, and bubbles. I told Linda we were going to do bubbles and she signed and said "bubbles". Well the bubble jar didn't give me a want, so that was a bust. We got home around 11:30. She ate lunch and went down for a nap.

When she got up, we called Miss Mary and asked her if she would like to meet us at another park. We stopped into Chic Fila for early dinner and then headed to the park. When we pulled into the park, she again said "park." We were there quite a long time. The weather was so nice.

We came home and played outside for about 25 min before we got ready for bed. Apparently Linda had enough of being outside the entire day. She walked up to the front door and said "side." She wanted to go inside. I complied b/c it was bedtime. I did tell her that when it is nice out we are outside, and the only reason we are going inside is it is bedtime (not that she understood any of that).

We had a snack right before bedtime. I was cutting some veggies up for her to eat. She was sitting at the table and I was standing at the counter. I hear her say "foot down". I turn around and she has her feet on the table. She had that look. She is getting to be a little stinker. I'm trying to keep her attitude in check. So far so good for the most part, but you can tell she is entering that stage.

My Little Sportster

Today was a beautiful day in Virginia Beach. Linda got up around 7am. We had our playgroup date at the park today. It was "balls and bubbles." Linda brought her soccer ball. We got her a soccer ball b/c the child will kick any ball she sees. She kicked all the balls today too, even the tennis balls. She also enjoyed the bubbles, but not as much as the balls.

While at the park there were some ladies w/the group Stroller Strides. They are an exercising group. There were three ladies hopping across the parking lot on one leg. I looked over at Linda and she was attempting to hop. It is amazing how much she copies everything. I think they learn a lot from copying.

Alice, our three year old neighbor, came over this evening to play. I got the tee ball set out that Tom got for Linda. Alice was having a blast hitting the balls. Linda would go get the balls she hit and put it back on the tee for Alice. Alice was done playing and started playing on the slide. The bat was about 15 ft from the tee. Linda started walking over to the tee. I told her to get the bat. She kind of looked at me like she didn't know what I wanted. I told her to turn around. She turned around. I told her to go get the yellow bat. It is neat that she is learning her colors. Even though she didn't know what a bat was (she knows now, and says it) she knew the color yellow and knew I wanted her to get that and bring it to me. Alice then asked me to get another toy for her. When I turned around, I saw Linda putting the ball on the tee. She then bent down, picked up the bat, and hit the ball w/the bat. Not only did she hit the ball and not just the tee part, but she held the bat the right way! It was so cute. That bat is about as big as she is. She is so smart. She knew just how to do it after watching Alice.

One of her favorite activities is playing w/sidewalk chalk (which of course Daddy bought her some). When she was 11 months old, she took a piece of sidewalk chalk and started making marks on the sidewalk. I was amazed she was doing this at that age. Then I realized she must have seen one of the other kids doing it so she started to do it. It is kind of scary, b/c you really need to watch what you do and say around her.

Speaking of what you say, my next door neighbor Judy came home after being gone all day. She went over to get her 12 month old daughter Emma. I said to Linda, "Look at Emma. She is so happy to see her mom." Linda immediately said "happy." So I repeated the word happy several times and she said happy. Her little voice is so cute.

Well I guess that is all for today. American Idol finale is on. I probably watch the last ten minutes of it to see who won. Go Jordan!

The Walesby girls and Aunt Shannon's

Today all three of the Walesby girls came over to help me clean and do yard work. They wanted to watch Linda so they took turns. They couldn't get over how cute Linda was. Of course Linda let them know where her elbow was several times by pointing to it and saying "elbow."

After I dropped them off at their house, and checked out their awesome pop up camper, we headed over to Aunt Shannon's house. Linda hadn't seen the kids in a while. She quickly learned to say "CiCi" (Sierra's nickname) and "Chey" (Cheaynn's nickname). She said "ette" for Garrette and she didn't even attempt to say Aunt Shannon. Cheyann got some bubbles out to blow for Jack the dog and for Linda. Linda quickly said "bubbles" and signed it too.

Shannon's friend Rhonda came over for a few minutes before we left. I hadn't seen Rhonda since before I was pregnant. Sierra said Linda can do a bunch of animal sounds. So the animal sound parade began. As of today, Linda can make the animal noises for owl, sheep, cow, dog, cat, bee, coyote, goose, duck, horse, turkey, chicken, rooster, goat, pig, monkey, and walrus (Ok, I know you all are wondering what a walrus says. Well listen to the Beatles song "I am the Walrus" and you will learn the walrus says "coo coo ca choo"). She also knows what a train and a car says. Then Sierra said Linda can show you her elbow. So the body part parade began. As of today, Linda can identify hair, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, chin, shoulders, tummy, belly button, elbow (her favorite), wrist, hand, fingers, knees, feet, and toes.

I guess that is about all for now. Linda is almost ready for bed.

New Words

Well, this is my very first time using this thing. Tom (daddy) and Deb (aunt) told me I should get on here and blog! So here I am. If you don't want to hear how great my kid is, well you should stop reading this and all future blogs now.

So this evening, Tom and I were discussing home schooling. I commented that there are homeschool sports teams. Tom said, "Yeah but I bet they get their butt kicked." All of a sudden we hear Linda as she is walking into the garage saying, "butt kick, butt kick, butt kick." Tom said, "Wow, I'm glad I didn't say what I was going to say."

The child repeats everything. She is quite the little talker. More on that later. It's 9:30pm now, and I'm pooped.